Paul Williamson, general manager of ARM’s wireless business, noted: “We are already working on ARM Cordio-N solutions to reduce the time to market for our partners’ NB-IoT standard-compliant chips. In addition to the hardware and software expertise of the acquired companies, we are also investing in radio design that will offer complete NB-IoT chip solutions from application software to antenna. This will cut the complexity of adopting cellular IoT technology.”
Swedish company Mistbase provides a complete NB-IoT physical layer implementation, while London based NextG-Com has developed a complete layer two and three software stack for NB-IoT. Both teams are said to have significant experience in cellular standards and IP development and are already working together to provide integrated solutions.
NB-IoT, 3GPP Release 13, was approved by 3GPP in June 2016. It is designed to fit into narrow band 200kHz deployment within the currently licensable spectrum.
Williamson added: “In enabling NB-IoT compatibility, we will save the industry years of development effort and improve access for developers by reducing the time it takes to get products approved by standards bodies and network operators. Our NB-IoT IP also complements ARM’s broader product portfolio.”
