LORA WAN BASED GPS
TRACKING SYSTEM
Problem Statement
The main objective of the proposed system is to reduced the cost
and complexity by using LoRa WAN instead of deploying
traditional GPS trackers with GSM/GPRS modules.
Goals & Objectives
■ To reduce the service and maintenance cost by using LoRa.
■ To design and develop an android, iOS and Web application
for real-time asset tracking.
■ To develop a system that assure extra safety for asset by
tracking asset in realtime.
Introduction
■ Semtechs LoRa (Long Range) technology is a wireless networking technology
specifically developed for IoT devices.
■ LoRaWAN is an LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) based on LoRa.
■ LoRaWAN uses the license-free band of spectrum and compared to other
network protocols working in this band such as BLE and Wi-Fi, it has a
significantly high range which in turn result in less number of gateways.
■ The long-range feature of LoRaWAN is accompanied by other benefits like
Low power and high robustness towards narrow band noise interference.
■ Due to all these reasons, LoRaWAN is a great option for building Wireless
Sensor Network (WSN) for tracking system.
Proposed Architecture
Methodology
The components of the proposed system are:
■ 1) Transmitter node: It consists of a GPS module, a microcontroller, and a LoRa module. GPS sends
data to the microcontroller. The microcontroller then extracts relevant information from the data and
sends it to the gateway.
■ 2) Gateway: When Transmitter node sends the data, it can be received by all the gateways in its range.
Every gateway that receives the data timestamps it by adding the information of current time to the
data and stores it in the cloud database.
■ 3) Cloud Database: It is a database that stores the information forwarded by the gateways. It does not
perform any operation on the data unless such an operation is commanded externally through a server
or the admin
■ 4) Android Application: It is the user-friendly application running on the users Android device. It
enables the user to access data, such as the current position of an asset. The application also enables
the user to visualize the position of the asset on a google map.
Project Features
■ Sensing Parameter- Location
■ Low Powered and Battery Operated – 2200mAh Li-ons
■ Store data on Amazon AWS
■ Visualization and monitoring on Web, Android App and iOS
App, Email and Text messages.
■ Fully Wireless and no direct internet connectivity required.
Hardware required
■ Controller – ESP32
■ Sensor – GPS (Neo-6-m)
■ Power Supply (5v DC / Lion Battery)
■ Other – LCD/OLED display, refrigerator
■ LoRa Module
Software required
■ Programming language – C/Python
■ Tool – PyCharm, Android Studio
■ Protocol – MQTT / HTTP
■ Cloud – Amazon AWS
■ Mobile APP – Flutter (Dart)
Module
Hardware used
Conclusion
LoRa is an emerging technology with a potential to replace GSM/GPRS along with other
technologies in the field of M2M (Machine-to-Machine) communication for IoT applications. In
this proposed system, a GPS tracking system based on LoRa was introduced along with
providing a guide for building custom gateway and server applications. The prototype consisted
of a transmitter node, which sends the GPS data to the gateway using SX1278 LoRa module. The
data was stored in a cloud database – DynamoDB on Amazon AWS. In addition to that, an
Android application with Google Maps APIs was built to visualize the current position of the
transmitter. Based on the evaluation of the tests performed on the prototype, it can be concluded
that such a LoRa based GPS tracking system can be implemented in a real-life environment.
References
1. Lozano, A.; Caridad, J.; De Paz, J.F.; Villarrubia González, G.; Bajo, J. Smart Waste Collection System with Low Consumption LoRaWAN
Nodes and Route Optimization. Sensors 2018, 18, 1465.
2. B. C. Fargas and M. N. Petersen, "GPS-free geolocation using LoRa in low-power WANs," 2017 Global Internet of Things Summit (GIoTS),
Geneva, 2017, pp. 1-6.
3. Kraemer, Frank & Ammar, Doreid & Bråten, Anders & Tamkittikhun, Nattachart & Palma, David, "Solar Energy Prediction for Constrained IoT
Nodes Based on Public Weather Forecasts," IoT 2017.
4. Andrzej Duda, Qasim Lone, Etienne Duble, Franck Rousseau, Ingrid Moerman, et al.. "WiSH-WalT: A Framework for Controllable and
Reproducible LoRa Testbeds" . IEEE PIMRC, Sep 2018, Bologna, Italy.
5. A. M. Yousuf, E. M. Rochester and M. Ghaderi, "A low-cost LoRaWAN testbed for IoT: Implementation and measurements," 2018 IEEE 4th
World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT), Singapore, 2018, pp. 361-366.
6. C. Garrido-Hidalgo, D. Hortelano, L. Roda-Sanchez, T. Olivares, M. C. Ruiz and V. Lopez, "IoT Heterogeneous Mesh Network Deployment for
Human-in-the-Loop Challenges Towards a Social and Sustainable Industry 4.0," in IEEE Access, vol. 6, pp. 28417-28437, 2018.
7. L. Singla and P. Bhatia, "GPS based bus tracking system," 2015 International Conference on Computer, Communication and Control (IC4),
Indore, 2015, pp.1-
8. A. Shingare, A. Pendole, N. Chaudhari, P. Deshpande and S. Sonavane, "GPS supported city bus tracking & smart ticketing system," 2015
International Conference on Green Computing and Internet of Things (ICGCIoT), Noida, 2015, pp. 93-98.
THANK Y U
