Let’s talk about NB-IoT.
We reference it a fair amount here on IoT Evolution (and on both Industrial IoT News and Smart City Sentinel, two of our sister sites), as it warrants referencing – NB-IoT, or Narrowband Internet of Things, is a cost-effective means of wireless communications for connecting devices that transmit small amounts of data over long distances while consuming minimal power. Originally developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), IoT use cases involving NB-IoT abound; smart metering, energy savings, water conservation, supply chain management, temperature level monitoring, asset tracking and so on. This applicability is made possible due to NB-IoT’s other benefits as well, including its bandwidth efficiency, strong signal strength, and how experts are able to specifically secure it. (And versatility-wise, it can exist along with 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE (News - Alert)-M and 5G mobile networks.)
The long-story-short of it? NB-IoT is a key enabler in productive and future-forward IoT ecosystems.
Enter Keysight Technologies Inc.
Keysight, in the company’s own words, “delivers market-leading, software-centric design, emulation, and test environments that support faster development and deployment with fewer risk, all throughout the product life cycle.” Its name, a blend of “key” and “insight,” is a spot-on moniker; Keysight provides electronics test measurement equipment, software and other solutions that help customers gain key insights for “measuring what’s new, what’s best, and what’s next.” (That’s a line that we, as technology news editors, can certainly appreciate.)
Notably, Keysight employs NB-IoT system modeling that uses realistic modeling examples to study RF transceivers, advanced modem technology, other hardware types, etc. Keysight's ability to support NB-IoT technologies has resulted in what it calls “IoT industry-leading designs.”
So, given this information (and knowing how Keysight continues serving high-growth industries around the world), the following news segue makes perfect sense:
Keysight was selected as the official Test Partner for the Deutsche Telekom Satellite NB-IoT Early Adopter Program. This will provide an end-to-end NB-IoT non-terrestrial network (NTN) testbed, further enabling engineers and developers to validate reference designs for solutions using 3GPP Release 17 (Rel-17) NTN standards.
We’ve covered organizations honing NTN technologies quite a bit; stories from the likes of Skylo and Murata, both of which are involved in this news, too – the Satellite NB-IoT Early Adopter Program is actually being led by Deutsche Telekom (News - Alert), Skylo and Murata. With Keysight in the wings, additional experts will be able to address critical challenges posed by limits to cellular coverage. By incorporating satellite communication, Deutsche Telekom’s program will, quote, “accelerate the development and deployment of NB-IoT solutions, offering reliable, ubiquitous, and secure data transmission.”
Moreover, program participants will gain “exclusive access” to the aforementioned collaborators’ cutting-edge solutions and will receive new hardware, connectivity services, dedicated support, and new means through which NB-IoT NTN solutions can be unique tailored to specific needs as they evolve.
As described by Jens Olejak, Head of Deutsche Telekom's Satellite IoT Program:
“Keysight was chosen as Test Partner for the Satellite NB-IoT Early Adopter Program based on its extensive collaboration with all market makers, providing unparalleled NTN solutions from the earliest stages of development. This collaboration will empower developers to innovate with confidence, leveraging Keysight's expertise in leading solutions available today."
Keysight’s Lucas Hansen, its Vice President of Wireless Devices and Operators, also said “Keysight's unique position lies in our comprehensive expertise, which seamlessly leverages both cellular and satellite technologies, and by providing end-to-end solutions, including network modeling, protocol emulation, field testing, and application testing. Our NB-IoT NTN solutions set the standard for validating the dynamic capabilities of NB-NTN devices and systems where its impacts matter most.”