Ericsson has launched a targeted suite of software upgrades and ecosystem advances that it claimed would accelerate the uptake of the Internet of Things (IoT) for the benefit of both industry and consumers.
According to the company, the new software supported low-cost devices, extended battery life, improved deep indoor and rural coverage and offered service prioritisation. Ericsson has announced it would be demonstrating the new suite with leading ecosystem partners at CTIA Super Mobility 2015 in Las Vegas from September 9 to 11.
There were already more than 230 million cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) subscriptions for IoT devices, but certain challenges had limited the potential for large-scale adoption across a variety of use cases, namely: the cost of IoT devices, device battery life, and cellular coverage in both remote areas and deep inside buildings.
Advances in Ericsson’s new IoT Networks Software 16B delivered:
Reduced IoT device cost– The new software supported LTE Category 0 with half-duplex operation in FDD, which effectively limited functionality and capability to those specifically required for IoT applications, such as large-scale sensor and smart meter deployments.
Extended battery life – 10-year battery life was one of the goals for 5G and Ericsson was introducing 2 new software upgrades for energy efficiency that achieved that goal on today’s IoT devices.
Device Power-saving Mode for LTE & GSM was a new device power-saving capability that introduced a deep sleep state, while Extended Discontinuous Reception (DRX) for GSM extends the sleep cycles in inactive mode.
Improved indoor coverage – Extended coverage software for GSM delivered a 20 dB improvement leading to a seven-fold extension in the range of low-rate applications. This enabled the usage of IoT applications in remote locations and deep within buildings underground.
Arun Bansal, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Radio, Ericsson, said in a statement, “We are accelerating IoT growth on existing LTE and GSM networks to ensure a global foundation for a vast range of new consumer, industry and government applications, from Smart Cities to connected farms.
“With our leading national and multi-national operator customers, like SK Telecom and Orange, and ecosystem partners like Intel, we are co-creating end-to-end IoT network and device solutions that harness the power of reliable, globally scalable, standards-based systems and services. These innovations put our mobile operator customers solidly on the road to 5G.”
Image Credit: Ericsson