The Future of Wireless Modules

The Future of Wireless Modules

Mr. Akshay D. Shelke

B.E. Electronics and telecommunication

ref( European Editors)

Wireless technology is undergoing tremendous changes. The cellular market is moving from 3G to LTE, LTE Advanced and LTE Advanced Pro to improve data rates and reduce power, all the while looking to the next generation 5G technologies. This will bring many more frequency bands at higher frequencies for even higher data rates. This will also bring in other technologies currently used in unlicensed frequency bands such as Wi-Fi.

At the same time, operators and developers are looking at advances to cellular wireless to provide low cost, reliable and scalable wireless links for the Internet of Things (IoT). For these applications it is power consumption and battery life that is the driving factor, and narrow band solutions are now emerging. Alongside these are the latest evolutions to specifications such as Bluetooth and ZigBee that are also targeting IoT applications. Bluetooth 5 promises greater range and data rates with lower power, while ZigBee 3.0 brings lower power to the mesh networks.

All of this can give the design engineer a major headache. The choice of wireless protocol for low cost, low power, global applications can be complex and not particularly stable.

One of the ways module makers are trying to tackle this challenge is through a common footprint. Sierra Wireless, for example, has deliberately taken a module approach to all its wireless developments to take this into account. The range of 2G, 3G, and 4G embedded modules in the Air Prime HL family offer everything device manufacturers need to meet essential connectivity requirements. With a common form factor for all the different cellular technologies, small size, low-power consumption and enhanced RF performance, there are also options for GNSS navigation from the US GPS and Russian GLONASS satellite systems as well as worldwide coverage.

Figure 1: A common footprint for wireless modules allows each generation of technology to be easily added to a board.

With just one PCB design, device manufacturers can easily integrate voice and data connectivity and deploy in any region, on any wireless mobile network (as in Figure 1). Sierra has also thought about the form factor to include the choice of soldering down the module for efficient high-volume production, or using a snap-in socket on the same solder pads for total flexibility in prototyping or smaller volume runs (Figure 2). This snap-in socket allows device manufacturers to deploy or change modules at any point in the production and product life cycles using the common footprint.

This common pin-out on the form factor enables forward and backward compatibility between the different 2G, 3G, and 4G module variants. This means that the mechanical pin location delivers the same function across the series. More than that, the pin-out of the HL series is compatible with the application processing WP Series.

Figure 2: A snap-in socket allows any of the common modules to be tested out in prototype systems or used in small production runs.

But the future of wireless modules is not just about the hardware. The software and firmware is an increasingly vital component of the system. Sierra’s AirVantage cloud-based over-the-air (OTA) service allows users to simply connect and manage a fleet of remote machines of any size. This provides integration of machine data to enterprise systems using open M2M development tools and standards.

Sierra leads the Eclipse IoT working group that is developing the standards, and provides application programming interfaces (APIs) on the Github open source repository that include a Node.js example for the Air Vantage API. This example uses the Air vantage REST API in Clojure, a simple OAuth2 + JSon client in Go for gathering the list of gateways from Air Vantage and ways to access the AirVantage API from Ruby, PHP and Java, as well as a light and flexible Shell script that enables interaction with the Air Vantage M2M Cloud API in command-line.

Similarly NimbeLink’s Skywire LTE CAT1 modem is aimed at long-life applications and so has to take into account the changing technologies of wireless. The modem uses the Sky wire family’s same small size and XBEE interface and is compatible with Nimbe Link’s development kits and microprocessor shields for fast and easy integration of cellular connectivity into a product. Using a standard interface of XBEE simplifies the migration to other cellular technologies and allows the product life to be extended as new technologies mature.

The cellular world is well aware of the threat from unlicensed technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and ZigBee, and so it has been working on its own low data rate standard. Release 13 of the 3GPP specification includes the Narrowband IoT (LTE Cat. NB1) standard, opening up the use of cellular networks for IoT for the first time. 

This allows cellular modules to have a battery life of 10 to 20 years in applications such as smart buildings and cities, utilities metering, white goods, asset tracking, and agricultural and environmental monitoring. Trials with Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Huawei in smart metering and parking applications have proven successful and shown that NB-IoT networks operate more efficiently than GPRS. NB-IoT modules are coming to the market later in 2016 with peak downlink rates of up to 227 kbps and uplink rates of up to 21 kbps, which keeps the power down and allows the ten to twenty year battery life. Simultaneous support for three RF bands means that the same module may be used in most geographic regions.

	LTE Evolution	Narrowband Solutions		Next Generation
	LTE-M Rel-13	NB-LTE Rel-13	EC-GSM Rel-13	5G
Range (Outdoor)	< 11 km	< 15 km	< 15 km	< 15 km
MCL	156 dB	164 dB	164 dB	164 dB
Spectrum	Licensed (7-900 MHz)	Licensed (7-900 MHz)	Licensed (8-900 MHz)	Licensed (7-900 MHz)
Bandwidth	1.4 MHz or shared	200 kHz or shared	2.4 MHz or shared	Shared
Data Rate	< 1 Mbps	< 150 kbps	10 kbps	< 1 Mbps
Battery Life	> 10 years	> 10 years	> 10 years	> 10 years
Availability	2016	2016	2016	2025

Figure 3: Narrowband IoT modules are set to be released later in 2016 (Source: 3GPP)

The NB-IoT provides lower device complexity, ultra-low-power operation and support for up to 150,000 devices per single cellular cell. Most significantly, the technology offers a 20 dB link budget improvement over GPRS to give excellent performance under poor coverage conditions such as underground or inside buildings.

However, wireless technology in the unlicensed band continues to evolve as well. Bluetooth 5 promises four times the range of the current versions with twice the bandwidth in a bid to create a “connectionless” IoT. Bluetooth 5 tackles some of the challenges that have held previous versions back in the roll out of IoT networks.

The new technology will be released later in 2016 or early 2017 with modules that provide significantly increased range up to four times that of today, aiming at 50 meters, as well as speeds of 2 Mbit/s. Extending the range will deliver robust, reliable IoT connections that make full-home and building and outdoor use cases a reality, while the higher speeds will send data faster and optimize responsiveness.

However, the implementation of the technology, both in silicon and in modules, will determine the overall power consumption and battery life.

There are also plans to abstract the complexity of the Internet of Things even further from these hardware modules and offer the Smart Home as a Service (SHaaS). This can eliminate the overall number of sensors required, reducing redundancy and maintenance as a single sensor could be used for a variety of applications. For instance, a motion sensor could be used in a security system, for controlling lighting, for managing home environment, for controlling entertainment options, for family lifestyle, and maybe even for feeding the family pet.

Figure 4: In addition to the available RF standards at the communication layer, there is a great deal of competition at the application layer.

Rather than having to construct your own network, SHaaS is a collection of services that analyzes input from the smart home sensors, learns how the family lives and how the home is used, and can make intelligent decisions to make homes more comfortable, safer and more energy efficient.

The information from sensors around the home is wirelessly collected by a local hub and securely transmitted to an intelligent cloud service that collects and analyzes the data. After the initial installation, it only takes a week or two for the algorithm in the cloud to accumulate enough data for the application to “learn” how the family lives and to be able to send alerts when an unexpected event happens or something drastically changes.

All the various services need to be consolidated into a single user interface, into one easy-to-use dashboard, while the service provider handles customer support, billing, subscriber management as well as software and service upgrades and changes.

This makes the smart home easy to use, simple to manage, and effective in providing the residents with safety, security and comfort, it also serves as a valuable generator of income for the service providers. Device and system developers need to work together to develop hardware, software and web intelligence to create this level of service.

CONCLUSION:

The future of wireless modules is driven as much by the applications as the technology, and software is playing an increasingly important part in that evolution. New hardware standards such as NB-IoT are providing advantages, which, coupled with common module footprints, are making the design of wireless nodes simpler.  The complexity then moves to the software on the module, with OTA updates and integration into the applications to create whole new markets such as the Smart Home as a Service.