Nordic Semi backs low power cellular standards for IoT

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

In a major boost to the future of cellular connection for the Internet of Things, one of the most innovative chip suppliers is backing the new LTE-M and LTE-NB standards.

Nordic Semiconductor is already a leading provider of ultra-low power wireless chips for stadnards such as Bluetooth with ten years of experience. It is developing a low power LTE technology for cellular IoT, recruiting an experienced group of cellular R&D engineers in Finland who were formerly employed by the Finnish arms of Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Broadcom.

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“Looking almost two years back we spotted a unique opportunity: the emergence of low power LTE technologies and at the same time the recruitment opportunity of a pool of talented and experienced cellular engineers in Finland,” said Svein-Egil Nielsen, CTO of Nordic Semiconductor. “In wireless, LTE is about as complex and specialized as it gets. There is probably only a handful of teams in the world with the capability and track record to develop and deploy such a technology. We have one of those teams and as a company our objective is to shape the future of low power cellular IoT in the exactly the same way we did for ultra-low power wireless and Bluetooth low energy.”

Nordic expects to sample the first nRF91 Series solutions to selected lead customers second half of 2017, and it will be very interesting to see the design tradeoffs they make. Broad availability and production ramp will follow in 2018.

Low power cellular IoT is positioning itself to be widely adopted in numerous markets and applications including, for example, smart utility metering, asset and people (e.g. child) tracking, fleet management, buildings security and safety, remote maintenance, smart vending machines, retail, healthcare and medical monitoring, real-time traffic monitoring, wearables, in-door and out-door GPS navigation, smart home technology, automotive (for customized insurance based on actual driving data), and industrial and agricultural automation.

Nordic Semiconductor’s roadmap includes highly integrated chipsets and advanced software for the forthcoming 3GPP Release 13 LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular technologies. Highly optimized for power and size, the upcoming Nordic Semiconductor nRF91 Series is designed specifically to address the needs of emerging low power cellular IoT applications, including long battery life, low cost deployment and maintenance, scalability for potentially billions of devices, a miniaturized form-factor that can fit almost anywhere, and ubiquitous network coverage.

LTE-M and NB-IoT are specified by the 3GPP to provide low power, secure, reliable, future-proofed, open standard and interoperable cellular connectivity for cost, size, and power-constrained IoT applications. The two technologies are set to drive breadth and growth for the emerging cellular IoT market projected to surpass 1.5 billion connections by 2021. Nordic expects broad coverage for the technologies in the 2018-2019 timeframe, with initial coverage starting in 2017.

Complementing Nordic’s industry-leading product range and roadmap for short-range ULP wireless semiconductor technology, the expanded product roadmap for long-range, low power wireless is part of the company's strategy to target new high growth markets with its proven wireless connectivity and embedded processing technology, and extensive R&D expertise.

“We are very excited to unveil our roadmap for cellular IoT,” said Svenn-Tore Larsen, CEO of Nordic Semiconductor. “The combination of our ultra-low power wireless DNA and unique cellular expertise in Finland puts Nordic in a strong position to drive and fuel the market for low power cellular IoT. For us this roadmap is about taking Nordic Semiconductor as a company to the next level by providing scale for our technology, and on-going organizational and R&D investments.”

“We believe that the cellular IoT market is still in its infancy and that the new low power LTE technology variants will drive a massive growth curve in many ways similar to what Bluetooth low energy is doing for short-range wireless,” adds Thomas Embla Bonnerud, Director of Product Management with Nordic Semiconductor. “Some years down the road this market is going to look very, very different compared to how it looks today. That is what the Nordic Semiconductor nRF91 Series is all about: a new and different solution for a new and different market.”

www.nordicsemi.com

Weightless and ETSI partner on low cost wireless standards for IoT

By Nick Flaherty www.flaherty.co.uk

One of the promising narrowband wireless protocols for the Internet of Things, Weightless, is moving towards an international standard.

The Weightless SIG is partnering with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), and a key ultra narrow-band (UNB) LPWAN technology and applications provider, Telensa, is to the board of the Weightless SIG.

In a move widely acknowledged to bring much needed consolidation to the LPWAN space the Weightless SIG will immediately offer its Weightless-N standards activities into the ETSI LTN initiative within TG28, ensuring that all those interested in UNB solutions are represented in a single forum.

This is the first step on standardisation and the move is supported by several other UNB technology companies (announcements to come). Weightless is supported by Neul which in September 2014 was acquired by Huawei.

ETSI is a globally accepted standards development organisation within which the Low Throughput Network (LTN) initiative is developing a standard for LPWAN. This initiative is supported by a number of significant companies including Telensa and Sigfox. ETSI LTN is concentrating on a UNB standard.

There are only two standards bodies that have developed IoT specific standards for unlicensed spectrum based on UNB technology – ETSI and the Weightless SIG.

“In order to reduce fragmentation and enable critical mass in the marketplace we are bringing these two initiatives together, immediately reducing fragmentation and providing a platform around which industry can coalesce,” said Weightless CEO, Professor William Webb. 

Telensa's vertical smart city solutions include smart street lighting, where it now has a footprint of over 1 million lights across the world. Telensa's solutions are based on its own 2-way UNB technology, which it has been progressing to a standard with ETSI for the past 2 years.

"Proprietary ecosystems are no substitute for credible open standards when real market velocity is required, said Will Gibson, CEO of Telensa. "That's why we're delighted to be extending our ETSI standards work by joining the board of Weightless. This partnership signals a growing maturity in the LPWA market and will liberate a new wave of smart city sensor and application developers.”

Low Power Wide Area networks are set to become an integral building block for a variety of connected products and services. Deploying such networks also in unlicensed spectrum is critical to ensuring that the market for IoT connectivity will remain sufficiently competitive. The initiative is important, because it can open up a whole new level of scale benefits to players that are driving the unlicensed networks forward.

Weightless will focus on certification, the eco-system development, marketing and information dissemination and other relevant activities to aid the widespread success of the ETSI standards. It is part of a series of moves by the Weightless SIG to bring consolidation and order to the IoT connectivity technology space.


weightless.org
telensa.com