The Dutch telecom provider KPN completed a nationwide LoRaWAN network early last summer. They're now rolling about geolocation services. According to a user on the ThingsNetwork forums: -------------- you can't get a LoRa KPN abo from KPN themselves, the provider SIMpoint is delivering this for them. I got the following info from SIMpoint: LoRa with Geolocation: (costs per year) Bundels Uplinks Downlinks Price Often 36500 3650 € 15,30 Mostly 109500 900 € 17,75 I will probably need the 'often option', I have 36500 uplinks a year with this option, that is 100 a day so more than needed. https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/forum/t/looking-for-a-lorawan-board-only-geolocation/4419/9
======================== And, at least according to their public pronouncements thus far, the ThingsNetwork via their first generation, soon-to-be-released kickstarter gateways won't support geolocation based on high resolution timestamping done at the gateways of messages from nodes. However, as of this exchange on their forum last September: Johan: "Also, we're going to support localization using WiFi BSSIDs, also known as the MAC addresses of the access points nearby, directly in the Handler for a seamless application developer experience. The idea is that your devices briefly scan WiFi access points using cheap WiFi chips (e.g. $5 ESP8266), packs it as LoRaWAN uplink message and sends it to a special port for the Handler to pick it up, decode it and lookup the location. This is not as low power as LoRa triangulation, but consumes less power than GPS and is quite accurate in urban areas (where LoRa triangulation is really bad still). ----- hoonppark: Regarding the localization using WiFi BSSIDs, I have a few questions as follows: What would be the accuracy? For example, it would be accurate within 20 meters or 50 meters range ? Does it need just one WiFi BSSIDs, or at least three WiFi BSSIDs to work? What happens if there is no WiFi access point near by? Does the Handler calculate the location of the node? Or, does each application need to calculate the location of the nodes? According to the roadmap, it will be available in Q4 of 2016. Will it be available by Dec. 31, 2016? You mentioned "LoRa triangulation is really bad still". Do you mean it is still bad even with the Semtech’s LoRa Geolocation Solution announced on June 30, 20161? Do you think this WiFi BSSID-based localization is better or comparable to the publicly announced 'CSEM's LoRa-based GPS-free Positioning Solution2'? ----------- johanLeaderSep '16 @hoonppark; here are the answers: That depends on various factors, see here <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_positioning_system>. From our testing so far using Google Localization API, we're close to 10-20 meters in the center of Amsterdam More BSSIDs makes it more accurate, but costs payload. That's the trade-off application developers need to make Then you need to fallback on another way of localization. We are sending the gateway's coordinates in the metadata The Handler does that for you. Note that depending on the database we're going to use, we may need an API key of even a subscription for this Yes Yes It's better in the sense that it will be more accurate in cities, but not better in terms of power consumption. They positioning is just standard LoRa triangulation; no extra magic =========== Tangentially, another user posted a link to: EspWiFiTracker https://revspace.nl/EspWifiTracker - Stephen Ronan _______________________________________________ Hardwarehacking mailing list Hardwarehacking@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/hardwarehacking