Infinite Vastness The Non-Terrestrial Future of IoT

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Although 90 percent of the world's population now has mobile reception, this only covers about 15 percent of the Earth's surface. Considering the oceans and the vast undeveloped and rural areas, the idea of global connectivity quickly falters. At the same time, the demand for data connectivity in these remote areas is growing.

Non-terrestrial networks (NTN), which use satellites as a universal communication infrastructure, could be the solution. Advances in satellite communication in low Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO) are making the concept of a cost-effective, energy-efficient, scalable, and standardized data connection without boundaries a reality. This has far-reaching implications, but IoT applications in particular will benefit from it.

Boundless IoT

The potential benefits are as profound as they are diverse. They range from enhanced security and global asset tracking to remote maintenance of infrastructure. Crop yields can be increased, and management in shipping and fishing can be optimized. Conservation and wildlife monitoring gain more possibilities. Even emergency response and disaster relief benefit from it, as the systems continue to function when local terrestrial networks fail, providing early warnings and potentially life-saving insights.

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The alternative – building and operating terrestrial networks (TN) in these remote locations – is often time-consuming and costly, offering too low an ROI to be economically viable. Even relatively concentrated sites like mining and drilling facilities face enormous logistical challenges in establishing data connections, especially when they are temporary locations. Not to mention maritime applications, whose limited connections at sea are already almost entirely reliant on satellites.

Although NTN is a relatively new service, leading satellite companies such as Iridium, Skylo, and Myriota are pioneering the field. Even today, their NTNs provide critical connectivity for IoT applications in areas such as smart agriculture, environmental data collection, infrastructure monitoring, and global asset tracking. Their services offer instantly available data connectivity even in the most remote locations and seamless handovers from terrestrial networks – essential when facilities or assets need to operate independently of networks.

A New Generation

Satellite communication (Satcom) for commercial purposes is not a new idea. Since the early 60s, we have been exploring ways to make Satcom profitable. However, advances in IoT applications encountered some hurdles, particularly regarding link budgeting.

Link budgets calculate all the gains and losses a signal experiences on its path from point A to point B, from transmitter to receiver. Since satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) can be between 500 and 800 km (approx. 310 to 497 miles) away and in geostationary orbit (GEO) up to 36,000 km (approx. 22,369 miles) away – essentially in space – the signal losses are extremely high.

One reason for this is latency. In GEO communication, this can reach hundreds of milliseconds, which, compared to the approximately 10 ms in TN (LTE-M), feels like an eternity. Similarly, the movement of LEO and MEO satellites (medium Earth orbit) results in shifting cell patterns, higher Doppler shifts, and more rapid fluctuations in signal delay. Additionally, NTN have significantly larger cell sizes compared to TN, often spanning hundreds of kilometers. This can also cause greater fluctuations in signal delays, with strong near-far effects overshadowing weaker signals. Atmospheric disturbances must also be taken into account, as the troposphere and ionosphere affect radio signals in different ways.

Establishing sufficiently strong connections therefore consumed a lot of energy. Battery-powered IoT devices with small form factors and an operating life of several years simply could not meet the required energy demand.

However, this changed with 3GPP Releases 17 and 18. The two updates extended the 5G architecture to include NTN access support as well as NTN support for NB-IoT and eMTC/LTE-M protocols. As a result, standard IoT devices could connect via satellite without the need for expensive, energy-intensive hardware or extensive protocol revisions.

These updates also included new timing advance/TA values, synchronization, and HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) adjustments to compensate for the challenges of latency and Doppler shifts while achieving significant energy savings. Together, these adjustments have significantly improved connection stability (reliability of a connection) and enabled a stable, energy-efficient satellite connection under previously unreachable conditions.

Boundless Data Connectivity

NTN support for the 5G mobile ecosystem significantly simplifies NTN deployment. This enabled their integration into terrestrial networks for 3GPP providers. NTNs serve as complementary components of the radio access network (RAN), with satellites acting as access nodes or relay stations, maintaining a stable connection to the core network.

The key advantage of this integration lies in seamless mobility between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks. This enables applications where end devices—whether IoT systems, vehicles, asset tracking nodes, etc.—can switch between terrestrial and satellite coverage with consistent network quality (QoS; Quality of Service).

Upcoming NTN-Connected IoT Systems

These innovations have significantly raised the standard for NTN-IoT data connectivity. To fully utilize all benefits, device manufacturers need hardware that simplifies and accelerates production while ensuring reliable and energy-efficient data connectivity in small form factors.

System-in-Package (SiP) solutions from providers with years of experience in energy-efficient cellular connectivity are in demand. SiPs are a complete package or platform for IoT solutions. They include various components, primarily an application processor and a modem. This simplifies design, procurement, and production processes while reducing power consumption and overall system complexity.

Ideally, chipsets – such as the nRF9151 from Nordic Semiconductor – also offer GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) functionality and predictive GNSS features. These reduce the time to first fix – the time a GPS navigation device needs to receive satellite signals and navigation data and compute a position solution – from minutes to seconds.

Boundless possibilities

Building and deploying NTN has never been easier. With advancements in technology, the barriers to a truly global, scalable, and energy-efficient IoT deployment have virtually disappeared. What was once a niche solution is quickly evolving into a critical factor for limitless data connectivity. With NTN-optimized protocols and integrated SiP platforms, developers now have the tools to offer seamless, energy-efficient IoT solutions that operate far beyond the traditional boundaries of cellular coverage. The possibilities are endless. (mc)

*Martin Lesund is Technical Marketing Manager, Cellular IoT at Nordic Semiconductor.