What is LoRa?
LoRaWAN is a long range, low power wireless protocol that is intended for use in building IoT networks. IoT devices (“nodes”) send small data packets to any number of “gateways” that may be in the several-kilometer range of a node via the LoRaWAN wireless protocol. The gateways then use more traditional communications such as wired Internet connections to forward the messages to a network-server which validates the packets and forwards the application payload to an application-server.
The nature of the LoRa network potentially allows IoT devices to run for years on small batteries, occasionally sending out small packets of data, waiting for a short time for response messages, and then closing the connection until more data needs to be sent. Devices can also be set up so that they are always listening for messages from their applications, though this obviously requires more power and may be more appropriate for devices that are, say, plugged in to a wall socket.
LoRa/LoRaWAN Gateways
Single Channel Gateway
A single-channel gateway is a LoRa device that acts as a gateway by forwarding LoRa packets to the network. As it's usually built using a SX1272/SX1276 instead of SX1301/SX1257, it's a lot cheaper than a full gateway, making it a favorite choice for people to start with LoRaWAN. However, single-channel gateways are extremely limited compared to a real gateway. Single-channel gateways often lead to undesired design choices for solutions that you might build and can hurt the LoRaWAN server.
Multichannel Gateway
Multichannel LoRaWAN gateway is the real LoRa Alliance compliance gateway which is powered by SX1301 or others. Single-channel gateways can only receive on one channel and one spreading factor at the same time, whereas a full gateway can receive on eight channels (some even ten) and six spreading factors at the same time.
Form factor
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