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Cattle Tracking Initiative

Strategic Technology Partnership Review


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Lierda

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The Core Vision

Infrastructure-Free Two-Tier Network

  • The Market Opportunity: Deploying across the Mercosur region's 250M+ cattle population.
  • Goal: Eliminate dependency on fixed towers or cellular networks in vast grazing areas.
  • Member Nodes (Ear-Tags): Deployed to 97% of the herd.
  • Leader Nodes (Collars): Deployed to 3% of the herd for Edge Processing.
  • Local Cow Network: Sub-GHz communication (Star or Mesh topology TBD).
  • Modular Add-on Connectivity: NB-IoT (terrestrial fallback) + NTN Satellite (Skylo preferred).

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Validated Starting Points: Lierda Hardware

Leveraging Existing Grazing Collars & Tags

### The FL-C004 (4G Collar) **Excellent Phase 1 Leader Node Candidate** * **Form Factor:** 135g with 8500mAh battery is perfect. * **Durability:** IP68 rating aligns with our rugged requirements. * **Connectivity:** 4G/NB-IoT is ideal for initial terrestrial testing before introducing NTN complexity. * **Next Step:** We need to integrate a **Sub-GHz receiver** into this platform to act as the Local Cluster Gateway.
### The FL-T001 / FL-T002 (Ear-Tags) **Ideal Mechanical Starting Point** * **Form Factor:** 10g - 16.5g is perfectly within our < 20g constraint. * **Sensors:** The accelerometer and ±0.1°C temperature precision exceed our requirements. * **The Challenge:** These tags rely on **BLE (200m range)**, which cannot support the extensive ranching distances (kilometers) required in South America.

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Technical Alignment: Network & Architecture

The Connectivity Gap & The Sub-GHz Solution

Migrating from BLE to Firefly LoRa Mesh

### The Requirement: Sub-GHz Mesh * **The Bottleneck:** The 200m BLE range of the FL-T001 is insufficient for extensive South American grazing (which requires kilometer-level reach). * **The Solution:** We must migrate the FL-T001 to a **Sub-GHz LoRa radio** running a robust mesh protocol, such as Lierda's **Firefly Ad Hoc Network Protocol**. **Leveraging Lierda's Firefly Capabilities:** * **Scale:** Supports up to 2000 nodes per cluster. * **Power:** Deep sleep of 1.6µA and rapid broadcast access ensures our 5-year battery target is met. * **Range:** Sub-GHz easily penetrates vegetation and achieves the required kilometer-level range. * **Hardware Implication:** We recognize that migrating from BLE to Sub-GHz will require re-evaluating the antenna footprint and potentially the internal PCBA layout of the FL-T001.
### Collaborative Co-Design * We are highly interested in Lierda's expertise here. * We want to openly discuss the optimal network topology (Star vs. Mesh) and how the Firefly protocol manages routing and power consumption under the hood. * Our goal is to leverage your proven RF experience to bridge the gap between intensive and extensive farming environments.

Firmware Scope & Edge Intelligence

Collaborative Software Delineation

### Lierda Scope (Base Firmware & Mesh) **Low-Level BSP & Communication Stacks** * **Mesh Network:** Full management of the Firefly Sub-GHz stack and node routing. * **Drivers:** GNSS, Flash Memory, and Power management. * **Connectivity:** Base cellular (NB-IoT) and eventual NTN satellite link integration.
### JAAB Scope (Application Logic) **High-Level Behavior & Intelligence** * **Co-Development Pathway:** We are interested in exploring "application-level" SDK access (e.g., C/C++ or Zephyr RTOS) so our team can write the application logic while relying on your base stack. * **Edge AI:** Behavioral modeling (grazing/walking/resting classification) via local inference. * **Telemetry & Cloud:** Direct data push to FluxRig (bypassing generic IoT platforms) and custom CBOR serialization.

Dual-Path Telemetry Protocol

Dynamic Routing based on Link Availability & Cost

### 1. Cellular Path (NB-IoT/4G) **Primary • High Bandwidth • Low Cost** * **Active:** When cellular coverage is available. * **Protocol:** NATS C-Client over TCP (integrating seamlessly with **[FluxRig](https://fluxrig.org)**). * **Security:** TLS 1.3 encryption. * **Telemetry:** High-res behavior analytics & real-time events. * **Management:** Full LwM2M and FOTA enabled. * **Payload:** Standard JSON or CBOR.
### 2. Satellite Path (NTN) **Fallback • Low Bandwidth • High Cost** * **Active:** Out of cellular range (Skylo NTN fallback). * **Protocol:** Raw UDP or CoAP (strictly connectionless). * **Security:** DTLS 1.2 with Connection ID (Pilot). OSCORE roadmapped for Production. * **Telemetry:** 4x daily batched GNSS/status + real-time critical alerts. * **Management:** Disabled (no remote configuration or FOTA). * **Payload:** Highly compressed custom bitmapped binary.

Storage Capacity Rationale (16MB)

Why do we require 8-16MB of Non-Volatile Memory on the FL-C004 Collar?

### 1. Data Buffering (Offline Caching) * **High Density:** 500 Ear-Tags reporting every 15 mins = 48,000 payloads/day. * **Daily Generation:** ~2.4 MB of raw data generated locally per day. * **Blind-Spot Requirement:** To prevent data loss during NTN satellite outages or extreme weather, the Collar must buffer at least **3 days** of herd data. * **Data Storage Need:** 3 days × 2.4 MB = **~7.2 MB**.
### 2. OTA Firmware Staging * **Safe Updates:** Dual-bank Over-The-Air (OTA) updates require dedicated storage. * **Images:** Space to safely download and verify new firmware and updated Edge AI models. * **OTA Storage Need:** **~2 to 4 MB**. ### Conclusion 7.2 MB (Data) + 4 MB (OTA) = **~11.2 MB**. *A standard **16MB (128Mbit) memory allocation** is the safe recommendation to support this architecture.*

Phase 1: Pilot Scope & Execution

### Proposed Volume & Deployment * **Ear-Tags (Member Nodes):** 100 units * **Collars (Leader Nodes):** 5 units * **Testing Gateways:** 5 Handheld / Backpack gateways ### Execution Logic * **Decoupled Testing:** Decouple software and RF testing from immediate mechanical constraints. * **Handheld Gateways:** Use modified FL-C004 hardware as handheld gateways to test the Sub-GHz Firefly range and density before animal mounting.
### Critical Validation Metrics 1. **Firefly Density:** Successfully aggregate 100 Ear-Tags transmitting concurrently over Sub-GHz without severe packet collision. 2. **Firefly Range:** Achieve reliable > 1km Line-of-Sight transmission from Tag to Collar. 3. **Application Logic:** Successfully trigger a "MISSING_ANIMAL" watchdog alert when a tag's heartbeat drops. 4. **Data Routing:** Successfully route the alert to the FluxRig cloud over NB-IoT.

Next Steps & Discussion Points

  1. Hardware Customization: Discuss the feasibility and NRE timeline for swapping the BLE radio in the FL-T001 for a Sub-GHz Firefly transceiver.
  2. Firmware Access: Explore how Lierda can support JAAB's need for "application-level" SDK access to inject custom TinyML and telemetry logic.
  3. October Ear-Tag Release: Review the preliminary specifications for the new ear-tag planned for October to align our long-term roadmap.
  4. Cloud Routing: Confirm the technical pathway for the FL-C004 gateway to push data directly to the JAAB FluxRig cloud platform.