Ohio-based Laird Connectivity has launched the Sentrius MG100 Micro-Gateway, a family of compact, out-of-the-box Bluetooth-to-cellular LTE gateways that simplify bridging Bluetooth sensor data to the cloud.
 
Powered by the Pinnacle 100 cellular modem, the gateway combines long-range Bluetooth 5 (Nordic nRF52840 silicon) and LTE-M and NB-IoT (Sierra HL7800 and Altair ALT1250) in a small form factor IoT micro-gateway.
 
The gateway is for multi-wireless IoT applications where long-range Bluetooth sensors bridge sensor data to the MG100, then up to the cloud via a low-power LTE network. There is no need to access or connect any local network infrastructure (wifi) or provide network implementation (LoRaWan). It works in any location with LTE M or NB-IoT coverage.
 
Applications include security, building automation, asset location, telehealth, cold chain and smart buildings.
 
“Simplifying wireless connectivity continues to be a priority for Laird Connectivity,” said Bill Steinike, Laird vice president. “The MG100 delivers on that commitment, ready out of box with market-leading wireless technology and software that eliminates the complexity, design risk and certification costs that are common with other cellular IoT solutions.”
 
The gateway leverages the power and simplicity of Zephyr RTOS programming on the integrated Cortex-M4F microcontroller, allowing developers to tailor their application to requirements. Flexible product options are available including a rechargeable backup battery, useful in the event of a short-term power outage. Additionally, users have the option of fully integrated antennas or external antennas.
 
It is end product certified from a radio, regulatory and LTE carrier perspective; these certifications include FCC, IC, CE, BT Sig, PTCRB, GCF and end-device certified with AT&T. The gateway is cloud-ready, being compatible with cloud services such as AWS IoT. Customisation is available including branding, packaging and application development.
 
Additionally, Laird has paired the MG100 with the Sentrius BT510 Bluetooth 5 long-range multi-sensor in an IoT starter kit. This provides a quick and simple way to start evaluating different wireless applications or rapidly implementing PoCs for application validation.
 
The starter kit includes one MG100 gateway with an installed SIM card, three sensors and global power supplies.
 
The MG100 is also compatible with the Sentrius BT710 tracker, which helps organisations with real-time social distancing and contact tracing for personnel monitoring and safety. This Bluetooth tracker uses long-range Bluetooth 5 and has three user alerts for real-time social distancing notifications.
 
Additionally, the tracker logs information of other BT710 tracker devices it has been in contact with and its duration, which can then be used for contact tracing.