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Frequencies in Europe and Switzerland

The EU868 band, its sub-bands, the duty cycle and the channel plan of The Things Network.

The EU868 band

In Europe LoRaWAN uses the band 863–870 MHz ("EU868"). It is a licence-free band for short range devices (SRD). The rules come from the European recommendation ERC/REC 70-03 and the standard ETSI EN 300 220. Switzerland adopts these rules through OFCOM (BAKOM). No licence is needed to operate LoRaWAN devices and gateways.

Licence-free does not mean without rules. Two limits apply:

  1. Transmit power: at most 25 mW ERP in the usual LoRaWAN channels. LoRaWAN implements this as at most +16 dBm EIRP; most devices send at +14 dBm.
  2. Duty cycle: a device may transmit in a sub-band only for a certain share of the time.
K0.1 %L1 %M1 %N0.1 %P10 %Q1 %863864865866867868869870MHzUplink channels (TTN)Downlink RX2 869.525 MHzFSK 868.8 MHzBar height: share of time a device may send
The eight uplink channels of TTN lie in sub-bands L and M with a 1 % duty cycle. Downlinks via RX2 use sub-band P with 10 %.
Sub-band Frequencies Duty cycle Use in LoRaWAN
K 863.0–865.0 MHz 0.1 % hardly
L 865.0–868.0 MHz 1 % uplink channels 867.1–867.9 MHz
M 868.0–868.6 MHz 1 % default channels 868.1 / 868.3 / 868.5 MHz
N 868.7–869.2 MHz 0.1 % FSK channel 868.8 MHz
P 869.4–869.65 MHz 10 % (up to 500 mW ERP) downlink RX2 on 869.525 MHz
Q 869.7–870.0 MHz 1 % hardly

What 1 % means

1 s sending99 s quiet1 % duty cycle: after 1 s on air, 99 s of silence in this sub-bandPer hour: at most 36 s of sendingThe sending share is drawn four times wider so that it is visible.

Whoever transmits for 1 second in a sub-band must then stay silent there for 99 seconds. Per hour that is 36 seconds of airtime. This applies to gateways too: every downlink counts against their allowance. That is why sub-band P with 10 % is reserved for downlinks.

Channel plan of The Things Network

Channel Frequency Data rates
1 868.1 MHz SF7–SF12, 125 kHz
2 868.3 MHz SF7–SF12, 125 kHz, and SF7 at 250 kHz
3 868.5 MHz SF7–SF12, 125 kHz
4–8 867.1 / 867.3 / 867.5 / 867.7 / 867.9 MHz SF7–SF12, 125 kHz
9 868.8 MHz FSK
RX2 (downlink) 869.525 MHz SF9, 125 kHz

Every LoRaWAN device knows channels 1–3 from the factory. The network tells the device the others when it joins. The device picks a random channel for every packet.

Other world regions

A device only transmits in the band it is built for. A device for US915 (902–928 MHz, North America) or AU915 does not work in Europe and must not be operated here. When buying, look for the designation EU868.

LoRa also exists in the worldwide licence-free 2.4 GHz band. It is not part of LoRaWAN EU868 and is not supported by TTN.