As seen from long term recordings of packet, it turns out that there seems to be a bug in the Semtech SX1301 LoRaWAN digital baseband chip. This bug results in data packets with private sync-word being received by SX1301-based gateways which are configured for public sync-words. The same holds true vice versa.
To better estimate the consequences, the InterOP team has conducted automated tests with different power levels and spreading factors. Results have shown that, for receiver power levels in the range of -90…80dBm it can happen that up to 45% of the public node packets are received by a private gateway.
An overview is given in the measurement results (PDF).
For more information, please contact the InterOP team!