Quick Start

This section contains everything you need to know to get you up and running on The Things Stack.

What is The Things Stack

First off, it’s a good idea to understand what The Things Stack is. Learn that, and lots more acronyms in the What is The Things Stack section.

LoRaWAN

In case you skipped the previous section, here is a quick summary: The Things Stack is a network server which implements the LoRaWAN protocol. To learn more about LoRaWAN, check out the Learn section of The Things Network, or read up at the LoRa Alliance.

Here is a video of Johan Stokking, the tech lead of The Things Industries and one of the core developers of The Things Stack, explaining LoRaWAN:

Note:
Some common use cases are explained in the video above, but there are certain limitations that make LoRaWAN not suitable for every use-case. Read about LoRaWAN limitations in The Things Network LoRaWAN documentation.

Make sure to get familiar about LoRaWAN architecture and components, to understand how The Things Stack works.

Start Using The Things Stack

To get started with The Things Stack, you can simply create an account on The Things Network to start using The Things Stack Community Edition for free.

To purchase a professional plan for The Things Stack, see Pricing.

If you are more of the DIY type, you can also install and run your own network server, using our open source stack.

Build LoRaWAN Solutions

Once you have access to The Things Stack, it’s time to start connecting devices. See the Adding Devices section for instructions, or watch the video below for a complete introduction.

If you’re using The Things Stack Community in an urban area, you may already have gateway coverage thanks to other members of the public The Things Network community. See The Things Network Coverage Map to find out.

If you’re not covered, or you want to add gateways to extend the coverage of your network, see the Adding Gateways section.

Once you’ve added a device and it’s connected to a gateway and to The Things Stack, see the Integrations section to learn how to connect other services to act on device data.

Scale Up

When you’re ready to start running your LoRaWAN solution commercially, get in touch with us at The Things Industries for an affordable, scalable, deployment which is SLA backed.

Learn and Get Certified

The Things Network certification program allows you to officially certify your LoRaWAN knowledge and skills.

Visit The Things Network Learn hub or The Things Academy on Udemy to learn all about LoRa and LoRaWAN, and get prepared for The Things Fundamentals certification.

Check all available certifications on The Things Certification site.

A lot of academic research around LoRaWAN is being conducted nowadays. Read some LoRaWAN-related academic papers and publications.

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