Open IoT Neocortec Opens Its Protocol Stack to Third-Party Manufacturers

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At Embedded World 2026, Neocortec presented a new version of its NeoGW gateway software and a web-based network management tool. The Danish company is thus closing the gap between its low-power mesh network and the application layer in cloud and edge architectures.

Anyone who wants to retrofit a large building with automation or roll out large-scale IoT sensor networks today is often faced with a dilemma: pulling cables is too expensive, classic Wi-Fi or ZigBee networks reach their limits when it comes to scaling, and LoRaWAN often requires expensive gateways on several floors.

The Danish company Neocortec is addressing this gap with its "NeoMesh" protocol. This is a self-organizing, bidirectional wireless mesh network for extremely low-power applications. At the trade fair in Nuremberg (Germany), the company showed how it intends to further reduce the hurdles for IoT developers: through new software tools for network management and greater decoupling from its own hardware.

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NeoGW Brings Sensor Data to the Cloud Via MQTT

The revised open source software NeoGW now relies on deep MQTT integration and adapts its message structures to the requirements of cloud-native applications. "With native MQTT integration and improved message alignment for cloud environments, we are making it much easier for our customers to connect their NeoMesh implementations to the platforms they use," says CEO Thomas Steen Halkier.

In addition, Neocortec has launched a web-based management tool that serves as an interface to the NeoGW software. Administrators can use it to centrally manage individual networks or entire fleets. The software offers a live visualization of the mesh topology and shows how the battery-powered nodes connect to each other and organize themselves completely autonomously across several floors.

Software Licensing Instead of Hardware Constraints

The new products are part of a broader strategy: Neocortec is increasingly transforming itself from a hardware to a software provider. Although the company has been selling its own radio modules since 2014, the protocol stack is now also licensed directly to large OEMs—such as Honeywell for commercial fire alarm systems.

Neocortec also works together with other module manufacturers. One prominent example at the trade fair is a module from the manufacturer Mbit. This uses the physical modulation level of LoRa, but relies on the NeoMesh stack for the network logic instead of a classic LoRaWAN star network. The technical advantage: LoRa modulation allows signals to be demodulated even if they are below the noise level. This enables mesh networking with significantly higher building penetration than via classic sub-GHz modules.

This effectively eliminates the often dreaded vendor lock-in for users. "Customers don't have to take our module or our product," CEO Halkier clarifies. "We want to concentrate on our core technology, the protocol stack. That's where we make the difference."

Large Buildings: the Technical Limits of the System

Halkier sees its place in the fragmented wireless market primarily in large buildings. "There is Zigbee, Thread and WLAN for smart homes. But these technologies don't scale in large buildings," he explains in an interview with Elektronikpraxis. The key advantage: NeoMesh is completely self-organizing, without a central management instance, and all nodes can operate on batteries for many years. This makes the technology particularly interesting for retrofitting existing buildings from the 70s and 80s, where retrofitting cabling would be uneconomical.

Compared to LoRaWAN, which loses a lot of range inside the building and can often require several expensive gateways per building, the sensor nodes themselves form the redundant network with NeoMesh. A single gateway in the basement then suffices as a bridge to the cloud infrastructure.

However, this massive scalability comes with clear physical compromises: the wireless mesh cannot deliver voice, video or low-latency communication. The system is designed strictly for a few bytes per transmission—ideal for battery-operated sensors that typically only transmit temperature, humidity or meter values every minute. (mc)

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