Nordic Semiconductor has unveiled its silicon-to-cloud locationing answer, that includes Wi-Fi, mobile IoT, and international navigation satellite tv for pc system (GNSS) capabilities. With the launch of the nRF7000 Wi-Fi companion IC, Nordic has change into the world’s ‘first sole provider’ to supply a complete answer for locationing, from silicon to cloud. This all-in-one answer, coupled with Nordic’s distinctive technical assist, will streamline and expedite the event of functions based mostly on Wi-Fi locationing. The brand new nRF7000 companion IC is a low-power Wi-Fi 6 chip, optimised for Wi-Fi community scanning on each the two.4- and 5 GHz Wi-Fi frequency bands. When mixed with Nordic’s nRF91 Sequence mobile IoT system-in-package (SiP), the nRF7000 allows SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing. SSID stands for service set identifier, a singular ID made up of case-sensitive letters, numbers, and particular characters like dashes, durations, and areas.
Nordic’s SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing allows the acquisition of correct location fixes in a power-efficient method each indoors and open air, throughout each city and suburban areas. The know-how serves as a useful addition to GNSS, significantly in areas with sign fading and interruptions, akin to dense city areas and buildings. The observe of scanning for Wi-Fi SSIDs for locationing is extensively utilized in numerous merchandise, together with smartphones.
The nRF7000 IC is very optimised for ultra-low energy Wi-Fi SSID scanning and doesn’t assist information communication by way of Wi-Fi. The optimisation allows Nordic’s Wi-Fi locationing system to supply a singular steadiness between energy consumption and site precision.
Wi-Fi locationing
Nordic’s SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing system makes use of the nRF7000 IC for Wi-Fi scanning and an nRF91 Sequence SiP for mobile communication to Nordic’s nRF Cloud. As a substitute of counting on conventional strategies like cell towers or satellite tv for pc alerts, SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing scans the alerts from close by Wi-Fi entry factors to precisely decide a tracker’s location. This reply affords a location accuracy that’s higher than cellular-based however much less correct than GNSS whereas being extra power-efficient than GNSS and virtually as power-efficient as cellular-based.
“Nordic’s dedication to low-power wi-fi know-how allows us to supply extremely environment friendly options for quite a few IoT functions,” mentioned Kjetil Holstad, an EVP for technique and product administration at Nordic Semiconductor. “This focus culminates in a fusion of Wi-Fi locationing from the nRF7000 with the mobile and GNSS capabilities of the nRF91 Sequence SiP. Prospects now want to return to only one place for a complete, low-power locationing answer and world-class technical assist. This streamlines the method and saves them vital money and time.”
“The launch of the nRF7000 IC makes the Nordic SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing answer best-in-class,” mentioned Finn Boetius, a product advertising and marketing engineer at Nordic Semiconductor. “Competing options have a tendency to make use of general-purpose Wi-Fi ICs for Wi-Fi locationing. These are normally outsized and never optimised for this particular use case. This makes them each costlier and extra power-hungry.
“The Nordic locationing answer permits a trade-off between place accuracy and energy consumption,” continued Boetius. “In conditions the place excessive place precision is required, GNSS is the most suitable choice. But when GNSS is unavailable or solely a really tough location is required, you should utilize cell-based locationing and save battery life; this might be correct sufficient to let you know through which neighbourhood your gadget is. In the event you’re nonetheless with out GNSS and wish extra, correct info, you embody Wi-Fi info at the price of a bit of extra energy. This might be correct sufficient to let you know through which home the gadget is positioned.”
Single improvement setting from a single vendor
Nordic’s SSID-based Wi-Fi locationing answer is supported by the nRF Join SDK, the corporate’s single software program improvement setting. When used at the side of Nordic’s nRF Cloud Companies, the SDK allows easy over-the-air updates for utility, middleware, and/or modem firmware whereas offering a safe and dependable replace process.
“In the event you run into technical issues on a undertaking, coping with a number of distributors can create a large technical assist headache,” mentioned Ville-Veikko Helppi, a product director of cloud options at Nordic Semiconductor. “That multi-vendor headache is eradicated with Nordic’s one-stop-shop answer.”
{Hardware} availability
The nRF9160 SiP and nRF7000 IC mix to make a compact, power-efficient Wi-Fi, mobile IoT, and GNSS locationing system. To assist builders get began on IoT end-products utilizing this know-how, Nordic has launched the nRF7002 Analysis Equipment (EK). The EK is provided in an Arduino defend type issue and will be mixed with an nRF9160 Improvement Equipment (DK).
The nRF7000 Wi-Fi Companion IC and the nRF7002 EK can be found now by Nordic’s distribution companions.
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