Nokia has announced a collaboration with energy company EDF to evaluate LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) technologies for industrial Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
EDF’s research and development team in France will use Nokia’s Device Testing Lab and its TestHub Services. The lab provides carrier-grade wireless infrastructure for testing IoT and M2M devices, chipsets, modules, and user equipment across multiple wireless technologies and frequency bands.
Stéphane Tanguy, Head of IT Systems at EDF R&D, said:
“The Internet of Things presents significant opportunities for our group. Many use cases can be enabled by IoT technologies across diverse businesses, from power generation to customer engagement. As the R&D engine of the EDF Group, we must characterize devices, their connectivity, integration into IoT platforms, and related end-to-end cybersecurity properties.
It is essential to objectively and impartially assess the performance, maturity, and suitability of each connectivity option for our different use cases. We have chosen to test the cellular IoT technologies LTE-M and NB-IoT with Nokia, which offers a robust test environment and valuable expertise for conducting these evaluations.”
One key advantage for EDF is the ability to test devices on a real network infrastructure rather than relying on simulations. Testing on production-grade equipment helps identify and resolve issues before field deployments, reducing the risk of operational problems.
Matthieu Bourguignon, European Head of Global Enterprise and Public Sector at Nokia, commented:
“Industrial use of IoT devices is still at an early stage, but with the large number of devices expected in the future, customers need to evaluate technologies now before making major investments.
Nokia’s Device Testing Lab, staffed by experienced wireless networking experts, will simplify EDF’s evaluation of LPWA performance relative to other emerging technologies and help mitigate deployment risks.”
This announcement follows a similar collaboration Nokia recently formed with Deutsche Telekom and the Hamburg Port Authority to research industrial 5G and IoT deployments.
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