Interface Overview
The ThingPark Network Coverage tool has an intuitive user-friendly interface.
At the top-right corner, you can see:
- Your credit status for both free and paid credits. Hover your mouse to learn more about the refuel date of your free credit.
- A help menu with a link to the online documentation, 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.
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.
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.
Gateways appearing in the Base station list as 
,
do not have a valid location in your ThingPark
Enterprise account. Accordingly, the Network Coverage tool
could not automatically retrieve valid coordinates for this base station.
Hence, the user must manually set valid coordinates in the CSV file imported
during the configuration of a new simulation.
Simulations list
Your simulations are displayed in the simulations list. They are available for 90 days in the tool. 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.
Cloning a simulation
You can launch a new simulation by cloning an existing one and reusing some of the original settings to avoid re-entering all the configuration settings again. The configuration of the cloned simulation will be pre-filled with the previous simulation data, but you can modify any parameter before launching the new simulation request.
To clone a simulation, select it from the list and click on the 
button.
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.
The following icons indicate whether the base station is compatible with a simulation or not:
- Base station location: if the base station has valid coordinates
(
) or if they are unavailable
(). - Base station model: if the base station uses an indoor model
() or outdoor model ().
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 that, in case of multi-antenna configuration, only the information related to RF antenna A1 is used by the Network Coverage tool.
Devices dataset
You can export in KML format the list of devices already provisioned on your ThingPark account, if they have a valid location. This list can then be imported in Google Earth and superposed with a simulation result (in KMZ format).
This overlay of device coordinates with the RF simulation output could be interesting to:
-
Check if your devices are inside the covered area.
-
If your devices are already exchanging LoRaWAN traffic with the network, compare the key performance indicators of your devices with the predicted RF coverage by the tool.
tipFor instance, if a device has a high UL packet error rate (UL PER > 20%) or has a health state "Initialization" or "Connection Error", and this device is not situated in the RF coverage area predicted by the simulation: -> This shows that the RF prediction results are consistent with the field feedback.
When you export your device dataset from the Network Coverage tool, you must select a metric that will be represented by a colored marker in the exported KML file. The following table provides information about the color code of each metric:
| Metric | Green marker | Yellow marker | Red marker |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) | SNR >= -9 dB | -14 <= SNR < -9 dB | SNR < -14 dB |
| Estimated Signal Power (ESP) | ESP >= -100 dBm | -120 <= ESP < -100 dBm | ESP < -120 dBm |
| Spreading Factor (SF) | SF7 SF8 | SF9 SF10 | SF11 SF12 |
| Long-term Packet Error Rate (PER) | PER <= 10% | 20% <= PER < 10% | PER > 20% |
| Health State | Active | Suspended or Initialization | Connection Error |
To superpose your devices with a simulation result on Google Earth:
- Open the simulation file exported in KMZ format.
- On Google Earth's top menu, click File > Import
- Select the devices KML file.
- To save this display as a unique KMZ file, select the Temporary locations, right-click on it, then Save location as... and name your new file.
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.