How to Upgrade the Modem Firmware on the Nordic nRF9160

This blog is to introduce the method how to upgrade the modem firmware on nRF9160 DK board.

nRF9160 DK

The nRF9160 DK is an affordable, pre-certifed single-board development kit for evaluation and development on the nRF9160 SiP for LTE-M, NB-IoT and GPS. It also includes an nRF52840 board controller that for example can be used to build a Bluetooth Low Energy gateway.

It has a dedicated LTE-M and NB-IoT antenna that supports a wide range of bands, to operate globally. LTE bands B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B14, B17, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28 and B66 have been certified so far. See this for more details.

Feature Brief

LTE Modem images are precompiled binaries, signed and encrypted by Nordic Semiconductor.

Features:

Precompiled binary, signed and encrypted
- Update modem FW via PC tool nRF Connect for Desktop
- Secure boot with image authentication
LTE Rel-13 Cat-M1 (LTE-M/eMTC)
LTE Rel-13 Cat-NB1 (NB-IoT)
Type B half duplex (HD), frequency division duplex (FDD)
Cat-M1 operation is enabled on E-UTRA Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28 and 66.
Cat-NB1 operation is enabled on E-UTRA Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28 and 66.
Power saving
- Power Save Mode (PSM)
- Idle-DRX and Connected Mode-DRX, DRX/extended-DRX in both
- Independent clock and sleep state control
Interface to Application CPU
- AT-command Interface for control
- Socket Interface for Data
- Modem production test support
- Antenna Tuner per band Configurability with limited MIPI-RFFE support
Integrated TLS(1.2)/DTLS(1.2) and TCP/UDP/IPV4/IPV6 Dual Stack
- Storage of TLS and Cloud credentials
SMS PDU Mode
Differential FOTA support enables small upgrade images
Support for SIM ATK and remote provisioning via Bearer Independent Protocol
- eSIM support
GPS L1 C/A receiver during LTE PSM mode
Single shot, fixed interval and continuous tracking modes