Connecting small things to the IoT proved challenging because smart devices employed different, non-interoperable technologies. Today, cellular IoT LPWANs are booming because they meet the need for long-range wireless connectivity between WLANs and the Cloud. The ITU-R has made NB-IoT and LTE-M key parts of the 5G standard ensuring continued development DECT NR+ meets all the technical requirements for massive IoT and is defined as a 5G technology. It allows engineers to build their own dense private mesh networks without the need for SIMs. Cellular IoT and DECT NR+ are ideal for high density IoT applications. Nordic Semiconductor is designing critical parts of this tech that’ll be used to connect billions of tomorrow’s smart devices.
Rapid evolution of cellular mobile communications changes human life
The development path from Bell Labs Advance Mobile Phone System (AMPS) cellular network to today’s 5G infrastructure has been characterized by major tech leaps. Each is represented by a ‘generation’; ‘1G’ of the late 1970s and early 80s was based on cellular mobile communications that used analog systems for calls but digital for backhaul. The all-digital 2G arrived in the early 1990s. Just before the turn of the century, 3G brought higher throughput to support the emergence of smartphones. 4G introduced the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard starting in 2009. 4G’s maximum throughput of 100 Mbps allowed it to support high-definition video. The 5G standard was introduced in 2016. The technology is directly competitive with fiber networks for Internet broadband and offers lower latency and improved spectral efficiency compared to previous generations. 5G is also the first mobile standard defined with massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) requirements in mind leading to massive IoT.
Massive IoT is the term coined to describe tomorrow’s network whereby billions and eventually trillions of small devices will be directly connected to the Internet. These ‘things’ are not the PCs, servers, smart TVs and smartphones consumers associate with the Internet. Rather they’re more likely to be compact, resources-constrained sensors and actuators lacking a human machine interface. Ericsson defines massive IoT applications as those “that are less latency sensitive and have relatively low throughput requirements, but require a huge volume of low cost, low energy consumption devices on a network with excellent coverage”. The company explains that the growing popularity of IoT use cases relying on connectivity spanning large areas, and able to handle a huge number of connections, is driving the demand for massive IoT.
Just a few years ago connecting small things to the IoT was difficult and relied on expensive and complex gateways. But today, we have an elegant solution in the form of cellular IoT, specifically the LPWAN options LTE-M and NB-IoT. Cellular IoT LPWANs are booming because they meet the need for energy-friendly, cost-effective, long-range wireless connectivity between WLANs and the Cloud.
The new version of cellular IoT specification promotes the development of IoT
High-throughput cellular technology is extremely complex and expensive, and the hardware is bulky and power hungry. For IoT engineers, high-throughput cellular technology’s high-cost, -complexity and -power consumption make it tough to build the networks of compact, battery-powered sensors that will form the IoT.
Yet, cellular modems—essentially stripped-down mobile handset modems—have found a niche for connecting expensive remote assets to the Cloud. For example, rural Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) used to control smart electricity distribution grids, routinely send information back to a control center via a cellular modem. And operators of commercial equipment like vending machines can use a cellular modem to send information back to HQ rather than dispatching a service operative to manually check stock.
But the modems that power these applications are unsuitable for the low power and resource-constrained devices that will make up the IoT. Instead, cellular IoT’s genesis can be found in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP)—a grouping of seven telecommunications standard development organizations—LTE specification Release 13. The specification defined a new low-complexity RF modem that supported the needs of LPWANs for the IoT.
When it was adopted in 2016, Release 13 specified three new technologies for LPWAN support: Extended Coverage GSM Internet of Things (EC-GSM-IoT), LTE-M and NB-IoT. It’s the latter two that have since had the greatest impact. LTE-M operates as a half- or full-duplex system featuring a bandwidth of 1.4 megahertz. The raw data throughput is 300 kilobits per second on the downlink and 375 kilobits per second on the uplink, providing approximately 100 kilobits per second both ways for an application running Internet Protocol (IP). Mobility is fully supported by the same cell handover as conventional LTE. In contrast, NB-IoT was primarily designed for energy efficiency and for better penetration into buildings and underground. The trade-off is a relatively modest throughput. NB-IoT is not based on the LTE physical layer (PHY); instead, it is a new type of RF technology with modem complexity even less than that of an LTE-M modem. NB-IoT uses a narrow 200 kilohertz bandwidth.
Since Release 13 in 2016, the specifications for cellular IoT have continued to evolve. For example, Release 14 introduced a second form of NB-IoT, CAT-NB2 which featured higher throughput, and introduced some advanced positioning technologies for NB-IoT. And Release 17 further increased throughput. Perhaps most importantly, while NB-IoT and LTE-M were initially developed as part of the 4G LTE standard, the 3GPP has made NB-IoT and LTE-M a key part of the 5G standard ensuring continued development as the network evolves.
The next phase of massive IoT growth will leverage these 5G networks. Engineers have been thinking ahead to predict what will be needed and have defined a future including ‘massive machine type communication’ (mMTC). It’s a future that sees the very large-scale installation of low-power wireless for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. Such technology will be designed for the deployment of up to one million devices per kilometer.
Highly integrated cellular IoT solution
Nordic Semiconductor launched its cellular IoT solution, the nRF9160, a low power SiP with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS, back in 2018. That made the company a pioneer in the emerging technology of cellular IoT and today it has built on that foundation to become the first to offer a fully inclusive, world-class, massive IoT solution. Nordic’s offering brings simplicity, stability and cost efficiency to cellular IoT design, manufacture and deployment.
If the IoT is to reach its promised potential, it will need a comprehensively engineered foundation. By introducing end-to-end support for cellular IoT, Nordic is among the leaders in helping its customers build IoT infrastructure that will last. But the company is only just getting started; its plan is to be a major designer and supplier of critical parts of the infrastructure we’ll use to connect billions of tomorrow’s smart devices for years to come.
Nordic used its time during the five year full global rollout of cellular IoT wisely. What it did was develop a platform solution from the ground up that was far ahead of its competitors: the nRF91 Series, starting with the nRF9160 LTE-M/NB-IoT SiP.
And while you can’t expect to run a cellular IoT product from something as small as a coin cell battery, you can expect to run it for extended periods of time from slightly larger regular batteries. The latest developments in battery technology could see cellular IoT applications operating for similar lengths of time as Bluetooth wireless tech. That means years in some use cases. And recent advances in energy harvesting hold the promise of extending these battery operating lifetimes to many years if not decades in the not-too-distant future.
Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP has since been joined by the two new powerful additions to the cellular IoT SiP range: the nRF9161 and nRF9131 LTE-M/NB-IoT and DECT NR+ (‘NR+’) solutions. These not only further redefine the disruptive commercial and technological possibilities of cellular IoT, they also introduce native NR+ support and capabilities to cellular IoT for the very first time.
Unlike traditional cellular, NR+ will not require a cellular base station to operate. It will operate as a private network using the global, license-exempt 1.9 GHz band requiring no frequency planning or spectrum leasing costs. But NR+ will be a state-of-the-art 5G technology that promises to deliver all the benefits of cellular at much lower cost. These include the seamless ability to scale globally to not just millions but billions of IoT nodes, with cellular’s legendary security and reliability.
NR+ is a pure-play IoT wireless technology that promises to deliver ultra reliable wireless connectivity in completely new M2M applications where failure is not an option. Think autonomous self driving vehicles or high speed robots that operate alongside human factory or warehouse workers, for example. Or critical infrastructure in buildings, cities and utilities networks.
Support a variety of IoT technologies to meet different needs
To own the whole supply chain and meet customer demand, Nordic’s product offerings today have expanded into every major wireless IoT connectivity protocol and technology. This includes not just cellular IoT (NB-IoT and LTE-M) but also the newest massive IoT technology, DECT NR+, as well as low power Wi-Fi, Matter, Thread, Zigbee, Cloud and location services, PMICs and range extenders.
Nordic originally redefined the Bluetooth wireless connectivity market with the launch of its nRF51 Series. And now it is redefining what’s possible to do in cellular IoT with its leading-edge nRF91 Series. Nordic has a track record of being first-to-market with class-redefining wireless IoT connectivity products that leave its competitors scrambling to catch-up, while Nordic focuses on developing the next breakthrough. The company is also first to launch products featuring key upgrades to the various standard based IoT technologies it supports.
Most importantly for Nordic’s customers it means that if they specify a Nordic solution into one of their products the device will be capable enough to cope with several future generation upgrades. Such future proofing can not only yield significant cost savings but also deliver time-to-market competitive advantages.
Conclusion
The IoT is going to play a major role in solving some of the planet’s biggest problems not least of which are climate change, sustainable consumption, conserving precious natural resources, improving health outcomes and making the world a happier, safer, healthier place for all. It’s been a long-time coming, but 2024 could well be the year cellular IoT technology starts to become more mainstream. This means being installed in a wide range of products and forming the critical backbone that provides global connectivity to countless IoT applications.