We would like to briefly summarize the keynote given by Sony Limited Europe about Low Cost LTE Devices. The objective of Sony regarding M2M is to integrate in most of their devices some sort of M2M communication technology in the near future. Moreover they want to use the same technology to cover all kind of devices from TVs, cameras, videogame consoles, etc. However this suppose a great challenge due to the wide range of requirements for each of the applications in terms of delay, power and data rates. The question made by the presenter was:
“Is there any technology that encompasses all the varying M2M requirements?”
Nowadays we have a large variety of wireless technologies that could be used such as, ZigBee WiFi, GPRS, LTE, etc.
According to Sony point of view the LTE should be the one. Without going into detail, the overall idea is to develop a LTE Low cost device (approx. 10$ per module) that could be easily integrated in most of the their products. Sony is not alone in the field of Low cost LTE device, in fact there is a on-going study in 3GPP since September 2011.
How to decrease the cost of LTE?
The main approaches are:
- Reduction of the bandwidth
- Hardware simplification
- Reduction of TX power
- Reduction of the peak rate
A 59% of cost reduction is expected from these simplifications.
However, the chip development of such Low cost LTE will not take place in the short-term, but in the year 2017.
One of the questions made in regards to this presentation was about using GSM/GPRS technology, which is currently available. According to Sony point of view, GSM may disappear and therefore the longevity of the solutions cannot be guaranteed.
In another post we will try to cover the one million dollar question: which technology will be available ten years or more from the current cellular networks GSM/GPRS, 3G(UMTS) or LTE?
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