The news marks the first of the company’s six patent applications in the US and the EU, building on the announcement back in September 2021, when the company first filed for these patents.
“I’m very grateful to US Patent and Trademark Office to grant OQ Technology this patent. This and the pending patents will give us an edge over competitors and security to our intellectual property," said Omar Qaise (pictured), founder and CEO of OQ Technology.
"In addition to the patent for ‘wake-up’, we have five more patents in the queue to be approved both in USA and Europe which we expect to take place this year. With these patents and our frequency licenses and chip partnerships we are the pioneer company who is well positioned to provide 3GPP compatible satellite NB-IoT over non-terrestrial networks."
OQ's ‘wake-up’ technology is a smart power-saving innovation within OQ’s terminal IoT devices that allows them to wake up and communicate with the base station (satellite) when needed. Using ‘wake-up’ OQ aims to achieve the 10-year battery-life goal set by 3GPP standards for narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) wireless communications.
OQ’s other patent applications include frequency synchronisation, timing synchronisation, IoT device localisation, inter-satellite link technology, and a satellite system design and network architecture for mobile IoT communication between satellites and ground stations. These along with the ‘wake-up’ technology will all be integrated into OQ’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.
“OQ Technology is the only company in the world that uses standardised 3GPP cellular technology for NB-IoT to connect devices to satellites. We have been leading the way for satellite-based 5G communications since we created the world’s first universal plug and play IoT device that can provide connectivity using LEO satellite infrastructure. Testing is orbit using our Tiger-1 mission in 2019 was another. This is yet another important milestone for us.”
In 2021, OQ launched its first commercial nanosatellite called Tiger-2 and used it to successfully test its hybrid satellite-cellular user terminal in harsh desert conditions. Its next constellation, Tiger-3, is due for launch with mission integrator NanoAvionics later this year, with plans to further grow its constellation with more satellites in the near future.
