nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Achim Kraus — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 13:02:37 GMT

CoAP/DTLS 1.2 CID/NTN

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Jostin — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:44:37 GMT

Okay thanks, can you share your github or your code please ?

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Achim Kraus — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 10:22:08 GMT

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../ppk2_2D00_ntn_2D00_gps.zip

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../ppk2_2D00_ntn_2D00_gps2.zip

The profiles starts on earth and switches then to sky. At least the last two measurements in each are NTN.

(On earth, the feather hast a quiescent current of 7µA. I didn't analyze, why it takes 47µA with NTN.

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Achim Kraus — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:38:29 GMT

I will use a PPK II.

That test was more about stability, not about the power consumption. That's larger than on earth, but in my experience, not the limiting factor.

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Jostin — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:36:15 GMT

Thanks for all those details, for my power consumption test, i use otii Arc.

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Achim Kraus — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 07:18:38 GMT

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nRF9151_2D00_NTN_2D00_March_2D00_2026.csv

That the data from my test run, nRF9151, mfw_nrf9151-ntn_1.0.0-1, NCS 3.2.4, CoAP/DTLS 1.2 CID.

About 350 bytes uplink, 100 bytes downlink, every 9h.

The times vary a lot, RTT from 10s to 160s.

73 messages are send without retransmission, 7 with one retransmissions, 4 with 2 and 1 with 3 retransmission. And 5 failures (gave up after 3 retransmission or lost network while transmitting).

The device runs on a 4000mAh LiPo but it's hard to determine the power consumption from the voltage. The device reports to be currently at 60% and reports to run additional 900 days from battery (assuming, the same consumption that in the last 32 days, the battery was not full, when I started the test). But that forecast may be ways away from reality. In the end, I assume that for the most use-cases the data-costs are the limiting factor, not the energy. For GEO satellites the device must be be operated outdoor, and so I would consider some solar-charger and -panel or larger batteries.

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Jostin — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:54:16 GMT

[quote userid="77062" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/127662/nrf9151-power-consumption-over-ntn/564386"]Hello, are you able to provide more information on the steps that you are using? What application are you running?[/quote]

Hello, I'm using MQTT & UDP samples

Setup & Config:

Hardware: Circuit Dojo nRF9151
Modem FW: mfw_nrf9151-ntn_1.0.0-1.alpha
Network: Band 256
PSM: Enabled (RAT="00000000", T3412="00101000")
eDRX: Requested, but %XMONITOR shows network-provided value 11100000.
RAI: CONFIG_LTE_RAI_MODULE=y enabled.
MQTT: Keep-alive disabled, clean session.
SIM : Terrestar
Constellation : GEO

Response : %XMONITOR: 5,"","","90198","0FA6",14,256,"00093766",6,229366,10,20,"","00000000","00101000","11100000",10

[quote userid="77062" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/127662/nrf9151-power-consumption-over-ntn/564386"]What SIM are you running in order to connect with an NTN constellation, GEO or LEO?[/quote]

I use Terrestar over GEO

[quote userid="5203" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/127662/nrf9151-power-consumption-over-ntn/564400"]In my experience in the last 6 months the nRF9151 feather works pretty well with NTN/GEO[/quote]

Could you share the average power consumption and duration during transmission please ?

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Achim Kraus — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 21:03:48 GMT

In my experience in the last 6 months the nRF9151 feather works pretty well with NTN/GEO. In difference to the DK, it's possible to run the device from battery. But in order to make measurements and tickets, I would also recommend the use a DK.

> Has anyone managed to get a "clean" RRC-Idle state (no spikes) while keeping a TCP/UDP socket dormant in NTN?

I haven't checked that in the last months, but with NTN/GEO everything takes longer.

Anyway,

[quote userid="77062" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/127662/nrf9151-power-consumption-over-ntn/564386"]What SIM are you running in order to connect with an NTN constellation, GEO or LEO? [/quote]

That's pretty crucial to know, what you're using. Otherwise it's not possible to compare the outcome.

Once the info is available, I will try to retest my setup (Deutsche Telekom SIM, GEO/Skylo, nRF9151-feather, NCS 3.2.4, CoAP/DTLS 1,2 CID/UDP, PSM, on eDRX).

RE: nRF9151 Power consumption over NTN

Øyvind — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:22:16 GMT

Hello, are you able to provide more information on the steps that you are using? What application are you running?

What SIM are you running in order to connect with an NTN constellation, GEO or LEO?

[quote user=""]

I am currently working with Circuit Dojo nRF9151 using nRF Connect SDK v3.0.1.

[/quote]

When working with NTN we recommend using the nRF9151 SMA DK to ensure the best antenna for the application. I would recommend looking at the Evalute NTN on the nRF9151 SMA DK product page.

Kind regards,
Øyvind