Samsung’s Exynos i S111 delivers efficiency and reliability for NB-IoT devices
Samsung announced its new narrowband (NB) Internet-of-Things (IoT) solution, Exynos i S111.
The new NB-IoT solution offers coverage, low-power operation, location feedback and security, optimized for today’s real-time tracking applications such as safety wearables or smart meters.
The solution includes a modem, processor, memory and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) into a single chip design to enhance efficiency and flexibility for connected device manufacturers.
“IoT will be able to evolve to offer new features beyond the conventional household space with IoT-dedicated solutions that present a broad range of opportunities,” said Ben Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics.
“Exynos i S111’s highly secure and efficient communication capabilities will bring more exciting NB-IoT applications to life.”
As IoT grows to be a part of our everyday lives, some connected devices share information instantly in volumes, but some transmit data in nuggets over a period of time.
Popular radio connectivity systems such as Bluetooth and ZigBee are suitable for short-range scenarios within confined spaces such as in the home or a building, and broadband communications are commonly used for mobile devices that demand high data rates.
On the other hand, NB-IoT supports applications that require low-power communication and wide-range coverage for small-sized data.
To cover long distances with reliability, as a standard, NB-IoT adopts a data retransmission mechanism that transmits data until a successful transfer, or up to a set number of retransmits.
With a number of these retransmit sessions, the S111 is able to cover the distance of 10-kilometers (km) or more.
Exynos i S111 incorporates a modem capable of LTE Rel. 14 support that can transmit data at 127-kilobits-per-second (kbps) for downlink and 158kbps uplink, and can operate in standalone, in-band and guard-band deployments.
For long standby periods, the S111 utilizes power saving mode (PSM) and discontinuous reception (eDRX), which keeps the device dormant for long periods of time of 10 years and more, depending on application and use-cases.
Exynos i S111 also has an integrated Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and supports Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA), a positioning technique using cellular towers, for accurate and seamless real-time tracking.
Transmitted data are kept secure and private with the S111, as the solution utilizes a separate Security Sub-System (SSS) hardware block along with a Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) that creates an identity for each chipset.
Following the launch of the company’s first IoT solution, Exynos i T200, in 2017, Samsung plans to continue expanding the ‘Exynos i’ lineup with offerings tailored for narrowband networks.