I'd guess that it would take more energy to send all of the samples to a central server over an IoT network (which are optimized for infrequent, very small messages) than to calculate a position fix locally.

Maybe it might be worth it for a complete "from scratch" GPS fix (where the receiver needs to figure out where it approximately is and needs to re-download the complete GPS almanach and ephemerides), though – I have no idea how short a server-side-decodeable sample actually is!

But since we're talking about a network-connected device anyway, I'd guess that downloading the ephemerides via the IoT connection (single-digit kilobytes) would be much more economical in that case too.

Maybe as an analogy, consider local vs. cloud QR code decoding: If you can manage to send a single, shart photo of the code, the cloud might be better, but since you can't actually be sure when the camera is pointed at the code and not moving, you might need to take a minute-long video, and look for the one non-blurry frame on the cloud.

Edit: Just saw the other comment – apparently we're talking about a short video moreso than a small JPEG :)

And here's an interesting research paper on the topic: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...