STMicroelectronics has released an ultra-compact, low-power, narrow-band internet of things (NB-IoT) industrial module with GNSS geo-location capabilities, the ST87M01. The fully programmable, certified LTE Cat NB2 NB-IoT industrial module covers worldwide cellular frequency bands and integrates advanced security features.
The ST87M01 is an integrated native GNSS receiver with multi-constellation access, which ensures enhanced and accurate localization. The module has a diminutive 10.6 mm x 12.8 mm land grid array footprint, making it suitable for applications where a small form factor is key.
The STM8701 offers flexibility for product developers, presenting a fully programmable IoT platform enabling users to embed their own code into the module for simple applications. A variety of protocol stacks are available to handle popular IoT use cases.
The ST87M01 targets wide-ranging IoT applications that require ultra-reliable low-power wide-area network connectivity and has ultra-low power consumption with less than 2 µA in low-power mode and transmit output power up to +23 dBm.
Suitable applications for the module include smart metering, smart grid, smart building, smart city and smart infrastructure applications, as well as industrial condition monitoring and factory automation, smart agriculture and environmental monitoring. The module can also be combined with a separate host microcontroller, permitting many more use cases.
Leveraging Orolia’s HATI core in combination with Arista MetaWatch, the integration provides sub-nanosecond timestamping with accurate, precise and reliable timing
The collaboration between Orolia and Arista sets a new standard in time synchronization for FPGA-based network devices with the support of native White Rabbit capabilities to achieve sub-nanosecond time synchronization using optical fibers across multiple points in the network.
This integration is factory-supported in combination with the MetaWatch application in the Arista 7130LB platform, enabling distributed traffic capture with high-resolution timestamping, buffering and de-duplication, to provide advanced network monitoring and detailed network analytics. Deep buffering, time-ordered aggregation and de-duplication reduce the load on downstream packet capture and analysis devices.
“One key feature of this important collaboration is the simplification of the overall network architecture by eliminating coaxial cabling and PPS distribution equipment,” said Francisco Girela, White Rabbit application engineer with Orolia. “This integrated solution eases the adoption of White Rabbit, leading to cost savings, reduced footprint and better scalability.”
White Rabbit is an ultra-accurate IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) implementation that achieves sub-nanosecond accuracy over optical fiber links. Designed for use in avionics, telecommunications, space, defense and scientific applications, White Rabbit has become the gold standard for time distribution within electronic trading networks.
Arista’s MetaWatch is a powerful FPGA-based network application designed for Arista’s 7130 platform and combines several components of a traditional network monitoring solution into one device, which simplifies network data capture, monitoring and analytics.
“Moving from analog time synchronization to fiber-based White Rabbit will allow our customers to improve their network analytics while improving the overall synchronization accuracy across a large estate,” said David Snowdon, engineering director, Arista. “The combination of MetaWatch and White Rabbit allows for less than a nanosecond of error on any timestamp taken in a wide-area network — a crucial feature for trading firms optimizing their latency, or for exchanges guaranteeing fairness.”
The Orolia White Rabbit Z16. (Photo: Orolia)
Orolia’s WR Z16, a reliable and precise time fan-out solution for White Rabbit distribution on 1G Ethernet-based networks, is a standalone device with 16 SFP connectors that provide sub-nanosecond accuracy over the plug-and-play optical fiber links. The HATI core requires an activation license generated by Orolia to be loaded in the reference WR-Z16 device paired with it to be functional.
