hellaPHY Location from PHY Wireless enables new location-based applications and services by dramatically extending device battery life.
To achieve both data communications and positioning an existing Internet of Things (IoT) wireless device might use an LTE modem for data, GPS for outdoor location, and WiFi for indoor location. An IoT device with hellaPHY Location software eliminates the need for GPS and WiFi.
Instead, positioning is performed using existing LTE/5G signals. The reduction of components reduces cost, shrinks device size, and improves battery life, while edge computing minimizes data and provides maximum privacy and security.
hellaPHY Location thus brings the power and scale of 4G/5G cellular networks to the problem of the Location of Things (LoT). This offers an effective, low-cost solution for IoT applications.
hellaPHY Location leverages existing downlink positioning reference signals (PRS) as standardized by 3GPP Release 9. These terrestrial signals are typically 50dB more powerful than satellite GPS signals, offering a fast and efficient positioning fix for both indoor and outdoor applications.
hellaPHY Location requires minimal interaction with the network, reducing congestion, maximizing spectrum utilization and extending the battery life of the device. It performs cell time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation and position estimation on the device with advanced algorithms designed to combat degrading effects of multipath and interference found in cellular environments. Supporting the hellaPHY location protocol on the device is simple. It runs on an ARM™ processor, requiring only 6MHz of CPU bandwidth during a positioning session. The memory required is less than 100kB, and that is 1% to 2% the requirement for the standard LPP/SUPL protocol.
hellaPHY performs a position fix quickly consuming minimal power. The cumulative effects have a dramatic impact on battery life as seen in Figure 2. In a geofencing application, a GPS based device is expected to have a battery life of 14.7 days, while a device using cloud-based cellular positioning extends the battery life to 19.5 days. The battery life of the hellaPHY device is increased dramatically to 4 years: 100x better than the GPS device. For a breadcrumbing use case the hellaPHY device has a 67x gain over the GPS device with an 8 year battery life. This dramatic improvement to battery life enables new location-based applications and services.
