CCww and Lekha launch NTN test bench in cooperation with ESA; expanding the boundaries of IoT
BOURNEMOUTH, England and BANGALORE, India, Feb. 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Communications Consultants Worldwide Limited (CCww), innovator of 3GPP® technologies and Lekha Wireless Solutions Pvt Ltd. (Lekha), a technology solutions company with expertise in communications and embedded systems, announce today the creation of a test bench system for NTN (Non-Terrestrial Networks) IoT. This includes a UE protocol-stack + PHY combination and an eNodeB with integrated SDR.
Global IoT solutions require global coverage, made possible through satellites 'filling-in' where ground-based cellular IoT isn't available. 3GPP® Release 17 will specify narrow-band protocols for Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary (GEO) satellite communications. CCww and Lekha are re-purposing their joint Release 14 NB-IoT UE design, and Lekha's eNB design; both systems will handle the higher levels of Doppler, noise and delay encountered in satellite communications. The NTN versions of UE and eNB, with a system manager and channel emulator, will be integrated to produce a software test bench, to allow testing of NTN IoT without major up-front investment.
The development is partly funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) within its Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) Competitiveness & Growth programme.
The standard NB-IoT UE and eNB software stacks execute on Xilinx Zedboard and TI SoC respectively, and are available to license for development and test; services are offered for product development, integration and live test.
CCww's CEO, Richard Carter, said, "having created a cellular NB-IoT UE with Lekha, it's natural to collaborate to pioneer NTN IoT; whilst our designs will support the approved Release 17 and later releases, we will create an early system for lab-testing."
Amarnadha Reddy, Founder Director of Lekha, added, "our experience in SDR enables us to characterise the propagation characteristics unique to satellite operation, and create the most efficient PHY for NTN operation."
About CCww
CCww has developed, licensed and supported embedded 3GPP® protocol stack software to global mobile organisations since 2000; over 3 Billion devices use CCww technology. CCww licenses portable UE stacks, with integration, conformance-testing, and support services; current focus: NTN IoT. CCww is a full member of ETSI and GSMA Mobile IoT Innovators.
Visit: www.ccww.co.uk, meet at MWC; Barcelona, 28 Feb – 3 March; booth 7A5.
Contact: Richard Carter, CEO: [email protected], Tel: +44 (0)1202 318161
About Lekha
Lekha is a Technology solutions company, providing end-to-end solutions for wireless communications and embedded systems. We license software stacks for 5G, 4G and WiMAX technology and offer services to port to target SoC processor cores. We sell telecom infrastructure products that are powered by our software stacks to enable private enterprise networks.
IP offerings include NB-IoT PHY; successfully integrated in commercial SoCs. NB-IoT IP is optimized for ARM, Cadence and Synopsis processor cores, and benchmarked for low power and footprint. Partnership with CCww is key to deliver an integrated, proven solution, and reduce time to the fast-growing IoT market.
Visit: www.lekhawireless.com, meet at MWC; Barcelona, 28 Feb – 3 March; booth 2E41.
SOURCE CCww; Lekha
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