1. What is Cellular LTE CatM and NBIoT
Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT or LTE Cat NB1) is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed to enable a wide range of devices and services to be connected using cellular telecommunication bands. It is one of a range of Mobile IoT (MIoT) connectivity technologies standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) which also includes enhanced Machine-Type Communication (eMTC or LTE Cat M1) and EC-GSM-IoT particularly designed to fit Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.
Click here for GSMA's NBIoT / LTE CatM world wide coverage information.
2. Getting started with STM32 and Cellular LTE Cat M and NBIoT
Hardware point of view, STMicroelectronics offers various possibilities to setup a STM32 with Cellular connectivity solution:
| P-L496G-CELL01: Kit with a screenless 32L496GDISCOVERY Discovery board and a STMod+ board with the Quectel UG96 modem | |
| P-L496G-CELL02: Kit with a screenless 32L496GDISCOVERY Discovery board and a STMod+ board with the Quectel BG96 modem | |
| B-L475E-IOT01A IoT Discovery board and add-on board with Quectel BG96 modem | |
| B-L475E-IOT01A IoT Discovery board and add-on board with Sequans® GM01Q modem | |
| 32L496GDISCOVERY Discovery board and modem board based on Sequans® GM01Q or Quectel UG96 or BG96 modem |
Note that to connect STMod+ board to B-L475E-IOT01A IoT Discovery board an Arduino / STMod+ an adapter (X-NUCLEO-STMODA1) is needed because this Discovery board does not have STMod+ connector
Sotfware side, the X-CUBE-CELLULAR (X-CUBE Expansion Package) provides a SW solution to allow customers to quickly and easily develop their own Firmware.
- Based on FreeRTOS
- Users can decide to use either IP stack in the modem or in STM32 (LwIP)
- Menu and command line through Virtual COM UART over USB ST-LINK to configure the cellular connectivity parameters (technology selection, bands, APN, and others), and connection to the cloud IoT platform (HTTP or MQTT)
- Easy to support a new modem
Several applications are provided as examples: PING, ECHO, HTTP, MQTT ...
Click here for more information about X-CUBE-CELLULAR.
New HW setups and new SW features in X-CUBE-CELLULAR will be provided to customers over time.
Zigbee 3.0 mesh to cloud over cat-M with BLE 5.0 user control (MWC/EW 2020)
ST at CES 2019 - LTE IoT Starter Kits
STM32 Cellular to Cloud Discovery Packs: 2G/3G and Espruino JS, LTE IoT! Embedded World 2018
How to get started with STM32 Cellular to Cloud discovery packs (P-L496G-CELL01, P-L496G-CELL02)
4. STM32 compliant with Cellular LTE CatM and NBIoT
X-CUBE-CELLULAR on st.com
P-L496G-CELL02 on st.com
B-L475E-IOT01A on st.com
32L496GDISCOVERY on st.com
X-NUCLEO-STMODA1 on st.com
GM01Q on sequans.com
5. Specific tools
STMicroelectronics’ STM32 Power Shield
Network simulator
STM32 CubeMX
STM32 Cube programmer
STM32 Cube IDE
6. STMicroelectronics Resources
| Doc Number | Title |
|---|---|
| DB3582 | Cellular connectivity software expansion for STM32Cube |
| UM2567 | Getting started with the X-CUBE-CELLULAR cellular connectivity Expansion Package for STM32Cube |
| UL2426 | X-CUBE-CELLULAR cellular connectivity Expansion Package for STM32Cube |
7. Examples
More information soon.