Gemalto has introduced a rapid prototyping tool to the South African market.
According to the company, Cinterion Connect Shield will "speed and simplify the creation of new Internet of things (IOT) applications as its development board utilises Arduino^1 design environment, and features an intelligent modem chipset optimised for low power IOT devices that can deliver extended battery life.'
Mark Warren, M2M country manager at Gemalto SA, says because Arduino is an easy-to-use platform, the tool can simplify hardware and software integration and transform ideas into prototypes rapidly. "This gives inventors of all levels the opportunity to play in the global cellular ecosystem and experience its benefits, diversity and scalability first hand. Our prototyping tool has been developed differently because it is the first time that developers can test the specific LTE-Cat.1 connectivity on an Arduino platform. The upcoming Narrowband IOT of our Connect Shield, planned for Q2 of 2017, will bring power efficiency to a next level, to answer the growing demands for power-saving IOT applications."
Warren adds that low power connectivity very important because the devices that will be placed in the field for several years, meaning that they require low battery usage and low power consumption. "These devices will also need to use a network which will still exist in the years to come but don't necessarily need the full potential bandwidth of LTE. Rather, these devices often transmit a low amount of data, which does not need to be sent immediately but sporadically. For example, the energy consumption of a private house, thus saving power."
The company launched the prototyping tool globally at the end of February 2017 while a band combination of the Cinterion ELS61-E module, which is the wireless connectivity module used in the Connect Shield, is planned to work in South African networks as well.
"The first version of our tool was based on the LTE Cat. 1 technology which was launched last year, in 2016. Over the longer-term we will migrate to an updated version in Q2 2017 that will contain an even more power-efficient connectivity module inside, using the next step of the LTE low category revolution: the LTE Narrow-Band-IOT or NB-IOT. Naturally this will apply once the LTE NB1 connectivity is launched in SA," concluded Warren.
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