The gateways are connected to the network server via standard IP connections and act as a transparent bridge, simply converting RF packets to IP packets and vice versa.
A LoRaWAN gateway can serve multiple groups of devices at a time, although gateways are often deployed in overlapping groups. Devices will send out their signals as RF packets to be picked up by any gateway in range, with the strongest device to gateway connection passing the message on to the cloud. Having multiple gateways adds resilience to a network should one of them fail.
LoRaWAN gateways can be installed and run for a private network controlled by a company. For example, you may manage communications at a reservoir and need to measure water levels or water pressure at specific locations on the site. Physically collecting data from remotely located water level sensors could be difficult, time consuming and costly, but if your sensors are wirelessly connected with LoRaWAN then data can be collected easily and delivered directly to laptop and mobile apps. To do this the sensor will need to wirelessly pass the data first to a LoRaWAN gateway. The gateway will then pass the data from the multiple sensor array on to the cloud and ultimately to your app.