Vendors are finally getting ready to deliver 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) silicon and software for use in devices like wireless security cameras and other IoT gadgets.
That doesn’t mean you should expect to see lower-power RedCap industrial sensors or fitness wearables arrive on store shelves this year. It will probably be late 2024 or 2025 before device makers pull together the 5G silicon and software necessary to make such units commercially available.
RedCap background
RedCap (also known as NR-Light) will offer data transfer speeds of between 30 Mbps to 80 Mbps, Gus Vos, chief scientist at Sierra Wireless, said in the summer of 2021. The RedCap spec greatly reduces the bandwidth needed for 5G, allowing the signal to run in a 20 MHz channel rather than the 100 MHz channel required for full scale 5G communications.
This means that RedCap silicon and software can be used in IoT devices such as surveillance cameras, industrial wireless sensors, as well as consumer products such as wearables.
RedCap was specified as part of the Release 17 5G update from the 3GPP. The specification was frozen in the second quarter of 2022. But the first chips and software commercially available using the RedCap are expected to arrive in November 2023 and on into 2024.
RedCap will be supported by standalone (SA) 5G networks, since the new IoT spec is based on the 5G Release 17, which supports standalone (SA) 5G, rather than just the non-standalone (NSA) 5G radio access network (RAN) with a supporting 4G control plane.
5G IoT ahead?
There are now vendors who are now getting ready to deliver RedCap-supporting software and hardware. Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) said that its RedCap RAN software for 5G SA networks will be “commercially ready” in November 2023. Ericsson notes that RedCap will enable the creation of energy-optimized 5G IoT devices for a diverse series of enterprise and consumer situations.
Of course, this will require RedCap silicon in order to build those 5G SA IoT devices. In February 2023, Qualcomm announced what it called “the world’s NR-Light modem”. The Snapdragon X35 is expected to begin sampling this year and commercial devices are expected to be launched by the first half of 2024.
MediaTek has also said it will have upcoming systems supporting RedCap.
So, how long will it take for vendors to incorporate RedCap code and chips into commercial products? “2025 seems reasonable I think,” Disruptive Analysis founder Dean Bubley told Silverlinings.
So, if you’re keyed up for 5G for all manner of industrial uses, you’ll just have to wait a bit longer.
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