THE PROBLEMTrackers That Report a Few Times a Day and Last for Years
Plenty of assets do not need a position every thirty seconds. A shipping container, a returnable asset, a piece of remote equipment, or a cargo cage needs to report a few times a day, reach a server from deep inside metal or a basement, and do it for years without anyone changing a battery. A standard 4G tracker drains too fast and a coin cell will not carry it. This case is the target: the whole device is designed around a power budget that hits a multi-year life on the report rate you actually need.
A component of the broader Telematics and GPS Tracking capability, often deployed with Asset Tracking Solutions.
WHAT'S INCLUDED
The Full NB-IoT Tracker Stack
NB-IoT Hardware
The board is designed in Altium around a Quectel BC660 for NB-IoT-only assets or a BG95 where the asset also needs Cat-M1 and GNSS in one module. The design covers SIM or eSIM, antenna matching, and a power path built for a primary lithium cell.
PSM and eDRX Power Strategy
The modem stays in Power Saving Mode between reports so it draws microamps, with eDRX used where the asset needs to remain reachable for downlink. The firmware wakes on a schedule or a motion interrupt, reports, and returns to deep sleep.
GNSS with Cell-ID Fallback
A short GNSS fix is taken only at report time to protect the battery, with fallback to cell-ID and neighbour-cell data when a fix is slow indoors or shaded. The cloud resolves the cell data to an approximate location so the device always reports something useful.
Multi-Year Battery Design
The power budget is built from measured current in each state, the lithium primary cell sized for the target report rate and temperature range, and the result validated on the bench with current profiling so the multi-year figure holds in the field rather than only on paper.
Cloud Ingestion
An ingestion endpoint receives the small NB-IoT payloads over UDP, CoAP, or MQTT, decodes them, resolves cell-ID fixes, and stores positions and sensor data ready for your dashboard or a connected tracking platform.
Certification and Production
Scope covers carrier and regulatory certification, field trials on the target network, and design for volume manufacture, so the device moves from a working prototype to a production tracker on one team across the whole path.
TECHNICAL APPROACH
Every Microamp Accounted For
A multi-year tracker lives or dies on its power budget. The device is designed current state by current state, and the number is proven on the bench before anyone commits to a battery size.
Deep-Sleep Floor
Between reports the modem sits in PSM and the MCU in its lowest sleep state, with leakage paths designed out of the board. This deep-sleep floor sets the dominant term in the battery life, so it is driven down to microamps.
Fast Report Cycle
When the device wakes it must report quickly to limit the time at high current. The GNSS fix is tuned, network registration held efficiently, and the payload kept small so the radio is on for the shortest possible window each cycle.
Measured, Not Estimated
Real current draw is profiled across sleep, fix, registration, and transmit on the actual hardware, and the battery model is built from those numbers. Field trials on the target network confirm life and coverage before production.
FAQ
Common Questions
How is a multi-year battery life reached on a tracker?
Power budget is the whole design. The NB-IoT modem sits in PSM between reports so it draws microamps for most of the day, then wakes on a schedule or a motion interrupt, gets a quick fix, sends a small payload, and sleeps again. With a low daily report rate and a sized lithium primary cell, a three to five year life is well within reach depending on report frequency and temperature.
Why NB-IoT instead of Cat-M1 or a 4G tracker?
NB-IoT is built for exactly this: small, infrequent payloads from devices that must run for years and reach deep indoors, such as a tracker inside a metal container or a basement. It uses less power and penetrates buildings better than Cat-M1 or full LTE. The trade-off is low throughput and higher latency, which is fine for an asset that reports a few times a day. Where the asset moves and needs lower latency, a BG95 that does both NB-IoT and Cat-M1 fits.
How does location work without a constant GPS fix?
Running GNSS continuously would kill the battery, so a short fix is taken only when the device wakes to report. If a fix is slow because the asset is indoors or shaded, the device falls back to cell-ID and reported neighbour cells, which the cloud resolves to an approximate location. That keeps the device reporting even where GNSS cannot see the sky.
Can this go from prototype through to certified production?
Yes. The hardware is designed in Altium, the firmware written alongside it, the power budget proven on a bench with current profiling, and field trials run on the target network. Carrier and regulatory certification and design for volume manufacture are part of the scope, so the path from proof of concept to a production tracker stays on one team.
Ready to Build Your NB-IoT Tracker?
Share your asset, your report rate, and your target battery life to get a scoped hardware design, a power budget, and the path to a certified production device.
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