LoRaWAN with ProRF and The Things Network
Nick Poole 
The Things Network
"Building A Global Internet of Things Network Together."
The Things Network is essentially the free, community-based, open source arm of The Things Industries — an integrated chain of products and services for developing enterprise IoT solutions. While The Things Industries makes their money selling hardware, software, services and consulting, they maintain The Things Network as a sort of tech demo and a tool for gaining market share. I know this is a cynical way to discuss a free open source network, but I like to put it in these terms because their service is so convenient and well maintained that it's natural to wonder, "what's the catch?"
The Things Network (TTN) is a LoRaWAN™ network server with some extra bells and whistles. Registering a node or an application to the network is free and so is the network traffic — as long as you follow the fair use guidelines. Services are based on best effort, so there's no guarantee on uptime or latency, but it's free! The Things Network also encourages members to grow the network by making it incredibly easy to register a gateway. Simply connect your gateway hardware to the internet, open the TTN console, and follow the prompts. They sell their own branded gateway hardware, but they also provide documentation for registering your homebrew gateway. When you register a gateway, you also provide your gateway's physical location and antenna placement so The Things Network can estimate network coverage and map that coverage for potential users.
To help grow the network, The Things Network even provides resources for finding, joining and starting regional "communities," organizations dedicated to providing an entire city or area with network coverage. You can see a map of existing communities in the button below. Many large cities around the world already have total coverage!
Needless to say, we think The Things Network is a pretty cool idea. Also, since it's free, it's a great way to get started with LoRaWAN™. We'll be using The Things Network to complete this tutorial, so if your city doesn't have TTN coverage, you'll need to set up a gateway of your own. You can buy one from The Things Network Marketplace or make your own with an ESP8266 or a Raspberry Pi!