RTK-over-LoRaWAN: high-precision positioning service for low-power IoT devices

Journal
IEEE internet of things journal  
Citation
IEEE internet of things journal (in Press): (2025)
Publisher DOI
10.1109/JIOT.2025.3625877
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-105020426453
Publisher
IEEE
Centimeter-level positioning accuracy provided by real-time kinematic (RTK) systems can support emerging IoT applications that require high-resolution spatial monitoring and precise geo-referenced sensor reporting. However, the high data rate requirements of traditional RTK protocols prevent their use in IoT networks with limited communication capacity and regulatory transmission constraints, such as LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network). We propose an RTK-over-LoRaWAN architecture that significantly reduces the data volume required for RTK positioning through adaptive RTCM scheduling. We conduct extensive field experiments with baseline distances up to 10km to validate that our method maintains centimeter-level accuracy under sparse RTCM delivery. The results show that RTK initialization requires only 500 B to 1000 B of total downlink payload, while extended RTK tracking is sustained with an effective downlink throughput below 15 B/s, reducing data requirements to under 5% compared to conventional RTK implementations. Our approach meets regulatory constraints such as those defined for the EU868 region, achieving duty cycles well below 1% per hour and enabling the practical deployment of RTK-based positioning in LoRaWAN networks.
DDC Class
600: Technology