Academy for LoRaWAN®

Best practice is to design your devices and gateways in such a way that your gateways can handle a large number of end devices. While full-duplex gateways are becoming more common, half-duplex gateways cannot receive transmissions from end devices (uplinks) at the same time they are transmitting data to other devices (downlinks).  So, if a half-duplex gateway transmits downlinks ten percent of the time, it cannot receive uplinks during that time.

That said, LoRaWAN networks offer high reliability. If your device transmits a data packet, the gateway should receive it. To maximize gateway availability, follow these guidelines:

• Use an Efficient Data Rate: The downlink data rate is based on the uplink data rate, so if you’re sending efficient uplinks, the network will respond with efficient downlinks.
• Minimize Downlink Traffic: Downlink messages should be kept to a minimum. If you send a downlink, keep the payload small.
• Minimize Confirmed Uplinks: Generally, confirming receipt of uplinks is not necessary. Design your applications so they can work without such confirmations.