The difference between NB-IoT, LTE-M and Cellular IoT

There has been lot of confusion among different terminologies that the industry uses for the new features / technologies introduced by 3GPP as part of Release 12 and 13 to support Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) IoT devices.

Martin Sauter has written a series of blogs explaining the differences between Cat-0, Cat-M1 (usually called LTE-M) and Cat-M2 (called the NB-IoT) devices

https://blog.wirelessmoves.com/2016/05/cellular-iot-the-dust-slowly-settles-mtc-nb-iot-and-things-in-between-part-1.html

https://blog.wirelessmoves.com/2016/05/cellular-iot-the-dust-slowly-settles-part-2-cat-1-and-cat-0-devices.html

https://blog.wirelessmoves.com/2016/05/cellular-iot-the-dust-slowly-settles-part-3-cat-m1-devices.html

https://blog.wirelessmoves.com/2016/06/cellular-iot-the-dust-slowly-settles-part-4-cat-m2-devices.html

The Cat-M1 and Cat-M2 (NB-IoT) devices technically address the LPWAN IoT market. Beyond these there is another term that is constantly used - Cellular IoT Optimizations

Cellular IoT Optimizations refers to the work done by the 3GPP SA2 (the System Architecture group) for the optimizations on the EPC (evolved packet core) network to support the Cat-M1 and Cat-M2 devices. The following are the key optimizations

1. Control Plane Optimizations which include
   
   
   • Non IP PDN
   
   
   • Data over NAS which is sent over SRB for both IP and Non IP PDN
   
   
   • Support for Non IP PDN over SCEF path
   
   
   • No need for DRB setup
   
   
   • Serving PLMN Rate Control
   
   
   • APN Rate Control
   
   


2. User Plane Optimizations which Include
   
   
   • Support for RRC Suspend state when UE is in EMM-IDLE
   
   
   • Efficient IDLE-Active state transition
   
   
   • Support for both IP and non IP PDN over user plane path
   
   
   • APN Rate Control
   
   


3. Support for change from CP optimization to UP optimization path at run time

The stage 2 aspects of Cellular IoT Optimizations are defined in 3GPP TS 23.682 spec in release 13. In the subsequent posts I will delve into  the use case and details of the control plane and user plane optimizations.

Which IoT applications look compelling for NB-IoT?

The standardization of Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) and the corresponding core network architectural changes, called the Cellular IoT optimizations are completed by 3GPP as of June 2016, with amendments and corrections done during the September, 2016 plenary meeting. This now makes one to see the potential use cases for IoT applications that would run on NB-IoT. As a standards engineer closely involved with the Cellular IoT standardization in 3GPP, this is an attempt to reflect some of my thoughts on that.

NB-IoT being a licensed spectrum technology and service provider owned, it suits best for IoT applications that have the following requirements

1. Seamless connectivity across wide areas
2. Extended coverage at even hard to reach areas
3. Ability to partner with large ecosystem of application developers
4. Strict SLAs and charging associated with the agreed SLA
5. Highly available infrastructure
6. National and/or international roaming

The following are some of the applications that fit these requirements

1. Fleet management and tracking
2. Utilities like power, water supply, piped natural gas supply
3. Garbage management — automatic calling of garbage collection trucks once garbage bins become full
4. Agriculture and Irrigation control
5. Smart cities and city infrastructure management (including garbage management as in /3/ above, traffic control etc)

The key for successful deployment and monetization of such services by the operators lie with the operator providing at least the following basic services:

1. Device management with various enterprises providing one or more of the above IoT applications being able to manage their respective devices through a portal / single pane of glass.
2. Ability for the IoT application provider (enterprises) to onboard the application with the operator and take the device data.

On top of this if the operator provides as a service, running application and analytics in hosted environments, they get to monetize this service as well.

There are lot of questions that I encounter regarding the various architectural options 3GPP cellular IoT optimizations provide and how best to use them. I will write about the use cases and scenarios where one would use each of the cellular IoT optimization in subsequent posts.

Stay tuned.