Low power xE866 family of swappable modules now includes NB-IoT, LoRa combined with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Wi-Fi.
Telit today announced that it has expanded its popular xE866 family of high performing, low power modules to meet the needs of an even broader range of IoT applications.
The additions mark the industry’s only offering of a module family in a single LGA form factor to offer multiple Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) connectivity options as well as Wireless Personal Area Networking (PAN) short range wireless technologies and Wireless Wide Local Area network (WLAN).
“Telit is the preferred supplier for multi-national customers implementing IoT solutions worldwide because of the many ways we partner with them to devise enduring IoT-based business solutions – we call it Telit IoT Know How. An element of that is Telit’s design-once-use-anywhere philosophy that, along with other customer-value centric directives, guides our modules development,” said Ronen Ben-Hamou, Telit Executive Vice President of Products and Solutions.
“By extending this product family to support more new and rising IoT standards like LoRa, NBIoT, Wi-Fi, in combination with our Telit IoT Platforms and IoT Connectivity, we are establishing the xE866 as the go-to data communication module for applications in the most varied environments.”
IoT solutions, many of which are battery-dependent, are deployed in various environments that demand different technologies, such as smart buildings and cities, tracking and telematics, healthcare, and remote monitoring including smart meters in the utilities sector. The xE866 modules enable companies to easily add any number of popular low power wireless connection to their IoT innovation, without the need to modify their designs to accommodate each new standard—all while extending the battery life of devices. With this approach, an application designed for use in an environment that is best suited for the licensed spectrum 3GPP standard Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) could easily be deployed in another environment better suited for unlicensed band proprietary LoRaWAN, with little to no impact.
“Smart metering, for example, often requires a single meter control board and application software that can easily be used to support utilities needing a mix of coverage types,” Ben-Hamou continued. “By offering every trending connectivity technology, we are ensuring that we can meet our customers’ diverse challenges, while helping them keep operating, development and future upgrade costs down.”
The ultra-compact family already well adopted in the market with long-standing GE866 2G/GPRS and UE866 3G/UMTS series, now includes LTE Cat 1, NB-IoT, LoRa in combination with BLE and Wi-Fi models —all with a common AT command set and additional unique features. The xE866 family form factor follows a nested scalability concept with models from 15x19mm to 15X25mm respecting pin out compatibility.
Telit xE866 Single Form Factor LPWAN, WLAN, and WPAN Modules:
- LE866: Smallest LTE Cat 1 module with multiple regional variants for worldwide deployment.
- ME866: Natural evolution to LTE Cat M1 in the Telit miniaturized xE866 family.
- NE866: NB-IoT module with dual band LTE FDD B8 and B20 and an optional on-board Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC).
- RE866: Innovative combination of BLE 5, NFC and LoRa enables remote management/configuration via PC/mobile.
- WE866: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 | b/g/n companion module to Telit 3G to LTE modules offers the fastest path to adding 2.4 GHz wireless capability to product.
The Q4 2016 LPWA Market Data report from industry analyst firm ABI Research reports that Cellular LPWA network technologies will have exponential connection growth from 2018 onward as telecommunications companies upgrade their networks in 2017. As networks and technology evolve, future-proof designs transition from desirable to essential for businesses that need scalable solutions for global, mass production. The agnostic flexibility the xE866 modules offer, combined with reliability, industry-leading performance, and quality testing practices that go beyond the industry standard, is what separates Telit quality and IoT know-how from other offerings in the market.
