IoT and geo-tracking : the feedback of a french start-up from Bretagne

Although geo-tracking technologies such as GPS, RFID or Bluetooth already exist, IoT deployments based on these technologies remain limited. Indeed, these technologies are short range and often very energy consuming, not allowing to create effective and profitable use cases for large scale projects. But the recent arrival of new protocols changes the situation! And Wi6Labs decided to lead an experimentation and test for you the SX1280 technology. We tell you all about it in this article.

| A full-scale test

In order to perform this experiment, our software team tested it in life-size and evaluated the effectiveness of this IoT technology and its capacity of geo-tracking, outside of our office, in Rennes. The demonstration took 5 days, in a parking area with a surface of 3.000 square meters,  We used one vehicle to track and evaluate it’s movement.

The goal was to confirm the result announced by Semtech for the 2.4GHz SX1280 module. The company put the contribution of Lora 2.4 Ghz Bands, to become a provider of geo-tracking solution. This technology also enables high-speed communications (> Mbits/s) over distances greater than 300m.

Using these technologies, Wi6Labs  combine the two modes of communication to provide to its customers’ modules that allow them to geolocate and receive high speed data at the same time.

| An easy and fast implementation

To reach  this goal, the experiment required the following equipment:

• 1 sensor installed on the test car. Here an IPV6 mobile sensor, including a communication and geo-tracking module SX1280 and a Nucleo
• 3 gateways installed on high points, connected in IPV6 and mesh
• 1 data visualization application, here with our solution Wiotys

Thanks to the triangularization, as show  above thanks to the red, green and purple circles, we are able to geolocate any device with high accuracy,  order by our server. The addition of mesh and IPV6 allows us to cover large areas while facilitating application development and interoperability.

This kind of technologie doesn’t require any installation or wiring . It adapts  easily to any type of application like : monitoring goods in a logistics warehouse, Follow cattle behavior in a farm, etc. The use cases including geo-tracking are varied with many benefits to gain:

• Process improvement
• Creation of new services
• Rentability increase

| Technically, what is SX1280 technology?

Semtech extends LoRa technology to the 2.4GHz network with the SX1280. Thanks to the various wireless connectivity, such as BLE, FLRC or LoRa, Now we are able to offer a very important application range to our customers.

The LoRa technology and its derivative FLRC can cover areas ranging from 350m to more than 3km depending on the radio parameters.

The associated speeds allow reaching up to 1.3Mbit/s

| Our feedback on this technology

This experience allowed us to confirm the promises made by Semtech on this technology, and it worth. Here is a list of highlights that we have noted:

• Uses the international ISM band
• Geo-tracking accuracy around 2m per measurement made
• Range up to 3km with low bandwidth (500bps)
• Throughput up to 1.3Mbit/s for a range around 350m

However, there is a lack of information on this technology that Semtech is beginning to promote. We hope to see more projects build with this technology. And of course, Wi6Labs is here to help you carry out your IoT project!

The second part of the experimentation is told here.