Semtech on AWS
Ultra-low power asset tracking for IoT with LoRa Cloud Locator
Background
Of the many complexities along the global supply chain and daily logistics operations, asset tracking is arguably the most challenging. Yet, asset tracking is one of the most common use
cases across all industry verticals. Whether it’s tracking of wheelchairs in a hospital, shopping carts in retail, pallets in supply chain, cattle in agriculture, or pets around your home, asset tracking can be found everywhere.
Historically, asset tracking solutions were based on on-chip real-time calculations. Whilst these solutions provided real-time location with high accuracy, the trade-off has been high Most of the IoT use cases do not have workflows and supporting OPEX to frequently recharge or change batteries. As a matter of fact, many of the IoT applications require devices to run on a battery for many months to years.
Overview
The LoRa Edge™ platform harnesses both the power of the device chip and the cloud to offer unprecedented ultra-low power and low-cost indoor and outdoor geolocation. This cloud-based infrastructure enables more comprehensive and cost-effective tracking capabilities, guaranteed indoor and outdoor coverage, and device battery life of up to 10 years. This all is achieved through the LoRa Edge LR1110 chip and the continuous latitude and longitude scanning of Wi-Fi and GNSS signals.
Semtech gives customers the possibility to test and evaluate these low-power and high-accuracy capabilities through a new service; LoRa Cloud™ Locator. By creating a LoRa Cloud Locator account, purchasing and configuring a LoRa Edge-enabled tracker, any type of customer can visualize the location of their tracker on a map in LoRa Cloud Locator's application. By testing the LoRa Edge Platform through the use of LoRa Cloud Locator, a customer can evaluate whether LoRa Edge is suited for their own tracking use case.
Benefits
Ultra-low power geolocation: Significantly reduced power consumption via cloud-based solvers extends device battery life up to 10 years.
Complete connectivity and coverage — everywhere: Combining indoor Wi-Fi scanning with GNSS outdoor scanning guarantees continuous tracking of your devices throughout warehouses, stores, office buildings, and anywhere in between.
Full-service flexibility and ecosystem support: Tracking your devices and building your own custom application is made incredibly easy thanks to Semtech’s trusted ecosystem of hardware vendors, systems integrators and cloud service providers.
Ease of use: In just a few minutes, any customer can use LoRa Cloud Locator. It only requires purchasing and configuring a LoRa Edge enabled tracker and setting it up in LoRa Cloud Locator – then users can visualize the tracker location on a map.
Features
Wi-Fi and GNSS signals for Indoor & Outdoor tracking: When customers test the capabilities of Semtech's LoRa Edge™ platform on LoRa Cloud™ Locator, they'll see both Wi-Fi (for indoor) and GNSS (for outdoor) scans to track their asset anytime and anywhere. This highly accurate way of asset tracking is valuable for any use case that requires continuous updating of the location of assets.
Ultra-Low Power: LoRa Cloud Locator runs on LoRa Edge technology. Compared to classic asset tracking solutions, the LoRa Edge platform significantly reduces power consumption by solving the location of the asset in a Cloud-based solver instead of on the device itself. Additional power is saved by removing all downlinks to the device. Consequently, the device's battery life can reach up to 10 years. Customers will notice this remarkable ultra-low power feature of LoRa Edge when testing their tracker on LoRa Cloud Locator.