Asset tracking devices need GNSS technology that can deliver dependable location updates without excessive power consumption. Whether monitoring containers, trailers, goods on pallets, or other valuable assets, a battery-powered GNSS asset tracker must balance long battery life and superior first-fix accuracy across changing signal conditions.

The u-blox F11 platform is designed for these demands with ultra-low-power GNSS, long-interval tracking for autonomous position updates every few hours, device-based geofencing alarming, indoor detection, and offline processing in the cloud. The result is a low-power GNSS module for asset tracking that helps developers improve efficiency without compromising positioning quality.
 

The challenge

Battery-powered asset trackers need to operate for extended periods while delivering accurate position information when it matters most.

Key engineering challenges include:

• Extending battery life in compact asset tracking devices

• Providing accurate first-fix positioning after long sleep intervals of hours or days

• Detecting when assets transition between indoors and outdoors to use the right technology to locate it

• Recognizing asset movements with low system-level power consumption

• Maintaining GNSS accuracy in challenging environments and with small antennas

Recommended F11 family products

How u-blox’s F11 helps

Lower power consumption to achieve a position fix 

Most asset tracker work with the GNSS L1 band only, as it consumes less power than a L1/L5 dual band GNSS. F11 supports that use case, even if it is L1/L5 band capable.

Acquisition power consumption when starting up a GNSS is higher than for continuous tracking. As an asset tracker is only aiming to catch a first position after startup and get back to sleep, F11 runs at 40% lower power than previous generations.

Power saving with a faster time-to-first-fix

With AUTOSAVE, the receiver frequently saves the content of the RAM to a connected flash, so in case of a power down between updates, it recovers fast using preserved last position and orbit information.

Power saving during autonomous tracking 

Not every asset tracker needs to send continuous updates into the cloud. F11 supports data logging and data batching for autonomous operation without any host interaction to save tracked positions into RAM or on connected flash memory over a certain period of time. During that time, the host can sleep and when waking up sending the whole bata batch into the cloud.

Another way to save power is the long-interval tracking, also allowing the receiver to sleep between position fixes every few hours, but waking the host up after every position fix to process the data.

Power saving with geofencing

F11 supports geofencing with customized areas for autonomous tracking without host MCU interaction. The host gets notified/waken up in case the asset moves out or into a predefined area and helps reduce overall system activity in battery-sensitive designs.

GNSS indoor detection improves seamless positioning

When an asset moves indoors, like when a forklift moves a pallet into a warehouse, the GNSS performance naturally degrades. F11 can detect indoor/outdoor transitions and therefore supports the host system to decide which location technology to use. 

 

Use in action 

Imagine a battery-powered asset tracker attached to a railway car that moves between open yards, loading areas, and an indoor depot. The F11 provides up to 40% lower power when starting up, shortens the time-to-first-fix and better position accuracy using the AUTOSAVE feature. When it enters the depot, it detects indoor transition within seconds, so the host system deactivates the GNSS for power saving while receiving a signal from the known local Wifi network.

The result is longer battery runtime, lower integration effort for the customer and more trustworthy asset location updates.

Frequently asked questions