It seems they have just released a developer kit https://www.nordicsemi.com/Nordic-news/2024/01/The-nRF9161-S...
For a standard published 4 years ago, I'm surprised my googling isn't showing up any reference boards or the like that would attract wannabe hobbyists like myself. Is there some fundamental problem why it doesn't seem to have made it to market?
Anyone here feeling qualified to answer the question in the title?
The article describes various aspects, such as that the new DECT version uses modulation and other mechanisms also present in cellular NR/5G, which sounds like a big step forward but, at the same time, no difference in user experience either. The networks get more secure and efficient by the sound of this vendor publication, but is there any user-visible chance? Or are the under-the-hood changes "a big deal" as they put it?
Technical details and further background: https://www.etsi.org/technologies/dect
Full standard looks to spread across ETSI TS 103 636 part 1 to 5 available here: https://www.etsi.org/committee/1394-dect
> The simple answer is that although it's early days for DECT-2020 NR, it promises to fill a genuine 'gap' in the wireless IoT market for massive machine-type communication. An area where failure is not an option and could put at risk automation processes, critical infrastructure, livelihoods, if not lives themselves.
With regards to reliability, Wifi 8 seems have been dubbed "Ultra High Reliability" (UHR), as that will be its area of focus:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11bn
> This amendment defines modifications to both the IEEE Std 802.11 physical layer (PHY) and the IEEE Std 802.11 Medium Access Control (MAC). The amendment adds an Ultra High Reliability capability to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). The Ultra High Reliability capability is defined for both an isolated Basic Service Set (BSS) and overlapping BSSs as:
> *At least one mode of operation capable of increasing throughput by 25%, as measured at the MAC data service Access Point, in at least one Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR) level (Rate-vs Range), compared to the Extremely High Throughput MAC/PHY operation, and
> *At least one mode of operation capable of reducing latency by 25% for the 95th percentile of the latency distribution compared to the Extremely High Throughput MAC/PHY operation and
> *At least one mode of operation capable of reducing MAC Protocol Data Unit (MPDU) loss by 25% compared to the Extremely High Throughput MAC/PHY operation for a given scenario, especially for transitions between BSSs.
* https://grouper.ieee.org/groups/802/11/Reports/tgbn_update.h...
* https://www.ieee802.org/11/Reports/802.11_Timelines.htm#TGbn
AFAICT the upside here is the same as the downside, and similar to LoRa: you get to have your own infrastructure, but you also pretty much have to have your own infrastructure.
So I read the article and know their goal is different but I saw the headline and actually thought of Japan when I saw this since PHS was shutdown around the same time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Handy-phone_System (think DECT you could roam between base stations with)
Hmm. The DECT-2020 technology faced challenges that hindered its widespread adoption and prevented it from taking off. One of the reasons for its limited success was the emergence of competing technologies like 5G, which gained more traction and investment, overshadowing DECT-2020.
I'm not too knowledgable in this space, so my main questions are what are the advantages of DECT-2020 NR over something like LoRA (which I understand has license problems), zigbee, or 802.11ah (which is rarer but has less of a license issue)?
Why is this part of the 5G spec?
Interestingly DECT seems to be alive and kicking in some areas. In my circle DECT baby monitors are popular, because they people don't want them to be connected to the internet.
Interesting, but DECT is already dead.
We've already replaced the entire DECT infrastructure for WiFi phones with MS Teams in our company. Not nearly as reliable or functional but we make do with it.
Anyone else think of a cordless phone when the saw DECT?
I always wanted "wireless wires" that would look like two usb/ethernet/hdmi/etc dongles and just provide one or more connection types at a desired bandwidth, regardless of protocol. They'd be encrypted by a private key set by touching them together, or installing one file of random bytes and arbitrary size to each as a usb drive (either as a separate usb plug or a physical switch that enables storage mode).
So users could plug one into their computer and the other into a drive/router/television/etc and it would "just work" without having to fiddle with 802.11 setup friction. I wonder if DECT-2020 New Radio (NR) could be used for this?
I wanted to invent this in the early 2000s when I first saw wireless usb over wifi and thought "well that's terrible", akin to the disbelief I felt in the '90s when I saw that usb connectors were flat instead of circular and couldn't believe that someone would come up with something so ridiculously annoying. But after 20 years of something so obvious not being invented (probably due to monopoly/regulatory effects), along with the hundreds of other things I wanted to invent in another life, I can comfortably release this idea into the public domain.