Interface Overview

The ThingPark Network Coverage tool has an intuitive user-friendly interface.

At the top-right corner, you can see:

• Your license information:
  • For credit-based licenses:, you can see the credit status for both free and paid credits. Hover your mouse to learn more about the refuel date of your free credit.
  • For time-based licenses, you can see the expiration date of your current license.
• A help menu with a link to the online documentation, the changelog as well as the swagger API for link budget analysis.
• Your account settings, including your login email and the ID of your ThingPark subscription. You can view or edit your User preferences.

Tips

Click at the top-left corner of the screen to hide the side panel.

Click on maps to view in full-screen mode.

Click on widget titles to open them in a new tab of your navigator.

Dashboard

The dashboard shows you:

• A map showing the coverage results of your last simulation. This widget is empty if you have not yet completed any coverage simulation.
• Simulations chart,
• Base stations chart.

Simulations chart

This chart shows the status of your simulation requests:

• Init: simulations in initialization (pending) state, they should be processed soon according to the tool's internal scheduling rules.
• Running: the simulation computation is in progress.
• Failed: The simulation was aborted due to an error. Collect all the relevant information (screenshot of the user interface, input parameters, CSV file) and contact your ThingPark support team to request further analysis.
• Success: the simulation was completed successfully and the related coverage map is available to the user (also sent by email upon successful completion).

Base Stations chart

This chart shows you the eligibility status of the base stations already provisioned under your ThingPark SaaS account for coverage simulations.

• Only the outdoor base stations installed on high points (also known as macro gateways) are eligible for simulations. They are modeled with the icon.

  note

  Base stations configured in ThingPark SaaS with Installation mode set to Outdoor below rooftop are not eligible for coverage simulations.

• Indoor gateways (pico or nano models) are not eligible, they are modeled with the icon. Indoor gateways are automatically detected by the tool by their model information.

Simulations

From the left panel, click Simulations to manage your existing simulations or create new ones.

To launch a new simulation, click + ADD SIMULATION at the top right of the page.
You may also launch a new simulation by cloning an existing simulation. To do so from the list:

1. Select the simulation to clone via the checkbox in the first column of the list.
2. Click the button from the top right corner of the page.

To learn more, see Running new simulation.

The list shows the simulations created over the last 90 days, with a synthesis of their inputs and main results.

caution

Simulations older than 90 days are automatically deleted from the system. You must download them if you need them for a longer period.

Use the checkboxes to select one or several simulations from the list, then download their details () or delete them () if needed.

Base stations

The Base Stations page lists all the base stations declared under your ThingPark Enterprise account.
The list is empty if there are no base stations declared on your account, in which case you should manually build the list of your candidate gateways and upload it to the tool (in CSV format) when you request a new coverage simulation.

note

The propagation models used by the tool are only valid for cases when the LoRa antenna is placed outdoors and higher than the surrounding buildings. Therefore, only outdoor base stations registered on your account can be eligible for the simulations. Simulation results will not be accurate if the antenna is located on a bus stop or a lamp post, surrounded by higher buildings.

The color indicates the base station's health state:

• Active : the base station is connected to the network server.
• Initialization : the base station has been declared on the system but has not yet communicated with the network server.
• Radio Error : the base station has radio transmission issues and cannot exchange LoRaWAN packets with the devices.
• Connection Error : the base station has backhaul connection issues and cannot communicate with the network server.

To display the details of a base station, click its name.
The information displayed is retrieved from the data provisioned under your ThingPark Enterprise account.
This information cannot be directly edited from the ThingPark Network Coverage tool, you must go to the Base Station's detailed page on your ThingPark Enterprise account to edit or complete any missing information.

note

In case of multi-antenna configuration, only the information related to RF antenna A1 is used by the Network Coverage tool.

Device dataset

You may import datasets of LoRaWAN devices to your account, for several purposes:

• Using the smart antenna selection feature, you may optimize the base station count required to achieve the target ratio of LoRaWAN devices. To learn more, see Smart antenna selection.

• You may also export, in google earth format, the LoRaWAN metrics of the devices already operating on your network. Then you can overlay these devices on the expected RF coverage heatmaps generated by your simulations to compare theoretical predictions with real field data.

To learn more,see Managing device datasets.

Antenna patterns

All the antenna patterns embedded in ThingPark Network Coverage are displayed in this section. Only omnidirectional antennas are currently supported by the tool.

Select one or more antennas to download their datasheet, using the button.

To request the addition of a new antenna model, contact your ThingPark support team and provide the following data:

• The antenna datasheet with the azimuth and elevation diagrams
• The raw data of the azimuth and elevation diagrams.