Feb 27 2017
LTE for IoT chipmaker Sequans Communications S.A. announced that Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, has selected Sequans’ Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT chip platform to design a new family of modules for M2M and IoT applications.
“The demand for IoT devices is growing rapidly and bringing new modules to market based on Sequans’ chip, the first true LTE Cat M1/NB1 chip to become available, will enable us to aggressively support our customers,” said Ralph Huang, M2M product director, Huawei Devices Group. “We chose Sequans’ technology because Sequans is a leader in LTE for IoT and was able to deliver the level of power, performance, size, and worldwide interoperability that will rapidly grow the market.”
Huawei’s LTE-M module family is based on Sequans’ Monarch platform, the world’s first and most highly-optimized LTE-M (Cat M1) and NB-IoT (Cat NB1) chip. It is purpose-built for narrowband IoT applications, including sensors, wearables, and other low data, low power M2M and IoT devices. Monarch complies with the ultra-low-power and reduced complexity feature requirements of the 3GPP release 13 LTE Advanced Pro standard, defining narrowband, low data rate LTE technology for machine type communications. The chip provides full support for power saving mode (PSM) and extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) to enable the long battery life needed by many IoT use cases, and it provides the enhanced coverage modes defined in the standard that extend coverage for deep-indoor and remote deployments. Monarch comprises baseband, RF, power management, and RAM, all integrated into a single, tiny 6.5 x 8.5 mm package. In addition, the chip supports advanced features such as programmable RF filtering for global band support in a single SKU, and proprietary dynamic power management technology enabling battery life of 10+ years.
“We are excited to be working with Huawei on this new family of power-efficient, cost-effective LTE for IoT modules, which brings an important connectivity option to IoT device makers,” said Georges Karam, Sequans CEO. “Huawei’s commitment and aggressiveness in supporting the IoT module market is unmatched.”
See Sequans at Mobile World Congress; hall 7, booth 7I81, February 27 through March 2.