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LoRaWAN Roaming on Helium

Before getting started, make sure to have the following:

  • Helium Network Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI).
  • Data Credits (>3.5M DC).
  • A NetID issued by the LoRa Alliance.
  • A roaming endpoint so your LNS can receive roaming traffic.

For guidance on purchasing and funding an OUI, refer to the following guides:

Roaming Quickstart​

While your roaming endpoint is up and running, you need to let the Helium config service know of its existence. Initialization of some CLI environment variables will streamline the process:

Run helium-config-service-cli env init

  1. Fill in the relative path of the delegate key pair file for Keypair Location
  2. Fill in Your Net ID for Net ID
  3. Fill in your assigned OUI for Assigned OUI
  4. Fill in the number of multi-buy you want for Default Max Copies as a default for your routes.
  5. Then export the environment variables. This needs to be done manually. You will see something like this and just add export to each line and run it. For instance, you would run export HELIUM_MAX_COPIES=15 variable. Be sure not to put a space around the = sign
Setting environment variables as shown in a terminal window.

Now, you are ready to generate your first route. Routes contain the necessary information for us to know how to route a packet — DevEUI+AppEUI (for routing join requests), DevAddr range (for routing uplinks), endpoint (so the network knows where to send the packet), etc.

  1. Run helium-config-service-cli route new --commit
  2. You can then see the empty route template. It should look like this, except that you should be seeing your NetID, assigned OUI, max_copies in there:
Route Creation as shown in a terminal window.

Next, let's define the endpoint that you use for ingesting traffic. You can run:

$ helium-config-service-cli route update server --host <roaming endpoint> --port <roaming port> --route-id <route-id> --commit

If you are using HTTP roaming, you need to run:

  • Note that the auth-header and receiver-nsid are optional.
$ helium-config-service-cli route update http --dedupe-timeout <dedupe timeout> --path <roaming endpoint sub-path> --auth-header <auth header> --receiver-nsid <ReceiverNSID> --route-id <route-id> --commit

If you are using GWMP roaming, you need to run:

$ helium-config-service-cli route update add-gwmp-region --route-id <route-id> --commit

Make sure your endpoint, port and protocol are set correctly, otherwise we may not be able to send traffic to your LNS.

How to Add Your First Device​

In this example, we will show you how to add your first device to start roaming. In order to receive join request for your device, you need to let Helium know which EUI pair to watch out for. You can run the following

If you are a roaming partner migrating from Roaming Console, please read the Migrating from Roaming Console section below first.

$ helium-config-service-cli route euis add --route-id <route-id> -d <dev-eui> -a <app-eui> --commit

While this allows your Helium to forward your device's join request, you also need to specify a DevAddr range on that route so that Helium can forward its uplinks.

$ helium-config-service-cli route devaddrs add -s <start devAddr> -e <end devAddr> --route-id <route-id> -- commit

Migrating from Roaming Console​

If you are a roaming partner migrating from Roaming Console to the new OpenLNS Architecture, please carefully test out your roaming connections before the full switch.

While the Roaming Console currently coexists with the OpenLNS Architecture, it is not possible to have the same device to simultaneously send traffic to both Roaming Console and through OpenLNS Architecture.

Migrating EUI Pair for Join Requests​

Let's say you had 100 devices on Roaming Console, you can start the migration slowly by registering 1 EUI pair with the CLI, so that 99 of your devices will roam through Roaming Console and 1 of your devices will roam through OpenLNS. Then, you can keep migrating, possibly registering 50 EUI pairs with the CLI, so that 49 of your devices will roam through Roaming Console and 51 will roam through OpenLNS. Eventually, you will have registered all 100 EUI pairs with the CLI, so that all of your devices will roam through Roaming Console.

Let's say you have 10 DevAddrs, you can start the migration slowly by registering 1 DevAddr with the CLI, so that 9 of your DevAddrs will roam through Roaming Console and 1 of your DevAddrs will roam through OpenLNS. Then, you can keep migrating, possibly registering 5 DevAddrs with the CLI, so that 4 of your DevAddrs will roam through Roaming Console and 6 will roam through OpenLNS. Eventually, you will have registered all 10 DevAddrs with the CLI, so that all of your devices will roam through Roaming Console.

Advanced Roaming​

The session key filter gives an opertator the ability to accept and reject specific roaming traffic on a device level. Leveraging the session key filter is recommended for all operators. Read more about the session key filter and other advanced configurations in the Advanced Configuration section.

Roaming Proxy Service​

If Helium's OpenLNS architecture is incompatible with a roaming partner's set up, then they can leverage the roaming proxy service prototype, which should provide a standard roaming interface. Note that Helium is not in active maintenance of this service. Helium does not necessarily recommend the usage of this architecture, but appreciates the diverse needs of roaming partners.