Silvanet Border Gateway

The Silvanet Border Gateway provides connectivity between the Silvanet Mesh Network and the Silvanet Cloud via the Internet.

Unboxing a package containing the Border Gateway

The Silvanet Border Gateway relays messages between sensors and the Silvanet Cloud using the Silvanet Mesh Network. Connectivity to the Silvanet Cloud is via the Internet (Ethernet, mobile networks and satellite).

It is typically placed at the edge of a forest and, ideally, near a power supply. As the Border Gateways are LoRaWAN compliant, they can also communicate directly with Silvanet sensors if any sensors are within range of the Border Gateway.

Deployment scenarios

The Border Gateway can be set up in various deployment scenarios depending on the availability of power supplies, internet connectivity and deployment locations. See Border Gateway deployment scenarios.

Key features

Connects to Silvanet sensors, Mesh Gateways and Border Gateways using LoRaWAN .
Connects to the Internet using LTE-M mobile networks, Ethernet (connected to routers) or satellites (as backup) to connect to the Internet.
- Uses built-in LTE-M radio (using 4G/LTE-M with 2G/GPRS fallback) or NB-IoT for wireless connectivity.
- Uses built-in Ethernet adapter for wired connectivity.
- Uses built-in support for satellite network connectivity for remote deployments without mobile network coverage and no access to mains power.
Connects to mains power supply using a PoE Adapter (Power over Ethernet).
Solar panel provides for the Border Gateway's daily energy requirements, if PoE is unavailable.
Supports FUOTA (Firmware Update Over-the-Air) to allow its firmware to be updated remotely.
Support the deployment of up to 20 Mesh Gateways.
Directly receives messages from sensors if they are within range.

Delivered components

Each shipment of a Border Gateway includes the following components:

One Silvanet Border Gateway
One Solar Panel (pre-connected to Border Gateway)
Four treenails
Two U-Bolt Clamps, including 4 M10 nuts and washers
One 5 meter roll of Garden wire
One LoRa antenna (North America: 915 MHz, EU: 868 MHz, Asia: 433 MHz)
One LTE-M antenna
One Satellite antenna
One PoE Adapter and one power cable
One RJ45 CAT6 Ethernet network cable for use with the PoE

Dimensions

The dimensions of the Silvanet Border Gateway are (LxWxH) 27.5 cm (63 cm with antennas) x 46 cm (with the satellite antenna) x 4.5 cm and weighs 1.3 kg.

Typical setup

The Border Gateway is assumed to be always on (24 hrs) as it needs to listen to any messages sent by the Silvanet Mesh Network via LoRaWAN. To be always on, the Border Gateway requires access to a mains power source using the supplied PoE or if a mains power source in unavailable, from its pre-connected solar panel for off-grid locations.

A typical setup of a Border Gateway has Internet access via an Ethernet connection to a router. Power supply comes from the (supplied) PoE Adapter which obtains its power from a mains supply.

The Border Gateway can also obtain its power source from the (supplied) solar panel to ensure uninterrupted power to the Border Gateway. The solar panel acts as a backup to charge the device's internal energy storage (supercapacitors). If a loss of power occurs, the solar panel will keep the system running to keep the Silvanet Network functioning.

Border Gateway setup with router and solar panel

Cabling

The cable between the Border Gateway and the solar panel is 2 m long and is pre-connected.

Power supply

Source

Description

Mains

Dryad recommend providing a mains power supply using PoE (Power over Ethernet). The Border Gateway is shipped with a PoE Adapter (Adapter). It provides a voltage range of between 36 V and 57 V. The PoE is IEEE 802.3af compliant. When a power outage occurs in the case of mains power supply the gateway's supercapacitors allow the device to continue receiving power. The solar panel (see below) guarantees a power supply to the Border Gateway should a power outage occur for an extended period, such as ten hours or even two days.

External solar panel

The external solar panel is 45cm by 45cm and is permanently connected to the Border Gateway. The solar panel included with the device can provide for its daily energy requirements and ensures charging capabilities to the device's supercapacitors. If the solar panel is the main source of power, the supercapacitors allow the device to continue receiving power for several hours when the solar panel loses generating capacity (no sunlight) This ensures a continuous power supply to charge the supercapacitors.

Power Saving Mode

The Border Gateway's modem wakes up ever hour and stays on for five minutes to send a message (a "heartbeat") to the Silvanet Cloud to indicate it is alive. This reduces the overall power supply requirements.

Consequently, this requires a power supply of 5415Ws which is provided by its internal supercapacitors. These capacitors provides a large amount of power for a short duration (for example, when it sends a "heartbeat") and is continuously recharged from an external power supply.

Use of supercapacitors

Power supply is stored in supercapacitors rather than rechargeable batteries as rechargeable batteries can ignite. This would defeat the purpose of a wildfire detection system.

Internet Connectivity

We recommend using the Border Gateway’s built in Ethernet connectivity using PoE. The Border Gateway also provides built-in support for LTE-M (LTE-M (Cat-M1) is suitable for IoT) as well as NB-IoT which requires access to a 4G network with 2G fallback (GPRS). An LTE-M antenna is provided to connect to a 4G network.

Satellite (backup) connectivity is provided should Ethernet and LTE become unavailable or if the Border Gateway is deployed in a remote location. An antenna is provided for Satellite uplink using a satellite network. However, the Border Gateway sends only fire alerts when using satellite connectivity.

Satellite uplinks

A Satellite uplink should only be used for remote deployments where there is no mobile network coverage AND no access to mains power.

Firmware updates (FUOTA)

The Border Gateway supports FUOTA (Firmware Update Over The Air) with high flexibility. Large file transfers are successfully made securely and reliably even with eventual interruptions of the power supply and, consequently, sensor operation.

Firmware is updated using a chunked image transfer (no compression). All Silvanet sensors in a Site are updated at the same time using Multicast. To do this the LoRaWAN Network Protocol is temporarily switched to Class B which allows two-way communication.

To cope with low power and the various regional regulatory requirements, both the downlink fragment size as well as the periodicity are highly configurable allowing for stretching a FUOTA process even to a week.