ChirpStack Simulator

ChirpStack Simulator is an open-source simulator for the ChirpStack open-source LoRaWAN^® Network-Server stack. It simulates a configurable number of devices and gateways, which will be automatically created on starting the simulation.

This project has been developed together with TWTG.

Building

The recommended way to compile the simulator code is using Docker Compose. Example:

docker-compose run --rm chirpstack-simulator make clean build

The binary will be located under build/chirpstack-simulator.

Configuration

For generating a configuration template, use the following command:

./build/chirpstack-simulator configfile > chirpstack-simulator.toml

Example

[general]
# Log level
#
# debug=5, info=4, warning=3, error=2, fatal=1, panic=0
log_level=4


# Application Server configuration.
[application_server]

  # API configuration.
  #
  # This configuration is used to automatically create the:
  #   * Device profile
  #   * Gateways
  #   * Application
  #   * Devices
  [application_server.api]

  # JWT token.
  #
  # The JWT token to connect to the ChirpStack Application Server API. This
  # token can be generated using the login API endpoint. In the near-future
  # it will be possible to generate these tokens within the web-interface:
  # https://github.com/brocaar/chirpstack-application-server/pull/421
  jwt_token=""

  # Server.
  #
  # This must point to the external API server of the ChirpStack Application
  # Server. When the server is running on the same machine, keep this to the
  # default value.
  server="127.0.0.1:8080"

  # Insecure.
  #
  # Set this to true when the endpoint is not using TLS.
  insecure=false


  # MQTT integration configuration.
  #
  # This integration is used for counting the number of uplinks that are
  # published by the ChirpStack Application Server integration.
  [application_server.integration.mqtt]

  # MQTT server.
  server="tcp://127.0.0.1:1883"

  # Username.
  username=""

  # Password.
  password=""


# Network Server configuration.
#
# This configuration is used to simulate LoRa gateways using the MQTT gateway
# backend.
[network_server]

  # MQTT gateway backend.
  [network_server.gateway.backend.mqtt]

  # MQTT server.
  server="tcp://127.0.0.1:1883"

  # Username.
  username=""

  # Password.
  password=""


# Simulator configuration.
[[simulator]]

# Service-profile ID.
#
# It is recommended to create a new organization with a new service-profile
# in the ChirpStack Application Server.
service_profile_id="1f32476e-a112-4f00-bcc7-4aab4bfefa1d"

# Duration.
#
# This defines the duration of the simulation. If set to '0s', the simulation
# will run until terminated.
duration="5m"

# Activation time.
#
# This is the time that the simulator takes to activate the devices. This
# value must be less than the simulator duration.
activation_time="1m"

  # Device configuration.
  [simulator.device]

  # Number of devices to simulate.
  count=1000

  # Uplink interval.
  uplink_interval="5m"

  # FPort.
  f_port=10

  # Payload (HEX encoded).
  payload="010203"

  # Frequency (Hz).
  frequency=868100000

  # Bandwidth (Hz).
  bandwidth=125000

  # Spreading-factor.
  spreading_factor=7

  # Gateway configuration.
  [simulator.gateway]

  # Min number of receiving gateways.
  min_count=3

  # Max number of receiving gateways.
  max_count=5

  # Event topic template.
  event_topic_template="gateway/{{ .GatewayID }}/event/{{ .Event }}"

  # Command topic template.
  command_topic_template="gateway/{{ .GatewayID }}/command/{{ .Command }}"


# Prometheus metrics configuration.
#
# Using Prometheus (and Grafana), it is possible to visualize various
# simulation metrics like:
#   * Join-Requests sent
#   * Join-Accepts received
#   * Uplinks sent (by the devices)
#   * Uplinks sent (by the gateways)
#   * Uplinks sent (by the ChirpStack Application Server MQTT integration)
[prometheus]

# IP:port to bind the Prometheus endpoint to.
#
# Metrics can be retrieved from /metrics.
bind="0.0.0.0:9000"

Running the simulator

To start the simulator, execute the following command:

./build/chirpstack-simulator -c chirpstack-simulator.toml

When a duration has been configured, then the simulation will stop after the given interval. Note that this does not terminate the process! This makes it possible to still read Prometheus metrics after the simulation has been completed.

Regardless if a duration has been configured or not, the simulator can be terminated. When sending an interrupt signal once, the simulation will be terminated and the simulator will clean up the created gateways, devices, application and device-profile. When sending an interrupt for the second time, the simulator will be terminated immediately.

Prometheus metrics

The ChirpStack Simulator provides various metrics that can be collected using Prometheus and visualized using Grafana.

• device_uplink_count: The number of uplinks sent by the devices
• device_join_request_count: The number of join-requests sent by the devices
• device_join_accept_count: The number of join-accepts received by the devices
• application_uplink_count: The number of uplinks published by the application integration
• gateway_uplink_count: The number of uplinks sent by the gateways
• gateway_downlink_count: The number of downlinks received by the gateways

License

ChirpStack Simulator is distributed under the MIT license. See also LICENSE.