We spent quite a long time explaining the difference between ABP and OTAA activation modes. 1
Now it's time for a quick summary. 2
In this table we have the two activation modes and in the different rows we have the topic that has 3
been addressed. 4
So first about security. 5
We saw that both activation mode are secured, but there is a little advantage using OTAA. 6
That's because the session keys are regenerated each time the end device will join the network. 7
The second point is the management of the frame counter. 8
Managing the frame counter in ABP is a little bit more difficult. 9
ABP requires to save the frame counter value in a non volatile memory. 10
Otherwise, if the end device reset, the network server would take the replay attack and all frames 11
would be discarded. In OTAA, 12
It's more simple because the frame counter is automatically reset to zero after each join procedure. 13
Then the two activation mode are also different in the way they manage the LoRaWAN parameters. 14
We gave the example of two parameters RX delay and the frequency plan. 15
In ABP, we had to settle everything in the original firmware or we had to use MAC commands for each 16
end-devices configuration that was time consuming and eventually that was not that easy. 17
In OTAA, everything was settled during the join procedure, so we had nothing to do. 18
Regarding the challenge of network operator, 19
you can do it with both activation modes, but with ABP you will not be able to use roaming anymore. 20
Roaming in LoRaWAN will be used a lot in the coming years, so you should probably consider these features 21
with attention. 22
So as you have guessed, even if ABP seems to be easier to set up, OTAA has definitely so many advantages, 23
OTAA can be used with a Join Server which increase again the interoperability and the overall security 24
of the network. 25
As a conclusion, always use OTAA unless you have very good reason to use ABP.