The gateway, also called modem or access point, is the device that is receiving all LoRa radio sent by the devices in it’s range. By design, there isn’t really a association between a device and a specific LoRa gateway. Every gateway in the range of the RF signal sent out by a device will pick up the signal and process it, even if this LoRa gateway is part of a network that doesn’t know the device that sent the message.

Each gateway is registered to a LoRaWAN network. A gateway receives LoRa messages from end devices and simply forwards them to the LoRaWAN network server. Gateways are connected to the internet through an IP backbone. IP traffic from gateway to the network server can be backhauled through Cellular (3G/4G/5G), WiFi, Ethernet, Fiber-optic or 2.4 GHz radio links.

Any equipment that is managed must necessarily have an associated gateway.