Issue 1, 2021

WHAT LIES BENEATH: IoT MONITORING KEEPS CITY INFRASTRUCTURE HUMMING ON THE LEVEL: CELLULAR IoT STOPS TANKS RUNNING DRY THIS WAY UP: ENSURING CRITICAL CARGO ARRIVES The IN ONE PIECE Last Mile Wireless tech is making micromobility safe and secure for post-pandemic commuters

ARE SEMICONDUCTORS TRACK VALUABLES POWER PROFILING IMMUNE TO COVID-19? FROM ANYWHERE MADE SIMPLE

Welcome Contents News 4 Alf Helge Omre News Extra 10 Business Development Manager - Transportation Combining wMBus and LPWANs for Cloud connected gateways Analysis 12 t Nordic, we’re close to many of the major changes the Chip industry shows COVID-19 immunity but challenges ahead pandemic has enforced. That’s because our tech has not only been used to fight COVID-19 but also to support other People on Comment 13 A Coming of age for the IoT sectors that have transformed during these tough times. bicycles, instead Online buying is one example. It’s booming and that has led to of being in cars, The Last Mile 14 demand for tech such as wireless asset tracking to monitor the Micromobility solutions are on the buses and location of billions of packages as they speed across the planet. rise to solve the last mile problem It is one change that looks like it’s here to stay; one analyst, trains, go a long What Lies Beneath 18 Research&Markets, forecasts the asset tracking market will way towards Wireless monitoring keeps city double from $17 billion in 2020 to $34 billion by 2026. cutting carbon infrastructure working Another area undergoing huge upheaval is micromobility. When emissions On the Level 24 the pandemic started, those that could worked from home. But Wireless tech is helping track as vaccines have started to be administered and people have tank levels to prevent shortages returned to the factory, bank, shop or office, many have chosen to This Way Up 28 stay away from public transport and take to two wheels. Asset trackers move beyond As a result, cycling—as well as skateboarding, scooting and other location monitoring forms of human-powered transport—has boomed. Now cities like Nordic Inside 30 Leicester in the U.K. have followed cycling capital Copenhagen’s ArcX smart ring example by closing streets to cars and introducing tens of Case Study 32 kilometers of ‘pop-up’ bike lanes to make bike commuting safer. Tracker combines cellular IoT, WORK SOMEWHERE AWESOME Better yet, people on bicycles, instead of being in cars, buses GPS and Bluetooth LE and trains, go a long way towards cutting carbon emissions. That Industry Viewpoint 33 helps a lot if ambitious commitments such as the U.K.’s 80 percent Jan Willem Smeenk - SODAQ reduction in emissions by 2050 and France’s carbon neutrality by Tech Zone News 34 the same year are to be met. Cellular IoT reference design Will cycle commuting continue to boom in a post-pandemic slashes costs world? I’d like to think so, and wireless tech is already playing its Tech Briefing 36 We are increasing our global footprint and part. Cycle sharing, safety, navigation and control are all served by Power profiling made simple Nordic customers. You can read more about how on page 14. continuing our journey by opening new offices WQ Live Events 38 Join the debate about AI and ML across the globe. Do you dare to join a wireless on resource constrained chips tech pioneer and be a part of our team? Nordic Product Summary 40

Issue 1, 2021

WHAT LIES BENEATH: IoT MONITORING KEEPS CITY INFRASTRUCTURE HUMMING ON THE LEVEL: CELLULAR IoT STOPS TANKS RUNNING DRY THIS WAY UP: ENSURING CRITICAL Wireless Quarter is published on behalf CARGO ARRIVES of Nordic Semiconductor by Ecritech Media The IN ONE PIECE Editor Last Mile Steven Keeping [email protected] The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are Wireless tech is making registered trademarks owned by the Bluetooth micromobility safe and secure for post-pandemic commuters SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Nordic Assistant Editor Semiconductor is under license. Chris Williams [email protected] © Nordic Semiconductor 2021 Production Editor Andrew Woolls-King [email protected] Creative Director Sam Grimmer Image Editors Check out our current vacancies at Subscribe @NordicTweets Like us Follow us Forum: devzone. Nathan Sargent, Neale Hobday nordicsemi.com nordicsemi.com/job and apply today Print & Distribution ToTo subscribe subscribe to to WQ WQ visit visit www.nordicsemi.com/wqmag www.nordicsemi.com/wqmag ARE SEMICONDUCTORS TRACK VALUABLES POWER PROFILING Printech Europe IMMUNE TO COVID-19? FROM ANYWHERE MADE SIMPLE

2 W Issue 4 2020 Issue 1 2021 W 3 In Brief

Smart Health AWARDS AT THE DOUBLE News Nordic Semiconductor, The latest developments from Nordic Semiconductor along with cellular Wireless home test kit helps in connectivity partner, iBASIS, have been Internet of Things fight against COVID-19 named IoT Partnership of the Year at IoT World Digital diagnostic company Ellume has 2020. The award recognizes how the Nordic and Edge Impulse partner on launched a COVID-19 home testing kit companies have simplified global cellular that enables individuals to check for an IoT connectivity based on Nordic’s nRF9160 active infection in 15 minutes or less. The SiP and iBASIS’ Open eSIM technology. AI and machine learning solutions Ellume COVID-19 Home Test uses ultra- Nordic was also recently shortlisted by the sensitive optics, electronics and proprietary Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) for the software to analyze a nasal swab with the 2020 GSA Most Respected Emerging Public ordic Semiconductor has partnered with results automatically transmitted to the Semiconductor Company Award in the $100 U.S. company Edge Impulse to provide user’s smartphone via Nordic nRF52810- million to $500 million annual sales category. Nits customers with easy-to-use powered Bluetooth LE connectivity. From embedded machine learning features as the associated smartphone app, the results WILDLIFE TRACKERS standard for its nRF9160 low power cellular can be transmitted through a secure Cloud GO WIRELESS IoT SiP, as well as its nRF53 and nRF52 Series connection to healthcare professionals. Bluetooth LE SoCs. The test will help reduce the impact of the Two of the winning The partnership will make it pandemic by providing a readily available projects from the easy for developers using Nordic and simple-to-use method to acquire “Using the test, we can all enjoy the benefits of Hackster.io and technology to build and train tiny the information needed to reduce risk of group activity safe in the knowledge that we Smart Parks backed machine learning (TinyML) models transmission. Users will be able to safely present no risk to the vulnerable. That’s a huge ElephantEdge wildlife in Edge Impulse Studio, and deploy recommence group activities at work, school step towards a return to normality.” tracker challenge have these models across Nordic’s or on the sports field. Real-time reporting of The antigen test has demonstrated 96 specified Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC for wireless solutions. This will reduce test results to health authorities, employers percent accuracy compared to an Emergency their elephant tracking collar designs. The development time and make and educators will enable efficient COVID-19 Use Authorization (EUA) molecular test in an challenge aims to replace traditional and the technology more accessible, mapping and rapid reaction to outbreaks. independently-run, U.S. clinical study in five manual methods of elephant monitoring to especially to smaller companies “The home test is the perfect example of states. Ellume has received an EUA from the support conservation efforts in Africa. The without inhouse machine how advanced digital diagnostics and the IoT U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for challenge resulted in solutions which will be learning expertise. can help address the worst impacts of the its solution. The company plans to deliver 20 deployed onto 10 collars. “[This partnership] takes the “Now, using Edge Impulse power line failure detection for utilities. But SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,” says Geir Langeland, million Ellume COVID-19 Home Tests to the application potential of wireless tools, Nordic customers could all applications stand to benefit from TinyML, Director of Sales & Marketing with Nordic. U.S. within the first half of 2021. SHARE BIKE FIRMS IoT technologies such as Bluetooth be running TinyML on their from asset tracking to wearables. LE to a whole new level in terms applications within hours. And at “This partnership is bringing AI and machine LAUD NORDIC of environmental awareness and autonomous a power consumption level that still supports learning to the wireless IoT masses,” says Nordic has received decision making,” says Kjetil Holstad, Nordic’s extended battery operation.” Edge Impulse Co-Founder and CEO, Zach Smart health startup aims to awards from two of Director of Product Management. “Although Prime engineering areas for TinyML include Shelby. “By leveraging the fact that Nordic’s China’s big bike-sharing we have built and run TinyML applications on audio and vibration where it can be used to SoCs employ at least one powerful Arm core automate public health diagnostics companies. Nordic was Nordic’s Bluetooth LE chips in the past, this establish normal operating patterns and processor … and are architecturally designed recognized with a 5 Year Long Term Partnership required a high level of maths and computer rapidly detect anomalies. Example applications for ultra-low power battery operation, this U.S. smart medical and public health IoT and AI for hospitals, food outlets award from Beijing Mobike Technology. programming expertise using professional include anti-poaching (listening for gun shots), partnership is democratizing access to TinyML startup, NousLogic, has adopted Nordic-based and the hospitality sector Elsewhere Nordic received the Best industry and academia software. predictive and preventative maintenance, and within the Bluetooth market.” cellular IoT connectivity across all its real- by reminding workers Technology Collaboration award at the 2020 time monitoring and end-to-end diagnostics to wash their hands; a remote patient China Micromobility Industry Conference solutions. The solutions are designed to monitoring platform targeting the home from Alibaba-backed Hellobike. The award Smart Health maximize scarce resources in the healthcare health and assisted living market; as well as acknowledges the company’s leadership in sector, not only by identifying problems the NousLogic Smart Access platform that low power, short range wireless technology. Wireless sensor offers continuous infection monitoring but also automating diagnosis and remedy supports touch-free NFC video doorbell and without the need for time-consuming and door lock control. This enables users to screen Polish medical startup, Warmie, has released PhD. “Infections left untreated can quickly “Few industries have been more heavily costly human intervention. visitors and grant them access from anywhere MEDICAL an intensive care-certified medical wireless become more widespread within the body impacted by COVID-19 than medical,” says “We not only use IoT and data analytics to in their homes, including from beds. The WEARABLES RISING temperature sensor. The sensor enables and thus much harder to treat. Geir Langeland, Nordic’s Director of Sales & track who, what, where and when in remote company also offers an nRF9160 SiP-based The value of the global wearable medical continuous infection monitoring of COVID-19 “This means patients having to spend Marketing. “Shifts towards telemedicine and monitoring for healthcare, but go one critical cellular IoT adapter board that allows any devices market is expected to rise from and post-operative hospital patients. And it potentially several more weeks in hospital or in particular continuous remote monitoring … step further and provide the why and how,” third-party Wi-Fi health platform to transition $6.8 billion in 2017 to reach an estimated facilitates localized continuous temperature being re-admitted if they develop an infection are being fast-tracked says NousLogic Founder & CEO, Hoang Nhu. to LTE-M or NB-IoT. $29.6 billion by the end of 2026, according to and infection monitoring of post-operative after returning home. This is extremely costly today. Continuous “This enables both high accuracy, automatic “Turning raw health data into useful and figures from Transparency Market Research. The analyst said key advancements in R&D surgical wounds both in and out of hospital, as for hospitals and means that the potential remote monitoring diagnostics and advanced preventative care powerful health insights is a win-win for the and the adoption of major innovations in well as of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. It cost savings of employing our device far using wireless medical that spots problems and negative trends early industry and every individual it affects, which the medical sector were key trends driving also enables continuous monitoring of a large outweigh the installation costs.” devices is set to and before they become more serious.” is all of us,” says Nhu. “At the right economies growth in the market. The collaboration numbers of patients simultaneously. The battery-powered device uses Nordic become standardized The Nordic nRF9160 SiP-based solutions of scale, the solutions could be delivered at a between the medical sector and the “[Manual temperature checks] often miss Semiconductor’s nRF52810 SoC and is the within the medical include the The NousLogic Healthcare Real- cost level that supports global adoption in both electronics industry is also considered a critical changes that can signify an infection,” first device of its kind to be certified for use in industry over the Time Locating Services (RTLS) platform the developed and developing world that could major factor contributing to growth. says Professor Tomasz Banasiewicz, M.D. hospital emergency rooms. coming years.” targeting infection control and compliance improve the health outcomes of billions.”

4 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 5

News In Brief

Smart Health ROBOT SOLDIERS ON THE MARCH AoA/AoD Direction Finding solution A quarter of British Wireless ECG heart monitor soldiers could be replaced by autonomous robot brings precision to location services counterparts by the detects cardiac disorders 2030s, according to Californian tech company, IOSEA, has array, sample Bluetooth LE packets and extract the head of the British Norwegian medical tech The solution employs Nordic’s developed a proprietary real time location the in phase and quadrature phase information armed forces, Gen. Sir manufacturer AppSens has nRF52832 SoC to enable a hardware and software platform that uses necessary for the AoA/AoD software’s Nick Carter. A combination of robotics, AI launched a wireless wearable patient’s ECG data to be Nordic’s nRF52833 SoC. The solution is calculations. Using the Nordic SoC-enabled and machine learning technologies could electrocardiographic (ECG) sent from the wearable claimed to offer an angular accuracy of two Bluetooth LE connectivity, the proximity see robot soldiers gather data from multiple heart monitor. The wearable to a smartphone app via degrees precision down to a 10 cm range. The data can also be wirelessly transmitted to a sensors and communicate with each other is designed to detect atrial Bluetooth LE. The SoC’s SEAgnal AoA/AoD Switched Antenna Array smartphone, from where the user can monitor wirelessly to decide their next action with greater precision than humans. IoT- fibrillation and other cardiac powerful Arm Cortex-M4 hardware, alongside the SEAgnal AoA/AoD 1.0 and manage angular and location information powered robots could perform nearly any arrhythmias. Atrial fibrillation processor with floating point proprietary software, enables RF- using an iOS-compatible app. kind of military operation. is the most common cardiac unit supports the wearable’s based location finding for third party IOSEA licenses its SEAgnal rhythm disorder and is a common integrated sensors and runs electronic devices. technology to chip manufacturers, cause of a stroke. complex proprietary algorithms The hardware, which integrates wireless service providers, device NORDIC EXPANDS The ECG247 Smart Heart Sensor for continuously measuring and the Nordic nRF52833 SoC and the makers, and other partners to make IN SOUTH AMERICA consists of a disposable electrode- analyzing the electrical activity in SEAgnal AoA/AoD 1.0 software, location finding affordable and Nordic Semiconductor has partnered with patch to fasten the sensor to the the patient’s heart for arrhythmia. can be embedded into a third-party convenient for end-users. São Paulo, Brazil-based BP&M to provide patient’s chest and a reusable The device’s CR2032 coin-cell wearable device for proximity “IOSEA technology enables third party sales representation and technical electronic component to achieve battery mounted to the disposable monitoring solutions including location services that are support throughout South America. The agreement covers sales and technical reliable electrical connection for the plaster-patch supports continuous COVID-19 social distancing. IOSEA’s scalable, efficient, and precise,” support for Nordic’s entire portfolio of low SEAgnal provides Angle-of-Arrival says Pål Kastnes, a Technical measurement of ECG signals. The heart rate monitoring for up to 14 days it in cases of ‘artifact disturbances’ (electrical power cellular IoT and short range wireless solution can be used by patients to self- before replacement. interference in rhythm monitoring). Medical (AoA)/Angle-of-Departure (AoD) Marketing Manager with Nordic solutions. BP&M is among the leading sales test their own heart health, including From the iOS and Android companion doctors and cardiologists can then easily solutions which aid positional Semiconductor. representation and consulting firms in the during exercise, while also supporting app the patient can access their access the recorded ECG signals and detected accuracy. The technology uses “Solutions like IOSEA’s SEAgnal region and has assigned a dedicated Field remote patient monitoring and measurements and any detected arrhythmia episodes of their patients to advanced signal processing methods AoA/AoD proprietary hardware/ Application Engineer (FAE) to support Nordic telehealth applications. arrhythmia conditions. The heart provide a quick diagnostic evaluation. to mitigate the effects of multipath software solution rely on Bluetooth customers in all project phases including Medical professionals can use the rhythm recordings are automatically “We selected the Nordic nRF52832 SoC fading, and signal prefiltering Direction Finding, a powerful design, development and prototyping. platform to screen people who are transferred to and stored on a for the ECG247 Smart Heart Sensor because to minimize signal processing introduction to the Bluetooth LE at increased risk of strokes due to secure Cloud-based server. From it offers high radio sensitivity – which is algorithm errors and enable low protocol that will extend its use SMART METERS heart rhythm disorders or who have there an AI-driven algorithm analyzes important as RF signals are difficult to bandwidth data transfer. to widespread real time location FIND FAVOR IN ASIA symptoms of rhythm disorders such as the detected arrhythmia episodes and transmit in systems mounted close to the The nRF52833 SoC is used to applications such as asset palpitations or fast heart rate. either confirms the episode or rejects skin,” says Tord Ytterdahl, CEO of AppSens. control IOSEA’s switched antenna tracking and indoor navigation.” A study from the IoT analyst firm Berg Insight forecasts that 572.3 million smart electricity Wearables Wearables meters will be deployed Researchers airdrop sensors from insects in China, India, Japan and Proximity monitoring wearable Tracker and South Korea during 2021- University of Washington (UW) researchers a researcher on the ground sends a wireless to-2025. At the end of 2019, overall smart combines Bluetooth LE and ultrasound gateway monitors have developed a tiny sensor system that command using Bluetooth LE that activates meter penetration stood at 69 percent in can ride aboard an insect and be airdropped the solenoid and sends the sensor on its way. these markets, corresponding to an installed Atlanta, GA-based IoT software solutions periodically transmits its unique identifier dependents at its destination using Bluetooth LE wireless The sensor was designed with its battery, base of 653.3 million units. China has already company, M2MD Technologies, has for receiving devices to monitor and then connectivity. The system would potentially the heaviest part, in one corner. As the sensor completed its first-wave rollouts with Japan and South Korea next in line. developed a proximity monitoring wearable measure the difference in ‘Time of Flight’ IoTBank, a Tokyo-based tech company, enable IoT sensors to be placed in areas where falls, it begins rotating around the corner with that combines both Bluetooth LE and (ToF) between the Bluetooth LE packet and has unveiled an attachable and portable it is too dangerous or difficult for humans to go. the battery, generating additional drag force ultrasound to track social distancing with an ultrasonic audio signal. The time difference tracking device for monitoring the location When the sensor is released it can withstand and slowing its descent. The researchers COVID-19 DRIVES one-to-three centimeter precision. Co- is proportional to the distance between of dependent or at-risk individuals, for a fall of up to 22 meters—from about the envision using this system to create a sensor SMART DEVICES developed with its hardware manufacturer, transmitter and receiver. example children or the elderly. The device sixth floor of a building—and land without network within a large scale study area, for A third of all smart device owners in U.S. Coolpad, a global consumer electronics In addition to real-time proximity monitoring is also designed for tracking industrial and breaking. Once in position the sensor can example a forest or farm. broadband households have increased company, the Coolpad Bubble is designed to and alerts for wearers, the Bubble platform commercial assets. collect data, such as temperature and their use of smart home solutions during help companies create a safer environment provides comprehensive data on contact Enabled by LTE-M connectivity and humidity, for almost three years. the COVID-19 pandemic, including nearly for their employees during the pandemic. interactions for tracking adherence to social GPS provided by Nordic’s nRF9160 “This is the first time anyone has shown that half of smart door lock owners. According The compact wearable attaches to the distancing guidelines through the Cloud- SiP—complemented by a built-in Wi- sensors can be released from ... insects such to recent research from Parks Associates, user’s shoulder, features four TDK ultrasonic based Coolpad dashboard. Fi triangulation capability for accurate as moths, which can traverse through narrow with consumers spending more time at transceivers and Nordic’s nRF52840 Secure recording of non-personal positioning without requiring GPS—the spaces better than any drone and sustain home, they are finding more value in smart home and security use cases, driving new Bluetooth LE SoC which together data and intrusion alerts including Mamosearch 2 tracker periodically much longer flights,” says Shyam Gollakota, product announcements in these categories. Mark Stone, UW Stone, Mark detect proximity to neighboring device ID, distance, timestamp transmits the whereabouts of the a UW associate professor in the Paul G. Allen In the connected health space, for example, devices. Users receive visual, and event duration enables tracked item to a proprietary Cloud- School of Computer Science & Engineering. the company said demand for virtual care audio and haptic vibration alerts detailed reporting and analytics. based platform and dashboard via the While industrial-sized drones use grippers to solutions, telehealth and remote patient when another device is within a 1.8 m This data is relayed from the cell network. This in turn enables remote carry their payloads, the sensor is held on the monitoring has boomed during the pandemic. perimeter. Each device autonomously device to the Cloud via Wi-Fi. monitoring via a smartphone app. insect using a solenoid. To release the sensor,

6 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 7

News By the Numbers

Smart Health Cellular IoT keeps electricity Wirelessly rechargeable $405 smart grids humming implant controls brain cells million A combination of cellular IoT and Bluetooth A group of researchers from The Korea with a coil antenna and a Bluetooth LE chip. LE connectivity is allowing electricity grid Advanced Institute of Science and Technology An alternating magnetic field can harmlessly operators to remotely monitor smart power (KAIST) have engineered a tiny brain implant penetrate through tissue and generate in revenue grids and take corrective action in the event that can be wirelessly recharged from outside electricity inside the device to charge the Nordic Semiconductor has reported of a network fault. the body to control brain circuits for long battery. Then the battery-powered Bluetooth full 2020 revenue of $405.2 million, Slovenian innovation lab, IRNAS, has periods of time without battery replacement. LE implant delivers programmable patterns representing growth of 40.5 percent over developed a device that once deployed The new wireless charging technology of light to brain cells using an easy-to-use 2019 full year revenue. The result comes on transmission towers throughout an addresses the limitations of current brain smartphone app for real-time brain control. on the back of all time record Q4 revenue electricity network, employs integrated implants. The device is constructed of “This powerful device eliminates the need of $127.1 million, an increase of nearly 53 voltage, temperature, accelerometer and ultrasoft and biocompliant polymers to help for additional painful surgeries to replace an percent over Q4, 2019 revenue which was surge counter sensors to monitor power provide long term compatibility with tissue. exhausted battery,” says Professor Jeong itself a record. The strong year-on-year grids and surge arresters for a range of Geared with micrometer-sized from KAIST who led the study. growth reflects significant demand across potential faults. These include excessive LEDs mounted on ultrathin “We believe that the same all markets. Bluetooth LE dominated temperature because of a possible fire, the probes, the device can wirelessly basic technology can be applied revenue growth, contributing $316 million. collapse of a transmission tower, power manipulate target neurons in the to various types of implants, outage or power surges. IRNAS developed deep brain using light. The fully including cardiac pacemakers.” the RAM-1 device for Izoelektro, a firm implantable, soft optoelectronic supplying utilities and energy companies SiP’s multimode LTE-M/NB-IoT connectivity where there is no LPWAN coverage, as well system can be remotely and 6.6 billion with solutions that help set up, maintain and and GPS trilateration enables RAM-1 to as providing a back-up channel for upgrading selectively controlled by a restore electrical energy systems. RAM-1 periodically relay the data—and the precise the device and applying different network smartphone using Bluetooth LE uses machine learning (ML) models built with location of the monitored device—to the settings if necessary. To avoid the need for wireless connectivity. connected Edge Impulse’s technology. (See pg4.) proprietary RAM-CENTER web platform. regular maintenance, the ruggedized RAM-1 Wireless implantable device

Incorporating Nordic’s nRF9160 This allows operators to immediately fix is powered by a primary Li-Mn02 cell and is technologies have recently become popular IoT devices low power SiP with integrated any potential problems and improve designed to last up to 20 years in the field. as alternatives to conventional tethered At the end of 2020, 6.6 billion IoT devices LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GPS the reliability and stability of the “RAM-1 has rapidly become an IoT device implants because they help minimize stress were connected and active worldwide, in combination with the nRF52811 overall electricity network. for remote monitoring, ML and advanced and inflammation during brain studies, which with 840 million of them using a cellular Bluetooth LE SoC, the RAM-1 In addition to commissioning the analytics of power grids,” says Jure in turn enhance the lifetime of the devices. network, just under eight percent of the device can be commissioned via a RAM-1 device, the Bluetooth LE Pungerčar, Deputy CEO of Izoelektro. “We To enable wireless battery charging and total. According to market advisory firm, smartphone app using Bluetooth LE connectivity also provides a method are excited about ... the ability to improve the controls, researchers developed a tiny circuit ABI Research, by 2026 cellular IoT devices wireless connectivity. The nRF9160’s of collecting data in remote locations reliability of electricity distribution.” that integrates a wireless energy harvester will see near seven times growth, bringing the global total to 5.7 billion. To achieve this number the analyst said carriers Smart Agriculture Industrial IoT would need to guarantee the reliability Japan trials wireless and together with the hard hats are wirelessly of networks through the use of global Cellular IoT tech could fight food waste Mesh-networked linked using the Wirepas Mesh powered by connectivity coverage solutions. tombstones the Nordic SoCs. Data including worker time, Over one-and-a-half-billion tons of food is “IoT has the power to overhaul the way we Bluetooth LE-powered tombstones that hard hat sensors location and motion/shock analytics can be currently lost or wasted every year according grow and transport food,” says Nick Earle, provide a more personalized experience relayed via Wirepas Mesh to the nRF52832 to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, Eseye CEO. “With finite resources we must for mourners visiting communal tombs track construction SoC-equipped gateway which in turn sends equating to $1.2 trillion. However, this could become more efficient and end wastage. have been introduced in the Yachiyo the data to the Cloud. $81.5 be reduced by 20 percent by the year 2025, “By connecting up the supply chain, we can Yukyu no Sato Cemetery in Chiba staff and assets Site management can then review the and by 50 percent before the end of the produce and ship only what we need, and Prefecture, Japan. Communal tombstones Designed to overcome the challenge information and actionable insights next decade by transforming supply chains then better care for it to ensure it reaches provide a cost-effective alternative for of visibility of worker flow traffic via the WakeCap Analysis Platform, through the use of cellular IoT technology, the fork unharmed. IoT has traditionally been Japanese families who cannot afford to and equipment location in through a web-based dashboard billion U.K.-based IoT company Eseye claims. centered around big-ticket items, but new bury loved ones on their own plot. industrial sectors, WakeCap or an associated smartphone The U.N. has set a target of reducing food technologies are making smaller sensors The tombstone, called Hikari, uses an Technologies has launched app, for operational purposes. in 2021 waste by 50 percent by 2030, however Eseye economically viable on a massive scale.” electronic ‘paper’ screen and Bluetooth LE a mesh-networked sensor The platform can also be used Global end-user spending on wearables believes this could be achieved sooner were technology to detect who is approaching platform based on Nordic’s to enhance COVID-19 safety and avoid site will total $81.5 billion in 2021, an 18.1 the industry to adopt cellular IoT-connected the tomb, before changing its display nRF52832 multiprotocol SoC and shutdown by providing a touchless automated percent increase from $69 billion in 2020, labeling technology and real time sensor- image on the headstone to match their Wirepas Mesh software. attendance system, monitoring social according to the latest forecast from based data tracking. family member. When approaching the site The WakeCap solution comprises hard hat- distancing and contact tracing. Gartner. The rise in remote work and The company says the labels, when placed with a ‘talisman’—in effect a Bluetooth- worn sensors, network nodes and a gateway, Wirepas Mesh can be used to connect, locate health monitoring during the COVID-19 on food items, would enable complete LE powered beacon—the screen on the and enables real time reporting highlighting and identify lights, sensors, beacons, assets, pandemic has been a significant factor real-time visibility of the entire supply chain tomb changes to display the name, date unexpected problems early and avoiding machines and meters. The decentralized driving market growth. The analyst said and provide instant monitoring of location, of death and photo of the loved one. Once delays or extra costs. The sensors track the network allows each WakeCap hard hat to the introduction of health measures to temperature and humidity data, while at the the family member and their talisman exits location of the wearer on a worksite and relay data to another hard hat or anchor self-track COVID-19 symptoms presented same time eradicating losses caused during Bluetooth range, the electronic screen record any impact incidents. The network node maximizing coverage and reducing the a significant opportunity for wearables. transport and through farming inefficiencies. returns to its default image. nodes are placed throughout the worksite number of nodes or gateways required.

8 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 9 News Extra

Smart City A standard for remote Combining reading of smart meters wMBus and Utilities look to connect their smart meters to the IoT to form the basis of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI). AMI is defined as an integrated system of smart meters, communications LPWANs for networks and data management systems that enables two-way communication between utilities and customers. When integrated with consumer technologies such as smart Cloud connected thermostats, AMI lets utilities offer their customers time-based tariffs and incentives that encourage them to reduce peak demand and manage energy consumption and costs. gateways Wireless MBus (wMBus) is an RF technology that builds on the foundation laid by wired Meter-Bus (MBus) Binge-watch webinars with With Lobaro’s Wireless MBus Gateway, technology. wMBus is based on a European standard (EN European utilities can choose from either 13757-4) which was developed for AMI networking and remote topics related to our products reading of smart meters across Europe. The most recent cellular IoT or LoRaWAN to support their revision of the specification was adopted in 2013 and and technologies. All webinars Advanced Metering Infrastructure supersedes the 2005 version. While other frequencies are used, notably a 169 MHz are made available on-demand! narrowband version which offers greater range, most wMBus mart meters aid both consumers and utilities. floors of a large apartment building. Metering data is sent smart meter deployments use the license-free 868 MHz band. The devices provide both parties with real-time to the Lobaro Platform in the Cloud, were it gets parsed, This band offers reasonable throughput but better range (500 Sinformation about energy consumption enabling displayed and made available for further processing. meters line-of-sight) and penetration (two to three building much finer control over production and usage. That boosts It is also possible to use the Lobaro gateway without floors) than the popular 2.4 GHz license-free allocation. In convenience while ensuring careful consumption of finite the platform and instead connect it to a standalone addition, wMBus offers several operating modes, including “S” resources and limiting carbon emissions. backend (as long as the backend is capable of parsing and (meters send data once or few times a day), “T” (several times a The European Union (EU) is at the forefront of smart decrypting wMBus ‘telegrams’). day) and “C” (higher data rate version of mode T). The protocol HIGHLIGHTS utility meter deployment. EU member states are required Lobaro uses Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP in its Wireless MBus is a low power, short range technology using Frequency Shift to implement smart metering under EU energy market Gateway to provide LPWAN connectivity of European Keying (FSK) modulation. How nRF9160 enables legislation. European countries have committed to MBus utility meters using NB-IoT, LoRaWAN or a wMBus has gained market share due to its simplicity. The deploying 200 million smart meters for electricity and 45 combination of both. Although the nRF9160 is capable of software stack is lightweight and comprises just a physical cellular IoT asset tracking million for gas in the next few years at a total potential both LTE-M and NB-IoT connectivity, Lobaro says data is layer (PHY), Date Link Layer and Application Layer. Security is investment of €45 billion ($52.8 billion). When this phase of uploaded to the Cloud from the gateway using just NB-IoT. underwritten by AES-128 encryption. the program is completed almost 72 percent of European NB-IoT is better suited to fixed installations, especially One downside is that wMBus supports star network consumers will have a smart meter for electricity while 40 those which are inside buildings or basements because it topologies only which places restrictions on where the Become an expert on power percent will have one for gas. penetrates obstructions better than LTE-M. gateway can be placed. (Several competing protocols, for profiling your application How well a smart meter performs is dictated in large While the nRF9160 is designed for cellular IoT, Lobaro example, Zigbee, support mesh networking which boosts range part by how the data gets from the meter to the Cloud is also using the SiP’s Arm Cortex-M33 processor (and and builds-in redundancy.) And, while wMBus is a standard, for analysis. Smart meters targeted at the European associated 1 MB Flash and 256 KB RAM) to support not there is no independent certification authority like the market typically incorporate Wireless Meter-Bus (wMBus) Tech Check only the cellular IoT firmware but also the company’s own Bluetooth Special Interest Group or Zigbee Alliance to ensure Everything to know about defined by the EN 13757-4 standard. wMBus is a mature The nRF9160 SiP’s high wMBus stack and LoRaWAN firmware. LoRaWAN is an compliance and interoperability. Instead, interoperability and widely adopted technology, designed for short range level of integration, LPWAN alternative to NB-IoT. challenges are resolved through lengthy field trials between Bluetooth LE advertising connectivity between a local group of smart meters and including RF front end, While open standard NB-IoT offers greater throughput equipment manufacturers. In addition—because there are a handheld reader, concentrator or gateway. (See sidebar application processor and longer range than proprietary LoRaWAN,the latter’s multiple operational options—regions and countries pick- pg11, A standard for remote reading of smart meters.) and cellular IoT modem, inclusion in the Lobaro gateway provides utility companies and-choose elements from the standard to optimize wMBus reduces the number with fallback Cloud connectivity for smart meters used in performance for their own operating environments. Such Gateway to the Cloud of components in areas lacking NB-IoT coverage. customization further undermines interoperability. Utilities want to connect groups of smart meters to the Lobaro’s Wireless MBus “Cellular IoT and LoRaWAN are [often] regarded as WATCH NOW Gateway. The result is a IoT so that the data can be analyzed by powerful Cloud complementary wireless technologies in the … smart full-functional wMBus/ webinars.nordicsemi.com/videos servers. That requires aggregating the data transmitted NB-IoT/LoRaWAN meter sector,” says Theodor Rohde, Managing Director of over wMBus from hundreds of smart meters and gateway that can support Lobaro. “This is because LoRaWAN came to market first then forwarding that data over kilometer-range LPWANs up to 250 smart meters in so there are a lot of existing installations where to the Cloud. a form factor measuring customers don’t want to … make a wholesale change to German industrial IoT solutions firm and Nordic 122 by 82 by 55 mm. The cellular IoT. At the same time, they don’t want to be limited Semiconductor customer, Lobaro, has met this demand unit is powered by a 3.6 V to just using LoRaWAN [for future installations]. Having with its Wireless MBus Gateway. Lobaro says the gateway (14.5 mAh) battery that, the option of [two LPWANs] yields greater design is a cost and energy efficient device that receives, caches because of the low power flexibility and reliability in areas of limited coverage or and forwards metering consumption data from up to design of the SiP, lasts poor signal strength. for up to a decade when 250 wMBus enabled smart utility meters to the Cloud. “All the heavy lifting is done by the nRF9160 SiP so there sending metering data The gateway sits close to where the utility meters are once a day are very few additional components required for the located, either in a basement or on every two or three gateway,” adds Tobias Kaupat, Lobaro’s CTO.

10 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 11 Analysis Comment

Internet of Things Geir Langeland Chip industry shows COVID-19 Director of Sales & Marketing: Nordic Semiconductor When the pandemic struck Nordic was already Coming of age for the IoT immunity but challenges lie ahead well positioned in most verticals and as a result As the pandemic negatively impacts economies, world chip sales have gone the other we’ve seen good growth in all segments After the pandemic we’ll learning’ or ‘TinyML’—will bring new way but wafer supply constraints threaten to curb future shipments need to do much more levels of local and environmental with a lot less. Technology awareness, intelligence and basic decision making capabilities to he economic fallout from COVID-19 has been felt far is the answer even the most basic of products, and wide. Yet counterintuitively, the pandemic has at applications and services. Tthe same time accelerated key drivers of growth in the It’s hard to believe that at the start I also predict a rapid rise in semiconductor industry, providing a fillip to chip sales that of this year some people were still automation. A lot of the repetitive some market watchers may not have expected. openly questioning whether the aspects of skilled manual labor and A February 2021 Semiconductor Industry Association IoT would ever realize its potential professions disappeared during (SIA) report details how much global chip sales ramped on any significant scale. No one is COVID-19 and this might mean less up during 2020. Based on World Semiconductor Trade saying that now. And the primary market demand for that kind of work Statistics (WSTS) data, the SIA report shows global reason is COVID-19. As this once-in- in the future as automation offers an semiconductor sales were $439 billion last year, an increase a-lifetime pandemic spread across alternative. But far outweighing any of 6.5 percent compared to the 2019 total of $412.3 billion. the world, it was to IoT technology short-term job losses, I see a wave of Part of this growth can be attributed to the large number that governments, businesses and new, higher quality job opportunities of IoT solutions that have emerged across sanitation, organizations turned. being created by the IoT, including healthcare, COVID-19 testing, social distancing, contact As a result, mass scale IoT has designing, building and optimizing the tracing, vaccine tracking and other related applications - become a global reality even in use of increased automation. but other sectors have grown too. ultra conservative sectors such At global economies of scale However, headwinds are mounting, created by wafer as healthcare. Upon realizing that and thus affordability, the IoT, in constraints at the major contract chip fabricators such as technology was one way to take combination with cutting-edge AI TSMC, a supplier of components to Nordic Semiconductor the fight to COVID-19, healthcare and automation, has the potential and many other fabless chip vendors. professionals rapidly adopted to genuinely make the world a much telemedicine, remote monitoring, better place in which to live and The road ahead for semiconductors key medical equipment asset work. A safer place. A sustainable In 2021, while the global economy starts a slow recovery tracking and a much increased use of place. Perhaps even a more peaceful as vaccines roll out, the chip industry is leaping ahead. Just- numerous kinds of connected technologies,” says Scott solutions in direct response to the pandemic. For medical wearables. and happier place. reported January figures from the SIA show sales were $40 Jones, a Principal with KPMG in the U.S. example, wirelessly connected health devices such as The key question is whether the An improvement to all our lives billion, an increase of 13.2 percent over January 2020 and 1 Meeting the sales backlog will not be all plain sailing. CWD Innovations’ SmartTemp+ and Warmie’s wireless end of the pandemic—still some is my vision (and hope) for the new percent more than the December 2020 total of $39.6 billion. Chip demand has put pressure on the fabs and The Wall temperature sensor support the frontline healthcare way off but now closer due to technical revolution that’s beginning SIA is forecasting an overall rise of 8.4 percent for 2021. Street Journal reports that suppliers have reached the industry. Bluetooth LE proximity-monitoring wearable large vaccine roll outs—will see a to gain traction in 2021. In the fullness According to Global Semiconductor Industry Outlook, limits of current production capacity. The newspaper solutions like the Coolpad Bubble (co-developed by Coolpad reversal of the IoT adoption trend. of time COVID-19 is likely to be a joint report by consultant, KPMG International, and Need to Know reports that TSMC is upping its game adding that the chip and M2MD Technologies) provide contact tracing data and My prediction is the IoT-centered regarded as being one of the worst trade body, the Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA), the maker’s emphasis on capital spending will be necessary to assists with social distancing. Elsewhere, Ellume’s Nordic- changes that COVID-19 forced on things to happen to the world during Of the 2020 chip sales semiconductor industry has “proven resilient throughout annual total of $439 bn capture growth opportunities. TSMC plans to raise capital powered and FDA-authorized COVID-19 Home Test is a safe almost every industry are not about the 21st century. But there’s a chance the COVID-19 pandemic”. The report also says the industry (up 6.5 percent on the expenditures to between $25 billion and $28 billion in 2021, and simple rapid antigen test allowing individuals to check for to significantly reverse. Instead, I it might also be seen as one of the finished 2020 with “similar growth to pre-COVID-19 levels”, year before), shipments at least a 47 percent year-over-year increase. active COVID-19 infection within 15 minutes. believe that IoT-driven changes are best things too - because it ushered and is “again illustrating the world’s increasing reliance on into the Americas market But according to Langeland, Nordic’s success is not just set to accelerate. in a new golden technological era. advanced technologies”. increased annually by Remarkable growth for Nordic down to the opportunities the pandemic has opened up COVID-19 was not only a health Key findings from the KPMG/GSA survey of 19.8 percent. China Nordic is one example of a semiconductor company which for new technology. He said Nordic’s success in the face of disaster for the world but also an semiconductor companies suggest wireless remained the largest is not only surviving the uncertainty of a global pandemic unprecedented global challenges can be attributed to the economic disaster. It hammered communications (including 5G) and the IoT are tied as the individual market for but is thriving in the ‘new normal’. The highlights of the company’s hard work, ‘long-tail’ business focus and strategic finances across the globe, sky semiconductors, with most important application areas driving semiconductor company’s recent performance include full-year 2020 plan to ‘democratize wireless’ over a long period of time, rocketed unemployment figures and sales totaling $151.7 bn revenue over the next year. revenue of $405.2 million (+40.5 percent compared to 2019), many years before the current COVID-19 outbreak. increased government debt levels to in 2020, an increase Seventy two percent of industry leaders (up from 50 of 5.0 percent. But full-year gross profit of $213.9 million (+45.8 percent) and “You wouldn’t ask a professional athlete that practices unprecedented peacetime highs. That percent in the previous year), believe 5G specifically will annual sales did almost a fivefold increase in order backlog to a record high a thousand hours every year for ten years, and then wins means even if the world does return become a significant driver of industry growth, the report decrease in Europe $492 million at the end of the 2020. The backlog reflects the championship, if it’s luck. It’s similar for Nordic; we spent to some degree of stability during states. Although 5G buildout began well before COVID-19, by 6 percent. Logic strong demand across the range of end-user applications the better part of two decades building up a wide customer 2021, it is going to have to operate a the wireless tech is now supporting new IoT use cases ($117.5 bn) and memory as well as more contracts with tier-1 customers. base—it ranges from small to very large customers and is lot more efficiently than before. We’re based on powerful connected sensors. ($117.3 bn) were the Geir Langeland, Nordic’s Sales & Marketing Director, very diversified—and we have spent an awful lot of time going to need to do ten times more The product category representing the largest growth largest semiconductor is pleased with the company’s performance but noted building up a portfolio of products [and] tools which are easy with ten times less. opportunity for semiconductors is sensors/MEMS, categories. Sales of growth could be restrained by supply challenges, saying: for our customers to use,” Langeland asserted during a live Technology will help us get there. micro-ICs—including with analog/RF/mixed signal ranking second, followed “Nordic commented in its Q4 2020 presentation that it had Nordic Semiconductor senior management panel debate in For example, advances in AI and microprocessors— by microprocessors. “Respondents expect the growth been notified of limitations in wafer supply that will limit January. “When the pandemic struck Nordic was already well machine learning—particularly on increased by 4.8 percent opportunity for every semiconductor product category to $69.6 bn in 2020 production volumes in 2021.” positioned in most verticals and as a result, we’ve seen good resource-constrained wireless IoT to increase in 2021 as the new reality drives demand for During 2020, Nordic technology has enabled numerous growth in all segments.” devices powering ‘tiny machine The IoT is powering an automation and AI boom

12 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 13 Feature: Logistics & Transport Feature: Logistics & Transport

small cost or subscription free, often via mobile payment. These systems feature smartphone mapping apps showing The nearby available bikes and open docks, allowing people to borrow a bike from a dock and return it at another dock belonging to the same system. The arrangement isn’t perfect, with one disadvantage being the inconvenience of locating a (relatively) nearby fixed docking station at Last Mile both the start and end of journeys. Yet even as the number of dock systems in the U.S. decreased by four percent to Last mile transportation through the use of 72 in 2018, total station-based bike share ridership micromobility solutions is on the rise as cities increased 10 percent, says NACTO. It seems people are voting with their pedals. adjust to post-pandemic commuting To overcome the drawbacks of the fixed dock, ‘dockless’ smart bike systems have emerged. Pioneered by companies like Mobike (acquired by Chinese e-commerce company Meituan-Dianping in 2018), which now operates he pandemic has seen commuting diminish as share bike schemes in over 200 cities and 19 countries In Short By the Numbers: workers obey lockdowns and work from home. around the world, these systems typically combine a City residents and But in a post-COVID 19 world we’ll all need to start smartphone app with GPS functionality and Bluetooth LE visitors are embracing An estimated the benefits of traveling from A to B - and back again. How we connectivity allowing users to locate a nearby bike and shared micromobility: Tchoose to do so depends on how we prioritize factors deposit it at their final destination. This removes the need 1,600+ Convenience, like time, availability, reliability, cost, health, safety and to complete the last kilometer of a journey another way affordability, exercise environmental impact. because of an inconveniently positioned bike dock. The bike sharing and a reduced carbon While urban mobility is both complex and critical, the concept clearly has wheels if NACTO’s survey of ridership programs footprint difference after the pandemic is how the dominance of in six cities—which revealed 45 percent of users would were operating The challenge of ‘last mile’ the internal combustion engine—a motive force that has make trips by personal/ride hail vehicle if dockless bike and personal transportation— dictated city layouts and lifestyles for decades—is under scooter trips weren’t available—is to be believed. worldwide in commuting from a threat as millions of commuters turn to pedal-power. (See Both fixed dock- and dockless-bike sharing schemes 2018 public transit hub to sidebar pg17 Road to Recovery: Human-powered transport have hit a few potholes on the path to widespread adoption. Source: Statista a final destination—is to drive post-pandemic commuting.) Images of share bikes vandalized and abandoned around that existing transport One example is the increasing use of share bikes. The cities, or grouped en masse to form urban bike ‘graveyards’, infrastructure doesn’t concept has had a recent checkered history but the didn’t exactly paint an eco-friendly picture to a skeptical take people door-to-door sector is consolidating and maturing and many cities are people took 136 million trips on share bikes, eBikes Beyond commuting, greater emphasis on micromobility public. That said, more accurate and reliable remote 342 Many bike sharing starting to resemble those from late American author and eScooters in 2019, a 60 percent increase on the would have a huge impact on conventional vehicle use tracking of individual vehicles, enabling companies to send million programs have proved Ernest Callenbach’s influential 1975 semi-utopian novel previous year, according to the National Association of considering that 35 percent of all U.S. car trips are under team members to check on the status of their bikes as to be not only effective, Ecotopia. In the novel, the hero visits a breakaway society City Transportation Officials (NACTO). Perhaps this is 3.5 kilometers (as measured by the National Household required, has helped address community and government trips on shared but sustainable, providing that favors a green lifestyle. This lifestyle includes a readily unsurprising, given the concerns about congestion Travel Survey). Wider availability of alternatives would concerns about the eyesore of discarded machines. bikes and hope for cities in the fight against congestion, available bicycle sharing system, integrated into the public and parking availability that come with driving a car encourage travelers to make these short trips without The fact remains that share bike systems eliminate the scooters were pollution and noise transportation of a society not reliant on fossil fuels. Over from point-to-point. relying on personal cars, taxis or ride-hailing vehicles hassle (not to mention expense) of buying, storing and four decades later, the vision of efficient intracity transit For cities there’s an important backdrop to the urban that contribute to traffic congestion, urban sprawl and maintaining a personal bike. Many bike sharing programs taken in the U.S. Bluetooth LE and supported by ‘micromobility’ has begun to pick up speed; mobility revolution now underway. ‘Last mile’ personal carbon emissions. have proved to be not only effective, but sustainable, cellular IoT wireless between 2010 even if the machines themselves typically max out at a transportation—when a person commutes from a providing hope for cities in the fight against congestion, connectivity is helping and 2019 steady 25 kilometers per hour. Micromobility encompasses public transit hub such as a railway station, bus depot SHARE BIKE SHAKE-UP pollution and noise. And the longer these bikes are in use, to grow the world’s Source: NACTO bike sharing population shared-use fleets of small, lightweight, fully or partially or ferry berth, to a place of work, home or another Bike sharing initiatives, which have been successfully the greater opportunity they have to save harmful carbon and with it the shared human-powered personal vehicles such as bicycles, final destination—fills the demand which transport implemented in Europe, Asia and North America, will play a emissions. (Researchers claim a shared bike needs to be micromobility economy electric bikes (‘eBikes’) and eScooters. The difference infrastructure that doesn’t take people door-to-door key role in alleviating the challenge of last mile commuting. used for almost two years to create net carbon savings, Micromobility between today and the mid-70s vision of the future is creates. That makes it vital for cities to establish a quality Crucially, local authorities and communities as a whole based on an estimated carbon footprint of 34.56 kg of is predicted that wireless technology forms part of the foundation of platform for bikes and bike infrastructure (for example, are getting on board. In Amsterdam, for example, bicycle CO2 over the bike’s lifetime (International Journal of micromobility’s success. safe cycle routes, encouragement for share bikes and sharing initiatives have received more than €1 million ($1.17 Sustainable Resource Management and Environmental to be a Whether commuting to-and-from work, connecting to secure storage for those using their own machines) to million) in funding to help boost the city’s smart mobility Efficiency, Vol. 162).) transit networks or riding for recreation, city residents provide a bona fide alternative to more carbon-intensive sector. Meanwhile in July 2020, Google Maps began $300 and visitors are increasingly embracing the benefits modes of transport. At the same time, the ‘first mile’ including bike shares in its route recommendations. WIRELESS MICROMOBILITY of technology-driven micromobility: Convenience, presents a problem because people have increasingly Traditional bike sharing systems feature long rows of Wireless connectivity is helping to grow the world’s bike bn-to- affordability, exercise and a reduced carbon footprint moved away from cities into the suburbs, and often bikes parked in a fixed docking station—either staffed, sharing population and with it the micromobility economy. among others. The global number of public-use bicycles live a considerable distance from a transport hub coin deposit or automated—performing the roles of bike Without a reliable link between smartphones and networks 500 bn soared from 2.3 million in 2016 to 18.2 million within two necessitating a walk to catch a bus just to reach the train rack, digital bike lock and registration system all in one. of low-maintenance bikes, companies like Mobike, market by 2030 years (according to analyst Statista). In the U.S. alone, that takes them into the city. The bikes are available for hire on a short-term basis for a Hellobike (China), Citi Bike (U.S.), Nextbike (Germany) Source: McKinsey & Company

14 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 15 Feature: Logistics & Transport Feature: Logistics & Transport

and hundreds of other bike-sharing platforms across the Road to Recovery: Human-powered globe wouldn’t exist and couldn’t expand. Bluetooth LE transport drives post-pandemic commuting is currently used in most share bikes for communication between the bike and an associated smartphone app, For the multibillion-dollar micromobility industry, the COVID-19 means reduced carbon emissions, but it also leads to people feeling while some systems are employing cellular IoT, an LPWAN crisis has created an interesting dichotomy between immediate safer about cycling to their destinations. Plus, the pandemic has technology, with Bluetooth LE as backup. Crucially, the decline and unprecedented scope for progress. On the one hand made people more cautious about public transit options like buses The pandemic low power consumption of these wireless technologies the global lockdown, border closures and travel bans, strict social and trains where effective social distancing is difficult to achieve. ensures the vehicles stay connected and can be located distancing measures and a transition to working from home, In response to these factors, many cities have already started has indirectly throughout a journey and beyond. essentially ruined commuting. Declines in ridership and revenue providing better and safer facilities to make micromobility more generated a One example is the Meituan/Mobike dockless bike- sent previously accelerating micromobility solutions crashing back practical for commuters. And they don’t have to look far for renewed interest sharing model, which allows its bikes to be parked to earth. According to research by McKinsey, COVID-19 saw the inspiration; for example, in Trondheim, Norway, up to 360 cyclists anywhere and unlocked in an instant with a smartphone. number of shared and private micromobility passenger-kilometers an hour can take advantage of a motorized aid that operates in the use of The key to the system is a smart lock, permanently fixed More than 50 percent traveled declining 50 to 60 percent worldwide. much like a ski lift, making it easy for riders to get their bikes up an lightweight to the bike and incorporating Nordic’s nRF51822 Bluetooth of Copenhagen’s Yet moving forward, the impact of COVID-19 could breathe intimidatingly steep hill. And intelligent traffic lights with dedicated population commutes by personal vehicles LE SoC (or for newer share bikes Nordic’s advanced bicycle on a daily basis new life into the micromobility sector as people prioritize healthy, signaling for bikes, installed at every downtown intersection nRF52840 multiprotocol SoC) to power a wireless link hygienic, low-risk, affordable, greener and congestion-free in Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen—where half the population as a genuine between smartphone and lock. When combined with commuting. The McKinsey modeling suggests micromobility is set commutes by bicycle daily—allow cyclists riding at a speed of alternative GPS and QR code scanning, the electronics lets people to make a strong recovery, and by 2025 passenger-kilometers 20 kilometers an hour to hit all green lights on their morning and conveniently locate, pay for and unlock a Mobike machine. traveled are expected to rise 10 percent above pre-pandemic totals. evening rush hour commutes. to cars At the end of a ride, users park the bike in any suitable The pandemic has indirectly generated a renewed interest in the If the right cycling infrastructure and initiatives are in location close to their destination. To secure the bike, use of lightweight personal vehicles as a genuine alternative to cars. place, using human/electric-powered transport instead of the user slides a mechanical switch which causes the With the world in lockdown people simply stopped driving to work. carbon-intensive vehicles to get around cities could well become lock to engage around the rear wheel. This also triggers Fresh air and fitness became higher priorities. Fewer cars on the road the new normal. the Mobike smartphone app to log the ride as ‘complete’ and publicize the bike’s location to the next user. The app tells users how long they have been on the bike, distance traveled and the fee charged. Backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba, Hellobike provides such as wireless bike/rider safety aids and bike trackers. cellular infrastructure to enable operators to keep track 230 million registered users in more than 200 cities with For example, California-based cycling equipment company, of their bike fleet condition by remotely monitoring micromobility services, making it one of China’s largest Specialized, has developed ANGi (Angular and G-Force tires, drivetrain and brakes using a network of short bike-sharing platforms. The beauty of Hellobike is its indicator), a sensor-based device that, when attached to a range wireless sensors. simplicity for all. From a smartphone app users can find Specialized bicycle helmet, turns it into a live GPS tracking a smart bike near them and then instantly unlock it device, crash detector and safety beacon for cycle riders. ELECTRIC DREAMS using the integrated Nordic Bluetooth LE technology. ANGi uses Nordic nRF52832 SoC-enabled Bluetooth LE to Pushing the pedals unassisted is perhaps acceptable for The system works well in part because Nordic wirelessly send alerts of potentially serious accidents, and short, flat journey or for longer trips by fitter riders, but By the Numbers: Bluetooth LE SoCs provide seamless interoperability the most recent GPS coordinates, to a rider’s emergency it has its limits. eBikes, with their lithium batteries and with virtually all smartphones (unlike some competing Tech Check contacts via a smartphone app. compact, brushless electric motors, promise to not only About Bluetooth LE products), making the Nordic technology The Unlimited eBike Kit Elsewhere, See.Sense AIR, the world’s first NB-IoT extend micromobility to a wider audience but also promise ideally suited to consumer-facing applications such as is comprised of three cellular bike security tracker, uses Nordic’s nRF9160 to change ‘last mile’ trips to ‘every mile’ ones. eBikes and 60% of car bike-share platforms. key elements: A front SiP, a cellular IoT solution with assisted GPS, to help their two-wheeled cousins, eScooters, are now in high trips are less “Hellobike is a very technology-focused company that motor wheel capable of users automatically locate and track their bikes from a demand, particularly in China, where nearly 700 million is using AI, big data, Cloud infrastructure and the generating up to 750W smartphone. AIR works for up to three months on a single rides are completed on a combination of conventional pedal than 8 km IoT to integrate shared bikes into China’s public transport that replaces the regular battery charge. Developed by Northern Ireland cycling bikes and eBikes every day, according to Hellobike. Plans Source: McKinsey & Company ecosystem,” says Damien Wong, Nordic’s Sales wheel of an existing start-up, See.Sense, the solution protects both bike and are afoot to equip shared eBikes with a cellular IoT-based but also the motor being controlled by radio signals. bicycle; a ‘powerpack’ Manager in China. rider by identifying if the bike has been involved in a crash geofencing capability making it easier to manage the In the last-mile food delivery lane—where challenges containing the motor On average, Low power wireless technologies also underpin other and by then sending an SMS of its precise location to areas in which the bikes can be used and avoiding include minimizing cost, ensuring transparency and controller and battery; the typical bike essential services supporting the micromobility sector, and a pedal sensor to the rider’s assigned contact. On a broader scale, AIR can incidents of riders tempted to take their hired powered increasing efficiency—eBikes and eScooters are detect the rider’s pedaling enhance cycling for riders by constantly and accurately bikes well beyond city limits. increasingly being used by riders to speed around cities share annual/ motion and instruct monitoring the cyclist’s experience on their ride, so that There is no need for riders to junk their existing machine where cars are a poor option (or not an option at all) and monthly pass- the motor controller to aggregated and depersonalized ride insights can be to take advantage of electric power. Barcelona, Spain- deliver still piping hot food. engage the motor. Both shared with partners to improve conditions for cycling. based recreational electric vehicle developer, Unlimited, Could alternative modes of single-occupant transport holder’s trip the pedal sensor and the In action this means riders will be able to avoid the for example, has launched an eBike kit enabling a user to supercharge the journey toward streamlined yet lasts for 11-12 powerpack integrate congestion, poor roads, steep inclines and other issues turn any bicycle into an electric bike in just a few minutes sustainable urban mobility? If technology can support a Raytac MDBT42Q that reduce the appeal of cycling. using low latency Bluetooth LE connectivity to activate the micromobility devices to work for cities, citizens and minutes and Bluetooth LE module— Meanwhile wireless gear changing, powered by ANT+ or wireless electric power-assist. From a green perspective, service providers alike, the outcome will surely be positive. covers employing Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC—to Bluetooth LE wireless technologies and pioneered by the although eBikes require lithium batteries to run, numerous Backed by major advancements in wireless connectivity, provide robust wireless pro-peloton at the Tour de France, is making its way onto machines can be manufactured for the same carbon GPS tracking, battery and electric motor advances, 1.5-to- connectivity between lower-price point commuter bikes, bringing faster and footprint as manufacturing a single car. While many of mobile payments and the ubiquity of smartphones, the the pedal sensor and the smoother sprocket jumps for tackling city hills. And into the today’s machines are controlled by wires, it is not difficult to micromobility market is on track to take commuters to 2.5 kms powerpack future, low power cellular IoT could make use of mature city see all eBikes becoming wireless, with not only the gears, their own version of Ecotopia. Source: NACTO

16 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 17 Feature: Smart City Infrastructure

What Lies By the Numbers Each year, Beneath elevators are unavailable due to Reliable functioning of city infrastructure will maintenance for become even more critical after COVID-19. That 190 makes wireless condition monitoring essential million hours, that’s 216 ity living was once replete with simple pleasures. A In Short centuries cup of coffee at a café with friends. Mingling among City denizens rely on an Source: Thyssenkrupp Elevator crowds in a vibrant town square. The excitement of array of critical machinery exploring an immense urban metropolis. and equipment to allow CSadly, COVID-19 has radically reshaped city life, placing them to move up, down New York City many of these pleasures on hold, at least for now. In their and across urban centers office workers place, lockdowns and social distancing – the inhibiting but COVID-19 has put even spent a necessary precautions for containing a virulent disease. greater stress on this But now, vaccines are rolling out and residents are daring to equipment, with social cumulative dream of the old city life. distancing requiring more Yet it’s not a given that cities can effortlessly resume trips and more uptime 16.6 normal function. Even before COVID-19, moving large demands from elevators, numbers of people around was hard. Much depends escalators and their like years on crucial machinery working reliably – on equipment Powered by wireless waiting for like elevators, escalators, travelators and conveyors sensor and network elevators in 2010 technologies, predictive ceaselessly churning, turning and shunting crowds back- Source: Thyssenkrupp Elevator and-forth over sprawling geographies and up-and-down maintenance is helping towering urban centers. minimize equipment In a post COVID-19 world, this critical equipment will downtime nor the elevator supplier’s bottom line. It also creates a “[They say] ‘I don’t want things to break, I want the connected tech, engineers can monitor this problematic Flawed have to work even harder and smarter. Among other Wireless sensors can “reactive Murphy’s Law situation” for elevator mechanics, elevators to be up and running’.” mechanical part directly. The number of times a door has maintenance things, transit systems now must account for social collect a variety of data says Chris Smith, Vice President for Service Innovation Now, through a concept called predictive maintenance, the opened and closed, changes in power consumed to close strategies reduce distancing. There are more trips to make because of fewer such as heat, friction, with leading elevator company, Otis. “[A mechanic will goal of radically extended uptime for critical equipment like doors, noise and vibration generated by the moving parts – productivity by people allowed per trip. More uptime demands. More noise, vibration and be] in the middle of a detailed maintenance routine at one elevators could be within reach. Powered by advancements all of these indicators can be monitored by wireless sensors location and relay it using between wear and tear. And a shrinking pool of skilled maintenance building and get a service call [for a malfunctioning elevator in wireless sensor and network technologies, predictive and, when run through clever algorithms, can proactively cellular connectivity to reveal signs of deterioration. specialists. Efficient and livable cities made possible by maintenance crews elsewhere]. Now they have to leave, pack up their tools maintenance lets service teams see the future state of reliable, intuitive and connected equipment is no longer a and drive—the most unproductive time you can have—to their equipment and respond proactively. The same approach could detect disrepair in other 5-20% vision, it’s a mandate. another building,” Smith told the IoT Podcast. Here’s how it works: Wireless sensors placed on the critical elevator parts including sheaves, bearings and Source: Deloitte In some areas, change is long overdue. Take elevators. A Scheduled servicing, in which maintenance is proactively equipment capture data about a spectrum of performance sliding components that guide the cabin. This approach pivotal force behind urbanization since their commercial carried out at fixed times to get ahead of equipment indicators. That data is locally analyzed by edge processors, extends beyond elevators to other moving machinery, Spending on introduction 200 years ago, reliability hasn’t been their failures, is only marginally better. It incurs high costs due and the critical information about the health of equipment is such as escalators and travelators (also known as moving predictive strong suit. The industry annually experiences over 24 to premature replacement and disposal of working parts sent to technicians via the Cloud. sidewalks). The City of London is there already, using maintenance million breakdowns and 190 million hours of downtime. (See and the operational costs of closing perfectly-functioning For example, for elevators, sensors might report on sensors to identify unusual vibration patterns in escalators is forecast to sidebar pg21 Elevator ride: From form to function.) elevators for servicing. With only 18 percent of equipment the distance an elevator has traveled. This could predict that might indicate mechanical issues in advance of a fault. The entire maintenance model is in need of repair. failing due to age, scheduling maintenance based on fixed the elevator’s need for service based on usage since the They’re also applying the principle to elevators, heating and grow to Elevator servicing today is largely reactive. Elevator timeframes doesn’t seem that smart. last service. But the analysis can be even more granular. cooling systems and communication networks. components degrade towards failure, without intervention, Flawed maintenance strategies such as these translate Consider that issues with doors account for 70-90 $12.9 resulting in sudden but inevitable breakdowns, disruption to productivity losses of between five and 20 percent, percent of elevator breakdowns (perhaps unsurprising, MEANINGFUL INSIGHTS ONLY for passengers and heartache for building managers. according to Deloitte, to say nothing of the frustration it given doors contend with everything from the dirt and For complex machinery with hundreds of parts—like billion Technicians are dispatched only after the fault is apparent. brings customers. “Customers tell us they want predictive, grime of city streets being deposited into their tracks to elevators or escalators—wireless sensors can collect a by 2022 This approach does nothing for passenger convenience proactive and transparent [servicing],” says Otis’ Smith. impatient office-workers forcibly holding them open). With large variety of data indicators such as heat, friction, noise, Source: Gartner

18 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 19 Feature: Smart City Infrastructure

maintenance costs by 10-to-40 percent, equipment downtime by 50 percent and equipment capital investment by three to five percent by extending the useful life of Through Elevator ride: machinery. The savings could translate to an economic predictive From form to function impact of nearly $630 billion per year in 2025. There are implications beyond the savings. Courtesy of maintenance, “A sumptuous apartment … with skylights, ventilators and predictive maintenance approaches, the green shoots of the goal of chandeliers … richly carpeted, with a large mirror and luxurious smarter, more livable cities may be starting to emerge. radically sofas around three sides. The sides and the domes overhead are In Japan, 34 million people ride the Yamanote Line around finished throughout with panels, pilasters, brackets, carvings Tokyo each week. Trains leave every two minutes and extended and moldings in richly variegated colors of bird’s-eye maple, run from early morning until late. Because breakdowns uptime French walnut, tulip wood and ebony, lighted up with chaste and and ad hoc servicing won’t suffice, the East Japan Railway appropriate touches of gilding.” It reads like a snippet from a Company is now using sensors and IoT technology to for critical magazine about luxury homes. In fact, this was the description of an forecast failures and efficiently schedule maintenance. equipment elevator from an 1860s product catalogue. Elevator sheaves Elsewhere, flights in and out of our major cities will soon like elevators Also known as ‘sky parlors’, elevators were markedly different in (essentially grooved again be the norm. But can an industry decimated by style and purpose to today’s people-movers. They were not about pulleys) are a key the pandemic afford to resume paying annual unplanned may be within speed – unsurprising given they had steam-powered engines. source of maintenance headaches. Worn maintenance costs of $20 billion annually? A piece of the reach Manufacturers instead appealed to luxury, crafting lush interiors sheaves wear aforementioned savings of predictive maintenance may be and selling them to fancy hotels. cables, which in turn accelerate sheave wear. essential for this vital global industry to revive. The elevator’s remaking as an efficient vehicle predictably aligns Technicians check Cities, which often own and run airports, can benefit too. to the rise of industrial America. In the 1870s, New York boasted the sheave grooves at least Düsseldorf Airport is using cellular IoT paired with heavy- first office building to feature elevators in its design – a milestone annually to check how well cables mate duty sensors to prevent fuel supply bottlenecks that could for a city that would become the home of skyscrapers. cripple flight schedules. Each day more than 120 heavy The shift of elevators to commercial buildings brought demands fuel trucks, each carrying 30,000 liters of jet fuel, travel for speed, reliability and easy maintenance. Innovations followed. along a critical access road. Averting erosion and damage is In 1878, Otis introduced a hydraulic elevator. In 1880, Siemens came vibration and location. Transferring all this raw data to communications technology around. Says McKinsey of important, but preventative maintenance approaches can out with the first electric model. a service technician is cumbersome and impractical, these low power cellular networks: “Ultra-low latency and be disruptive. Using Deutsche Telekom’s NB-IoT network Such developments continued the elevator’s long history of not to mention costly in terms of bandwidth, says strong security will create the confidence to run ‘mission- to capture data on temperature, humidity and erosion evolution. The very first elevator, created in ancient Greece by Lorenzo Amicucci, Business Development Manager critical’ applications that demand absolute reliability and from sensors in the road, maintenance crews now identify Archimedes around 236 BC, was operated by men using ropes at Nordic Semiconductor. responsiveness—even in vital infrastructure systems and damage and schedule maintenance for the times when wrapped around a drum. Since then, they’ve been powered by “A smarter approach is to perform edge processing, using in matters of life and death.” the trucks aren’t rolling. slaves, animals, gravity, steam and electricity. machine learning to analyze the data locally and only send But that’s not enough by itself; connectivity devices that These are just some of the possibilities. But think of any Today technology drives development as manufacturers anomalies or patterns that reflect meaningful insights are secure-by-design are also vital. Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP critical service in the modern city—sewers, water tanks, compete for the tallest, fastest and safest elevator. Newer about the equipment,” he says. is one example; it makes use of Arm TrustZone’s additional bridges, ATMs, even vending machines and automated models use magnetic levitation instead of cables and pulleys. Capabilities to do this exist in IoT devices such as Nordic’s layers of security to provide high levels of protection. parking gates—and a maintenance revolution driven by Computerization also features, as connectivity and data analytics nRF9160 SiP, which incorporates a powerful Arm Cortex A final tipping point for cellular IoT LPWANs has been the sensors and cellular networks beckons. deliver a more intuitive and intelligent service. M33 processor capable of sensor data acquisition, edge maturing of the specific low-power cellular technologies, The timing is just right. “Using sensor technology like this But as clinical as they are now becoming, the elevator’s evolution computing and basic AI data analysis. To get the data LTE-M and NB-IoT. Global standards recognition of LTE-M is not new,” says Amicucci. “What is new now is the scale at alongside that of modern society ensures they remain tightly bound to remote technicians, the nRF9160 also supports the and NB-IoT is no small thing. This recognition will spur which we can deploy these technologies, coming together to the human story. From reflecting our own superstitions (no number cellular IoT standards LTE-M and NB-IoT. These LPWAN their continued evolution, not to mention uptake. Global with the emergence of low-power connectivity solutions 13 button) to a firm place in pop culture (countless elevator scenes in technologies are ideal for predictive maintenance ICT company Ericsson predicts LTE-M and NB-IoT will to support our ambitions.” movies), elevators may always hold a special place in our hearts. applications, because their low power consumption is comprise about 45 percent of cellular connections by 2026. Wireless sensor-based predictive maintenance might critical for solutions using sensors that will run for years Choosing between LTE-M and NB-IoT depends on the also spur the uptake of infrastructure that’s both more on battery power. The longer the batteries last, the easier application and coverage, says Amicucci. “LTE-M offers reliable and more environmentally sustainable. For the sensor maintenance becomes. In the future, low higher bandwidth and is designed for more complex example, Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP is now supporting smart power wireless sensors might even be able to do without devices. It suits the elevator use as well as predictive power grids, using sensors to monitor for issues such as Need to Know batteries at all by harvesting energy from the very Tech Check maintenance of complex industrial assets. That said, NB- fires or a power surge and relaying this data via the LTE-M and NB-IoT are vibrations they are monitoring. Nordic’s nRF9160 is a low IoT could suit the elevator use case when it is located in a LTE-M/NB-IoT modem. (See page 8.) 3GPP standardized While proprietary options exist, the value proposition of power cellular IoT SiP. deep indoor location beyond LTE-M signals’ reach.” Amicucci cites a further example: “Think about the low power, wide area cellular IoT is compelling among LPWAN options. End users The integrated modem Amicucci notes that for predictive maintenance, the emergence of electric vehicle charging stations – and you technologies designed have immediate access to existing network infrastructure supports both LTE-M nRF9160 SiP’s multimode support conveniently ensures can see the role cellular IoT devices will play in safeguarding for IoT applications and with global coverage. Mobile operators also continue and NB-IoT wireless industrial engineers can design solutions for both LTE-M these and the health of other critical infrastructure in cities devices requiring low to invest in cellular IoT networks, delivering solutions connectivity. Arm and NB-IoT using the same component. He notes predictive of the future,” he says. cost, long battery life, that are scalable and standardized. They’re also building TrustZone technology maintenance will likely run on a dedicated specific comms and ubiquitous coverage. ecosystems and open application platforms around these helps build solid and module, while emergency calls services will be on different RELIABILITY AS A SERVICE Both technologies are secure IoT applications formally recognized networks to foster partnerships which will be critical for boards supported by, for example, LTE Cat1. Beyond practical benefits and financial savings, the use that feature secure as 5G technologies, development of IoT and predictive maintenance solutions. boot, trusted firmware of cellular IoT for equipment monitoring may open up a meaning investments in It all breeds confidence. updates and root of THE RELIABLE SMART CITY new commercial dynamic between the industry’s the technologies made Moreover, in this connected age, malicious cyber actors trust implementations Predictive maintenance has long been heralded the suppliers and their customers. by mobile operators will have shown a willingness to disrupt cities by targeting without performance IoT’s ‘killer app’. It’s easy to see why. Consulting firm Firstly, we might expect better relationships. The ability continue as part of the critical infrastructure. Cellular is perhaps the most secure compromise McKinsey estimates predictive maintenance could reduce for suppliers to monitor equipment while in use creates a 5G roll out

20 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 21 Feature: Smart City Infrastructure Feature: Smart City Infrastructure

feedback loop for continuous improvement in equipment design and more tailored services. Customers get Illustration: Greg Bakes http://www.illustratorsaustralia.com/portfolios/greg-bakes/ better products and suppliers can extract greater value The ability Tech Check: Modern elevators do away Air bridges are mobile units which from those products. with the gearbox between use an articulating mount to fasten More profound is a shift in the very nature of the solution. for suppliers What lies beneath an motor and sheave to improve to the terminal and are supported With access to data on the use and performance of to monitor reliability. Engineers also add on electric-powered wheels at the equipment, suppliers are sensing an opportunity to equipment airport’s sleek facade a counterweight, weighing as airplane end with the bridge between shift from selling equipment as a product to selling much as the cab plus half- forming an extendable tube. They a-load of passengers, for a equipment ‘as-a-service’. Picture elevator companies while in use While the COVID-19 pandemic has slashed passenger are favored over stairs for passenger gravity assist to reduce motor convenience and reduced manpower selling a number of elevator trips rather than elevators numbers the airline industry is already gearing up creates a load. When a full cab is lowered, to supervise loading but are costly themselves, or transit companies selling rail miles traveled feedback loop for a brighter future. Analysts estimate passenger regenerative braking further and demand more maintenance rather than rail cars. numbers will recover to 80 percent of pre-pandemic slows it down and energy For customers, this new business model converts large for continuous levels by mid 2022 and continue to grow thereafter. is fed back to the grid up-front capital expenditures into a ‘pay-as-you-go’ improvement That means airports need to invest in infrastructure operating expense. Further, payments can be contractually in equipment to smooth and speed the flow of thousands of people linked to the meeting of performance metrics such as through the terminal while keeping them safe and uptime, availability and efficiency. design and secure. Here’s how it’s done For suppliers, the as-a-service model delivers stickier more tailored relationships, by focusing on better customer experiences. This creates “a more intimate tie with customers that services competitors would find difficult to disrupt,” says Mckinsey. Servicing is also more lucrative – in the elevator business, maintenance provides profit margins of up to 25 percent, compared with sales margins of five to 10 percent, according to The Wall Street Journal. Airports invest Shifting to these new models won’t be easy. While the in electric carts to move less able benefits are clear, McKinsey observes that connectivity passengers around. solutions and predictive maintenance will require: Modern units can “Technical skills and an organization that is prepared to travel up to 80 km embrace data-driven decision making”. on a single charge, Some say manufacturing and engineering companies enough for a busy may need to re-invent themselves as technology service day at the largest providers. That may be overstating it. What does seem true terminal. The MotoEV for these solutions to flourish is strong collaboration across 6, for example, manufacturers, network operators, technology service boasts a 5.3 kW providers, data analytics companies and others. motor, enough for it to propel six Ironically, there may be a silver lining to COVID-19. The passengers and a pandemic shattered conventional molds for businesses, wheelchair around industries and economies. Those that survive have done so in style. While hardly by being adaptable, resilient and determined, but perhaps needed, when fully more importantly, open to new ideas and collaborations. loaded the MotoEV This may be exactly the spirit required to finally realize the 6 can still climb a 20 dream of smarter, reliable and sustainable cities. percent grade or hum along at 40 km/h

An escalator is much better at moving passengers short distances because, unlike an elevator cab which fills quickly, An efficient baggage handling system is critical to it can be continuously loaded. an airport’s success. The conveyors themselves Preventive maintenance are relatively simple and trouble-free, it’s the sees escalators work for long logistics that’s the real challenge. Cases must periods, sometimes up to 25 Gates are used to regulate flow onto platforms and move around the airport at about the same pace years between upgrades which prevent fare dodgers. The latest designs prevent amateur as the owner to ensure they meet up at planes then take 10-to-20 weeks to gymnasts vaulting over or ‘tailgating’ honest passengers. and baggage collection at the same time. Behind complete. Modernized units are The units are highly reliable with most problems due to the scenes is a Gordian knot of automated belts. as much as 30 percent more passengers forcing the ‘paddles’. Modern units incorporate Airlines use technology to automatically scan energy efficient than the old units Bluetooth LE sensors which interrogate close-by bags as they move to direct them to the right due to premium efficiency motors passenger smartphones; a valid e-ticket triggers the gate place. But still, some 25 million bags were lost at and adjustable frequency drives as the passenger approaches, smoothing traffic flow the world’s airports in 2019

22 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 23 Feature: Level Monitoring

On the Level Cellular IoT and short range wireless tech is helping farmers, fleet managers and consumers monitor tank levels to prevent disruptive shortages

urope’s largest farm is an arable holding in Romania In Short which at 570 square kilometers is roughly the same Farms the size of size as Singapore. Impressive certainly, but there’s countries and pan- big and then there’s enormous. The five largest continental trucking Efarms in the world are located in China and Australia and operators are turning between them cover 190,000 square kilometers, dwarfing to wireless technology their European counterparts. The largest, the Mudanjiang to help them remotely City Mega Farm in Heilongjiang, China, sprawls across monitor fuel levels 90,000 square kilometers and is home to some 100,000 Running out of fuel and dairy cows. To drive from one end of the farm to the other fuel theft is a multi- and back again would take 12 hours, which, despite the time billion dollar problem of day dairy farmers rise, would leave little time for work. that can be eliminated Even for farmers managing more modest landholdings, through the use of scale can be the enemy of productivity. Every farm needs both cellular IoT and water and fuel, and depending on the type of operation, Bluetooth LE technology computer, allowing farmers to remotely ensure they don’t probably can’t save the public from itself, it is proving a these incidents often go unnoticed by the fleet or owner- feed and fertilizer too. Whether generated on site or Household users run short of fertilizer or fuel essential for heating. valuable tool for remote fuel monitoring for both fleet operator because quantities are small … maybe 2-to-4 delivered, these consumables require storage in tanks and account for almost “These farms are huge and there’s no way a farmer is managers and pan-continental logistics companies. percent of fuel consumption. It’s significant, but perhaps silos to ensure their availability year round. Running out of half of annual propane going out to check on ten tanks each day unless they’re Fuel costs can amount to as much as one third of all not enough to alert them to a theft problem.” fuel, feed or water is not an option, so knowing precisely consumption and are working nearby,” says Ali Kozlica, Executive Chairman at fleet operating expenses, so to increase efficiency and Traditionally this crime has been difficult to detect driving the development what stores you have at any given time is essential. But CoreKinect. “While this problem is nothing new in farming, cut costs, knowing exactly how much fuel is going into as many factors can affect fuel consumption—road of solutions that enable checking tank levels in multiple silos in person is a time domestic wireless tank before the advent of cellular IoT technology a commercially each tank in the fleet, and how much is coming out and conditions, wind, driving habits and mechanical faults for consuming—not to mention potentially hazardous— monitoring viable way to remotely monitor levels in fuel storage when, is information worth knowing. Live access to this example—but now technology is catching up with the Escort TD-BLE is the world’s exercise, even on a relatively small farm, let alone one on tanks simply did not exist. data enables management to reduce operating costs by thieves. Wireless, remote fuel monitoring systems can first wireless capacitive fuel level sensor integrating the scale of the appropriately-named Mudanjiang City “Lack of coverage and power requirements made such optimizing routes, monitor potential causes of anomalous now ensure all purchased fuel was put in the tank, and Bluetooth LE technology Mega Farm. Previously the property manager would have a solution cost prohibitive. With cellular IoT, all the major fuel consumption and assess potential breaches of protocol identify where, when and how much fuel was drained from to drive long distances to physically inspect each tank, in barriers are broken and the rules have changed. If you can by drivers – not least the increasing problem of fuel theft. a vehicle, even providing live notifications should fuel levels some cases putting themselves at risk by climbing high eliminate just one unnecessary visit to a tank it pays for the Stealing fuel is one of the biggest problems faced by the drop beyond expected levels. Detailed fuel level and fuel silos to inspect the contents from above. Now, thanks to entire cost of the solution.” trucking industry. How big is difficult to determine but consumption reports can document amounts at trip-start wireless technology, things are changing and the ability to according to an Australian fuel card comparison website, and -end, total fuel consumed, average fuel consumption monitor tank levels remotely is opening new possibilities. DRIVING CHANGE $10 billion worth of diesel is stolen each year at an average as well as refueling and fuel draining events, putting U.S.-based CoreKinect last year introduced a farm It’s not only farmers reaping the benefits of wireless tank weekly loss of $125 per vehicle. Operate a fleet of 100 managers back in control of their fleets. storage tank level monitor and asset tracker that it says monitoring solutions. According to U.K.-based roadside semi-trailers and that adds up to a potential $650,000 loss One company pioneering such solutions is Escort Group, completely eliminates the problem of farms running out assistance group, Green Flag, 70,000 U.K. motorists run out every year. The tricks of the trade are well known, usually one of Russia’s leading manufacturers of M2M and IoT Mopeka’s Pro Check Sensor of fuel or fertilizer. The CoreKinect TankTrack is a battery- of fuel on the road each month. Despite the presence of a involving either fuel siphoning or ‘skimming’, using the equipment, who recently launched its Escort TD-BLE mounts underneath a cylinder powered wireless gauge reader that can be securely fuel gauge, warning lights and the digital display telling us company fuel card to purchase fuel for other vehicles or to fuel level sensor claimed to be the world’s first wireless and uses ultrasound to inform attached to any ammonia, propane or diesel storage tank we have 20 kilometers left in the tank, tens of thousands sell on for profit. “The biggest problem we see is not theft of capacitive fuel level sensor integrating Bluetooth LE the user how much fuel is left using four permanent magnets. Both tank level and GPS of us ignore the visual cues, including the signs on the the whole tank of fuel, but skimming, where 20-50 gallons technology. Primarily designed for the transport telematics location readings are sent via Nordic Semiconductor motorway saying ‘last fuel for 50 kilometers’, and push on, [75-190 liters] are stolen in just a few minutes,” says David market, once installed to a vehicle the device employs nRF9160-powered LTE-M cellular connectivity to a Cloud taking pride in rolling into the next gas station with nothing Rogers, General Manager of FuelDefend Global, a company Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC to wirelessly send the collected platform accessible from any smartphone, tablet or but fumes in the tank. But while wireless technology specializing in anti-fuel theft solutions. “Unfortunately, fuel level data to a Bluetooth LE- and GPS-enabled

24 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 25 Feature: Level Monitoring Feature: Level Monitoring

tracking device. Once the data is transmitted from the fuel level sensor to the tracker, it can then be transferred Keeping superjumbos stable to the Cloud—typically via the GSM channel, or in rare cases via satellite—where the detailed information and If you’ve seen the burners extinguish on your grill in the middle insights can be viewed through a web-based dashboard of cooking the family lunch, you’ll know running out of fuel by fleet management. is annoying. Thankfully, it’s unlikely to be a matter of life or The Escort TD-BLE fuel level sensor also offers ‘black box’ death, other than the danger posed by a half-cooked sausage. functionality, collecting information on fuel levels or fuel For commercial airlines it is another matter. Certified to carry ‘events’ that are then stored in the Nordic SoC’s memory up to 853 passengers the Airbus A380 is the world’s largest for 30 days, overcoming any deliberate attempts to disrupt passenger airliner. Its four turbofan engines provide a range data transmission. “It’s not uncommon for heavy-duty of almost 15,000 kilometers when fully fueled, but there drivers to intentionally jam the tracker’s signal … in doing it gets complicated. so the tracker loses its connection to the fuel level sensor, The maximum take-off weight of an A380—depending on the and the satellite control system receives no information airline—is around 569,000 kilograms, of which almost half of the about fuel consumption,” says Anton Turkin, CEO of Escort weight is taken up by jet fuel. This fuel is for the most part stored Group. “Drivers can continue jamming the signal and drain in the aircraft’s wings, but because the A380 employs a ‘swept the fuel during this time [but] thanks to the fact that TD- wing’ design (where the wings point backwards at an angle of BLE collects and stores data regardless … you can always 33.5 degrees from the fuselage), the aircraft’s center of gravity recover information about fuel events, no matter what Stevens Point research, approximately 70 million liters CoreKinect TankTrack is Using the Bluetooth LE wireless connectivity provided by constantly shifts as the fuel is used. All planes have an optimum attached to any storage happens earlier on the road.” of propane are exhausted in domestic applications every tank with tank level and GPS the Nordic SoC, the fuel level data is relayed to a companion center of gravity to ensure stability, and to maintain this optimal day, providing a sizeable consumer market for tank level location readings sent via app on the user’s smartphone or tablet, where they can Before the balance point on the A380, a fuel tank in the horizontal stabilizer KEEPING HOME FIRES BURNING monitoring solutions that ensure fuel availability when LTE-M to a Cloud platform view fuel level readings as well as set threshold alarms if wing at the rear of the aircraft constantly transfers fuel to the and enables farmers to advent of While commercial instances of fuel tank monitoring it is needed. remotely monitor levels in the level is low, reminding them to refill the tank well before other wing tanks. Each wing has five main tanks, including a feed solutions are gaining plenty of attention, domestic Mopeka Products, a developer of tank and cylinder fuel storage tanks it’s exhausted. A proprietary Wi-Fi bridge also allows the cellular IoT tank on each side of the aircraft to supply fuel directly to the applications are equally prevalent. Many rural management platforms, is one company that has built its user to read the tank or cylinder level information remotely. technology a engines. The other tanks are for storage, releasing fuel to the homeowners who do not have access to natural gas business on meeting demand for such solutions, offering commercially feed tanks as required. pipelines rely on bottled propane for space heating, a range of wireless monitoring technology for propane, as ANSWERING INDUSTRY’S CALL Moving 280,000 kilograms of fuel around an A380, to water heating and clothes drying, and according to well as water, heating oil, chemical and beverage tanks. Beyond the farm, fleet or family, remote level monitoring viable way maintain the optimum center of gravity and ensure aircraft the World LPG Association, household use of liquefied For example, the company’s Pro Check Sensor—a propane solutions are also proving valuable in a range of industrial to remotely stability is completely automatic, is achieved using a network of petroleum gas (LPG) accounts for approximately 44 tank level sensor that mounts magnetically underneath a applications. Wastewater, chemical and petrochemical, pipes and valves known as ‘galleries’. Shortly after take-off, fuel percent of global propane consumption. tank or cylinder—employs a combination of Bluetooth LE and mining industries all require intermittent observation monitor levels is transferred from the inner or midwing tanks to the outer In the United States, 47 million households use propane and ultrasound technology to let users know exactly how of fluids to ensure tanks don’t run out or overflow, and that in fuel storage tanks to reduce upward bending of the wing, after which the to fuel an outdoor gas grill, while restaurants and much fuel is remaining in their tank, rather than them the fluid is being drawn from the tank in line with expected tanks simply sequence of fuel transfer begins. The feed tanks are supplied by caterers use propane for cooking and warming food, relying on guesswork. The sensor employs the integrated usage. Overfills result in material and production loss or the inner tanks, followed by the mid tanks, then the trim tank, and also to fuel patio heaters for outdoor seating areas Nordic nRF52810 Bluetooth LE SoC’s Arm Cortex potential environmental damage, while running out of did not exist and finally the outer tanks when all the others are empty. The in cold climates. Because of its portability, propane is processor to measure the time of flight of ultrasound materials delays production and delivery too. Establishing fuel transfer system keeps the fuel level in the feed tanks at also popular with campers and RV owners to power waves in the propane and then uses that information to a network of wired sensors around complex industrial the same level—give or take 1000 kilograms—to maintain the appliances. According to University of Wisconsin- calculate the fuel level in the tank. facilities may require expensive and time consuming optimum center of gravity, until the trim tank in the horizontal trenching of thousands of meters of cables that not only stabilizer wing has been emptied. disrupts production but lacks flexibility should tanks With over 20 fuel pumps performing the complex procedure it require moving or if additional sensors need to be added is just as well the system is automated - but it wasn’t always so. State of Play to a network in the future. As such, wireless solutions are When the supersonic Concorde was still operational, the flight LPG and where it goes Agriculture becoming a popular alternative. engineer had to execute all fuel transfer by manual switch and Refinery 1% “Wireless connectivity is flexible, cost-effective and pump selection during the three hour transatlantic flight. First produced in 1912, propane 8% much less hassle to deploy,” says Alf Helge Omre, a has since found many uses in the Domestic Transport Business Development Manager with Nordic. “With a long home, industry, for transportation 44% and on farms. Also known 9% range and power efficient solution like cellular IoT, you Tech Check as ‘bottled gas’, propane is a can easily connect hard-to-reach assets using sensors The nRF9160’s modem colorless hydrocarbon that exists Industry operating on independent batteries that can last for years. and application processor in both gaseous and liquid form. 12% What’s more, when the required data rate is anything more were engineered In its natural form propane is than occasional, using the cellular network is easily the for optimized power odorless, so a foul-smelling scent most economical solution.” performance in IoT is added to alert users about leaks. Wireless tank monitoring solutions that provide systems, enabling Globally, the top five consumers complete insight into far-flung assets allow farmers, tank monitors to stay of LPG are the U.S., China, Saudi Chemical fleet managers and industrial operations to make connected to a cellular Arabia, Japan and India. Nearly network with unparalleled 26% informed decisions, reduce costs, and enhance operational two percent of U.S. energy needs low power consumption, are supplied by LPG. Like natural efficiency and safety. Householders can also sleep easy, critical for sensors in gas, propane is one of the cleanest safe in the knowledge wireless tech is on hand to ensure remote locations where burning fossil fuel products, Source: the tanks that fuel our cars, grills and heating are always World LPG Association frequent battery changes releasing negligible emissions Annual Report 2016 being watched. are impractical

26 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 27 Feature: Asset Tracking

This Way Up Asset trackers are already moving beyond location monitoring. The next generation of solutions include sensors to ensure fragile cargoes are well looked after

he roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines—apart from By the Numbers Like Bluetooth LE, cellular IoT is on a rapid growth path. promising a return to normality—is proving a valuable Introduced in 2016, the LTE-M and NB-IoT specifications Tstress test for the world’s logistics systems. have encouraged a multivendor ecosystem delivering While Russia, China and other countries are now 1.3 chipsets enabling device makers to build wireless products immunizing their populations with locally-developed that take advantage of this low power form of cellular. vaccines, many parts of the developed world have turned billion Cellular IoT and Bluetooth LE are not interoperable, so to messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine products from U.S. doses of Pfizer cellular IoT monitoring solutions often include a Bluetooth companies Pfizer and Moderna. Each firm is ramping up COVID-19 vaccine LE SoC to communicate with the cargo monitoring network production and distribution to meet an unprecedented for distribution and which then passes on sensor information to the cellular demand. According to the International Air Transport in 2021 IoT SiP via a wired connection. Association (IATA) no less than the equivalent of 8,000 Source: Scientific American Cellular IoT products tend to be relatively more expensive Boeing 747’s is needed to shift the vials for just the first and use more battery power when operating than phase of delivery. And that’s just the beginning - to protect Bluetooth LE sensors, so a common strategy is to use nRF Connect for Cloud, where the information can be A Chilly Cargo: the world’s health, tens of billions of delicate doses need to one cellular device as a gateway to the Cloud servicing displayed on an intuitive interface. The Thingy:91’s cellular COVID-19 vaccine logistics be frozen and transported to every part of the globe. (See 500 multiple sensors. IoT communication can be interleaved elegantly with GPS sidebar pg29 A chilly Cargo: COVID-19 vaccine logistics.) During transmission, the cellular device runs at a positioning acquisition making it perfect for precision The numbers are daunting, but that’s just the To ensure timely delivery, safe handling and the correct million relatively high power consumption and there is a cost location and monitoring of valuable cargoes. beginning; the logistics challenge in moving vaccines to 1 billion doses cold-chain regime, logistics companies are increasingly associated with data transfer across a cellular network. Nordic is not alone in offering developers combined short around the globe is made much harder because they don’t turning to wireless technology. of Moderna To minimize power and cost, the device’s operation is range wireless and cellular IoT tracking solutions. For travel well. The medicines are stored in glass vials, and while COVID-19 vaccine typically limited to transmitting only when the conditions example, Finnish firm, Ruuvi Innovations, has developed the packaging is designed to absorb some knocks there is only COMBINING WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES for distribution being monitored move outside set thresholds, or when it a product called the Ruuvi Node based on Nordic’s so much it can do. According to an article in Scientific American Tracking and monitoring products based on Bluetooth in 2021 is remotely triggered for an update. Cellular IoT solutions nRF9160 and nRF52840. magazine, each Pfizer tray, for example, holds 195 vials, each LE—a mature and reliable technology for wireless have powerful processors for a degree of edge-processing The product houses a full range of environmental sensors, containing five doses, and a box can hold up to five trays. If that Source: Scientific American sensors—offer a good solution for overseeing COVID-19 and good Flash memory capacity allowing for long-term GPS positioning and NFC for securely reading device IDs single box is dropped, nearly 5000 people will have to wait longer vaccine cold chains as well as many other industrial asset data storage when the device is in areas of sparse cellular and uploading configuration parameters. for protection from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. tracking applications. coverage and can’t upload data to the Cloud. The device can be used as an environmental sensing and In addition to their fragility, vaccines also need to be stored and Bluetooth LE wireless devices equipped with 6 asset tracking solution combining cellular IoT connectivity, shipped at low temperatures; Moderna’s messenger RNA (mRNA) thermocouples and accelerometers can be placed in HELP FOR DEVELOPERS GPS and NFC. But more than that, because the product vaccine, for example, has to be kept at -20˚C. For the equivalent cold boxes and refrigerated containers to monitor and billion Designing a cargo monitoring product that combines includes a Nordic wireless SoC, it can operate as an IoT Pfizer vaccine, the storage temperature is a numbing -70˚C. Pfizer record temperatures and impacts. Because the sensors Bluetooth chips short-range wireless with cellular IoT is a tough gateway for any nearby Bluetooth sensor beacons. is using specially designed, temperature-controlled thermal are relatively inexpensive, a monitoring device can be forecast to be engineering task. But prototyping platforms such as A third example of a reference design for wireless asset shippers comprising an inner container holding the 5000 doses dedicated to each box. Bluetooth LE tech’s smartphone shipped in 2024 Nordic Semiconductor’s Nordic Thingy:91 point the way. tracking solutions is Ericsson’s ARDESCO - co-developed which is then slipped into an outer container. The space between interoperability allows the manufacturer to offer sensor Source: Bluetooth SIG The Thingy:91 combines Nordic’s nRF9160 low power SiP with Lund, Sweden-based connected solutions design the two containers is packed with dry ice to keep things cool and configuration and monitoring from a mobile app. Impact with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GPS with firm, Sigma Connectivity. ARDESCO is offered to help Tech Check then the box is sealed with an insulated lid. Each container can and temperature excursions can be flagged and, for audit the nRF52840 high-end Bluetooth 5.2 SoC. The product enterprises developing cellular IoT solutions not only maintain the recommended storage temperature for up to ten Over ARDESCO is provided days if unopened. Every container houses a wireless temperature purposes, the data recorded during the delivery’s entire features an LTE-M, NB-IoT and GPS antenna connected simplify and accelerate the design process and reduce in a 45 by 80 by 12.7 mm trip from drug maker to healthcare provider can be NB-IoT to the nRF9160, and two antennas connected to the development costs, but also efficiently deploy and manage form factor. The reference monitor and GPS locator. downloaded to the smartphone (or other gateway 154 nRF52840 - one for Bluetooth LE and another for NFC. devices over their complete life cycle. Once thawed and kept in a refrigerator at between 2 and or LTE-M design is powered by a 1250 device) and from there to the Cloud. The nRF9160 features a dedicated application processor The product again employs Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP and mAh battery, optimized 8˚C, the Moderna vaccine can be used for up to 30 days. After Bluetooth LE vaccine tracking does have limitations. For networks, and a multimode LTE-M and NB-IoT modem. The modem nRF52840 SoC to provide LTE-M/NB-IoT and Bluetooth for extended battery the Pfizer vaccine is transferred to a refrigerator, it must be example, data can’t be sent directly to the Cloud. “Cellular managed by 123 supports the eDRX and PSM power saving modes to LE connectivity for a wide range of IoT designs. ARDESCO life thanks in part to the administered within five days or be discarded. If either vaccine is IoT overcomes that challenge,” explains Geir Langeland, operators in 59 extend battery life and includes assisted GPS. integrates an accelerometer as well as temperature, low power capabilities of exposed to elevated temperatures at any part of the supply chain, Nordic’s nRF9160 SiP. The Nordic Semiconductor’s Director of Sales & Marketing. “It countries, Nordic designed the Thingy:91 to aid the rapid humidity, air quality, air pressure and light sensors. even if quickly refrozen, they become ineffective. The reason is completes what was a missing link for the IoT.” development of prototypes for cellular IoT systems such “The ability to monitor and control ‘things’ independently nRF9160 supports PSM because the mRNA at the heart of the vaccines is very fragile deployed by and eDRX power saving Cellular IoT is available in two versions, LTE-M (which is as asset tracking and environmental monitoring. The of location or environment is a key asset of cellular IoT,” and can easily be broken down by ever-present enzymes. Once modes to keep current end 2020 the RNA strands are broken, the vaccine won’t work, because more suited to assets on the move) and NB-IoT (which is product includes sensors to gather data about movement, notes Christian Johnsson, a Business Developer with Sigma consumption low. For Source: Global the body doesn’t recognize the RNA as part of the SARS-CoV-2 better for applications that demand the longest battery Semiconductor Alliance temperature, humidity, air quality, air pressure, color Connectivity. It seems the technology has matured at an example, in PSM mode, life). Together with direct Cloud connectivity, cellular IoT and light intensity. For rapid product development, the opportune moment – just when the world is relying on the uploading 1 KB every 12 virus and therefore no protective immune reaction will occur. Low offers long battery life, kilometer range, reliability, quality Thingy:91’s standard application firmware extracts data efficient and safe delivery of the vaccines that could see an hours, the average current temperatures dramatically slow down the damaging enzyme of service (QoS), scalability and security. from the onboard sensors and relays it securely to Nordic’s end to the pandemic. is just 5.5 µA reactions, in the same way that freezing food stops it spoiling.

28 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 29 Nordic Inside

Wearables

ArcX According to clinical research, music may exert an ergogenic (enhancing physical performance) and This Bluetooth LE smart ring enables distractive effect during exercise. Music distracts remote control of music and phone calls people from pain and fatigue, elevates mood, increases endurance, reduces perceived effort and may even for people on the move promote metabolic efficiency. When listening to music, people run further, bike longer and swim faster than According to a 2019 survey by business news usual - often without realizing it The IP67-rated website, The Manifest, 56 percent of the population waterproof and of the U.S.—approximately 183 million people—now shockproof device is own a connected wearable. The sophistication of supplied in a range of these devices is also increasing, and the market is ring sizes, as well as expected to grow to $27 billion by 2022 a watch-strap form factor, enabling it to be worn either on the person, or attached to a handlebar, paddle or other piece of sports equipment. Using the nRF52832 SoC’s wireless connectivity it can also connect with any other Bluetooth- TheArcX smart ring is designed to be enabled device, for worn on the index finger and, via its example to act as a thumb-controlled micro-joystick, ‘hands-free’ controller allows users engaged in sporting for sports cameras or activities to remotely control a range wireless speakers of smartphone functions - for example shuffling music playlists, measuring split times or accepting incoming calls

While smart rings and other wearables are a relatively new innovation, the ring itself has been around a little longer. The oldest known examples are approximately 4500 years old and come from the Indus Valley in northwestern South Asia, home to a Bronze Age civilization from the third millennium BC

While exercise has increased in popularity since the fitness boom of the 1980s, the energy we expend during physical activity today is estimated to still only be Tech Check a third of that of our ancestors Powered by a customized, living during the Paleolithic rechargeable Li-Poly period. By walking long distances battery, ArcX provides interspersed by high intensity a minimum of five days animal stalking, hunter-gatherers usage time between effectively engaged in interval recharge thanks in training, while lifting stones to part to the ultra low build shelters, for example, was power characteristics a primitive form of resistance of the Nordic SoC. The training that promoted high levels nRF52832 has been of muscular fitness engineered to minimize power consumption, with features such as the 2.4GHz radio’s 5.3/5.4 mA peak RX/TX currents and a fully-automatic power management system

30 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 31 Case Study Industry Viewpoint

Wearables Jan Willem Smeenk ‘World’s most advanced’ personal tracker Chief Architect, SODAQ We selected cellular IoT because we combines cellular IoT, GPS and Bluetooth LE wanted our application to feature reliable Cellular IoT-based asset Supported by multiple Nordic Semiconductor wireless technologies, the AirBolt GPS connectivity with a high radio link budget tracking ready to soar asset tracker monitors valuable items from anywhere in the world Logistics is proving a key driver for mainstream adoption of cellular IoT, but there are still hurdles to overcome eeping track of valuables like keys, bags, wallets, pets and even vehicles is an everyday task. But The adoption of cellular IoT Kthings get harder when you’re on the move because technology for asset tracking you also have to worry about leaving important items solutions has only just started. The behind or having them stolen. Locks can help, but then solutions are out there, but the you’ve got to keep track of the keys or remember lock existing connectivity business model combination numbers. has been blocking growth as many Recognizing that these solutions are yesterday’s of the telcos have been stuck in old technology, Melbourne, Australia-based company, school thinking when it comes to AirBolt, started business in 2014 with a mission to help their pricing models and the IoT. people overcome the frustration of using outdated The business case for using cellular products to protect their luggage and other valuables IoT for asset tracking is easy to prove. for stress-free travel. Following the initial successful If you see how many drivers there release of a smart travel lock, the company recently are to earn money in logistics when The business took another step forward with the development of its you know where your assets are at case for using cellular AirBolt GPS, which it claims is the world’s most what time, then you will understand IoT for asset tracking advanced personal tracker. why big corporations in particular The lightweight and waterproof asset tracker is are seizing the opportunity now. is easy to prove designed to monitor valuable assets across various But slowly everyone will be pushed locations including airports, train stations, gyms, towards acceptance. A couple of batteries. The growth in IoT devices entertainment venues and workplaces. The user simply years from now the telcos will shut will simply not sustain it. Not just attaches the AirBolt GPS to an item and tracks it from down the 2G and 3G networks and we because the process of creating anywhere through the AirBolt App on their smartphone. will all discover how many sensors batteries is bad for the environment, By combining low power LTE-M/NB-IoT cellular and devices are out there monitoring and charging them with traditional connectivity and assisted GPS alongside Bluetooth LE industrial applications that urgently power is equally bad, but also the wireless technology, AirBolt offers both precise localized- require upgrading to the next sheer number of batteries we and global-asset tracking functionality. One notable back to the user. “All the sensors allow us to use AirBolt precise position monitoring, and the nRF52833 Bluetooth generation of communications would need simply cannot be advantage of AirBolt’s solution, the company claims, is GPS as a multifaceted product; we can use the technology LE SoC with Bluetooth Direction Finding, for support of solutions. At SODAQ we call this the produced by manufacturers. The that the asset tracker provides up to one year of active to alert users about movement and falling objects or 2 and 3D indoor location services, as well as wireless next millennium bug, one that will answer lies on one hand in making tracking with global coverage on a single battery charge. people,” says Mr. Kabir, CEO and Founder of AirBolt. connectivity between multiple AirBolt products and the truly disrupt the industry and also our devices ready for alternative While competitive solutions make similar claims, “For example, one of our partners deploys platforms associated smartphone app. Nordic’s cellular IoT SiP is trigger a breakthrough in IoT. power sources such as solar and AirBolt says in reality most are either inconveniently exposed to extreme weather, so they came to us certified for global cellular IoT applications and is designed As the industry matures there kinetic energy and by buffering the large or can only deliver on their battery life promises looking for a solution that can not only track their for low power consumption. will be a handful of companies on the energy in supercapacitors, and on when in standby mode. platforms but also alert them of platform movement or The nRF9160 provides multimode LTE-M/NB-IoT hardware side and many players on the other by making these devices For loss and theft prevention, AirBolt GPS uses falls [due to high winds].” capabilities in the same solution. The LTE-M version of the data side. Everyone is jumping less hungry for energy. This is geofencing technology and proximity/separation alerts AirBolt GPS also serves as a gateway to connect cellular IoT is ideal for tracking moving objects in outdoor on data - software companies, something SODAQ is pioneering with to warn the user if someone tries to walk away with their AirBolt’s range of Nordic-powered secure access and environments, while NB-IoT provides leading low power dashboard platforms, telcos, as well the launch of our SODAQ TRACK valuables. Users can also grant live GPS tracking access remote asset management products, such as its patented consumption, and good penetration into buildings. as firms involved with data analysis, SOLAR device which is the first to anyone from anywhere in the world, with various levels Tech Check smart travel lock. This means users can remotely track For example, the integrated LTE-M modem provides a AI and machine learning. solar-powered cellular IoT asset of permissions and security. And if it’s dark or the user’s The nRF52833 is a their luggage or monitor and locate many other valuables. total link budget of 131 dBm, enabling the AirBolt GPS or Some won’t survive but there tracker that can operate perpetually possessions are hidden from plain sight, AirBolt GPS multiprotocol SoC with a For example, if a user’s AirBolt Lock is near the AirBolt any other asset tracking device to reliably transfer data will be plenty of winners because on harvested solar energy alone. includes an LED status indicator and loud buzzer to help Bluetooth Direction Finding GPS and is opened without the user being around over a long range. the potential market is huge. Another answer may be found find misplaced items. capable radio, qualified for (whether by Transportation Security Administration or The solution’s 350 mAh Li-Ion battery and other built-in On the hardware side those in producing different types of AirBolt GPS comes in a 37 by 37 by 16 mm form factor, operation at an extended an unknown party), the lock will inform the tracker which power-management components provide the AirBolt GPS few manufacturers who can batteries that are printed and only making it the world’s smallest GPS, LTE-M and NB-IoT temperature range of will in turn alert the user. Alternatively, the solution can with its “best-in-class” 12-month battery life - a highly truly produce in the hundreds of consist of natural materials. tracker, says the company. But despite the compact -40 to 105 °C. A generous be used for enterprise level large-scale asset tracking beneficial feature for an asset tracker used in settings and thousands or millions—and at the SODAQ is in a consortium with memory allocation and size, AirBolt GPS is far from a one-trick tracking device. deployments, enabling companies to secure and remotely situations where regular recharging is often unavailable. same time deliver quality at the right companies such as Varta and Elmeric dynamic multiprotocol The product employs multiple embedded sensors monitor critical equipment. The extended battery life makes the AirBolt GPS an price—will prevail. developing these solutions. In the support ensures the including a three-axis MEMS accelerometer for free- nRF52833 is an ideal “absolute game changer for the industry,” says Mr. Kabir. near future these batteries will be fall and motion detection, and a temperature sensor for device for commercial and Combined connectivity “We selected cellular IoT over other LPWAN technologies A battery-free future rechargeable and biodegradable as remote monitoring of the environment, particularly in industrial applications, AirBolt GPS integrates two powerful and complementary to provide the connectivity for AirBolt GPS because we As the IoT deploys at a massive well. This is where innovation and temperature-sensitive setups. The integrated LTE-M including asset tracking and Nordic solutions—the nRF9160 SiP, which combines wanted our application to feature reliable connectivity with scale, another problem the industry technology are meeting to tackle connectivity can then be used to send this information professional lighting cellular network location data with GPS trilateration for high link budget and no limitations of payload size.” will need to overcome is the use of real world problems.

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nRF5340 enters Industrial IoT Tech Zone volume production Wireless access points enable An in-depth look at Nordic’s wireless IoT solutions multiprotocol network support Nordic’s nRF5340 high-end multiprotocol SoC for complex IoT and LE Audio Beijing, China-based Wayclouds has applications has entered volume launched two new wireless access points Internet of Things production. The SoC introduces a new designed to equip smart buildings and and flexible, dual-processor hardware offices with multiprotocol network support, architecture combining an application while providing equipment access and Cellular IoT reference design slashes costs processor with a network processor. management, video surveillance, AI image For applications requiring a high level of accelerated computing as well as other Sigma Connectivity has released a cellular out-of-the-box. Developers also have pressure and light sensors. The inclusion of security, the nRF5340 incorporates Arm application services. The access points are said IoT reference design to help enterprises access to hardware schematics, software the nRF52840 SoC provides the capability CryptoCell-312, Arm TrustZone technology to significantly reduce the installation and not only simplify and accelerate the design development tools, software libraries to develop gateway solutions that can not and Secure Key Storage. maintenance costs of secure IoT deployments. process and reduce development costs, but and example code. only connect a short-range wireless network The nRF5340 supports major RF protocols In addition to the Wi-Fi coverage capabilities also efficiently deploy and manage devices Designed for either indoor or outdoor use, directly to the cellular network but also including Bluetooth 5.2/Bluetooth LE, provided by traditional wireless access over their life cycle. ARDESCO is powered by a 1250 mAh battery to a smartphone. The combination of the Bluetooth mesh, Thread and Zigbee. In points, the ceiling or wall mounted Wireless ARDESCO (Approved Reference Design and integrates an accelerometer as well nRF9160’s 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 dedicated addition, the SoC has been designed Access Point 300 Series (AP300) integrates Nordic’s nRF52833 advanced multiprotocol for Ericsson and Sigma Connectivity) as temperature, humidity, air quality, air application processor, and the nRF52840 to meet the requirements of LE Audio, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee and other IoT protocols SoC combines a 64 MHz, 32-bit Arm Cortex employs both Nordic’s nRF9160 low power SoC’s Arm Cortex M4 processor provides enabling audio streaming over Bluetooth. for interconnecting smart devices. The M4 processor with floating point unit, a SiP with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem ARDESCO with the processing power to The nRF5340 can support Isochronous product employs two Nordic nRF52833 SoCs 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting and GPS in combination with the nRF52840 comfortably handle even the most complex Channels, the Bluetooth 5.2 feature for with one acting as a dedicated Bluetooth LE Bluetooth 5.2, Bluetooth mesh, Bluetooth Bluetooth LE multiprotocol SoC, to and processor-intensive applications. audio streaming. LE Audio also introduces gateway and the other as a Zigbee gateway to Direction Finding, 2 Mbps throughput, and provide a broad range of connectivity “The main reason we chose to use the the Low Complexity Communications relay data from networks using either of the Long Range plus Thread, Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4 options for developers. nRF9160 SiP and the nRF52840 SoC as Codec (LC3), an audio compression codec short-range wireless protocols to the Cloud. and proprietary 2.4 GHz RF protocol software) Suitable for logistics, environmental part of the ARDESCO design was due to its that can run efficiently on the nRF5340. The The Wireless Access Point 100 Series (AP100) featuring -95 dBm RX sensitivity with 512 kB monitoring, metering and asset tracking versatility, low power consumption and audio data can be transferred to other parts incorporates a single Nordic nRF52833 SoC to Flash memory and 128 kB RAM. applications, the design supports Ericsson’s security, which are all important aspects of the system using the I2S and PDM audio provide Bluetooth LE or Zigbee connectivity. The Dynamic Multiprotocol feature uniquely IoT Accelerator suite, providing Cloud-based ... for cellular IoT,” says Joakim Uddenfeldt, interfaces, which employ the nRF5340’s Both AP300 and AP100 also implement an supports concurrent wireless connectivity connectivity and device management Technical Partner Manager with Ericsson. low-jitter audio PLL clock source. infrared (IR) feature for IR connectivity. of the protocols.

Mesh network buildings Tiny module automation platform launched supports multiple

Finnish building automation specialist, fact that each node can be commissioned and connectivity options Produal, has developed an advanced and configured using an Android smartphone flexible modular buildings measurement installed with the Produal MyTool app, while Avnet Asia has released and control platform for measuring and over-the-air-updates can be performed what it claims is the Power profiling and optimization controlling environmental parameters automatically and remotely. By eliminating smallest available module such as air quality, room temperature and the need for hard wired cables and to support LTE-M/NB- humidity within buildings, using Bluetooth unnecessary repeaters, installation costs are IoT, Bluetooth LE and of embedded solutions mesh networking. also minimized, while installation flexibility GPS. The 26 by 28 mm AVT9152 module Combining a Nordic Semiconductor is maximized. includes Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9160 nRF52832 SoC-based NINA-B1 Bluetooth LE “The combination of LumenRadio’s low power SiP with LTE-M/NB-IoT module from u-blox and patented MiraOS reliable and self-healing wireless mesh modem and GPS, as well as its nRF52840 mesh stack and embedded OS firmware networking technology using patented Bluetooth 5.2/Bluetooth LE SoC. from Sweden-based LumenRadio, the cognitive coexistence together with u-blox The module is small enough to be Enables easy and affordable power Produal Proxima platform supports up to modules based on Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC integrated into a range of space- measurements for wireless product 100 battery-powered wireless nodes under is unique in this commercial space,” says constrained embedded applications. a single gateway with no need for Petri Hakkarainen, Program The nRF9160 SiP’s Arm Cortex-M33 development on all Nordic DKs, in signal-boosting wireless repeaters. Manager at Produal. “In processor and the SoC’s 64MHz, 32-bit addition to external hardware. The gateway securely routes commercial buildings you don’t Arm Cortex M4 processor with floating data from the wireless want to interfere with the point unit equip the module with ample AVAILABLE NOW nodes to a buildings local Wi-Fi network and computational power to support complex nordicsemi.com/ppk2 management system with MiraOS running on and processor-intensive IoT applications. or the Cloud. Nordic chipsets we’ve got A high degree of flexibility means Produal claims set- a solution that causes no completing an IoT design can be as easy up and maintenance interference. Something as connecting a power source, sensors is made simple by the we have never seen before.” and an antenna to the module.

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Tech Briefing Wireless application power profiling made simple Nordic’s Power Profiling Kit II is an inexpensive and flexible tool to help developers optimize the power consumption of their low power embedded designs without compromising performance

ordic’s short range wireless SoCs and low power the first areas to consider when optimizing the power consider how often sensor data needs to be read. For cellular SiP are designed to offer high performance consumption of a design. The most common challenge example, a design using a gyro and accelerometer to Nwhile maximizing battery life. But how the is the SoC waking from sleep when not intended or No debugger work out 3D position in real time will require frequent and end-product actually performs is determined by the expected or even not going to sleep at all. Good code is required, fast sampling, but other applications might need only an developer’s hardware and software design. And while ensures the SoC wakes up due to an interrupt, handles approximate device position allowing the developer to multimeters might provide an overview of average power the event and then immediately goes back to sleep. But, just a USB slow down the sampling rate and extend battery life. consumption, they don’t allow the developer to probe the if for some reason the SoC doesn’t go back to sleep it can connection to a instantaneous power consumption of their product to enter a waiting loop with the processor running flat out PC or Mac and a The importance of hardware design diagnose power anomalies. Instruments such as power when what the designer actually intended was for the In addition to the SoC, a wireless design will comprise analyzers do a better job of power profiling, but they processor to do nothing at all. That makes the first rule power profiling other hardware that could rapidly drain the battery if are heavy and expensive making it unlikely that every of power profiling to check the current when the software not chosen well and used correctly. For example, when engineer can have one on their desk. processor is supposed to be asleep to ensure that it’s selecting sensors such as accelerometers, the developer Nordic’s Power Profiler Kit II (PPK2) is an inexpensive, not actually operating. (See panel below Test example: package should choose devices with low quiescent current portable and standalone device which features an Checking sleep mode.) downloaded (current consumed when the device is idle). The developer knowledge of the averaging window it is of little value advanced analog measurement unit with a high A second cause of excess power consumption is from Nordic’s should make sure the sensor does only what’s needed and for detailed measurements of, for example, a wireless dynamic measurement range. The PPK2 enables unnecessary event logging. Logging is convenient then goes back to sleep. For instance, if the application product running Bluetooth LE. accurate instantaneous and average power during the development and debugging stage of the nRF Connect for only needs to indicate when it’s been inverted, then the A logic analyzer is useful to check event timing and to consumption measurements for the entire range application design. But it uses peripherals such as UART Desktop developer should ensure the accelerometer only reports debug digital processing protocols like SPI and UART. The typically seen in low-power embedded applications, or the real time transfer module from Segger (which when inversion happens and save power by not reporting instrument is also a useful tool to show when and how all the way from single microamps up to one amp. The in turn uses the debug channel for communication) when the product moves in any other orientation. traffic is exchanged with sensors. resolution varies between 100 nanoamps and one which consume power. This logging is not required Care is also needed in the selection of power The disadvantages of a logic analyzer is its expense, milliamp depending on the measurement range and is for production devices but developers often forget to management devices. Buck/boost voltage regulators and unsuitability for a production environment and the suitable enough to detect the small power spikes seen in disable it to the detriment of battery life. low drop out regulators (LDOs) all dissipate some power fact that it doesn’t give direct information about low power optimized systems. A third common reason for high power consumption is so it’s important to select the most efficient components. current consumption. caused by the SoC waking up more often than intended. Another example where considered hardware design An oscilloscope can offer good information about power Tech Check Avoiding common problems For example, a timer might wake up the processor can save battery power is when a voltage divider is consumption with high accuracy and wide bandwidth. Wireless application design is complex but there are a to read some sensor data more frequently than the employed to ensure a component such as an analog-to- But it measures voltage rather than current. To make The PPK2 is able to few common problems that drain power and these are application requires. The developer should carefully digital converter (ADC) receives the correct voltage. The accurate power measurements the designer needs to dynamically switch its voltage divider circuit should be constructed such that measure the voltage drop across a resistor placed in the internal measurement circuitry so, for example, it dissipates the minimum amount of power through the power path of the circuit board. This resistor must be when working with shunt resistor. The designer should also carefully design constantly changed to set the range of measurements the nRF9160 DK, the Figure 1: Normal operation Figure 2: Anomalous power consumption signal pulldowns so that they pull the voltage to ground required and maintain power profiling accuracy. engineer can measure but minimize current leakage in order to save power. Another downside of an oscilloscope is that a decent power consumption all model is very expensive. the way from power Measuring power consumption Another option is a power analyzer. The device is very saving modes up to There are many ways to check how much power a design accurate and should be considered the benchmark for GPS active states. is using. One design tip is to plan the structure of software measuring a design’s power consumption. But as noted The PPK2 is capable of to make it easy to read through. That way it’s easier to above the units are heavy and expensive so there are continuously measuring spot where parameters need to be changed to make likely to be very few within a single company. 100,000 samples per second enabling it to sure, for example, that peripherals aren’t switched on Nordic’s PPK2 is an inexpensive and lightweight reveal in high detail how when they’re not needed. And a developer can get a lot of alternative to a power analyzer yet is capable of the device-under-test is information about power consumption from analyzing comprehensive power profiling. The PPK2 can be used actually performing schematics, data sheets and source code. throughout the entire engineering cycle and can always Moreover, there are many tools to enable the developer be available on the developer’s desk. It can support all of to take a closer look at what’s happening as the Nordic’s DKs as well as external hardware. application runs. For example, if high power consumption No debugger is required, just a USB connection to a PC or occurs during a sleep cycle then it’s a clear indication Mac and a power profiling software package downloaded something is wrong. A debugger might then be helpful to from Nordic’s nRF Connect for Desktop. The PPK2 is also Test example: Checking sleep mode determine the actual configuration of the device when complemented by an online power profiler. The online transmission) and the average current is 180.8 microamps. During the sleep The examples shown here come from an nRF52840 DK running a beacon it entered the sleep cycle to help diagnose the anomaly. profiler is based on theoretical power consumption levels application. The PPK2 is both powering and profiling the DK and is connected period (selected gray area) the average current is just 14.56 microamps. One downside of a debugger is that sleep mode power of Nordic products so can provide a good estimate of the to a PC via a USB lead. The screen shots are taken from the power profiling The situation in figure 2 is very different; instead of entering a sleep mode software supported by nRF Connect for Desktop. In figure 1, the PPK2 between advertising transmissions (gray area), the CPU is cycling round consumption can’t be measured while it’s running. theoretical power consumption for a given design. The measures the beacon power consumption while the device operates as a waiting loop, burning power. The average current in this period is now Another is that debug lines might not be accessible for estimate can be cross referenced to that measured from intended. Between the periodic advertising transmissions, the SoC enters 6 milliamps and the average current across the entire window is 6.15 measurement on the end product. the actual design by the PPK2 to highlight any anomalies. a low power sleep mode for around 100 milliseconds. Within the window, milliamps, over 400 times greater than the designer intended and causing A multimeter is handy for measuring power usage and the peak current is measured as 15.54 milliamps (and occurs during the battery to discharge very quickly. is easy to connect to almost any part of the circuit. But a For further information see Nordic webinar Become An Expert multimeter always offers an average reading and without On Power Profiling Your Application bit.ly/30LdJAL( ).

36 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 37 Online expert panel discussions Live events map the IoT’s future direction Nordic’s wireless specialists and others feature in quarterly live debates answering the tricky questions about the challenges ahead for the IoT sector

ow in its second decade, WQ uses print and digital media to inform its readers about how Nordic’s Ntechnology is underpinning the IoT and what that means for the world. The title is now further extending its reach with WQ Live events, a series of online expert Live panel discussions brought to the audience by members of the WQ editorial team and Nordic. WQ Live events will be broadcast live each quarter and then made available from the Nordic website for subsequent viewing. The events see WQ’s editors ask All-in-one wireless the questions and moderate. The first 40 minutes of each panel comprises a questions and answer session between the moderators and an expert panel with the last 20 minutes addressing questions posted by the development solution audience during the event. The expert panels comprise Nordic management and engineers, and the occasional guest customer or external expert. The debates attempt to answer the of society is far too great for humans to analyze. Today, tricky questions facing the rapidly growing wireless IoT Cloud servers absorb this data and clever AI and ML sector with lively, frank and informative discussion. algorithms extract patterns and anomalies that can The debates The first expert panel took place in January and be used for forecasts and decision making. But the attempt to comprised Nordic C-level executives Svein-Egil Nielsen challenge for engineers is that as the IoT scales, the data (CTO), Geir Langeland (Director of Sales & Marketing) increases exponentially. Sending all that raw data to the answer the and Kjetil Holstad (Director of Product Management). Cloud becomes too expensive and energy intensive to tricky questions During the debate, the participants discussed how manage in the long term. COVID-19 had impacted Nordic and the tech business The solution is to process the data at the edge of the facing the and what the long term implications of the pandemic sensor network in order to decide what’s important rapidly growing are likely to be. enough to forward to the servers. The challenge is that wireless sector The conclusion was that COVID-19 has changed the AI and ML routines are intensive yet even the most everything and the ‘new normal’ will be built on the IoT. powerful edge devices have limited computing and with lively, frank (See WQ Issue 4, 2020 pg10.) The first expert panel can be power resources compared to Cloud servers. and informative viewed at bit.ly/394mBpm. The next expert panel will debate this problem and will discussion explore some solutions, including streamlined forms The impact of AI and machine learning of AI and ML that are optimized for low power wireless The second WQ Live events expert panel is planned for IoT edge devices. These new solutions have the added the end of April and will consider what happens when AI advantage that they don’t require a high degree of nRF Connect SDK and machine learning (ML) are combined with the IoT. software expertise to incorporate onto edge devices. That the application of AI and ML to the IoT is a good thing is perhaps beyond debate. The data generated by For more information on this WQ Live events expert billions of wireless sensors monitoring every aspect panel go to www.nordicsemi.com/wqliveevents. One common platform to build powerful, richly featured cellular IoT and short-range wireless products

ONLINE EXPERT PANEL: APRIL 29, 2021 LEARN MORE nordicsemi.com/nRFConnectSDK Live WHEN Ai MEETS events THE WIRELESS IoT The impact of Ai and machine learning on low power wireless IoT devices and their target markets Register your interest at nordicsemi.com/wqliveevents

38 W Issue 1 2021 Issue 1 2021 W 39 Product Tech Profile Summary Full product details at: nRF52840 www.nordicsemi.com/Products nRF9160 nRF5340 nRF52840 nRF52833 nRF52832 nRF52820 nRF52811 nRF52810 nRF52805 nRF51822 nRF51422 nRF51824 LTE-M Description: ThenRF52840 is a highly flexible SoC NB-IOT and is the most advanced solution in the nRF52 GPS BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY Series. It supports Bluetooth 5.2, including Long BLUETOOTH 5.2 Range and high throughput (2 Mbps) modes. In LE AUDIO addition, the nRF52840 supports Bluetooth mesh, DIRECTION FINDING Thread and Zigbee. The nRF52840 SoC adds best- 2 MBPS in-class security for Arm Cortex-M processors with on-chip LONG RANGE Arm CryptoCell cryptographic accelerator. CryptoCell builds BLUETOOTH MESH security into applications from the ground up. The SoC is suitable THREAD

WIRELESS PROTOCOL ZIGBEE for applications including smart home, industrial automation, ANT advanced wearables and gaming controllers. 2.4 GHZ PROPRIETARY NFC SoC: The nRF52840 uses a powerful 64 MHz 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 SYSTEM-ON-CHIP processor and includes 1 MB Flash plus 256 KB RAM. The

TYPE SYSTEM-IN-PACKAGE multiprotocol radio offers up to +8 dBm power output and -95 dBm CPU 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 128 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 16 MHz Arm Cortex-M0 16 MHz Arm Cortex-M0 16 MHz Arm Cortex-M0 sensitivity at 1 Mbps Bluetooth LE for a link budget of 103 dBm. +64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33 With Bluetooth Long Range, a link budget of 111 dBm is possible. The FPU DSP INSTRUCTION SET radio’s peak power draw is only 4.8 mA TX (0 dBM) and 4.6 mA RX (1 CACHE Mbps) and the SoC’s current draw is as low as 0.4 µA in System OFF. MEMORY 1 MB Flash, 1 MB Flash, 512 kB RAM 1 MB Flash, 512 kB Flash, 512 kB or 256 kB Flash, 256 kB Flash, 192 kB Flash, 192 kB Flash, 192 kB Flash, 128 kB or 256 kB Flash, 128 kB or 256 kB Flash, 256 kB Flash, The nRF52840 includes a full-speed (12 Mbps) USB 2.0 controller

CORE SYSTEM 256 kB RAM +256 kB Flash, 64 kB RAM 256 kB RAM 128 kB RAM 64 kB or 32 kB RAM 32 kB RAM 24 kB RAM 24 kB RAM 24 kB RAM 32 kB or 16 kB RAM 32 kB or 16 kB RAM 16 kB RAM on-chip. An extensive range of peripherals are available with a CLOCKS 64 MHz / 32 kHz 128 MHz / 64 MHz / 32 kHz 64 MHz / 32 kHz 64 MHz / 32 kHz 64 MHz / 32 kHz 64 MHz / 32 kHz 64 MHz / 32 kHz 64 MHz / 32 kHz 64 MHz / 32 kHz 16 MHz /32 kHz 16 MHz /32 kHz 16 MHz /32 kHz number of high performance digital interfaces such as high speed ARM TRUSTZONE SPI (32 MHz) and quad SPI (32 MHz) to allow direct interfacing to ARM CRYPTOCELL 310 312 310 displays and external memory. An internal intelligent automated ROOT-OF-TRUST SECURE KEY STORAGE power distribution system ensures only system blocks that are SECURITY AES ENCRYPTION required to carry out operations are energized. The SoC operates LTE-M/NB-IOT/GPS MODEM from a 1.7 to 5.5 V supply and offers a regulated ouput to power CERTIFIED LTE BANDS 1-5, 8, 12-14, 17-20, external components up to a maximum current of 25 mA. 25-26, 28, 66 FREQUENCY 700-2200 MHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz Software: The nRF52840 uses the nRF Connect SDK for software MAXIMUM TX POWER 23 dBm 3 dBm 8 dBm 8 dBm 4 dBm 8 dBm 4 dBm 4 dBm 4 dBm 4 dBm 4 dBm 4 dBm

RADIO development. The SDK brings developers a wealth of varied RX SENSITIVITY -108 dBm (LTE-M), -114 dBm -97.5 dBm (1 Mbps) -95 dBm (1 Mbps) -95 dBm (1 Mbps) -96 dBm (1 Mbps) -95 dBm (1 Mbps) -97 dBm (1 Mbps) -96 dBm (1 Mbps) -97 dBm (1 Mbps) -93 dBm (1 Mbps) -93 dBm (1 Mbps) -93 dBm (1 Mbps) (NB-IoT), -155 dBm (GPS) examples, including Bluetooth LE profiles and driver support for ANTENNA INTERFACE 50 Ω single-ended Single-ended Single-ended Single-ended Single-ended Single-ended Single-ended Single-ended Single-ended Differential Differential Differential all peripherals. The nRF Connect SDK supports applications using HIGH SPEED SPI Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth mesh, Thread and Zigbee. The SDK also TWI, SPI, UART 4xTWI/SPI/UART 4xTWI/SPI/UART 2xTWI/SPI, SPI, 2xUART 2xTWI/SPI, SPI, 2xUART 2xTWI/SPI, SPI, UART 2xTWI/SPI, UART TWI/SPI, SPI, UART TWI, SPI, UART TWI, SPI, UART 2xTWI/SPI, UART 2xTWI/SPI, UART 2xTWI/SPI, UART includes a migration of Nordic’s Bluetooth SoftDevice Controller from +TWI/SPI/UART the company’s proven SoftDevices used with the nRF52 Series. The QSPI nRF52840 is a Thread certified component and as such is ideal for USB home networking products using the Thread mesh stack. The radio PWM 4 4 4 4 3 1 1 PDM also supports 802.15.4 PHY and MAC layers which makes it suitable I2S for additional stacks using 802.15.4 such as Zigbee. NFC, ANT and 2.4 PERIPHERALS ADC, COMPARATOR ADC COMP ADC, COMP ADC, COMP ADC ADC, LPCOMP ADC, LPCOMP ADC, LPCOMP GHz proprietary protocols are also supported. The nRF52840 boasts TIMER, RTC 3, 2 3, 2 + 3,2 5, 3 5, 3 5, 3 4, 2 3, 2 3, 2 3, 2 3, 2 3, 2 3, 2 an over-the-air device firmware update (OTA DFU) feature. TEMPERATURE SENSOR AGRICULTURE Development tools: Applications can be evaluated using the ASSET TRACKING nRF52840 DK. This is a versatile single board development kit for AUTOMATION Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth mesh, Thread, Zigbee, NFC, ANT and 2.4 GHz BEACON proprietary development on the nRF52840 SoC. The DK is typically CONSUMER ELECTRONICS DIRECTION FINDING powered using USB but can be powered by a wide range of sources. GAMING / VR + AR Other development tools for use with the nRF52840 include nRF HEALTHCARE & MEDICAL Connect for Desktop, nRF Connect for Mobile and Power Profiler Kit II. INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS MESH NETWORKS nRF52840 PC PERIPHERALS Up to 1MB The nRF52840 SoC PROFESSIONAL LIGHTING Flash w/Cache is the most advanced

APPLICATIONS 64MHz ARM® Multi-Protocol SMART BUILDINGS Cortex®-M4F 2.4GHz Radio member of Nordic’s SMART CITY Up to nRF52 Series SoC 256kB RAM family. It meets

SMART HOME AHB / APB / Easy DMA / PPI the challenges SMART METERING System Peripherals NFC-A Tag of sophisticated SPORTS & FITNESS Crypto Co-Proc DEBUG applications that TOYS Oscillators 5×TIMER 3×RTC WDT need protocol WEARABLES 32MHz RC/XO concurrency and CERTIFICATIONS GCF, PTCRB, CE, FCC and more: CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC CE, FCC Digital, Analog I/F and IO Ports 32kHz RC/XO a comprehensive nordicsemi.com/9160cert set of peripherals OPERATING TEMPERATURE -40 to 85 oC -40 to 105 oC -40 to 85 oC -40 to 105 oC -40 to 85 oC -40 to 105 oC -40 to 85 oC -40 to 85 oC -40 to 85 oC -40 to 85 oC -40 to 85 oC -40 to 105 oC 2×UART 3×SPI 2×12C Power Supply and features. The SUPPLY VOLTAGE RANGE 3.0 to 5.5 V 1.7 to 5.5 V 1.7 to 5.5 V 1.7 to 5.5 V 1.7 to 3.6 V 1.7 to 5.5 V 1.7 to 3.6 V 1.7 to 3.6 V 1.7 to 3.6 V 1.8 to 3.6 V 1.8 to 3.6 V 1.8 to 3.6 V PDM I2S QDEC LDO generous Flash DEVELOPMENT KITS nRF9160 DK, nRF5340 DK nRF52840 DK nRF52833 DK nRF52 DK nRF52833 DK nRF52840 DK nRF52 DK nRF52 DK nRF51 DK, nRF51 DK, nRF51 DK, and RAM memory 2×ACMP 4×PWM 12-bit ADC 2-stage Buck DC/DC Nordic Thingy:91 nRF52840 Dongle Nordic Thingy:52 nRF51 Dongle nRF51 Dongle nRF51 Dongle availability meets PACKAGES 10x16x1 mm LGA 7x7 mm aQFN94 (48 GPIOs), 7x7 mm aQFN73 (48 GPIOs), 7x7 mm aQFN73 (42 GPIOs), 6x6 mm QFN48 (32 GPIOs), 5x5 mm QFN40 (18 GPIOs) 6x6 mm QFN48 (32 GPIOs), 6x6 mm QFN48 (32 GPIOs), 2.48x2.46 mm WLCSP28 6x6 mm QFN48, 6x6 mm QFN48, 6x6 mm QFN48, USB QSPI HS-SPI POR BOD the requirements 4.4x4.0 mm WLCSP95 3.5x3.6 mm WLCSP94 5x5 mm QFN40 (18 GPIOs), 3.0x3.2 mm WLCSP50 3.175x3.175 mm WLCSP44 5x5 mm QFN32 (17 GPIOs), 5x5 mm QFN32 (16 GPIOs), (10 GPIOs) WLCSP48, WLCSP48 WLCSP48 of innovative 48-GPIO Crossbar VBUS 3.3V reg (48 GPIOs) (48 GPIOs) 3.2x3.2 mm WLCSP (32 GPIOs) (18 GPIOs) 2.48x2.46 mm WLCSP33 2.48x2.46 mm WLCSP33 Thin CSP applications (42 GPIOs) (15 GPIOs) (15 GPIOs)

40 W Issue 4 2020 Issue 1 2021 W 41