LTE-M and NB-IoT Crash Course

LTE-M and NB-IoT Crash Course

While there is much discussion these days about the amazing potential of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, there’s less mention of the infrastructure necessary to support an IoT system.

Fortunately there’s wireless Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies that transmit between battery-powered devices and is suitable for long-range connections, and offers excellent affordable coverage, even in hard-to-reach areas and underground.

Two of the more popular LPWA technologies developed for IoT applications are NB-IoT (Narrowband-IoT) and LTE-M (Long Term Evolution For Machines). The addition of these two technologies allow for the support of mass-market IoT deployments.

As with earlier wireless networks, both LTE-M and NB-IoT are expect to play major roles in the expansion of 5G technology. In fact, with so much bandwidth needed for such a large-scale deployment of connections, low-power wide-area (LPWA) solutions should clear the path for smooth, uninterrupted operations in a speedy, 5G-centered technoverse.

This is crucial because by 2025 there will be an estimated 75 billion devices connected to the Internet of Things (IoT).  Mobile IoT technologies, such as LTE-M and NB-IoT deliver secure and cost-effective LPWA capability today and are catalysts in the future of 5G integration and growth worldwide.

LPWA technologies work in the age of IoT because traditional cellular options like LTE and 4G networks consumed too much power. In essence, they didn’t fit well with applications where only a small amount of date needs to be transmitted infrequently. Examples of this would be meters for reading electricity use, gas consumption or water levels.

Experts in wireless technologies believe that as part of the low-power wide-area Mobile IoT solution for 5G networks, Cat-based chips, such as LTE-M and NB-IoT, will improve communications and open new doors for applications in industries where intermittent blocks of data are useful.

This would include industries such as agriculture, healthcare, fleet management and utilities.

LTE-M and NB-IoT Crash Course Training by Tonex

LTE-M and NB-IoT Crash Course is a 2-day customized LTE training class on the fundamentals of LTE access technology focusing on LTE-M and NB-IoT.

The training course provides an in-depth overview of the various aspects of the new LTE-based radio, LTE-M connectivity and NB-IoT concepts optimized for IoT. This training is important because the Internet of Things has demonstrated a clear market need for utility, power and energy-related businesses to have battery-efficient connectivity to unlock the true potential of IoT.

LTE-M is the simplified industry term for the LTE-MTC low power wide area (LPWA) technology standard published by 3GPP in the Release 13 specification. It specifically refers to LTE Cat M1, suitable for the IoT. LTE-M is a low power wide area technology which supports IoT through lower device complexity and provides extended coverage, while allowing the reuse of the LTE installed base.

This allows battery lifetime as long as 10 years or more for a wide range of use cases, with the modem costs reduced to 20-25 percent of the current EGPRS modems. LTE Cat-M technology is one of the two answers that 3GPP has for the rise in IoT-only network technology.

The other 3GPP technology is NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT), which uses an even simpler access scheme (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) to further drive down cost and complexity. As a dedicated LPWAN standard, IoT LTE-M enables lower costs, small footprints and innovative low-power optimization.

NB-IoT and LTE-M Applications

The current applications of NB-IoT and LTE-M LPWA technologies are considerable and growing, including:

• Smart Cities (streetlights, waste management, parking, etc.)
• Smart Buildings (alarm systems, metering, access controls, intelligent lights, etc.)
• Consumer Uses (white goods, people tracking, pet tracking, car tracking, etc.)
• Healthcare (patient procedures and monitoring in real time over great distances)
• Environment and Agriculture (animal tracking, poacher protection, autonomous connected farms, etc.)
• Logistics and Automotive (vehicle asset tracking, key inventory, predictive diagnostics of assets)

Engineers, technical and product marketing professionals working for wireless operators, utility companies, equipment and device manufacturers, as well as security professionals, IoT architects and designers will benefit from our LTE-M and NB-IoT training.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this 2-day course, participants can:

• List IoT and 3GPP, GSMA, ITU-T and ETSI References
• Differentiate between 3GPP and non-3GPP IoT Standards
• Describe 3GPP Network Characteristics
• Describe cellular network architecture and LTE radio and backbone
• List LTE Radio and Backbone Features
• Learn more about 3GPP Standardized IoT Features
• Distinguish among MTC, eMTC, LTE-M and NB-IoT
• Describe IoT and LTE-M use cases
• Differentiate between LTE-M and NB-IOT Standards
• Explain wireless optimizations techniques and tools for IoT such as Power Save Mode (PSM) and eDRX

Course Agenda

Overview of Basic 3GPP and LTE Network Terms

• Definitions of Key 3GPP Terms
• LTE Abbreviations
• Long Term Evolution (LTE)
• LTE Radio and Core Network Architecture
• LTE Network Components
• Home Subscriber Server (HSS)
• Forbidden PLMN (FPLMS)
• Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN)
• Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN)
• User Equipment (UE)
• Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC)
• Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC)
• Subscriber Identity Module (SIM)
• Embedded Subscriber Identity Module (eSIM)
• International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)
• International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)
• Radio Access Technology (RAT)
• Enhanced Node B (eNB)
• Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA)
• Uplink versus. Downlink (UL/DL)
• Radio Resource Control (RCC)
• Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)
• Time Division Duplex (TDD)
• Channel Quality Indicator (CQI)
• Discontinuous Reception (DRX)
• Extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX)
• Power Saving Mode (PSM)
• Type Allocation Code (TAC)
• Tracking Area Update (TAC)
• Evolved Packet System (EPS)
• Mobility Management Entity (MME)
• EPS Mobility Management (EMM)
• IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)
• Internet of Things (IoT)
• IoT pose unique challenges
• Wireless optimizations for IoT
• IoT versus CIoT – Cellular IoT
• Machine Type Communications (MTC)
• Machine Identity Module (MIM)

3GPP Network Characteristics

• Basics of access technology
• Access technologies in GPRS/ UMTS/ CDMA
• GPRS/UMTS (PDP Context)
• Long Term Evolution (LTE) access
• OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)
• MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output)
• Radio protocol architecture (e.g., PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, NAS)
• Usage of a control channel and/or user channel
• LTE Attach and EPS Bearer

LTE Radio and Backbone Features

• UE, eNB, EPC and MCE
• Coverage Enhancement Mode A and B
• Multitone transmissions
• SON (Self Organizing Network)
• Minimization of Drivetest (MDT)
• Carrier Aggregation
• TDD support in LTE
• Identification of LTE cells
• RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator)
• RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power)
• RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality)
• LTE Timers
• T3402, T3412, T3412ext2, T3324, TeDRX, TPTW
• Cell Search, Selection and Reselection
• qRxlevMin (the minimum required Rx level in the cell), qRxlevMinCE-r, qRxlevMinCE1-r

Overview of 3GPP, GSMA, ITU-T and ETSI References – IoT

• 3GPP and Non-3GPP IoT solutions
• GSMA Mobile Internet of Things (MIoT)
• Basics of LTE (Long Term Evolution)
• MTC, eMTC, M2M, LTE, LTE-M and NB-IoT
• Cellular IoT versus non-cellular IoT
• Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN)
• Shortcomings of Existing Networks
• Cellular LPWA (LTE-M, NB-IoT)
• 3GPP LTE-M
• 3GPP NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT)
• Relation/ differences between LTE-cat1, LTE cat-M1/2, LTE-cat NBI/IoT
• Simpler access scheme (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access)
• Factors drive down cost and complexity
• Mesh Networks

3GPP Standardized IoT Features

• 3GPP Release Features
• 3GPP Release 11 Features
• 3GPP Release 12 Features
• 3GPP Release 13 Features
• 3GPP Release 14 Features
• 3GPP Release 15 Features
• Beyond 3GPP Release 15 Features

 Overview of LPWA: Comparison between LTE, NB-IoT, and LTE-M

• Low power, low cost, low mobility and long battery life
• Licensed LTE
• Unlicensed LTE
• Key LPWAN players
• LPWAN network technologies defined by 3GPP
• Low Power Wide Area (LPWA)
• 3GPP-defined LPWA technology options include LTE-M (or enhanced machine type communication) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT)
• MTC, eMTC, NB-LTE and EC-GSM
• Network and relevant UE categories (e.g., Category M1 and Category NB1)
• Licensed versus Unlicensed Channels
• Modulation Rate and RF Sensitivity
• Noise Floor & Processing Gain
• Interference & Performance

Overview of LTE-M Features

• Energy efficiency
• eDRX (Extended Discontinuous Reception)
• PSM (Power Saving Mode)
• Compatibility with existing LTE cellular networks
• LTE-M supporting voice functionality (VoLTE)
• LPWA technologies using the licensed band (aka LTE-M, NB-IoT and EC-GSM-IoT)
• 3GPP Release 13 and the following Releases
• Category of UEs that support power consumption optimizations

LTE-M Architecture

• Minimum Baseline for LTE-M Interoperability
• LTE-M Interoperability: Risks and Benefits
• LTE-M Data Architecture
• LTE-M Deployment Bands
• LTE-M Configuration Guide
• PSM Standalone Timers
• eDRX Standalone
• PSM and e-DRX Combined Implementation
• High Latency Communication
• GTP-IDLE Timer on IPX Firewall
• Long Periodic TAU
• Support of Category M1
• Support of Half Duplex Mode in LTE-M
• Extension of coverage features (CE Mode A / B)
• Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF)
• VoLTE
• Connected Mode Mobility
• SMS Support
• LPWAN Key Concepts
• Link Budget
• Security and privacy features in LTE-M

LTE-M Cellular Technology Details

• Technology for Internet of Things (IoT) devices to connect directly to a 4G network
• LTE Cat-M1 or category M1 (Cat. M1)
• LTE-M (also known as CAT M1)
• LTE-M as a communication standard geared toward IoT devices
• LTE-M and Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) connectivity methods
• Network and UE Characteristics
• Network architecture enhancements
• Overview of UE categories
• LTE-M and Cat M1: A closer look
• NB-IoT and Cat NB1: A closer look
• Comparison between NB-IoT and LTE-M
• NB-IoT versus LTE-M vs. 5G
• System Bandwidth
• LTE Downlink/Uplink Peak Rate
• Frame structures
• Usage of slots and possible bandwidth
• Access procedure for a channel
• Why LTE-M1 different control channels compared with LTE-Cat1
• Indoor/ outdoor coverage aspects
• LTE-M system performance
• LTE-M Trends toward 5G
• LTE-cat M1 and LTE-cat M2
• Overview of LTE modules in the market and their specific functionality/behavior
• Extended coverage and lower complexity
• MIoT (CAT M1, CAT NB1 from Release 13 and CAT M2, CAT NB2 from Release 14)

5G Systems and IoT

• 5G System Overview
• New frequency spectrum, new radio with tight integration with LTE and Wi-Fi
• Cloud architecture, NFV and SDN
• Need for evolved mobile broadband (eMBB)
• Ultrareliable low latency services (URLLC)
• massive machine type communication (mMTC)

LTE-M Design, Implementation, Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Road maps

• Requirements for mission-critical applications
• LTE-M Design and Implementation
• LTE-M Operations and Maintenance (O&M)
• LTE UE Category & Class definitions
• LTE User Equipment categories or classes
• 9 different LTE UE categories
• Performance specifications
• LTE Cat 0, 1 and 2
• LTE Cat 3, LTE Cat 4 and LTE Cat 0
• LTE Cat 7 and LTE Cat 8
• LTE UE category rationale
• LTE UE category parameters
• Power consumption for critical applications
• Complexity of the modem
• Power draw and modem cost
• Choice of modem will depend on your application
• Battery Life
• Issues with eDRX and PSM
• “deep sleep” mode
• Power Savings Mode (PSM)
• extended discontinuous reception (eDRX)
• Service Costs
• Deciding between LTE-M and NB-LoT
• Analyzing key differences between these two technologies
• Latency and speed
• 5G incorporation of NB-IoT and LTE-M

LTE-M and NB-IoT Crash Course