When the data packets from Internet of Things devices are transmitted they may be collected by more than one gateway, this is ideal as most IoT hardware does not retain data. In ideal conditions LoRaWAN chips have a range of up to 10km. It is expected that the data packet will reach several gateways.
When a data packet is received by a gateway it is passed directly to the LNS (LoRaWAN Network Server).
The LNS will check if the data packet identifier has already been received (there will be a few micro seconds between identical data packets from different gateways reaching the LNS).
If the data packet is unique in the LNS the data packet is passed onto the application. Some LoRaWAN Network Servers provide information about the gateway that collected the data package.
Example from a ChirpStack Helium LNS
gateway_h3index:"8c195d388d9bbff"
gateway_id:"11cGgeycbda8c9DEDizJh9hPsvvVCxERuFC4amEHfGBrR8zfbDS"
gateway_lat:"51.502716417137357"
gateway_long:"-0.852400458520556"
gateway_name:"fluffy-gingerbread-huskie"
network:"helium_iot"
regi:"EU868"
region_common_name:"EU868"
region_config_id:"eu868"