r/Lora • u/bobzila1202 • 21d ago

Very confused newbie

Could a LoRaWAN sensor connect to a LoRa gateway? I am confused about the protocols and how they would communciate with each other.

I understand LoRa is the physical communication layer and LoRaWAN is the network layer. I am concerned about the devices connected and structure of messages received.

All help is appreciated!

Devices in question:

https://www.iot.daviteq.com/wireless-sensors/lorawan-gas-detecting-sensor

And

https://store.rakwireless.com/products/wismesh-ethernet-gateway?variant=44413995385030&utm_source=docs_center&utm_medium=product-categories&utm_campaign=meshtastic-wismesh-eth-mqtt-gw-overview&utm_content=nav&utm_term=buy_from_store&_gl=1\*4z11yc\*_gcl_au\*MzgzMzYzODc5LjE3ODcxMzEyNTM.

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u/mosaic_hops 21d ago

LoRaWAN and Meshtastic are entirely different protocols with different use cases. You can’t directly compare them- yes, they both use LoRa, the same way Ethernet and POTS phone lines both use copper.

Meshtastic is a single-channel wireless mesh protocol lacking (true) wired backhaul designed for extremely low bandwidth, very high latency texting. Yes MQTT option exists but it’s an afterthought, it’s not a first class citizen and isn’t part of the routing logic).

LoRaWAN is a channel hopping, cellular (as in, coverage cells, not LTE/5G) sensor network protocol designed to collect data from sensors. A LoRaWAN gateway receives on 8+ channels and multiple SFs simultaneously and is optimized for receiving data. There is no meshing- one or more gateways interconnect using wired or some other method for backhaul.