Once hardware designs have been completed, many module providers will offer design review services to their customers to help maximize the chances of the design completing industry and carrier certification testing quickly and successfully. Telit recommends taking advantage of pre-certified testing offered by independent labs that perform industry (such as the PTCRB) and carrier certifications.

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Overall, the key to any embedded cellular design is to contact the chosen M2M module supplier and cellular carrier partner very early on in the process to be sure to follow the recommended design best practices . Good communication throughout the process will help reduce time-to-market and technical risk. Although some steps that are unique to the embedded cellular design process make it a bit more complicated than a standard embedded design, there has never been a more exciting time to be involved in M2M. The maturity of embedded cellular technology and widespread network coverage make an extremely compelling case for integrating wireless cellular communication into product designs.

What Does M2M Look Like?

Telit’s GE865 M2M module, which can be embedded into other products, is a complete quad-band (850/900 MHz and 1800/1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS cell phone (see the figure). Power out is 2 W on the low band and 1 W on the upper bands. Receive sensitivity is in the –106/–107-dBm range. Operating voltage is 3.8 V nominal.

With a form factor of only 22 by 22 by 3 mm and weighing 3.2 g, the GE865 is the smallest globally available GSM/GPRS embedded cellular module. It features a BGA design and tape and reel packaging. An integrated TCP/IP protocol stack supports UDP, FTP, and SMTP via AT commands as well.

Equipped with Premium FOTA Management, the module can receive over-the-air remote software updates. Since Telit owns and controls the firmware within its modules, changes to underlying chipsets have minimal impact on customers’ application designs. A wide range of such M2M modules includes those using 3G technologies for higher data rates and others using the cdma2000 standards with 1xRTT and EV-DO.

Now that you know about M2M, what applications are you thinking about?

Reference

1. “The Internet of Things: Worldwide M2M Market Forecast,” Beecham Research, 2008