Cellular IoT (LTE-M and NB-IoT)
Enabling a world of everything connected
The nRF9161 SiP and DK are now available for developers creating innovative, low power cellular IoT and DECT NR+ applications
The nRF9161 SiP is a fully integrated, pre-certified SiP, supporting 3GPP release 14, and is the first device in the nRF91 Series to support DECT NR+, a revolutionary non-cellular 5G technology.
Nordic Semiconductor announces the availability of the nRF9161 SiP and its associated nRF9161 Development Kit (DK). The nRF9161 offers a fully complete IoT and non-cellular 5G solution, including hardware with integrated programmable application processor, software, cloud services, development tools and world-class support, simplifying the development and deployment of scalable products.
Based on the widely deployed and market-proven nRF9160, the nRF9161 offers the same unrivaled low power consumption, extending the product battery life, and brings support for additional bands B65 and B85 to improve the global coverage.
Power Saving (PSM) for roaming devices is a game-changing feature for global cellular IoT deployments. It enables PSM-like sleep mode even in network environments where normal PSM usage is not supported, which may be limited on some roaming SIM cards, further extending battery life for cellular applications that move across various regions.
It also brings improved location tracking features, providing you with different blends of low power and accuracy. The nRF9161 also pairs well with the recently announced nRF7000 Wi-Fi companion IC for SSID-based locationing.
For NB-IoT it brings enhanced mobility support so that devices can move in between base stations with less disruption and without a heavy penalty on power consumption. In contrast, it also supports reduced mobility for NB-IoT, to ensure static devices stay connected to the same base station, to prevent switching to base stations further away if there is a momentary signal degradation, which would increase the power consumption.
Based on the widely deployed and market-proven nRF9160, the nRF9161 offers the same unrivaled low power consumption, extending the product battery life, and brings support for additional bands B65 and B85 to improve the global coverage.
New modem firmware with unique features
The nRF9161 supports version 2 of the modem firmware which brings new features that further improve power consumption and robustness of cellular IoT applications.Power Saving (PSM) for roaming devices is a game-changing feature for global cellular IoT deployments. It enables PSM-like sleep mode even in network environments where normal PSM usage is not supported, which may be limited on some roaming SIM cards, further extending battery life for cellular applications that move across various regions.
It also brings improved location tracking features, providing you with different blends of low power and accuracy. The nRF9161 also pairs well with the recently announced nRF7000 Wi-Fi companion IC for SSID-based locationing.
For NB-IoT it brings enhanced mobility support so that devices can move in between base stations with less disruption and without a heavy penalty on power consumption. In contrast, it also supports reduced mobility for NB-IoT, to ensure static devices stay connected to the same base station, to prevent switching to base stations further away if there is a momentary signal degradation, which would increase the power consumption.
Streamlined development with nRF Connect SDK and Nordic Developer Academy
Development with the new SiP is through Nordic’s unified and scalable nRF Connect SDK (Software Development Kit). The nRF Connect for VS Code extension gives the developer all the tools and features in Visual Studio Code for a fully-fledged Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The nRF Connect for Desktop also offers unique cellular IoT tools for optimizing power consumption and evaluating, monitoring, and debugging network connectivity.
To help developers get started, the cellular IoT Fundamentals course in the Nordic Developer Academy has full support for the nRF9161 DK, so that customers can fast-track their cellular IoT learning journey with Nordic’s self-paced hands-on online course.
