Adding Gateways to a LoRaWAN Network
One of the biggest benefits of deploying a LoRaWAN network is that you can simply add additional gateways wherever there is potential congestion in the network caused by uplink traffic clogging the available frequencies for transmission. Similarly, you can add gateways where the downlinks from the gateway being constrained by the gateway’s available time-on-air.
You may also want to add gateways in places where the network coverage does not allow for reliable reception from the end devices.
In these situations, if you use the LoRaWAN ADR functionality, the network will adjust to the addition of your new gateways automatically. Devices near your new gateways will be automatically instructed to transmit at a higher data rate (using less time on air), or they will be directed to transmit at a lower power. This will also significantly increase the battery life of your battery-powered devices and will allow more devices to use the network.
This simple approach offers a significant advantage over traditional mobile networks. In a traditional mobile network, adding a new base station normally requires a redesign of the radio plan, including changing the frequencies used by all the other base stations in the vicinity.