NR+ is a non-cellular radio standard recently included as part of the 5G standards by the ITU. NR+ employs a self-healing, decentralized, and autonomous mesh network, making it easy to add new devices and eliminating any single points of failure.

It has a flexible and highly scalable network structure that has use-cases and applications across many industries. NR+ utilizes known cellular techniques and provides a robust standardized solution that is unmatched by any other non-cellular technologies.

As a DECT technology, NR+ operates on the global and license-exempt 1.9 GHz DECT band, which significantly cuts deployment costs by eliminating the need for frequency planning or certification from operators.

The range and dense topology properties of NR+ make it highly scalable. The same 1 square kilometer area can be covered by a little over 100 devices or scaled up to more than 1 million devices, while still maintaining the same reliable, low latency communication.

Designed with an emphasis on ultra-high reliability and ultra-low latency, DECT NR+ has over 99.99% packet delivery and end-to-end low latency, designed to reach one-millisecond latency between devices on the radio interface. With NR+ delivering the same low latency and reliability previously only matched by wired connections, opens the possibility for low latency systems to consider wireless operation for the very first time, even with kilometers of range. This makes NR+ an open, standardized alternative to existing proprietary technology.

A new 5G standard in IoT

NR+ fills a gap in the IoT ecosystem NR+ fills a genuine gap in the IoT ecosystem in terms of large-scale machine-to-machine operations that will allow enterprise IoT customers to build their own low-cost private networks. NR+ is also the first non-cellular radio standard to be recognized as a radio technology fulfilling the formal IMT-2020 5G requirements, for both Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC) use cases.

URLLC is focused on bringing wireless technologies into mission-critical use cases where failure is not an option. Examples include self-driving factory vehicles, high-speed robots working alongside human operators in warehouses, and critical infrastructure in buildings, cities and utilities.

mMTC concerns large networks with machine-type devices, connecting up to tens of billions of nodes that should operate for many years from small batteries, transmitting small amounts of data. Typical use-cases involve collecting measurements from a vast number of sensors, such as smart metering, which requires a low-maintenance and low-cost autonomous network structure.