Console shows gateway connected, but its not showing any activity

Gateways Raspberry Pi Gateways
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I’ve successfully setup a gateway (Pi 3+IMST), and the endnode (Adafruit Feather M0 with RFM95W) as well. The gateway is receiving the data, I can see the data coming up in TTN console. I’ve integrated TTN with Ubidots; I can see the visualization of all the measurements being made. Thanks to the community of TTN, who helped me at every juncture.

The only challenge in this whole exercise is the internet connectivity for the gateway, barring which the setup is in function for the past 2 weeks. I’m using the institute wide LAN connection of our university. As long as I’ve connected through a router, I’m able to see in TTN console that the gateway is connected, and that it is showing activity. By activity I mean, it is getting refreshed every 30sec, and also that the endnode is able to talk to the gateway. But since there are restrictions about using routers in our lab, I wanted to find an alternative: (a) Connecting to LAN port directly, (b) Using campus WiFi of our university, and © Using my personal mobile as hotspot. I’ve tried all three cases (except the second, it didn’t work), and it was observed that the console shows connected but it does no activity, as a result my endnode stopped speaking to the gateway.

I suspect that the campus network constraints/restrictions could have resulted in the non-functioning of gateway. But in case of my mobile being used as wifi hotspot, the issue should not have arisen. Surprisingly, when I’ve connected Pi to a desktop, I was able to access internet in the desktop. What could be a way out? Should I explore other alternative like cellular backhaul (3G/4G). But I’m afraid that the cost might increase, and it might have compatibility issues as well.

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Just to be clear, your gateway does run when connected to a router and not when connected to the same Ethernet port directly after you removed the router? What brand/type router is being used?
Do Ethernet ports In your lab use some kind of access control to prevent foreign equipment from being connected? Have you asked the network administrator for help as it seems to be a networking issue?

1 Like
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You’re right, we do have access control. I did ask our network administrator, and I’ve made necessary changes, but still the problem persists. Nevertheless I experienced issues even with my personal mobile (which does not have access control issue). Am I the first person I’m experiencing such an issue, or am I doing something wrong here!

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Some people experienced issues due to (mobile) internet providers blocking some ports including UDP port 1700 which the Semtech packet forwarder uses. That might be the issue with your mobile connection.

The additional router you used, does that provide NAT? If it does that might be the difference you need to investigate with the network administrator.

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I shall explore the port blocking issue.

Now regarding the router, basically I don’t have any problem when I’ve a LAN connection with the router. The problem is when I connect directly to the LAN port. I’m using the IP address configured, by my university, for my device. I’ve made necessary changes in the DHCPD configuration file. But still no luck.

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Can you connect to your RPi with ssh/putty?

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Yes, I was able to connect to Pi using putty.

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@kersing It seems that finding out if network provider is blocking certain UDP ports, and doing something about it, takes considerable time. In the interest of time, would like to get started with enabling 3G/4G backhaul for my DIY gateway (IMST iC880A+Pi 3). Ideally wanna do it on my own, unless it is not possible. Infact cellular backhaul is gonna be a useful feature of my usecase, because in rural areas, cellular network is a relatively reliable network (instead of LAN/WiFi). Would be great if there are any pointers in this direction. Just wondering if this issue is going to repeat, because technically speaking, the internet service providers are not going to be changing even if it’s a GSM backhaul.

Note: Would like to change the title of the topic to a meaningful title, something like ‘How to create GSM backhaul for LoRaWAN DIY gateway (IMST+Pi)?’

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Go to the top and use the pencil icon at the end of the topic title.

Just search the internet for Linux on RPi with 3g/4G. There should be pointers on the forum as well as I got a usb dongle mentioned on this forum a long time ago.
I would consider switching packet forwarder to MP (not just because I worked on that) because it uses TCP/IP in stead of UDP.