Sequans Introduces Calliope LTE Platform for the Internet of Things

Sequans Introduces Calliope LTE Platform for the Internet of Things

Industry’s first category 1 LTE chipset solution targets ultra low cost and low power applications including wearables and M2M.

Sequans Communications S.A. introduced the Calliope LTE Platform, the newest member of its StreamliteLTE™ family of chipset solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT). Calliope has been optimized for low cost and low power and is ideal for wearables and other LTE Category 1 (10 Mbps downlink) IoT/M2M devices.

Calliope complements Sequans’ Colibri LTE Platform, a Category 4 (150 Mbps downlink) solution, introduced last year.

Georges Karam, Sequans CEO, said:

“With Calliope, we answer the growing demand for an especially low cost LTE solution for those highly cost-sensitive devices such as wearables that don’t require the high throughput of our Cat 4 Colibri solution.”

“Calliope is the first Cat 1 LTE solution in the industry, and by designing it specifically for this segment, it enables the design of wearables and other devices for industrial and home applications at a cost that is competitive with many of today’s entry-level 3G (WCDMA and EVDO) solutions.”

“Cat 1 capability is an important step towards the LTE-enabled Internet of Things. It allows operators to manage their networks much more efficiently by not allocating excessive resources to devices that don’t need high throughput. Furthermore, Cat 1 devices can be deployed in most of today’s existing LTE networks without requiring new network equipment or other major network upgrades. LTE is about much more than high speed as evidenced by the inclusion of Cat 1 in the original 3GPP LTE specification, and by the move of 3GPP to define even lower-cost, lower throughput Cat 0 (1 Mbps) capability in next year’s Release 12. This roadmap has accelerated the trend of operators to shutter 2G and 3G networks and migrate to the much more efficient 4G LTE.”

According to Analysys Mason, the availability of low power, low cost wireless solutions like Cat 1 (and next year Cat 0) LTE will expand the M2M market by some 3 billion additional units over the next ten years.

“A significant portion of these connections will be LTE and that is the market we are targeting, beginning with Calliope,” said Karam.

“The low cost and low power consumption will enable new use cases and the development of new devices such as wearables that need several days of battery life, as well as utility meters and industrial monitoring devices that must operate for years on a single battery. Calliope offers device designers a solution that is sized perfectly and one that enables module costs to rival the lowest cost 3G solutions on the market today, while still providing all the performance, economic, and longevity advantages of LTE.”

Among Calliope’s key features are ultra low power consumption, allowing several days of battery life, and a very compact form factor, which is a function of wafer-level packaging for both the baseband and RF chips.

The Calliope LTE Platform comprises Sequans’ latest baseband and RF chips, an integrated application CPU running Sequans’ carrier-proven LTE protocol stack, an IMS client, VoLTE capability, and a comprehensive software package for over-the-air device management and packet routing.

Calliope LTE Platform Highlights:

  • Throughput: up to Category 1 – 10 Mbps DL /5 Mbps UL
  • Ultra low power consumption
  • 3GPP Release 10; software-upgradable to Release 11
  • FDD and TDD, up to 20 MHz LTE channels
  • Embedded application CPU
  • Wafer-level packaging
  • Supports VoLTE and location based services
  • Host environments: Android, Android Wear, Linux, Windows, Real Time OS
  • Versatile interfaces to host system: UART, USB, HSIC, Ethernet
  • Includes Sequans AIR™ interference cancelation technology

Sequans expects modules based on the Calliope platform to be available from various module manufacturers beginning in the second quarter of 2015.

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