Location

Geolocation methods

Particle Location Services can use the following geolocation methods:

GNSS (GPS)

• Primary Method for Tracker devices
• High-precision (up to ~1.8 meters)
• Worst-case resolution can be up to ~500 meters in typical edge conditions

Wi-Fi geolocation

• Uses nearby Wi-Fi access point information and the Particle Geolocation service
• Typically high or medium accuracy (best case ~24 meters)
• Does not connect to the Wi-Fi access point; only passively collects public broadcast information

Cell tower scan

• Uses a database of cell tower identifiers
• Medium to low accuracy depending on the number of towers in the scan (could be 150 meters in good conditions or as poor as 10 km)
• Not supported on all cellular modems

Single cell tower geolocation

• Estimates the location from the single tower reported through device vitals
• Typically medium accuracy of ~1 km or more

IP-based geolocation

• Uses a device's public IP address to estimate approximate location
• Only used for Wi-Fi and Ethernet devices (not cellular)
• Typically low accuracy of ~5 km or more; can be quite coarse depending on the IP and service provider

Location fusion

Location fusion combines multiple geolocation methods to produce coordinates for a location, along with a circle of uncertainty.

For example, when using single cellular tower location, the device could be anywhere within the area served by that tower, which could be a circle several kilometers in diameter.

This is represented as high (GNSS, some Wi-Fi), medium (cellular tower scan), or low (single tower or IP) in the console.

Supported devices

Tracker devices

Tracker devices, including the Tracker One, Monitor One, and Tracker SoM include a built-in GNSS module, as well as supporting Wi-Fi and cell tower geolocation and location fusion, if a GNSS lock is not available.

The Tracker configuration determines how often to send loc events containing the GNSS and Wi-Fi information. These location events are processed by the Particle cloud and stored in the historical location database and also can be processed by integrations (such as webhooks), logic, or on-device using loc-enhanced.

Tracker One

Monitor One

Other devices

Non-tracker devices support geolocation in two different ways:

Device vitals location (other than Tracker)

Devices typically upload Device Vitals that includes information including the connected cellular tower information.

Device Vitals can be used to generate an approximate location of the device and is available on cellular, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet devices. On non-cellular devices, Device Vitals geolocation uses IP-address geolocation, so the location will not be precise.

On Sandbox and Basic plans, the Device Vitals location is updated once per week. On Enterprise plans, the location is updated on all Device Vitals updates.

loc events (other than Tracker)

On some plans, non-Tracker devices can upload loc events by using a software library or manually encoding the event JSON in the appropriate format.

For example, on M-SoM and B504 devices, the cellular modem also supports GNSS geolocation with an external antenna. On the M-SoM, Wi-Fi geolocation is also possible since it supports both cellular and Wi-Fi. This data can be formatted as a loc event and used with location fusion on some plans. Additional data operations charges may apply.

Non-Tracker devices with GNSS capabilities

M-SoM

B504

Non-Tracker devices without GNSS capabilities

It is also possible to use an external hardware GNSS to determine location, though you will likely need to generate your own loc events based on the hardware and library that you selected.

Supported plans

Sandbox

• Location via device vitals is refreshed once per week
• No location history is stored for non-Tracker devices
• Location fusion from loc events is supported for all devices
• For non-Tracker devices, loc events using location fusion (cellular or Wi-Fi geolocation) counts as 50 data operations

Basic

• Location via device vitals is refreshed once per week
• No location history is stored for non-Tracker devices
• Location Fusion from loc events is only supported for Tracker devices

Enterprise

• Location via device vitals is refreshed as often as new vitals are published
• 1 month of location history for Pro, 6 months for Pro Plus
• Supports full location fusion from loc events, including advanced geolocation for Tracker and non-Tracker devices
• For non-Tracker devices, loc events using location fusion (cellular or Wi-Fi geolocation) counts as 50 data operations

Plan summary

Location storage

Historical location data is stored for Tracker device on all plans. You must opt into location storage from the product settings page in the console.

On enterprise plans, you can opt into location storage for non-Tracker devices, as well.

Location storage must be enabled to use the map view in the console.