# How reliable are downlinks?

**URL:** <https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/how-reliable-are-downlinks/37737>\
**Category:** LoRaWAN Discussions\
**Created:** [June 12, 2020, 6:19am UTC](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/how-reliable-are-downlinks/37737 "2020-06-12T06:19:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

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**Author:** ![arjanvanb](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/user_avatar/www.thethingsnetwork.org/arjanvanb/32/46626_2.png) [@arjanvanb](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/u/arjanvanb)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 8:45am UTC](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/how-reliable-are-downlinks/37737/13 "2020-06-14T08:45:18Z")

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> [@ame](#):
>
> Besides, what’s the point of a downlink if it can’t be used?

Downlinks are very useful: for OTAA, for ADR, for remote configuration, maybe even for a remote reboot to allow for joining a different network. (Unfortunately, downlinks for confirmed uplinks apparently [have a design or implementation flaw](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/rn2483-confirmed-uplink-not-working/36980/4).) Downlinks should work properly, and if not then one should fix that. But _controlling_ things is just [not a good use case](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/lorawan/limitations.html) for Class A LoRaWAN.

Just for the sake of completeness, though already mentioned in many other places: even if downlinks work fine, there’s also [the limit of 10 downlinks per day](https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/limitations-data-rate-packet-size-30-seconds-uplink-and-10-messages-downlink-per-day-fair-access-policy-guidelines/1300). I’d assume that retries for confirmed downlinks count against the Fair Access Policy as well, as the network cannot be blamed for that.

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