The Endless Connection: LPWAN & Asset Tracking
February 09, 2023
Blog
From supply chain and agriculture to cold chain monitoring, Research and Markets reports that IoT adoption is on the rise. IoT-enabled asset tracking and monitoring is a fast-growing market that’s quickly gaining the attention of these verticals and many others.
The IoT makes operations smarter and more efficient. The data derived from IoT-enabled asset management tools provides greater visibility and combats challenges presented by manual processes. For example, finding the closest wheelchair in a hospital or tracing where exactly a batch of vaccines went above the temperature threshold.
The availability of ultra-low power, cost-effective IoT devices is helping drive the growth of track and trace solutions. Low power, wide area networks (LPWAN) have emerged as a solution for many of these use cases as real-time location requirements are swapped for multi-year battery life. These networks are well-suited for asset management with their ability to transfer data across long distances while consuming minimal power.
Geolocation solutions such as Semtech’s LoRa Edge™ provide real-time indoor and outdoor location management for organizations that transport assets that pass through indoor locations such as factories and warehouses. Coupled with LPWAN, IoT-enabled devices with both indoor & outdoor geolocation capabilities can locate, track, and monitor physical assets throughout their lifecycle.
IoT-Enabled Track and Trace Services with LoRa Cloud™ Geolocation
Long range, low power (LoRa®) technology is one of the most widely adopted LPWANs, as it permits long-range connectivity for devices in rural, remote, and offshore areas.
Semtech recently partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to license its LoRa Cloud GNSS geolocation services to allow the AWS developer community to build cloud services that interoperate with LoRaWAN®-enabled IoT devices. This allows customers to create single experience asset tracking solutions using both LoRa Edge devices and the AWS cloud. The service, AWS IoT Core Device Location, is available across seven regions with AWS IoT Core.
The combination of the LoRaWAN and AWS technologies enables readily-available, scalable, low-power tracking solutions, and can leverage LoRaWAN-enabled private networks and global public terrestrial and satellite networks for always-on service.
With long-lasting battery lives of up to 10 years, businesses can transform data derived from the sensor into actionable insights.
Growth in IoT-Based Asset Tracking
Adoption of IoT devices will continue to grow at a fast pace alongside IoT-based analytics applications and 5G. According to Statista, there will be roughly 29 billion connected IoT devices by 2030. Satellite and geolocation will open the door to mass deployment of IoT devices, without the issues of traditional technologies such as long-distance coverage and real-time monitoring.
Many companies are breaking into the IoT-enabled satellite and geolocation market, and even more are collaborating to bring new solutions to market. In 2022, companies like T-Mobile, Starlink, and SpaceX collaborated to provide true global connectivity, and Wyld and TrakAssure partnered on an IoT-based satellite connectivity solution.
Looking ahead, IoT-enabled track and trace solutions with geolocation and satellite capabilities will be pivotal to ensuring the wellbeing of assets, goods, equipment, and even people for secure, quality performance and customer satisfaction.
