LoRaWAN Stack No Longer Builds with -DLORAWAN_COMPLIANCE_TEST

[mattbrown015]

Description

I don't understand the purpose of -DLORAWAN_COMPLIANCE_TEST but believe I probably should given that I'm writing software for a LoRaWAN device!

In an attempt to gain some understanding I defined LORAWAN_COMPLIANCE_TEST but there were compile errors in LoRaWANStack.cpp. I fixed the first couple but more appeared and hence I think someone knowledgeable needs to have a look. :-}

I only started rummaging around in this code today but what I've seen so far leads me to believe this code could be very useful. For example, I'm hoping it will make continuous Tx possible so we can test our antenna.

SHA 9f27672

Issue request type

[ ] Question
[ ] Enhancement
[X] Bug

[mattbrown015]

@hasnainvirk I'm guessing at least some of the problems relate to LoRa: State machine work #6808.

Any help greatly appreciated! :-)

[ciarmcom]

ARM Internal Ref: MBOTRIAGE-1090

[hasnainvirk]

@mattbrown015 This is known. Compliance test code port was in for legacy compliance support. The code is still in as we have plans to setup our own testing framework.

[mattbrown015]

@hasnainvirk Ah, OK.

So perhaps you can offer some advice and help me understand whether or not this functionality would be anything like what I need?

We've built a board and the hardware team want to test the antenna. They asked me to make the board transmit continuously using a fixed SF and power. They said continuously but I'm not sure they meant that literally, I think they just meant transmit LoRa packets a lot more often than normal. As I understand it, they don't care what's in the LoRa packets and whether or not it is connecting to a LoRaWAN gateway.

Some of what I saw in LORAWAN_COMPLIANCE_TEST made me think it might do what I want. It appeared to do the LoRaWAN thing but accepted special messages on port 224 that could select special modes. I didn't spend too long staring at the code because I thought I'd just try it!

If LORAWAN_COMPLIANCE_TEST is going nowhere for me what other options do you think I have?

My initial thought was that I'd have to write a special test app that just used the radio drivers to talk to the SX1276 and make it transmit any old rubbish. Naturally I need to give the hardware team what they want in the next day or 2.

Thanks!

[hasnainvirk]

@mattbrown015 I think what you are looking for is a sort of ping-pong tester for LoRaRadio. You don't want to test the Mac. Compliance test is a prescribed way of testing the Mac. It doesn't test the radio directly. For 5.10 release, we will be bringing up a specific test for Radio only. It will come under a special testing framework with which you will be able to attach multiple devices, i.e., two devices ping-ponging each other using a a single test command. Hope it will be available as early as 5.10. You may get an early partner access if you have subscribed to that program. Otherwise, go ahead and write yourself a nice little app which does it for you. Use the radio directly.

[mattbrown015]

@hasnainvirk Thanks for the advice, I shall digest it and talk to the hardware team. :-)

[mattbrown015]

(For completeness just in case someone stumbles across this issue.)

I notice some work has been done on this now, LoRaWAN: Refactoring compliance test code #8074.

[hasnainvirk]

@mattbrown015 Yeah, legacy compliance test code is removed from the stack as it was not needed anymore. We have built an app which runs on a DUT and talks to any LoRaWAN certification tester. It is available as a WIP here ARMmbed/mbed-os-example-lorawan@98c0576. This is almost a final version. It will live in the example app repository as a branch. If you need any help with it, please ping me directly.