Low-power solution opens way to Sigfox Monarch service

ST’s solution lets users create region-independent smart objects that connect automatically to the local Sigfox network anywhere in the world, empowering inter-regional mobility, geolocation, and asset tracking without relying on more expensive GPS or GNSS positioning devices.

These could include smart-baggage products that aid tracking in airports or transport hubs, or innovations for supply-chain management and air or rail transportation in the industrial asset-management market, such as smart pallets.

Regional independence also allows makers of connected smart objects such as consumer or commercial IoT devices to standardise products for multiple export markets, simplifying manufacturing and logistics.

“The widespread worldwide coverage of the Sigfox network represents a unique Global connectivity service for remote monitoring and industrial asset management. This ready-to-go offering for Sigfox Monarch networking perfectly complements the existing ST IoT ecosystem providing the fastest go-to-market solution for IoT connectivity,” said Benedetto Vigna, President, Analog, MEMS and Sensors Group, STMicroelectronics. “ST’s customers can quickly create new products for seamless worldwide tracking and positioning that are cost-effective, secure, real-time connected, and inherently benefit from long range and ultra-low-power consumption.”

ST is providing a complete Software Development Kit (SDK) for Sigfox Monarch networking, supported by development kits, reference designs, and tools that accelerate project completion.

“The launch of this Monarch solution demonstrates that we are building a solid business collaboration with ST, aiming to expand further the vast possibilities of the IoT market," said Raouti Chehih, Chief Adoption Officer at Sigfox. "The S2-LP based Ultra-Low-Power Sigfox Monarch Ready Solution will deliver a great user experience for our clients who need to enable devices to run seamlessly in all parts of the world, unlocking endless use cases in logistics and supply chain, in the consumer industry, and in automated maintenance for the shipping, aircraft, and railway industries.”

The fully certified Sigfox Monarch solution is based on ST’s S2-LP ultra-low-power, long-range, sub-1GHz radio, which is automatically tuned on the local regional Sigfox frequency band, across all relevant worldwide zones (RC1 to RC6), enabling seamless connectivity to the Global Sigfox network and geolocation services.

The SDK runs on the STM32MCU family and benefits from its vast portfolio availability, including both low-power and higher-performance product families.

For instance, for processing demanding applications, the ARM Cortex-M4 based devices enable highly efficient data pre-processing and localized AI, thus reducing network traffic requirements.

To jump-start new product development, ST’s S2-LP radio is also available for the STM32 Open Development Environment (ODE) with X-NUCLEO-S2868A1/-S2915A1 (upcoming in late Q4’18) expansion boards and X-CUBE-SFXS2LP1 Sigfox Ready software expansion pack.

The SDK also supports a convenient dual-radio reference solution powered by the S2-LP and BlueNRG-2 Bluetooth low energy SoC, enabling easy in-field provisioning, maintenance and configuration of the device through a convenient smartphone app.