Even though 5G has been available since July 2019 availability has been slow to come online when compared with the equivalent coverage offered by 2G/3G and LTE. The impact in speed of deployment resulting from the smaller cell sizes and larger overall infrastructure required for the new technologies when compared to that deployed for previous standards.

The spectrums within 5G can be broken down into three categories, namely;

• Sub-GHz.
• 1 – 6 GHz.
• High band mmWave.

The “sub” 1 GHz spectrum is primarily used for 3G and 4G / LTE Cat 4 with this option offering broad coverage, good building penetration and with data speeds up to 100 Mbps. This spectrum is the focus of many wireless companies where the highest data rate is not a primary concern. Overall, the QoS of 5G makes mass market IoT a reality connecting large numbers of narrow-band devices sending and receiving small data packets on an infrequent basis.

LTE Cat M and LTE Cat NB-IoT have co-existed with LTE/4G since 2017 both fulfilling all 5G requirements from the 3GPP and addressing different types of use cases. LTE Cat M is designed to support machine communications as a direct replacement for 2G / GSM and is more commonly referred to as Cat-M while NB-IoT is stand alone and essentially offers a lower bandwidth version of 2G / GSM such as CSD. Neither of these alternatives use significant bandwidth and both offer lower cost data plans with improved power efficiency and higher link-budgets with improved received sensitivity.

Despite the limited roll out of 5G the number of commercial adoptions using LTE Cat M and LTE Cat NB-IoT continues to grow with solutions that are functional today and ready for 5G adoption as this becomes more readily available. Assistance with adoption and transition to the newer technologies being available and supported by companies like Siretta, the Industrial IoT company.

As forerunners to 5G, LTE Cat M and LTE Cat NB-IoT devices will continue enabling the industrial IoT revolution and products are available from companies such as Siretta who offer a wide range of modem solutions such as the ZETA series of industrial products connecting equipment to the new LTE Cat M and LTE Cat NB-IoT networks whilst also providing connectivity to the existing 2G / GSM cellular networks. These products are suitable for a wide variety of applications and requirements and Siretta offers a ‘modem selector tool’ to support your needs.

LTE Cat M is one of the earlier systems specified in the 3GPP release 13 and extended in Release 14. Specifically, it is a low power wide area network designed for IoT and has the advantage over other low power networks such as Sigfox or Lora. This is because it is owned and run by the 3GPP and is running on a licensed band as opposed to the ISM un-licensed bands which work by having rules in place on who can send data at any specific time along with the size and speed of data. This means that for these un-licensed options, the more connections in an area the more the bandwidth has to be reduced to accommodate the number of users, meaning the more traffic present in the network, the lower the message numbers and the lower the available payload.

LTE Cat M operates in small cell sizes meaning less users per cell allowing for equal bandwidth usage. Modern LTE and 5G encompasses high speed and high bandwidth channels for Video streaming and Social media. Yet, most IoT solutions only require small data packages on an infrequent basis so speed is generally not an issue. With LTE Cat M you have downlink speeds up to a maximum of 4Mbits/s and uplink speeds up to 7Mbits when compared to the latest categories of LTE and 5G which now offer Gigabit plus data rates.

As airtime contracts are based on data usage IoT use of low bandwidth will bring with it overall lower networks costs. Other advantages are the availability of services through third parties such as cloud services through the likes of AWS, Azure and Google. Connections are bidirectional, always connected and support OTA (over the air) firmware and software updates.

LTE Cat NB-IoT is an important part of 3GPP release 17 and already has more than 100 million deployed devices. Specifically designed for very low power and very low data rates, up to a maximum of 127kb/s, it is ideal for short range low power devices as the lower data rates and high sensitivity reduce power consumption. It is aimed at massive IoT rollout capable of scaling to 1 million devices per kilometer which is more than 10x the coverage of 4G and a critical component in 5G (cellular IoT). This is resulting in LTE Cat NB-IoT gaining recognition as a 5G standard and a key element in mMTC (massive machine type communications) especially for battery powered indoor short range IoT devices i.e. for payment terminals. Again, due to the lower data rates cost of air time contracts will be reduced dramatically.

LTE Cat M and LTE Cat NB-IoT will continue to bridge the gap as we move towards an entirely LTE / 5G based network. Their lower costs will be a key element in driving mMTC with LTE Cat NB-IoT seen as a fundamental element in the role out of 5G. Most current 5G networks are in fact tweaked 4G networks meaning that when full 5G radio is installed all the current 3GPP standards will be transferred and supported on 5G. The current coverage for 5G is limited to high user areas but by adopting the LTE Cat M or LTE Cat NB-IoT standards, existing equipment can easily be migrated from legacy 2G / GSM and 3G / UMTS systems to 4G/LTE networks with confidence.

The choice of service between LTE Cat M and LTE Cat NB-IoT should be considered an either/or decision and is more predicated around the use case and requirements of the end application. LTE Cat M with its higher bandwidth and lower latency clearly offers a better fit in certain use cases and applications vs. LTE Cat NB-IoT offering low bandwidth data connections, lower power and lower cost. It is also important to flag that the geographic role outs also have an impact with LTE Cat NB-IoT being more European focused vs. LTE Cat M which is seeing much faster adoption in the US.

LTE Cat M vs. LTE Cat NB-IoT Selection Criteria

LTE Cat M vs. LTE Cat NB-IoT Optimal Performance

There is no doubt that 5G will offer spectacular growth in IoT devices and in just a few years the availability of these networks will offer control and monitoring of very small devices to very large, sophisticated, streaming live, real time video and realtime critical devices.

To prepare for the explosion of lower bandwidth devices we can already adopt the LTE Cat M and LTE Cat NB-IoT benefits and these will continue to be developed and become available. As the networks expand coverage then the new Gigabit systems will become more useable. IoT device deployments could grow by billions of units. IHS Markit is predicting that 5G IoT deployments could balloon to around 140 billion devices by 2030.

Siretta understand the challenges faced in making the right hardware decision and we have developed our ‘Modem Selector tool’ to help reduce your time to market. Our portfolio includes cellular modems & terminals, industrial routers, cellular network analysers, RF antennas including solutions for WLAN, LoRa and Sigfox. We offer RF cable assemblies and RF accessories. Frequencies are typically within the 75MHz – 5.8GHz range covering the HF, VHF, ISM, Cellular, GNSS frequencies.

We also offer bespoke customer solutions, and our design services are supported by an experienced team of dedicated development & application engineers as well as software specialists offering complete end to end solutions with a heavy emphasis on high level system design.

The post Preparing for 5G – LTE Cat M vs. LTE Cat NB-IoT appeared first on Siretta Limited.

Let us travel back to the early days before the existence of the internet.  Transmitting information and communicating between devices was achieved either using cables, or alternatively via radio signals. One of the earliest solutions developed was for teleprinters which used a carrier. The keystrokes where superimposed onto the carrier using a code developed by Hayes. This was similar to morse code as it produced a series of tones representing dashes and dots for each letter and symbol. Adding code to the carrier was termed modulation and unscrambling the code was called demodulation, giving birth to the familiar term modem (Modulation, Demodulation).

Nothing much has changed over the years except the speed and type of transmission. The speed of early modems was around 14 kilobits, today internet speeds are typically in the 50 to 200 megabit range and almost all modern broadband modems can achieve this. With the role out of fibre optics, connected device speeds in the low gigabit are now possible. As individuals we consume digital content at a significant rate and indeed require and expect communication speeds to support & enable this in real time. However, within the Industrial IoT (IIoT) sector speed of data transmission, albeit still a factor to consider, can be less important as the data packets transmitted are typically smaller and, in many instances, sent less frequently. Reliability and low power consumption are more likely to be critical requirements for such remote cellular applications. There are a number of products on the market that meet the power, reliability and speed required for these applications with companies like Siretta ‘The Industrial IoT Company’ also offering ultra-low power products through their ZETA range of Industrial IoT modems.

Whether transmitting data over copper, fibre or wireless technologies, anything that communicates requires some form of modem. In brief a modem converts data into a form suitable for transmission with the objective of sending secure data easily that can be decoded reliably.

Multiprotocol routers were created in 1981, independently at MIT (Noel Chiappa) and Stanford (William Yeager), and were a critical component at the beginning of the computing revolution. Early computers depended on peripheral devices to enable data storage, printing and the use of remote dumb terminals. A system for connecting and routing data between these pieces of hardware was a necessity and this was initially achieved by extending & controlling the network within the main computer. This being dedicated to the installation it did not provide flexibility or speed & ease of reconfiguration when required.

To overcome this the ‘Router’ device was developed. This being a multi socketed product which connects all these peripheral devices together. Each socket or port has its own address and each device has its own IP address (network interface identification and location addressing). In most instances the main computer allocates dynamic addresses to the sub or peripheral with each device having its own buffers to transmit and receive data. In the modern modem era nearly all networking devices use TCP/IP to facilitate this.

Routers have a number of in-built components. An internal processor controls the ports, the connection to the modem and WiFi for wireless connections, which enables first level security and that can be configured separately for each of the functions. Firewalls protect each separate system, and, under the control of the processor, some cross connections are allowed. These ‘tunnels’ only allow data (traffic) to cross according to strict security rules.

In short, the traditional function of the router is to manage your network of devices while that of the modem is to connect and communicate to the wider world. When you connect to WiFi, you are in essence connecting to your router, which in turn forwards traffic between the internet and your connected device.

Technology does however continue to evolve and challenge tradition and within the Industrial IoT there is soon to be an addition of a third option available from Siretta called SirettaLINK™.

SirettaLINK™ offers a fully managed modem network solution ideal for connecting remote applications to the Industrial IoT network. It enables remote configuration, remote software updates, remote monitoring and connection integrity along with other management and reporting functionality. For more information please contact sales@siretta.com.

Various hardware choices and price points exist in the marketplace and can be broadly broken down into three distinct use cases:

• Industrial
• Enterprise
• Consumer

The hardware decision comes down to your application, intended scope of operation, environmental conditions, required reliability, risk analysis and overall cost of ownership; a subject we will discuss in a later article.

For many, in Industrial IoT applications, reliability is directly related to revenue. This along with the security of connectivity and data flow is enhanced through the use of an industrial grade solution.

Siretta offers a range of industrial modems, routers and managed network solutions. Their range of industrial low and ultra-low power modem solutions are a family of cellular enabled modems which have been designed to an industrial specification to allow an easy connection for remote devices over the internet. Their industrial router products are intelligent managed solutions which have been designed to connect remote devices over Ethernet LAN and Wireless LAN to the internet as well as RS232 serial equipment over a TCP/IP connection to a central location.

Siretta helps you to identify the ideal Industrial modem and router solution for your application through their unique Modem Selector Tool and Router Selector Tool filtering solutions to your exact requirements.

The post What is the Difference Between a Modem and a Router & Is there a Different Approach? appeared first on Siretta Limited.

Selecting an appropriate antenna can really make a design but get it wrong and communication will be less than ideal. This article concentrates on the main parameters to be aware of during the selection process. Consideration is given to the form factors covering both internal and external devices as well as the key electrical characteristics of gain, frequency response, impedance, directivity and polarization.

The end application should remain a primary driver in the evaluation process. Siretta’s Antenna selection tool is always available to help guide you to the right solution.

A principal constituent in selection is whether the end product is designed to be fixed or mobile. You may be fortunate if the device is in a strong signal area with a fixed application, however if you are in a weak area with a mobile device on the edge of a cell or consistently subject to poor weather conditions then the evaluation process is imperative and product selection critical to the success of your end product.

The form factor (physical form) of the antenna will to some degree be determined by the application and product design, Siretta offers a full range covering through hole, magnetic, adhesive, direct, embedded, wall and pole mount options.

For many mobile devices the ‘smaller the better’ approach is often primary, thereby steering the antenna selection towards embedded solutions, however, fixed equipment gives the opportunity to select from a wider antenna range where size and orientation are less critical.

Even with the wider selection opportunities offered by fixed locations there are additional considerations. Remote fixed locations with direct access to open space, for example:  remote water pumping stations or storage depots will be best served by Yagi antenna designs with direct line of site to a providers antenna tower.

Directional antennas aligned with the nearest cell tower improve signal strength through the use of multiple elements in the antenna construction narrowing the beam to provide gain in one direction.

Other fixed locations, within cities and urban areas, are more likely to benefit from higher gain omnidirectional antenna designs which can interact with multiple cell masts on buildings.

The next selection criteria concentrate around the frequency bands required, historically this was less complex as older cellular equipment had fewer frequency bands. With the advent of 4G (LTE) and 5G (LTE) it has brought about an explosion in the requirements for multiband and MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) antennas for one device. More antennas improve the signal by collecting energy from multiple wave paths. For 2G and 3G applications, global compatibility exists but with 4G/5G LTE more complexity has been introduced; data rates are higher and the cell size is reduced bringing the need for more frequency bands. There are now around 70 frequency bands.

The decision on frequency/band is also be affected by the geographic location and available carriers in that region. For example, Vodafone will have different bands and frequencies to Verizon, Sprint or China Telecom. In deciding your choice of antenna it is important to understand even the widest band antenna is unlikely to be able to cover all 70 frequency bands and if they do, performance will fluctuate across them.

Having selected the equipment and carrier, antenna matching is the next consideration in the design. A perfectly matched antenna can bring improved performance by reducing mismatched impedance thereby reducing losses in standing waves (standing wave ratio SWR).

The antenna is a complex circuit of capacitance, inductance and resistance which becomes a tuned circuit when attached to a transmitter or receiver this is the impedance of the antenna and is typically honed to 50 Ohm’s.

The output of the cellular device will have a manufacturer recommended impedance, which is important to match with selection of the antenna. However, if you are designing an embedded antenna with a pcb modem then a matching circuit, with a combination of capacitance, resistance and inductance will be required.

The desired frequency or band will have different criteria to achieve a perfect match so it is therefore a balance which achieves a compromise and an overall level of performance acceptable to the needs of the device receiver.

Antennas can transmit the signal in different ways and orientations, and this can be either linear or circular. Linear signals can be propagated in either the horizontal or vertical plane which is called polarisation. Circular wave propagation can either be RH, Right Hand or LH Left Hand meaning clockwise or anticlockwise. The orientation and propagation of the wave from the antenna should be carefully checked. If correct it will maximise the available performance of antenna, however, incorrectly oriented it can reduce the signal level drastically by up to 20dB.

In conclusion, choosing the correct antenna will improve the reliability and performance of any radio equipment. In industrial modems the choice and style is mainly determined by the manufacturer and specified in the datasheet. In remote locations with weak signals, directional antennas will certainly prove beneficial. On embedded equipment the choice is much more involved, particularly with PCB style antennas.

Siretta offers a vast array of antennas from embedded PCB designs through to high gain directional pole mounted Yagi types. Siretta are a leading manufacturer and developer of IoT products, IoT software and IoT solutions with a specialty in providing these for Industrial markets and business to business applications. Siretta have extensive knowledge and experience within IoT with a focus on cellular technologies in support of 2G (GPRS), 3G (UMTS), 4G (LTE Cat 1), 4G (LTE Cat 4), LTE Cat NB-IoT and LTE Category M. Products include cellular modems & terminals, routers, cellular network analysers, RF antennas, RF adapters and low loss RF cables.

The post What Parameters are Important for Cellular Antenna Evaluation? appeared first on Siretta Limited.

In order to gain a better understanding of the difference between LTE Cat 1 and LTE Cat 4 we will first discuss the need for cellular IoT and give a brief definition of the technologies before undertaking a more detailed evaluation.

The evolution of cellular IoT transpired in direct response to the popularity and ubiquity of IoT technologies and protocols that have become common place within todays connectivity landscape. The need for low-power consumption and wide-area networks has grown unabated with the traditional cellular offering previously not being ideal due to consuming too much power and increased costs for most low data rate IoT deployments. However, the market needed the level of guaranteed service and infrastructure that could only be deployed by the cellular providers coupled with low power and wide-area coverage. The new generation of cellular technologies, LTE Cat 1 and LTE Cat 4 resolve the power and cost problem while retaining the guaranteed service and infrastructure benefits.

LTE Cat 1 represented the original response offering a robust and viable alternative using existing LTE network based on the 3GPP Release 8 protocol. This offered a ready built and global infrastructure for IoT deployments.

Since the initial release there have been many further iterations in fact 14, the most prominent and widely adopted remain Cat 1 and Cat 4 which align to most of the today’s IoT requirements as shown in Table 1. The question of whether to use Cat 1 or Cat 4 really comes down to your application and choice of technology stack.

In the creation of your technology stack, you will need a gateway or a device connection to the internet driving automated conversion of your data and offering a method of displaying that data in a portal. Siretta, the Industrial IoT Company, offers a range of market leading Cat 1 and Cat 4 modem solutions. They come in industrial enclosures with their own antenna and power supplies and are pre-certified, secure and ready for immediate deployment reducing time to market. The only decision to consider is do I need Cat 1 or Cat 4?

The main variances are found when examining data rates in both the downlink and uplink, along with power requirements. However, additional selection criteria for consideration includes:

• Geographic location: continent, country
• Type of data: numeric data, text, video streaming
• Interface type: RS232, USB, Wi-Fi, Ethernet
• Software Options: Over the air upgrade (FOTA), TCP stack, IP services
• OS Support: Windows, Linux, Mac

Data rate requirements and power consumption are in most cases pre-determined by end application. LTE Cat 4 offers an uplink speed ten times faster and a downlink speed fifteen times faster than LTE Cat 1 measured in Mbps. In examining speed and power requirements Cat 4 devices are better aimed at higher data rates. For anything video based that is essential in real time viewing.

It is however feasible that your product and data requirements may fall between Cat 1 and Cat 4, and that you could have a degree of flexibility on your data rate. This being the case you have two further options to consider, power consumptions and the cost of airtime. There is always a trade off in any design, unfortunately the higher the data rate the higher the power consumption generating a higher cost airtime contract.

Currently there are a number of products available with LTE Cat 1 and LTE Cat 4 that offer ultra low power modes such as Siretta’s ZETA-NLP-LTE1 which is an LTE Cat 1 ultra low power industrial modem. This is achieved by reducing the actual connection to the network effectively holding the device in standby until data is required. In this mode power can be reduced to around 1 milliamp making this perfect for remote devices which Siretta supports.

As can be seen in Table 2 above even the lowest power version of the LTE Cat 4 device uses significantly more power than the lowest power LTE Cat 1 Device.

In addition to your primary decision around speed and power consumptions there are other concerns to consider. Both LTE Cat 1 and LTE Cat 4 can cover the majority of frequency bands and it will be necessary to select the model required for the specific region of deployment as globally there are 72 bands with no device capable of covering them all. Selection will be by territory. See table 3:

Connection to OEM equipment needs some thought, most modems offer RS232 interfaces which is supported by new and legacy equipment in the field, some have a parallel ports and additionally some provide general purpose interface (GPIO). Most have built in readers for a SIM card and socket connections for external antennas, usually by SMA. They have a status LED and power connection either fixed or plug in. All modems have an interface for setting up and generally this is through the RS232 port or can be remotely using a web browser and the device communicating through an internet connection. Additionally, some devices communicate directly using Linux or Windows CE and can be integrated into the user equipment software. This can save time and cost.

As described LTE Cat 4 devices generally have more user interfaces such as GPIO, ADC (Analog to Digital Convertor) and additional serial ports. Table 4 below is a comparison of 2 such devices.

Making the decision on which device to select is made easier using Siretta’s Modem Selector Tool. Siretta has various models available for LTE Cat 1, both the low power ZETA-NSP-LTE1 and ultra low power ZETA-NLP-LTE1, in addition to LTE Cat 4 with the high performance ZETA-N-LTE, ZETA-NEP-LTE4 with GPIO, secondary serial port & ADC and ZETA-GEP-LTE4 with GPIO, secondary serial port, ADC & GNSS. The ZETA range of products also provide backwards compatibility to the existing European 3G / UMTS and 2G / GSM cellular networks.

The selection between LTE Cat 1 and LTE Cat 4 is almost always predetermined by the application and data rate requirements. As seen in many typical IoT solutions the data packages are typically small with power consumption remaining a primary factor. Although there are 14 iterations under the 3GPP, LTE Cat 1 and LTE Cat 4 remain the nearest equivalent to LPWAN and will continue to be a critical component of the cellular solutions within the IoT space. Additionally, by being part of a licensed band it is expected that QoS (quality of service) and SLA’s (service level agreements) will ensure a more robust answer to your connectivity requirements both now and moving forwards in an ever competing market.

The solution architect of course still retains a significant degree of influence on the standards used and by choosing to use lower data rates they can reduce costs in elements such as airtime. It is however worth a note that lower bandwidths can potentially reduce quality or increase the time of transmission.

Once the decision on data has been made, the user can determine how feature rich the interface will be. For some users it may still be necessary to choose LTE Cat 4 even with lower data rate requirements to gain GPIO or additional inputs required for their technology stack. Alternatively LTE Cat 4 can offer benefits on power usage for transmitting large files compared with LTE Cat 1.

Siretta are a leading manufacturer and developer of IoT products, IoT software and IoT solutions with a specialty in providing these for Industrial markets and business to business applications. Siretta have extensive knowledge and experience within IoT with a focus on cellular technologies in support of 2G (GPRS), 3G (UMTS), 4G (LTE), NB-IoT and LTE Category M. Products include cellular modems & terminals, routers, cellular network analysers, RF antennas, RF adapters and low loss RF cables.

The post LTE Cat 1 VS LTE Cat 4 appeared first on Siretta Limited.

IP Rating means – ‘Ingress Protection Rating’ and applies to both solids and liquids. The first number deals with different sizes of solid, from hands & fingers to fine powder dust. The second number deals with liquids, pressure and angle of flow through to complete submersion.

Implementation is as important as the component parts.

ok design with poor implementation	good design and implementation

Simple solutions to keep them dry can be used; like mounting them under other parts or horizontal placement to keep the worst of the water away. Other possible solutions are to mount them in a watertight box or request longer tails on the antenna so the connections can be passed through a wall to an interior connection point.
When considering antennas, there are assumptions that IP67 is better than IP65 or IP66, but a water jet could potentially defeat a seal where a simple submersion test passes. Think about the actual application and location of the antenna in use. If the antenna will only be exposed to rain water then IP65 is sufficient. Over specifying component parts just adds cost to the end product. Additional component costs add to the standard price of your product and once it is in the sales or distribution channel that component cost will have increased significantly.	This could be the difference between your product being purchased or passed over for a cheaper competitive product. Surface materials of devices can also affect the performance of seals, especially where the surface is curved or has a raised pattern which results in different pressures around or under the seal. Where there is any doubt, test the performance of the combined products before committing to production volumes.
Curved surface leaves gaps on the sides and uneven pressure	Patterned surfaces could leave micro gaps for water to flow with uneven pad pressure

See the Antenna Selector Tool for details of antenna products and applicable IP ratings certified by a third party laboratory, or call us to discuss your project needs +44 118 976 9000

The post Antenna IP Ratings In Practice appeared first on Siretta Limited.

Before looking at the constructs it is worth reminding ourselves of the key definitions as they relate to the products we are looking at. First, a Router which creates a network across peripheral devices giving network interface identification and location addressing. And secondly, a Modem which acts to connect a network and the devices on it to the internet, converting data into a form suitable for transmission sending secure data that can then be decoded reliably.

So, what should be considered when choosing an Industrial as opposed to a Consumer grade device? Our hunger for connectivity and consumption of data both in our business and personal life remains insatiable. It is easy to fall into the thinking, that when accessing data, or connecting to the wider world, that the differences in the hardware we use at home, and our business lives, is small. In networking, as in many other areas, this assumption is unsound and the debate on hardware choice continues.

“As households we possess a large number of Modem and Router solutions.”

The UK government statistics show that greater than 90% of households have an internet connection equating to an estimated 22 million installed bases. Additionally, a 2019 study from Deloitte suggests on average every home has around 10 connected devices. Therefore, consumer grade hardware is by design high volume and lower cost and in many instances the Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) offer it for free. Most ISP’s then choose to pursue a recurring revenue business model through the use of subscription services. By definition the hardware supplied is therefore optimized to use the minimum possible functionality and associated circuit and software design, as well as the lowest possible manufacturing cost in order to maximize revenue and profit. This is demonstrated when reviewing products comparative meantime to failure (MTF) as well as often being reflected in shorter warranties being offered.

We have all experienced slow speeds, connectivity outage or device failure, which, although frustrating, has an overall effect on a consumer household that is minimal. In the main our daily browsing habits are satisfied and happen quickly and safely with a consumer grade product. If the product fails, it is comparatively easy for the ISP to send a replacement for self-installation by the consumer albeit with the associated downtime associated with delivery.

Imagine the cost of connectivity loss to an Enterprise, Amazon as an example, for just a short period where you could measure the impact in millions of pounds, euros or dollars per hour. Similarly, hospitals and medical services require bullet proof connections. Stock markets and banks are always looking for marginal gains in connection speed where reliability and service availability also provide benefits that can also be measured in billions of pounds, euros or dollars.

In the examples above speed and reliability are pre-requisites. Yet, as we move up the Industrial IoT inflection curve there are many more applications where reliability, environmental tolerance and remote device management are of a higher priority than data transmission speed albeit with this still being a factor to be considered. Many devices are being deployed in harsh and remote environments and need to be able to cope with extreme temperatures and require low power consumption.

Connectivity infrastructure may not exist or be widely available meaning a cellular solution is required as the only option available. Monitoring the performance of remote oil pumps and drilling stations to ensure that schedules are maintained, that production of raw material is not interrupted due to faults and equipment breakdown, that  automatic payment machines are operating, providing supervisory access to remote equipment in solar farms, control of electric vehicle charging, are all examples that require solutions that enable access to remote equipment with a robust and reliable connection.

As device connectivity can be affected by environmental and operating conditions Industrial and Enterprise applications require a more robust solution and consequently, the biggest difference between these and consumer grade product is that the consumer devices are designed to operate in very different environments and often have shorter life spans which is reflected in their price point and warranty.

Industrial and Enterprise grade devices tend to use higher grade components specifically designed to cope with harsh environments, operate in wider temperature bands and will often incorporate complex power utilization circuitry and software. They will operate in a much wider environmental spectrum and offer associated longer and wider warranties. In fact, many consumer grade warranties may specifically exclude use in Industrial or Enterprise application.

So, in summary, there are many differences between industrial and consumer grade devices, and these will result in a price point trade off. As already outlined, the number of additional features and increased quality of construct required for Industrial and Enterprise applications means that devices will have a different and higher overall specification and associated value proposition to those produced for the consumer market only. Consumer devices produced for the major ISP’s are built in high volumes to a strict budget and these devices are often provided free of charge with 12 or 18 month service contracts.

Industrial grade modems and routers allow you to:

• Reduce risk of deployment with tried and tested reliable industrial solution.
• Work in a wide operational, geographic and environmental spectrum
• Quickly develop and deploy into your application to provide internet access to remote equipment
• Achieve better response times and equipment reliability without adding any complicated system infrastructure
• Have a system agnostic design that supports any type of equipment or operating system
• Automatically detect the network and perform ongoing network monitoring
• Have multiple device options that allow for a single footprint and form factor solution
• Ability to provide end equipment with all connectivity and upgradability options
• Achieve cost savings and improvements in efficiency by reducing costly engineer callouts,
• Obtain improved reports on an entire estate, and monitor high usage areas to provide better maintenance

The decision to buy a consumer or industrial grade device really comes down to risk, environmental and power constraint factors. The higher the importance of a solid reliable connection, the further you will need to lean towards an industrial product. Ask yourself how much I value my data, and how much benefit does connection and reliability add to my business.

Siretta ‘The Industrial IoT Company’ offers a range of Industrial Modems, Industrial Routers and managed network solutions. Their range of industrial low and ultra-low power Modem solutions are a family of cellular enabled Modems which have been designed to an industrial specification to allow an easy connection for remote devices over the internet. Their Industrial Modem and Router offering enables the setup, configuration, monitoring and management of your industrial IoT network, in order to provide reliable, and stable, connection solutions, that in turn can be monitored, and controlled, from a central location.

Siretta helps you to identify the ideal Industrial Modem and Industrial Router solution for your application through their unique Modem Selector Tool and Router Selector Tool filtering to your exact requirements.

Siretta are a perfect partner and a leading manufacturer and developer of IoT products, IoT software and IoT Industrial and business to business applications with extensive knowledge, and a focus on Industrial grade cellular technologies.

The post Considerations when choosing industrial or consumer grade modems and routers? appeared first on Siretta Limited.

The uses for antennas are endless and growing rapidly with this largely as a result of Internet of Things (IoT) device availability and diversity. The complexity when designing products using cellular continues to intensify with the number of frequencies the antenna needs to cover having increased significantly from the original technology of GSM/GPRS to the latest 4G/LTE and indeed forthcoming launch of 5G with the later requiring around 7 frequencies. The placement and orientation of an antenna within the device enclosure not only affects the performance of the antenna but has the potential to adversely influence the surrounding electronics and in worse case the mobile operator.

Original cell phones and modules used half wave antenna in the form of a simple wire or PCB track. Today the majority of most RF front ends now use MIMO (Many in, Many out) technology so that the antenna has multi functioning tuning to provide the wider range of frequencies.

The positioning and orientation of the antenna may seem to some to be inconsequential and in many instances thought about late in the design and indeed many designs will default to whatever is easily available. They may decide upon a standard 2G or 3G antenna and in numerous scenarios this approach may work however note that performance is likely to be compromised.

A tuned antenna placed in correct alignment will always maximise functionality, this is most apparent when operating in congested surroundings with a myriad of other cellular devices. This is particularly the case when operating at a greater distance from the signal source (remote sites) or in built up environments with metal and/or reinforced concrete structures (cities).

Polarisation

Cellular signals vary in their transmission style and how the wave will propagate through the air. Ideally a device antenna should be designed to be ‘circular polarised’ however most polar diagrams will have some gain in one direction (try rotating your cell phone when you have a weak signal). Optimum performance can be achieved by checking the antenna orientation to typical signal source, this is of greatest benefit in stationary remote applications which are connecting to the nearest fixed base station.

For some extreme remote applications, it may be beneficial to use a Yagi (multi element directional) antenna.

Cell towers will vary according to the type and age of construction, newer LTE towers have their antenna set up in an X shape so that they can transmit between Vertical and Horizontal polarisation. Aligning your antenna in the same way will maximises performance.

Device Enclosure

The module or device containing the cellular transceiver is typically designed to be placed inside an enclosure. For the best signal an external antenna would be ideal however aesthetics and user requirements around size and mobility normally remove this possibility, I don’t think any of us want to carry a cell phone with an external antenna as we did in the eighties.

Consideration needs to be given to the type of enclosure and the relative position of the antenna to the source of transmission. The cables or PCB tracks themselves connecting the output to the antenna will have a loss affect, the nearer to the source the better. If you are designing your own transceiver then you will have control of this, if you are using a standard module then you will be connecting via a coaxial type socket or soldered joint.

A typical PCB MIMO antenna a cellular module using 3G/4G and WiFi.

Alternatively, if the module is designed to be soldered to the PCB it may be possible to design the antenna within the tracks of the mounting PCB. In this case greater care of the antenna matching and a knowledge of the design parameters is required. This will also impact final testing for certification.

One of the most critical decisions once an antenna has been chosen is the location within the enclosure, one of the key elements to consider is the reduction of spurious emissions from the device. This will generally require screening around oscillators and high-speed processors as well as displays if end certification is to be accomplished.

Much press has been seen around the damage that radiation from mobile phones can cause the user. That said, to date, tests appear inconclusive although clearly consideration to minimising this is advantageous and can be achieved by building an enclosure using metal or plastic-coated metal. Enclosing an antenna in this way acts like a faraday cage blocking the electromagnetic fields. All designs require some compromise to achieve the greatest outcomes.

In the vast majority of designs there is a natural opening in the metallised case on the left for the display, this can offer a good location for the antenna, alternatively the antenna could be placed on the rear surface providing the metallization is removed.

Conclusion

Modern modules and mobile phones use more complicated MIMO antenna and these need to be optimised for the many frequency bands now utilised. Producing and locating the antenna to give the best match in both mobile or fixed applications requires careful alignment. In addition, the design of the enclosure to maximise radiation from the antenna whilst minimising the spurious unwanted signals from various sources makes the design and placement more complex.

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An essential component of a wireless system is the Antenna selected to transmit and receive data. In order to optimise the system performance of a wireless installation it is highly recommended that designers look closely at their antenna selection.

Antenna selection for any wireless or IoT system is a fundamental part of the overall system design. The antenna radiation plot or pattern gives clear indicators on how well the antenna dissipates the energy.

An antenna is a tuned electromagnetic device that is used in either single or multiple frequency bands. They can have various forms depending on: aesthetic requirements, environmental considerations and power capacity.

External sources and reflected signals can distort the radiation field measurements, so testing is made in an Anechoic chamber. An Anechoic Chamber absorbs radiated electromagnetic fields allowing the measurement of primary signals, without reflected energy, to produce gain and radiation plots.

Antenna Pattern Fields

Antennas have different radiation pattern fields, depending on power, frequency and distance. Below is a list of definitions of these field regions.
Reactive Field Region – the region immediately surrounding the antenna where the reactive field energy – the standing wave is dominant.

Radiating-Field (Fresnel) Region – the region between the near-field and the far-field where the radiation fields are dominant, and the field is dependent on the distance.

Far-Field (Fraunhofer) Region – the region farthest away from the antenna, the field distribution is essentially independent propagating waves.  The Size of these fields is determined by Antenna Size and the Wavelength of Transmission.

Far-Field (Fraunhofer) Region – the region farthest away from the antenna, the field distribution is essentially independent propagating waves.
The Size of these fields is determined by Antenna Size and the Wavelength of Transmission.

Antenna Energy Propagation

This shows the shape of energy propagation from the antenna. Basically, where transmitted data goes.
There are two main types of antennas:

Directional – An antenna with a more efficient radiation in one direction.

Omnidirectional – An antenna with a uniform radiation in plane. E or H (Power or Magnetic)

Antenna Patterns and their Parameters

A directional antenna radiation pattern is shown below. The patterns (Lobes) show the direction and power that is generated by the antenna. In an ideal ‘directional’ antenna design the radiation would be focused in one direction to give maximum gain.

The lobes are defined as:

Radiation Lobe – a clear peak in the radiation intensity. (Main Lobe)
Minor Lobe – any radiation lobe other than the main lobe.
Side Lobe – a radiation lobe in any direction other than the direction(s) of intended radiation.
Back Lobe – the radiation lobe opposite to the main lobe.

Antenna Propagation Field Strengths

The circles in the above diagram represent the power levels measured in dB with 3dB being maximum gain shown on this chart. To best optimise the antenna the minor, side and back lobes are reduced, pushing the energy to the main lobe and improving the antenna performance.  With omni-directional antennas, the lobes will be more uniform, but power will be reduced.

To select the best antenna for a system, design consideration should be given to the radiation diagrams supplied with the antenna, peak gain value, proximity to metallic objects and ground system, enclosure shape and material plus the actual site location that the system will be located on. The Siretta antenna selector tool can help to quickly identify potential antennas,

https://www.siretta.com/antenna-selector/

Siretta offers one of the widest ranges of antennas for a variety of applications covering GPRS, 3G, 4G/LTE, Sigfox, LoRA, Wireless LAN and GNSS technologies.

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It’s hardly surprising that network providers like Vodafone , Deutsche Telekom and AT&T had been forecasting the demise of 2G networks for several years as their focus was voice and video through the consumer market. However, their realisation now that 35% of 2G traffic relates to data flows for IoT has clearly awoken their interest in participating and monetising within this sector.

The sunset of 2G has now had a reprieve based on the usage data and we are likely to see 3G fade at a faster rate, but not in the US. AT&T and Verizon have closed that door, but in Europe and Asia predictions are now that it will continue for the mid term. Good news for the many metering and vending companies that have deployed and rely on 2G solutions.

Network providers ideally do not want to invest in legacy technology however given the importance of 2G they cannot afford to turn their back on it, so what plans are in place for the medium term to ensure that ultimately there can be a migration from this legacy solution? The answer is LTE and 5G, which offer good financial and spectral reasons to invest. The conflict between what the networks want and the needs of industrial IoT continues albeit with a closer understanding of their respective challenges.

High speed digital networks offer higher bandwidths, lower power, and are cost effective to maintain and run. They attract a younger audience who are willing to pay for features – perfect if you look to sell data by the Mb. In industrial IoT, typically you are looking for small bits of data to travel from many locations to a central point with the lowest possible cost structure. Speed and bandwidth apart from a few exceptions remain negligible.

Mobile network providers working with 3GPP set about producing specifications for 4G networks using LTE, a pure data service that provides the benefits of high speed and low power, just what the networks had intended to attract the consumer market and social media.

During the standardisation process for LTE, it was realised that there was a need for lower data rates to meet the demands of IoT. Release 13 (June 2016) of the 3GPP specification included a new standard specifically for industrial IoT.

Deployment of the new standard has yet to be completed as it remains dependent on local network operators installing base station equipment and module manufacturers releasing suitable end node devices. Some believe that as the current 2G network takes most of this existing traffic the level of urgency is low; this view may well impact their market share and position as the exponential growth within IoT over the near term will be more aligned to the evolution of newer protocols such as NB-IoT.

Regional deployment of the various standards across the globe differs.

China mobile have an installed parking system in Wuxi using NB-IoT, Athens Greece have a similar system installed, Vodafone, O2 and Deutsche Telekom have all been testing and adopted NB-IoT whilst still continuing to maintain 2G networks. So it seems that both options will be available for some time to come, nevertheless in the long term, NB-IoT is set to become the preferred solution for the network operators.

Unless you are based in the US, you will be able to continue with 2G for some time. In the rest of the world you have the option of both 2G and NB-IoT. Many devices are now being designed for NB-IoT with a 2G fall back to ensure that new designs are positioned for the future. Assuming you are in the latter, your choice may be dependent on power consumption or cost and the availability of products. Within the IoT, there are currently no shortage of manufacturers building fully licensed and certified products and unless you are deploying in very high volumes, it remains prohibitive to build from the component level due to license and certification costs.

Power consumption always remains a consideration. The power consumed by 2G and 4G is significant. It is not dependent on the type of transmission but more on the usable signal range. GSM requires a stronger signal than LTE. This is down to improvements in technology. We now have improved error correction, more efficient PA’s and more sensitive receivers, all helping to improve the overall link efficiency.

GSM has a link power of around -113dBm
LTE is lower power around -120dBm

A difference in the power level of 3dBm is a doubling of the power, so the LTE signals require a quarter of that of GSM. Due to inverse square law of radio propagation, a quarter of the power means double the distance. All being equal, an LTE cell can be twice the distance as a GSM cell.

Currently LTE uses this performance increase to provide services with higher data rates which enable services like streaming video and television. With low latency and high data rates typically 50ms and 10Mb. The standard rule of radio signals apply.

Transmit power x Distance
——————————— = performance
bandwidth

LTE is 4x the performance of 2G.

If we reduce the bandwidth for LTE NB-IoT then we also increase the performance.

The 3GPP specification not only reduces the bandwidth, it also reverts to half duplex and increased latency, the roaming function is removed which adds up to a very slim transmission method; when coupled with the greater performance of LTE the general performance and power over 2G systems will be considerable.

When considering the spectrum, most radio designers are aware that it remains a very crowded place. It is in all our interests to reduce the usage for future services but to minimise background noise in the environment. 2G uses 30khz to 200khz bandwidth at a range of frequencies 850/900/1700/1900Mhz. It is a TDMA (Time Domain Multiple Access) signal and a half duplex service.

Within LTE and depending on which of the 20 plus frequencies are allocated, bandwidths up to 60Mhz are used. LTE is full duplex and uses 2 frequencies for up and down links these are divided by ‘Guard’ bands. Both FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex).

LTE NB-IoT in comparison can use the same frequencies as full LTE but is half duplex and only requires one frequency, it can also use TDD signals in the Guard Bands more efficiently using the spectrum.

Over time and with the phasing out of 2G, the use of NB-IoT will free up space within the spectrum.

Also, under the 3GPP release 13 in 2016 another standard was included – LTE Cat M – and like NB-IoT it is a sub set of the LTE standard.

LTE Cat M has some differences to NB-IoT with a wider bandwidth of 1.4Mhz, however, the higher data rates possibly removes the ability to use the GSM bands. In addition the higher data rates and bandwidth, it allows VoLTE (Voice over LTE). The power level on both standards are virtually the same. LTE Cat M also supports roaming which is not available in NB-IoT. Currently both standards are being promoted by the network operators.

Both NB-IoT and LTE Cat M have advanced radio design which gives up to 4x the power efficiency. Currently NB-IoT will deploy faster and is the best choice for fixed location devices like remote water pumping station, parking and utility meters. LTE Cat M has the added benefit of roaming and voice, this makes it better suited to robot equipment, fire and security with voice alarms etc.

If you have existing 2G installations there is no immediate panic to redesign, however, for new designs the power and spectrum advantages make the choice of NB-IoT or LTE Cat M good sense. The decision between these 2 comes down to the type of product and requirements for data rate, roaming ability and power/battery life. The 2G networks in Europe and Asia will continue for some time nevertheless, the migration has begun, and Siretta are perfectly positioned to ensure your deployments and proof of concepts are future proofed.

The post 2G vs NB-IoT & LTE Cat M appeared first on Siretta Limited.

3G was first released in Japan in March 2001 as a new UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) standard which was ratified by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and included benchmarks for speed and reliability. The minimum requirement is a data rate of 200kb/s which became the standard for Europe, Japan and China. WCDMA (Wide Band Code Division Multiplex) still remains the most shared radio across the globe. In China TD-SCDMA (Time Division Multiplex) and in North America and South Korea CDMA (Code Division Multiplex) are used. Although a global standard exists, it does not mean all devices can talk to each other. Nonetheless, all of these radio systems are based on Spread Spectrum transmission.

WCDMA is the most common version deployed on 2100Mhz in all regions, but can also be available on the 850,900 and 1900Mhz frequencies. With several upgrades to the original standard, the latest being HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access), theoretical data rates up to 168Mb/s upload and 22Mb/s download can be obtained. This is achieved by using enhanced radio components and Multi Carrier Transmission. Evolving from the original standard, CDMA2000 is now deployed in North America, China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Europe and Africa.

The spectrum use for 3G is significantly higher than 2G and the amount of bandwidth needed for 3G services could be as much as 15-20Mhz, whereas for 2G, a bandwidth of 30-200 KHz is required. However many new services are available from 3G which were out of scope for 2G, for example:

• Global Positioning System (GPS)
• Location-based services
• Mobile TV
• Telemedicine
• Video conferencing
• Video on demand

LTE Cat 1 is the initial release of LTE or Long term Evolution, a 3GPP specification similar to 3G in its use of UMTS/HSPA. It is downward compatible to GSM GPRS/EDGE; LTE Cat 1 uses a different radio interface promoting network improvements. It is the upgrade path from 3G for UMTS and CDMA2000.

Different LTE frequencies make LTE Cat 1 available globally, however it is impractical to build one device covering all bands and frequencies as currently there are a total of 80 variants. Module manufacturers are currently focused on producing 2 version, either America plus or Europe Plus to enable as many regions as possible as the physical limitation is 7 bands.

Common Frequencies and Bands

The main objective for LTE was to increase the capacity and speed of the networks, bringing advances in streaming and video functionality.

Consideration needs to be given to the radio interface which comes in 2 versions; FDD (Frequency Division Multiplex) and TDD (Time Division Multiplex ). The major differences between TDD and FDD is how data is uploaded and downloaded, and at what frequency the networks are deployed. While FDD uses paired frequencies to upload and download data, TDD uses a single frequency, alternating between uploading and downloading data through time either half duplex or full duplex.

A key upgrade from 3G making networks more efficient was the move away from circuit switched to packet switched an all IP network. This means some voice and analogue services will need to be fallback switched CSFB (Circuit Switch Fallback), however, this enables voice over IP and services like digital TV.

For IoT designs, the key advantage of using LTE is the higher bandwidths enabling the use of browser based systems and the employment of higher programming languages such as JAVA script. With the move towards IoT Sensor hubs, this will enable nodes and the integration of many end point node systems with direct display integration. The move to IP based networks on LTE makes this more user friendly.

Observing performance you would expect 3G to be more power hungry as it is an older technology, however, LTE uses MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) which requires extra power. In the real world, 3G uses a higher power less efficient radio system, and during roaming the cell edge switching consumes greater power. MIMO makes transmission much faster.

As you can see above, the decision on whether to use 3G or LTE Cat 1 is very inexact. Power consumption is dependent on fixed or roaming. Data rates on 3G appear higher, but when latency is taken into account this can negate speed and the 3G bandwidth is subject to regional availability.

With the advent of 5G, the network operators are starting to look at redundancy. A reprieve of 2G is the most likely outcome making it more probable that the network operators will focus on sun setting 3G as the newer networks are IP based and more cost effective than analogue solutions supporting longevity for 4G/LTE.

For IoT applications, the main motive to migrate from 2G to 3G was the ability to use Java applications, 4G is better suited as it is IP based. If you need to use Analogue voice then 3G offers better performance as it continues the circuit switched service. For global product applications, 3G has the advantage of one frequency 2100Mhz, whereas LTE has a large number of bands and frequencies requiring regional products.

Today, both technologies are established and network availability is good. Products for 3G usually have a 3 or 4 function radio, whilst 4G modules have up to 7, making the 3G modules more cost effective today. However, with the risk of obsolesce looming consideration needs to be given to future proofing through LTE Cat 1.

Siretta are perfectly positioned to ensure your deployments and PoC’s (proof of concepts) are future proofed. The ZETA modem range contains LTE Cat 1 modems, LTE Cat M and NB-IoT modems, both occupying the same footprint as previous ZETA models, so choices can be made today for planned installations in the future.

Our design team is made up of experienced industry professionals with expertise in hardware design, software development, system integration, production engineering and overall project management & delivery.

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