Internship Case Study: What’s the hype on NTN modules?
With the rapid maturation of 3GPP Rel-17 NTN standards and proprietary satellite IoT solutions, we felt the need to cut through the noise and see what the exactly this technology could do for our clients.
Research and Development
We tested two NTN networking modules to find out things like cost, ease of use, reliability and power consumption of NTN networking modules.
Modules tested: Nordic nRF9151 SIP and Murata Type1SC
Dev Boards used to test modules: Circuit dojo nRF9151 feather board and Murata Type1SC EVK.
Testing was done by using an ESP32 as the controller, using AT commands to control the modems.
Test Results
The good…
In clear sky condition with no obstructions like foliage or terrain (like an open parking lot) the modules took approximately one minute to find a GNSS location and less than 7 minutes to get an NTN connection in most of the testing.
A round-trip message meaning sending a message from the device to a satellite which forwards it to a serve on the ground and then receiving an acknowledgement from the server took on the order of 10 to 20 seconds.
Once a connection is established, we have seen at least 90% of the attempted messages transmitted successfully.
And the bad…
Depends on GNSS location to be fairly accurate, meaning the device must use the internal GNSS capability of the NTN modem or have an external GNSS device. This affects antenna requirements and potentially drives up cost. We found that we were able to spoof GNSS l.
Very challenging to acquire a connection in areas with foliage overhead and in valleys / other difficult terrain.
Compared to other connectivity options such as 4g/5g cost can be up to 10,000x higher. Using our connectivity provider Monogoto for an example approx it costs approx 3.6 cents/MB for data on the spark network vs 30 cents/KB using the NTN network.
With the already discussed pros and cons in mind the most suitable use case for NTN,
Location: Remote and difficult to access with little to no terrestrial networking coverage.
Data volume: Small packets and low frequency as high data volume can run up large costs
Criticality: Not ready for emergency communication yet due to good but not extremely great reliability.
Experience as a FlexWare Intern
A typical week of the internship includes both office-based work and testing. With consistent team huddles and an access to experienced engineers, Talha was able to plan out and implement ideas for the project.
Beyond the NTN Internship
While much of the experience came from the main project work, Talha valued the variety of work at FlexWare nearing the end of his intern work. Working across different projects and products exposed him to hands‑on, hardware‑focused problem solving and meaningful technical challenges.
“Now that I am working on client projects, I have had the opportunity to visit clients for hands-on testing that we can’t do at our office so that was a really good experience. Having multiple different projects helps my mind stay fresh.“
Being able to see real‑world products with impact both in New Zealand and globally, combined with a supportive, relaxed office culture and team events, he gave us a very approving 👍!
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