The Importance of Location Functionality in IoT Devices

Author: Sophia

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The Importance of Location Functionality in IoT Devices

Introduction

Why is location functionality so important for IoT devices? This is because both the implementation of IoT applications and the innovation of IoT business models rely on geographical location functionality as support.

Recently, the IoT market research agency IoT Analytics released the latest data showing that the IoT industry has rapidly developed and achieved large-scale implementation over the past decade, reaching 11.7 billion IoT connections by 2020, surpassing the 10 billion non-IoT connections for the first time, marking a new historical stage in the development of IoT.

Among many IoT applications, geographical positioning is one of the most powerful and rapidly developing subfields. According to Market Insight Reports, by 2025, the market size of “IoT with geographical positioning functionality” is expected to grow from the current $40 billion to $74 billion.

The Need for Location Functionality in IoT Devices

Why is location functionality so important for IoT devices?This is because both the implementation of IoT applications and the innovation of IoT business models rely on geographical location functionality as support.

First of all, many typical application scenarios of IoT must rely on accurate positioning to be realized. For example, this year, due to the impact of the pandemic, various resources in hospitals, including beds, are in short supply. However, sometimes the shortage of resources is not because there are not enough devices, but because the devices that have been used have not been returned in time, resulting in resources not being fully utilized. Some medical IoT solutions can help managers monitor the location and usage of medical devices using positioning technology, determining which devices may not be fully utilized, thereby effectively improving the operational efficiency of medical equipment.

Similarly, the transportation and logistics industry queries the location of fleets to avoid cargo loss, identifies vehicle locations in smart parking scenarios to schedule parking spaces, and identifies the locations of full trash bins in smart city scenarios for timely cleaning… Companies can adopt IoT-based asset management solutions to replace inefficient and labor-intensive manual management processes, achieving reasonable allocation and full utilization of resources.

Secondly, the innovation of IoT business models is also closely related to geographical positioning functionality.In the context of the new era of IoT, the “product as a service” model is widely popular. Simply put, in the past, manufacturers sold devices, but now manufacturers can provide services to customers in a “rent instead of sell” model, making the supply of various devices as flexible as the car or industrial equipment rental market.

Clearly, for this model to be effective, the lessor must have a certain degree of monitoring and control over the leased items — that is, manufacturers need to know the location, status, and usage of the devices they lease at all times. Especially for some movable assets, using IoT methods can further improve efficiency.

Challenges Facing Geographical Positioning Functionality

If IoT devices can be tracked so effectively, why not equip every connected device with geographical positioning functionality?This is because traditional positioning technologies represented by GPS face multiple challenges during deployment.

First is battery life.Traditional GPS trackers consume a lot of power, so batteries need to be replaced multiple times a year.In many IoT application scenarios, asset trackers are installed in hard-to-maintain locations, such as moving vehicle fleets, gas stations in remote areas, or meters deep underground… Such deployments lead to high costs for battery replacement, especially when thousands of trackers are deployed on-site.

Second is inconvenient maintenance.Since many IoT devices may have a service life of 5, 10, or even 20 years, it is necessary to send technicians to inspect and maintain the devices during this period.However, due to battery depletion and the inability to send notifications, or due to changes in business ownership, asset trackers often go “missing”.

Third is the cost issue.How often does a solution need to collect the location of the device? Once a minute or once a day?The frequency of collecting device location directly relates to cost and battery usage time.In many cases, traditional GPS technology fails to meet user needs in these two aspects.

Guan Quan, Market Strategy Director of Semtech China, stated:“Overall, IoT users need a low-power, low-cost, flexible, and easy-to-deploy geographical positioning solution.Therefore, Semtech announced the launch of the LoRa Edge™ product portfolio, with the first product being a geographical positioning solution characterized by low-power Wi-Fi and GNSS scanning functions, combined with easy-to-use and cost-effective LoRa Cloud™ geographical positioning and device management services, significantly reducing the cost and complexity of using IoT for asset positioning and monitoring, targeting application markets including industrial, building, home, agriculture, transportation, and logistics.”

Semtech Launches Innovative Geographical Positioning Solution

Practitioners in the IoT industry are mostly familiar with LoRa, a low-power wide-area communication technology.Although LoRa has faced frequent doubts in the past, its overall development has shown a thriving trend.According to Huang Xudong, Vice President of Semtech China Sales, the Asia-Pacific region is the most important market for LoRa globally, with China being the most important single market, and Semtech’s sales in the Chinese market continue to maintain steady growth.As for the characteristics of LoRa technology itself, Huang Xudong repeatedly emphasizes three words, “self-organizing, secure, controllable.”

The LoRa Edge geographical positioning platform fully inherits the characteristics of LoRa, enabling solution providers to fully utilize LoRa’s unique positioning capabilities to address the pain points that customers encounter in applications.

First, the GNSS and Wi-Fi scanning functions provided by the LoRa Edge single-chip solution eliminate the need for customers to add GNSS and Wi-Fi devices, thereby reducing the bill of materials (BOM) cost and significantly lowering design and procurement complexity;Second, by adding LoRa Cloud geographical positioning services, and providing easy-to-use and cost-effective time difference of arrival (TDOA) data, GNSS, and Wi-Fi-based cloud location calculation capabilities, it greatly reduces the power consumption requirements of devices and improves asset management efficiency;Third, LoRa Edge allows customers to further manage total cost of ownership (TCO), and customers only pay when they need to locate assets;Finally, the first-class keys and secure connection addition process configured during chip manufacturing further simplifies the development of IoT solutions, adequately meeting customers’ stringent security requirements.

It is reported that the first LoRa Edge chip group (LR1110) for geographical positioning applications has been launched, and more products in this series will be released in 2021.

Data from Cisco indicates that in the next decade, as various institutions continue to shift towards more IoT-centric business strategies, there will be 500 billion devices connected to the internet globally, most of which will require some form of positioning functionality during installation and throughout their asset lifecycle.The LoRa Edge geographical positioning platform will enable solution providers to fully utilize LoRa’s unique positioning capabilities to support customers in selecting the best positioning tools for their IoT applications.

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