# Configure beaconing for your LoRaWAN gateways
<a name="lorawan-gateway-beaconing"></a>

If you onboard class B wireless devices to AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN, the devices receive downlink messages in scheduled time slots. The devices open these slots based on time-synchronized beacons that are transmitted by the gateway. For your gateways to transmit these time-synchronous beacons, you can use AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN to configure certain beaconing-related parameters for the gateways.

To configure these beaconing parameters, your gateway must be running LoRa Basics Station software version 2.0.6. See [Using qualified gateways from the AWS Partner Device Catalog](lorawan-manage-gateways.md#lorawan-qualified-gateways).

## How to configure the beaconing parameters
<a name="lorawan-beaconing-configure"></a>

**Note**  
You only need to configure the beaconing parameters for your gateway if it's communicating with a class B wireless device.

You configure the beaconing parameters when adding your gateway to AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN using the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot-wireless/latest/apireference/API_CreateWirelessGateway.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot-wireless/latest/apireference/API_CreateWirelessGateway.html) API operation. When you invoke the API operation, specify the following parameters using the `Beaconing` object for your gateways. After you configure the parameters, the gateways will send the beacons to your devices at a 128-second interval.
+ `DataRate`: The data rate for the gateways that are transmitting the beacons.
+ `Frequencies`: The list of frequencies for the gateways to transmit the beacons.

The following example shows how you configure these parameters for the gateway. The `input.json` file will contain additional details, such as the gateway certificate and provisioning credentials. For more information about adding your gateway to AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN using the `CreateWirelessGateway` API operation, see [Add a gateway by using the API](lorawan-onboard-gateway-add.md#lorawan-onboard-gateway-api).

**Note**  
The beaconing parameters aren't available when you add your gateway to AWS IoT Core for LoRaWAN using the AWS IoT console.

```
aws iotwireless create-wireless-gateway \
    --name "myLoRaWANGateway" \        
    --cli-input-json file://input.json
```

The following shows the contents of the `input.json` file.

**Contents of input.json**

```
{ 
    "Description": "My LoRaWAN gateway",
    "LoRaWAN": {
        "Beaconing": { 
          "DataRate": 8,
          "Frequencies": [923300000,923900000]
        },
        "GatewayEui": "a1b2c3d4567890ab",
        "RfRegion": US915, 
        "JoinEuiFilters": [ 
         ["0000000000000001", "00000000000000ff"], 
         ["000000000000ff00", "000000000000ffff"] 
         ], 
        "NetIdFilters": ["000000", "000001"], 
        "RfRegion": "US915", 
        "SubBands": [2] 
    }     
}
```

The following code shows a sample output of running this command.

```
{
    "Arn": "arn:aws:iotwireless:us-east-1:400232685877aa:WirelessGateway/a01b2c34-d44e-567f-abcd-0123e445663a",
    "Id": a01b2c34-d44e-567f-abcd-0123e445663a"
}
```

## Get information about the beaconing parameters
<a name="lorawan-beaconing-get"></a>

You can get information about the beaconing parameters for your gateway using the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot-wireless/latest/apireference/API_GetWirelessGateway.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/iot-wireless/latest/apireference/API_GetWirelessGateway.html) API operation.

**Note**  
If a gateway has already been onboarded, you can't use the `UpdateWirelessGateway` API operation to configure the beaconing parameters. To configure the parameters, you must delete the gateway and then specify the parameters when adding your gateway using the `CreateWirelessGateway` API operation.

```
aws iotwireless get-wireless-gateway \
    --identifier "12345678-a1b2-3c45-67d8-e90fa1b2c34d" \
    --identifier-type WirelessGatewayId
```

Running this command returns information about your gateway and the beaconing parameters.