Nestwave Collaborates with Sequans to Deliver Accurate, Efficient GNSS Positioning for Low-Power IoT Tracking

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Nestwave, a global technology leader in low-power geolocation for the IoT, has announced that its technology has been selected by Sequans Communications S.A., a leading global provider of 5G/4G cellular IoT connectivity solutions, to add GNSS positioning to the Sequans Monarch 2 LTE-M/NB-IoT platform.

Integrated into the Sequans Monarch 2 GM02SP module, the Nestwave GNSS solution offers Sequans’ IoT customers accurate positioning with ultra-low power consumption while minimizing component count, cost and size by removing the need for an external positioning chipset. This makes the Sequans platform ideal for a wide variety of intermittent, power-limited tracking use cases including personal trackers, parcel and pallet location, fleet trackers as well as car, bike and scooter location and theft recovery. Cosmo Connected, a leader in urban mobility solutions, has already adopted the Monarch 2 GM02SP solution to reduce the cost and power consumption of its tracker products.

Nestwave’s technology allows geolocation to be added to existing IoT chipsets by implementing a GNSS receiver using the chip’s existing radio and computing capabilities. This eliminates the need for an external GNSS chipset and product redesign.

“Nestwave’s technology provides the smallest, most power efficient, and lowest component count solutions for IoT geolocation,” comments Nestwave CEO Ambroise Popper: “Our strategic partnership with Sequans addresses the challenge of integrating accurate geolocation into compact, often battery-powered, low-cost IoT nodes and allows Sequans customers to benefit from higher performing, lower cost tracking solutions.”

Discussing the addition of low-power GNSS positioning to the Monarch 2 platform, Georges Karam, Sequans CEO states: “Leveraging Nestwave’s innovative technology to provide low-power GNSS on Monarch 2 widens its capabilities and makes many types of IoT tracker use cases more affordable because there is no need for additional positioning chips or modules.”

Armin Batouméni, the CTO of Cosmo Connected, adds: “Accuracy, power, size and cost are fundamental aspects of tracker design. By deploying the Sequans Monarch 2 with Nestwave’s integrated GNSS technology we can address all of these issues to provide our customers with cost-effective, high-performance and future-proof tracking solutions.”

Nestwave IP has been integrated into a variety of chip architectures and on various state-of-the-art DSP/CPU cores. In combination with Nestwave cloud services, this IP enables a very short time-to-first-fix, which allows for much lower power consumption in tracking use cases, without compromising on sensitivity or accuracy. The company’s technology roadmap includes the addition of 5G/4G cellular-based hybrid location functionality and solutions that will improve the accuracy of indoor tracking.