The Things Stack follows a API driven microservice architecture, well suited for high availability and reliability. The Things Stack has the following main components. Component (Service) Short Description Gateway Server GS Maintains connections with gateways supporting the Basic Station, UDP, MQTT and gRPC protocols. It forwards uplink traffic to Network Servers directly or indirectly, and schedules downlink traffic on gateways. Network Server NS Handles the LoRaWAN® network layer, including MAC commands, regional parameters and adaptive data rate (ADR). Application Server AS Handles the LoRaWAN application layer, including uplink data decryption and decoding, downlink queuing and downlink data encoding and encryption. Identity Server IS Provides the registries that store entities such as applications with their end devices, gateways, users, organizations, OAuth clients and authentication providers. It also manages access control through memberships and API keys. Join Server JS Handles the LoRaWAN join flow, including Network and Application Server authentication and session key generation. Device Claiming Server DCS Allows users to claim devices and gateways in a secure manner. Gateway Configuration Server GCS Generates configuration files for UDP gateways and manages gateway configuration and firmware updates for Basic Station and The Things Kickstarter gateways. Packet Broker Agent PBA Connects The Things Stack with Packet Broker for exchanging traffic with other networks. Network Operations Center NOC Provides aggregated insight in a network operated with The Things Stack. Console NA Is the web application used to interact with The Things Stack. The Things Stack also has the following additional/supporting components. Component (Service) Short Description Tenant Billing Server TBS Manages the creation, suspension and billing of tenants using different payment backends (only for The Things Stack cloud). QR Generator QRG Generates QR codes for devices in various formats. These QR codes can be used for various purposes, including identification and device claiming to transfer ownership.. Device Template Converter DTC Converts data to device templates for migrating networks and importing vendor-specific data. If you want more detailed information on each component, check the components reference section.

The Things Stack supports versions 1.0.x and 1.1.x of the LoRaWAN® specifications.

The streaming data integrations provide multiple formats for the delivery of application uplink messages and downlink queue operations. This section will delve into the common formats used by them.

The Things Stack uses a port per protocol, with a TLS counterpart when applicable. Ports can be shared by multiple services using the same protocol, i.e. gRPC services sharing management, data and events services.

To access the Console, register a command line client, connect gateways, or schedule uplinks via webhooks, it is necessary to know the server address of your The Things Stack instance. This section contains information about addresses for different The Things Stack deployments.