The Wifx Packet Forwarder (WPF) is based on the original and legacy Semtech UDP packet forwarder.

The features of the WPF are identical to the Semtech Packet Forwarder. The software has been slightly improved to support additional configuration parameters and to improve the overall stability.

Files location

The Wifx Packet Forwarder binary is located at /opt/wpf/wpf

Configuration

The Antenna type must be set before configuring the Wifx Packet Forwarder

The WPF configuration is split into three part : hardware, channels and gateway.

All the configuration files of the WPF are store in /etc/opt/wpf.

Hardware

The hardware configuration contains very low level settings related to the LORIX One radio frequency parameters. This file is provided by Wifx and it must not be changed.

The hardware configuration file is provided with a cryptographic signature that ensures the authenticity of the configuration. If you change anything in the hardware configuration, it will not be valid anymore and the forwarder will not be able to use it.

I you've lost the hardware config or its signature, you can get them on the Download area

Files location

The hardware configuration files are stored in /etc/opt/wpf/hardware:

  • /etc/opt/wpf/hardware/hardware_conf.json
  • /etc/opt/wpf/hardware/hardware_conf.json.sha256

Channels

The channels configuration contains the LoRa frequency plan definition.

The available channels depend on the region the gateway is installed. If you want to use another channel than the provided ones, you can add a channel configuration file in the corresponding region folder and change the symbolic link of the reference file.

Files location

The channels configuration files are stored in /etc/opt/wpf/channels:

  • /etc/opt/wpf/channels/channels_conf.json - Symbolic link to the selected channel
  • /etc/opt/wpf/channels/<REGION>/ - Folders containing the available channels for each region

Gateway

The gateway configuration is stored into two different files:

  • Global configuration file - gateway_global_conf.json
  • Local configuration file - gateway_local_conf.json

The goal of these two files is two split the configuration of a whole fleet of gateway (global) from the configuration specific to a single gateway (local).

The data from the local file always overrides the configuration of the global file.

The global configuration file will therefore contains settings that are relative to the infrastructure, for example:

  • The Network Server address
  • The forwarding rules
  • The e-mail address of the operator

The local configuration file will contain settings related to a single gateway, for example:

  • The gateway ID
  • The gateway location

This possibility to split the configuration is here for convenience, it is not mandatory to use it if it doesn't fit your need. For a simple setup, we recommend editing only the local configuration file.

Files location

The gateway configuration files are stored in /etc/opt/wpf/gateway:

  • /etc/opt/wpf/gateway/generic - Configuration used when using the Wifx Packet Forwarder directly
  • /etc/opt/wpf/gateway/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/ - Configuration used when using the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge