Not a gadget — a genuine 5G standard

Let's start by clearing up a common misconception: DECT NR+, or more precisely DECT-2020 NR, is not a marketing spin on the old DECT used in cordless phones. It is a standard officially recognised by the ITU as an IMT-2020 technology — in other words, a full member of the 5G family, on a par with 3GPP NR. It covers two of the key 5G use cases: mMTC (massive Machine-Type Communications, for dense sensor networks) and URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications, for critical real-time applications).

The standard is published by ETSI under the ETSI TS 103 636 series (parts 1 to 5), complemented by application profiles in ETSI TS 104 047. It is a complete, rigorous, publicly available specification.

What sets it radically apart from other 5G technologies is its operating model: no mobile operator, no centralised infrastructure, no subscription. NR+ operates on the licence-free 1880–1930 MHz spectrum in Europe — the historical DECT band, not subject to licensing. Every deployment is fully autonomous.

The network organises itself into a self-configuring multi-hop mesh: nodes discover each other, associate, and route frames between themselves without human intervention. No mandatory central gateway, no single point of failure.

The DECT heritage is there in the name and the frequency band — but that's about it. Technically, it is a complete break: OFDM, HARQ, adaptive modulation, deterministic TDD scheduling. We are far from the GFSK of 1990s handsets.

The physical layer — what happens over the air

The NR+ PHY is based on OFDM with cyclic prefix, centred on the 1.9 GHz band. The channel bandwidth is 1.728 MHz — a direct legacy from classic DECT, which simplifies coexistence with older equipment on the same band.

Duplexing is TDD (Time Division Duplex): transmission and reception share the same frequency but not the same time slot. The Cluster Controller decides the DL/UL split, allowing dynamic adaptation to traffic load.

Modulation is adaptive based on link radio conditions:

  • π/2-BPSK — maximum robustness, maximum range, low throughput
  • QPSK — good range/throughput balance
  • 16-QAM — intermediate throughput
  • 64-QAM — maximum throughput on a close, high-quality link
Parameter Value
Frequency band 1880–1930 MHz (Europe, licence-exempt)
Channel bandwidth 1.728 MHz
Modulation π/2-BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM (adaptive)
Duplexing TDD (Time Division Duplex)
Waveform OFDM with cyclic prefix

The choice of the 1.9 GHz band is deliberate: it is an interference-free window in Europe — neither as saturated as the 868 MHz LoRa band, nor competing with Wi-Fi at 2.4 GHz. Indoor propagation is reasonable, wall penetration is acceptable.

The MAC layer — where it gets interesting

The NR+ MAC layer is probably what deserves the most attention. It is what gives the protocol its real-time properties.

Time structure

Time is divided in a hierarchical, deterministic manner:

HYPER
FRAME
Hyperframe — 10 ms Reference unit for network synchronisation. All scheduling is expressed in multiples of hyperframes.
FRAME
Frame Subdivision of the hyperframe into logical DL/UL scheduling units.
SLOT
Slot — 0.416 ms Resource allocation unit. One slot corresponds to a complete HARQ transmission.
SUB
SLOT
Subslot — 0.104 ms Smallest time unit. Enables air-interface latencies below 0.5 ms — compared to a minimum of 1 ms in classic LTE.

Beacon-driven scheduling: deterministic and opportunistic

This is where NR+ definitively parts ways with Wi-Fi and LoRa. The network organises around the FT (Fixed Termination point) — the cluster master node — which schedules transmissions and regularly emits beacons. Sensor nodes are called PT (Portable Termination points).

The strength of the MAC layer lies in its ability to handle both modes simultaneously:

  • Deterministic mode: the FT allocates exclusive slots to each PT. Result: zero collisions, zero backoff, bounded latency by design — an architectural guarantee, not a statistical property.
  • Opportunistic mode: a PT can broadcast its own beacon with random-access slot indications. The FT can allocate contention resources for low-constraint sensors that transmit infrequently — without wasting deterministic slots on them.

The FT scheduler thus simultaneously handles very different traffic profiles within the same cluster:

  • Low-throughput, non-urgent IoT sensors — opportunistic access
  • Industrial actuators with strict latency requirements — deterministic slots
  • IP gateways with higher throughput
  • Real-time audio or supervisory streams

This is genuine URLLC scheduling combined with fine-grained shared resource management — not "best effort with short timeouts".

HARQ: fast retransmissions

NR+ integrates HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) at the MAC level. When a frame is incorrectly received, retransmission is initiated in the next slot, without bubbling up to the application layer. The receiver combines successive attempts to improve the signal-to-noise ratio — this is what makes HARQ retransmissions far more efficient than simply re-sending a packet.

DLC and CVG — the network and IP

Above the MAC, two layers ensure reliable transport and integration into existing IP architectures.

CVG
Convergence Layer — Self-organising multi-hop mesh routing. Each node in the network can relay frames for others. The CVG layer handles neighbour discovery, route building and IP convergence. It interfaces with application protocols: IP/Ethernet, CoAP, MQTT-SN. This layer makes the network transparent to the application — you talk to an IP endpoint, the mesh organises itself below.
DLC
Data Link Control — SDU segmentation and reassembly, end-to-end ARQ for flows that need it, multiplexing of logical streams over a single radio link. It is the safety net between the opportunistic MAC and the upper layers that expect intact data.
MAC
Medium Access Control — TDD scheduling, slot allocation, HARQ, association management.
PHY
Physical Layer — OFDM, adaptive modulation, TDD, 1.9 GHz.

The application profiles defined in ETSI TS 104 047 specify how to configure these layers for each use case:

  • Sensor Profile — for low-throughput, long-life IoT sensors
  • Industrial Control Profile — for real-time actuators and commands
  • Gateway Profile — for nodes that aggregate and route to the IP backbone

Available hardware today

To be honest: NR+ is still an emerging market. But it is no longer vapourware — the hardware exists.

Nordic Semiconductor
nRF9151 & nRF9131
Two mini SiPs (System-in-Package) that integrate the DECT NR+ modem and the application CPU in a single package. The nRF9151 adds a hardware security layer (PSA Certified). Today the only genuinely off-the-shelf solution — SDK available, complete documentation, active support.
Available
Last Mile Semiconductor
Second supplier
Announced as a second NR+ silicon supplier, which is good news for the ecosystem. Dependence on a single foundry is a real risk in critical industrial markets — having a sourcing alternative matters.
Announced

This is modest compared to the Wi-Fi or even LTE-M ecosystem. But it is sufficient to start serious development today, and the Opener Initiative is working precisely to accelerate adoption by making the stack open-source and interoperable.

Who it's for, what it's for

NR+ is not a one-size-fits-all technology. It addresses specific needs, and for those needs it is very well positioned.

Industry 4.0
Machine control, servo systems, E-stops. Deterministic latency and collision-free operation make it a serious candidate where industrial Wi-Fi is too unpredictable and cabling too restrictive.
Smart building
Energy management, multi-room sensors, lighting, HVAC. The self-organising mesh avoids structured cabling — deploy nodes, the network configures itself. No operator subscription, no dependency on external infrastructure.
Critical networks
Smart grid, water management, energy distribution. Where depending on a mobile operator is not just inconvenient — it is genuinely unacceptable from an operational sovereignty standpoint.
Low-latency audio
Voice communication in noisy industrial environments, safety intercoms, site coordination. Sub-millisecond MAC latency and guaranteed QoS make NR+ suitable for real-time audio streams.
Low-resolution video
Equipment supervision, low-framerate visual inspection, industrial security cameras. Not HD streaming — but reliable visual supervision over a network you fully control.
Dense sensor networks
Factories, warehouses, large agricultural sites. The NR+ mMTC profile handles hundreds of nodes in a cluster with spectral efficiency far superior to LoRa on a shared band.

Key takeaways

Codium position — Apr. 2026

NR+ fills a niche no one else fills: deterministic and opportunistic when needed, mesh, operator-free, on licence-free spectrum, with a genuine 5G standard behind it. It is not for everyone — but for critical industrial networks, it is probably the best available option today.

If your use case can tolerate operator dependency, LTE-M remains simpler to deploy and has a much larger ecosystem. If you need kilometre-scale range on battery with little data and no real-time constraint, look at NB-IoT.

But if you need operational sovereignty, bounded latency, node density, and a network that holds up even without an external IP backbone — NR+ is the serious answer. And that is precisely why we are working on it.

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