Asset Tracking – What about transmission technologies?
When choosing a tracking system, another important topic is the data transmission technology. You probably know about GPS, Bluetooth, 2G and 4G. But what about more recent technologies such as LoRa, SigFox, LTE-M or NB-IoT?
Depending on what is available in the regions that your assets will move, the necessary accuracy of the position and the longevity of the technology (trends come and go…), you’ll choose a combination of data transmission methods.
Bluetooth – BLE
When working indoors or on a limited location (e.g. construction site), short range technologies in combination with gateways will be interesting as they can provide a more exact location and consume less energy. Sometimes it is also interesting & economical to think about tagging your assets instead of placing a tracker on them.
2G/4G
Then you have technologies that are interesting for specific regions that use SIM-based solutions like 2G and 4G. These are used in combination with a GPS and can provide a very accurate position but are limited to the telecom network of the SIM card provider.
IoT: Sigfox and LoRa
For international or more independent tracking, modern IoT technologies are the way to go. SigFox & LoRa are currently the most established ones and can cover almost every location worldwide. They don’t provide much accuracy on their own, though (up to 1 km usually). That’s why they are often used in combination with a GPS to get a more specific location.
LTE-M
Lastly, there are the ‘avant garde’ technologies. LTE-M & NB-IoT are 2 of the newest IoT network methods. In most regions they aren’t available yet, so investing in them now will mean that you must wait until the actual signal is there. BUT, it can be smart to invest in trackers that are for example ‘LTE-M ready’. This means that they have everything needed to use this new data transmission method when available, but until then they can use another technology like 2G or 4G. In the long run, you won’t need to change your trackers when e.g. 2G or SigFox aren’t in the market anymore.
Did you know?
Suivo is part of the 50 fastest growing tech companies in Belgium. The Technology Fast 50, a prestigious ranking by Deloitte, is based on the sales growth in terms of percentage from the last 4 years. This nomination is partially thanks to our product focus on IoT and SaaS. On the other hand our creative and involved team, together with our loyal customers have made this great achievement possible.
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