Low power cellular IoT technology forms key part of IoT infrastructure

Nordic Semiconductor are developing a low power LTE technology for cellular IoT. 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 tracking, fleet management, buildings security and safety, remote maintenance, smart vending machines, retail, healthcare and medical monitoring, real-time traffic monitoring, wearables, indoor and outdoor GPS navigation, smart home technology, automotive, and industrial and agricultural automation. Their roadmap for low power cellular IoT includes highly integrated chipsets and advanced software for the forthcoming 3GPP Release 13 LTE-M and NB-IoT cellular technologies. Highly optimised for power and size, the upcoming 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 miniaturised form-factor that can fit almost anywhere, and ubiquitous network coverage. "We are very excited to unveil our roadmap for cellular IoT," says 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 organisational 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." "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," comments Svein-Egil Nielsen, CTO of Nordic Semiconductor. "In wireless, LTE is about as complex and specialised 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."