Teltonika Mesh Indoor Tracking with GpsGate
GPS doesn't work well indoors. Signals can't penetrate walls and ceilings reliably, making traditional GPS tracking unsuitable for warehouses, factories, hospitals, shopping centres, and similar enclosed spaces.
Teltonika's EYE Beacon Mesh and EYE Sensor Mesh solve this problem. These small, battery-powered devices communicate with each other and with fixed anchor points installed around your facility. By measuring the signal strength between beacons and anchors, the system can calculate where a beacon — and the asset or person carrying it — is located, and display that position live in GpsGate.
This article explains how the system works with GpsGate and what is involved in setting it up.
How It Works
The Teltonika mesh beacon system is built on Wirepas mesh networking technology. Here is how the pieces fit together:
- EYE Beacons or EYE Sensors are attached to the assets or people you want to track. They are small, wireless, and battery-powered.
- Anchor nodes are fixed devices installed at known positions throughout your building — on columns, walls, or ceilings. They act as reference points.
- Beacons constantly broadcast their presence. Nearby anchors pick up these signals and measure their strength.
- A gateway collects all of this data from the mesh network and sends it to a backend system over the internet or your local network.
- GpsGate displays the beacons as assets on a live indoor map, just like any other tracked device.
Battery Monitoring
In addition to location data, the JSON messages sent by the gateway include the battery voltage of each beacon. This means your positioning application can also read and forward the battery level to GpsGate alongside the position fix.
This is useful for large deployments where manually checking beacon batteries is impractical. You can set up alerts in GpsGate to notify you when a beacon's voltage drops below a threshold, so you can replace batteries before a device goes offline.
What You Need
Before setting up the system, make sure you have the following components in place:
| Component | Details |
|---|---|
| Teltonika Hardware | EYE Beacon Mesh or EYE Sensor Mesh devices (the tags you will track), anchor nodes, and a Teltonika gateway. |
| Anchor Locations | GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) for every anchor installed in your facility. These are needed for accurate positioning. Note: the anchors should be installed to the ceiling facing downwards. |
| MQTT Broker | A message broker service on your local network or server. This receives data from the gateway. Common options include Mosquitto or HiveMQ. |
| ESRI webmap with indoor floor plan | Want to display beacons on your own floor plan? Create an ESRI web map using your floor plan image, then add the ESRI web map as a map layer in GpsGate. |
| GpsGate Server | A running GpsGate installation (cloud or on-premise) where your indoor assets will be displayed. |
Setting It Up
The setup process involves both hardware installation and software configuration. Here is an overview of the main steps:
Mount the gateway and anchor nodes throughout your facility. Anchors should be spread out to give good coverage of the area you want to track. Once installed, record the exact GPS coordinates of each anchor — you will need these later.
The gateway sends all beacon data to an MQTT broker. This can run on a server in your local network or in the cloud, as long as the gateway can reach it. The broker acts as the data collection point for your positioning application.
In the gateway settings, point it to your MQTT broker and set the output format to JSON. The gateway will then start publishing beacon measurement data — including position signals and battery voltage — to the broker automatically.
With GpsGate Teltonika plugin, it can subscribe the position messages from MQTT. The Beacon ID is used as the device identifier so GpsGate knows which asset the data belongs to.
For each beacon you want to track, create a new device in GpsGate. Use the Beacon ID as the IMEI and select GpsGate Generic Device as the device type. Once created, the asset will start showing its position and battery level on the map as soon as data arrives.
What to Expect
Once the system is running, each EYE Beacon will appear as a tracked asset in GpsGate, just like a vehicle or other GPS device. You can view its current position, monitor battery levels, set up alerts, and use all the standard GpsGate features.
Positioning accuracy depends on the number and placement of anchors. The more anchors that are visible to a beacon at any given time, the more accurate the position estimate. In a well-installed system with good anchor coverage, indoor accuracy of a few metres is achievable.
The system works well in challenging environments such as multi-floor buildings, underground facilities, and areas with thick concrete walls where GPS cannot penetrate.