Semtech announced that Alibaba Cloud, the third largest public cloud services provider globally and cloud provider in the China market, has released a new Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled location tracker based on Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol.
Alibaba Cloud’s new “Beagle” tracker provides up to 2,000 meters of point-to-point location tracking indoor or outdoor, GPS-free. Built on Semtech’s SX1280 LoRa chipset, the tracker allows extensive geolocation functionality without relying on base stations, cellular networks, cloud services or internet connectivity. A complete Beagle tracking solution offers advantages for a range of applications, including personnel and asset management, small device loss, theft prevention, and enhanced pet and child monitoring.
Semtech’s LoRa devices are a widely adopted long-range, low-power solution for IoT that gives telecom companies, IoT application makers and system integrators the feature set necessary to deploy low-cost, interoperable IoT networks, gateways, sensors, module products, and IoT services worldwide.
IoT networks based on the LoRaWAN specification have been deployed in 100 countries and Semtech is a founding member of the LoRa Alliance, the fastest growing IoT Alliance for Low Power Wide Area Network applications.
“LoRaWAN’s extensive networking capabilities enable flexible geolocation tracking solutions for a nearly endless variety of applications, both in China and abroad.” said Wei Ku, vice president of Alibaba and General Manager of the IoT Business Unit of Alibaba Cloud. “Our tracker product, part of the Alibaba LinkWAN developer platform and complementing the LoRaWAN protocol with Semtech’s 2.4G LoRa chip, provides consistent geolocation data without requiring GPS, cellular or additional connectivity, simplifying deployment for those without much IoT experience.”
“The Beagle tracker, integrated with Semtech’s proven LoRa devices and the open LoRaWAN protocol, offers customers a flexible, easy-to-use solution to geolocation tracking,” said Marc Pegulu, vice president of IoT for Semtech’s wireless and sensing products Group. “The tracker deploys in less than a minute and delivers real-time and reliable geolocation data, allowing customers simplified access to their assets’ locations in real time. Enhanced coverage helps combat asset loss and theft, saving customers money.”
Last week, Semtech announced that itk, a French supplier of Internet of Things (IoT)-based smart agriculture applications, has developed a new cattle health monitoring solution based on Semtech’s LoRa devices. The FarmLife smart agriculture service and its LoRa-enabled sensors detect cattle estrus, drive improved nutrition and predict the onset of disease to help ranchers better monitor their herd.
Offering a flexible solution for the smart agriculture vertical, Semtech’s LoRa devices create applications that help minimize waste, maximize yield, reduce expenses, and offer farms and ranches an opportunity to operate as efficiently as possible. itk’s LoRa-based sensors deploy simply through a collar equipped to each animal. The collar is non-invasive and immediately begins reporting data on the cow’s health upon deployment.
Ranchers monitor their herd from this LoRa-based device, which provides the benefits of four value added services: Heat’Live for heat detection, Feed’Live for nutrition optimization, Time’Live for animal welfare, and Vel’Live for calving detection. These services are available through itk’s FarmLife Cloud platform. In total, deploying itk’s solution costs less than 30 euros per animal annually.
