Amsterdam, 6 July, 2016

RFI Engineering B.V., a prominent provider of smart technologies in a “Internet of Things” world announced today the general availability of their LoRa localisation software, the RFI Solver Software (RSS). The RFI Solver Software is the advanced LoRa feature to enable economic GPS-less localisation of LoRa sensors.

LoRa sensors are designed to operate with ultra-long battery life of 10 years or more. GPS receivers on the sensors consume far too much energy to provide continuous GPS tracking. The tracking feature therefore needs to be provided within the LoRa network itself. Rather than localising the sensors using GPS satellites, the localisation is achieved by correlating data from the surrounding LoRa gateways. The challenge is of course to find the right data and an accurate correlation technique. RFI Engineering has implemented a method to pinpoint a sensor by comparing the travelling time of messages from the sensor to the surrounding gateways. This so called called Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) technique has been implemented in the RFI Solver Software. TDoA techniques for ranging have been widely proposed as a necessary ingredient in localisation solutions for LoRa sensor networks. One of the main functions of the RFI solver software is therefore to process the received timestamps from the LoRa gateways into GPS coordinates (latitude, longitude and altitude) for each sensor.

“One of the really cool promises of LoRa technology is the ability to accurately pinpoint the location of a sensor. With our solver software this promise is now a reality. At RFI Engineering we are constantly innovating to improve the accuracy of our geo-localisation algorithms. Our goal is to become the world leader in localisation software. Today we can deliver amazing, next-generation localisation experience for LoRa sensors that allows enterprises to compete in this fast moving digital world.”

As one of the first customers RFI Engineering signed up “Het Internet Huis”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Het Internet Huis is providing rural areas in the Netherlands with fast Internet connectivity. In March 2016 the company launched SensorNetwerk Achterhoek, providing an agricultural LoRa sensor network in the east of the Netherlands. ”The aim of this LoRa network is stimulating innovation in the agricultural sector.” said Pieter Hoenderken, CTO at Het Internet Huis. “We really want to drive economic growth in the region and are offering access to the network to schools and students to develop their applications on top of it. Having localisation services available on the network helps in being at the forefront of IoT application development.”

The RFI Solver software is available as software component, to be installed alongside existing LoRaWAN server implementations as well as a hosted (SAAS) platform. For companies wanting to trial the RFI solver software there is the opportunity to sign up on the SAAS platform and locate their own LoRa sensors.

 

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