NTT DOCOMO and Altair Semiconductor to Demo CAT-1 LTE eDRX on IoT Devices

HOD HASHARON, Israel, November 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Altair Semiconductor (altair-semi.com), a leading provider of LTE chipsets, today announced that it has teamed up with NTT DOCOMO, INC., Japan's largest mobile services provider, to demo ultra-low-power consumption using LTE extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) functionality on CAT-1 devices. The collaboration will also include Altair's participation in the DOCOMO R&D Open House 2016, taking place November 17-18 at DOCOMO's R&D Center in Japan.

The announcement follows NTT DOCOMO's recent chipset interoperability testing completion of Altair's ALT1160 CAT-1 chipset.

"We are excited to test our LPWA IoT gateway with lower-category LTE technologies, for a solution that targets more than 10 years of battery life," said Toshiyuki Futakata, Vice President and Senior Manager of NTT DOCOMO, Communication Device Development Department, Radio Access Technology Group. "Altair has consistently proven itself a valuable partner for forward-thinking, power-optimized LTE solutions and we look forward to collaborating on this project."

Power saving mode (PSM), as specified by 3GPP Release 12, allows devices to connect to the network only as needed, preserving battery life by remaining in sleep mode. Similarly, eDRX functionality, part of the new Release 13 standards, enables further power improvement by allowing IoT devices to remain inactive for long periods and yet remain registered and accessible to network initiated communication. This reduces the amount of power required and extends battery life significantly.

"The CAT-1 standard doesn't provide unique power reduction techniques. However, with Release 13, eDRX can exhibit very low current consumption on IoT devices," said Eran Eshed, Co-founder and VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Altair. "NTT DOCOMO is well-known as an innovator and we are glad to extend our longstanding partnership and demonstrate such advanced cellular IoT capabilities."

Altair's ALT1160 CAT-1 chipset is designed specifically for IoT and M2M applications, such as wearables, vehicle telematics, smart meters and security applications. It features best-in-class power consumption, enabling battery life in excess of 10 years under specific use case conditions, and offers unique features such as enhanced security and a customizable application layer.

About Altair Semiconductor 

Altair Semiconductor is a leading provider of single-mode LTE chipsets. Altair's portfolio covers the complete spectrum of cellular 4G market needs, from supercharged video-centric applications all the way to ultra-low power, low cost IoT and M2M. Altair has shipped millions of LTE chipsets to date, commercially deployed on the world's most advanced LTE networks including Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Softbank. The company's customer roster includes some of the world's leading OEMs and ODMs, such as Hewlett-Packard, ASUS and D-Link, as well as the majority of Asian ODMs developing LTE products for global markets. For more information, visit http://www.altair-semi.com. Follow Altair on Twitter: @AltairSemi 

Media/Analyst Contact:
Finn Partners Israel for Altair Semiconductor
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SOURCE Altair Semiconductor