using the SMS to configure the IOT device

[con2021]

Hello Nordic great team,

We have a question please, we would like to configure our IOT device through the air, and the best way as we see in our use case, is to use the SMS. We would like to send an SMS to the targeted device to change some parameters like the transmission period. Can the modem receive and decode the SMS message? Is there a format that we should follow and which commands read and decode the SMS?

What if the device must sleep most of the time, as every IOT device, to save power, what is the best approach to not lose the SMS message? Will the network try to deliver it as soon as the device connects or transmits? or is the network able to interrupt the device and wake it up?

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

The nRF9160 supports SMS via AT Commands. Have a look at the SMS sample in nRF Connect SDK tag 1.7.1. Note that you need a IoT SIM that support SMS as well, the iBasis SIM does not support this.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[con2021]

thanks great, would you please help us with the second part of the question:

What if the device must sleep most of the time, as every IOT device, to save power, what is the best approach to not lose the SMS message? Will the network try to deliver it as soon as the device connects or transmits? or is the network able to interrupt the device and wake it up?

[Øyvind]

While the device is in sleep mode it can't receive SMS. You will need to configure sleep mode, either PSM or eDRX, where the device can wake up and receive SMS stored by the network SMS server. 

[Øyvind]

You will need to configure/develop your own protocol to handle SMS accordingly in your application.

[con2021]

Hi again, one question more please: to send and receive SMSs, do we need the LTE network really? or can any network be enough? usually SMS will work also if only 2G GSM/GPRS is available, but here in the documentation they say that we need an LTE connection, Is that true or just a mistake in the documentation, and they mean "connection", not "LTE connection"

[Øyvind]

The nRF9160 does not support 2G GSM or GPRS. As according to Product Specification

The long term evolution (LTE) modem consists of baseband processing and RF parts, which together implement a complete 3GPP LTE release 13 (Rel-13) Cat-M1 and Cat-NB1 and LTE release 14 (Rel-14) Cat-NB1 and Cat-NB2 capable product.