Product Roadmap for Low-Power Cellular IoT Unveiled

Nordic Semiconductor (Country Manager for Korea: Choi Soo-chul) announced that it is developing low-power LTE technology for the cellular IoT (Internet of Things).

This development project incorporates the leadership Nordic Semiconductor has built over more than 10 years in the field of Ultra-Low Power (ULP) wireless technology, as well as the outstanding technical capabilities and expertise of a newly recruited Finnish cellular R&D engineering group (composed of former employees from Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Broadcom).

Low-power cellular IoT is expected to spread widely across numerous markets and application fields. For example, applications are very diverse, including smart utility metering, asset and people (such as children) tracking, vehicle management, building security and safety, remote management, smart vending machines, retail, healthcare, medical monitoring, real-time traffic monitoring, wearables, indoor/outdoor GPS navigation, smart home technology, automotive (e.g., customized insurance based on actual driving data), and industrial and agricultural automation.

Nordic Semiconductor's roadmap for cellular IoT includes highly integrated chipsets and advanced software that support the upcoming 3GPP Release 13 (Release 13) LTE-M and NB-IoT. Highly optimized for power and size, Nordic Semiconductor's new nRF91 series is specifically designed for emerging low-power cellular IoT applications. It enables ubiquitous network coverage and offers long battery life, low deployment and maintenance costs, scalability to billions of devices, and an ultra-small form factor for application in almost any field.

Nordic expects that samples of the nRF91 series solution will be adopted by key customers in the second half of 2017, and anticipates that mass supply and production will begin in 2018.

LTE-M and NB-IoT are low-power, secure, reliable, and future-proof open standards defined by 3GPP for IoT applications where cost, size, and power are limited, and they are interoperable with cellular access technologies. These two technologies are expected to serve as drivers for the expansion and growth of the new cellular IoT market, where more than 1.5 billion devices are projected to be connected by 2021. Nordic expects these technologies to begin being applied for the first time in 2017 and to expand widely between 2018 and 2019.

Long-range, low-power wireless technology, which complements Nordic’s leading product portfolio and roadmap for short-range wireless semiconductor technology, is being pursued as part of the company’s strategy to target new high-growth markets based on its proven wireless technology, embedded processing technology, and extensive R&D expertise.

Nordic Semiconductor CEO Svenn-Tore Larsen said, “We are very pleased to unveil Nordic’s roadmap for cellular IoT,” and added, “By combining our ultra-low-power wireless DNA with Finland’s unrivaled cellular expertise, Nordic has secured the engine power for the low-power cellular IoT market and established a strong position.” “Through this roadmap, Nordic Semiconductor will supply products based on expanded technology and be reborn as a more advanced company of a new dimension through continuous organizational and R&D investments,” the company stated.

Thomas Embla Bonnerud, Director of Product Management at Nordic Semiconductor, stated, “Although the cellular IoT market is still in its early stages, new low-power LTE technology, much like Bluetooth® Low Energy for short-range wireless, will soon experience massive growth across various sectors.” He further explained, “Over the next few years, this market will evolve into something very different from what it is today. Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF91 series is a new and differentiated solution for this new market.”

Svein-Egil Nielsen, CTO of Nordic Semiconductor, stated, “About two years ago, we discovered new possibilities with the emergence of low-power LTE technology and simultaneously hired outstanding cellular engineering talent from Finland.” He added, “LTE is a highly complex and specialized technology within the wireless field. There are likely only a handful of development teams worldwide with the capability and experience to develop and deploy such technology. We possess such a team, and our company’s goal is to build the future of the low-power cellular IoT market in the same way we have achieved in the fields of ultra-low-power wireless and Bluetooth Low Energy.”