Take you to understand the evolution of NB-IoT standards

Abstract: This article will take you to learn more about the NB-IoT standard evolution and industry development.

This article is shared from the HUAWEI CLOUD community " article takes you to understand the NB-IoT standard evolution and industrial development ", author: Wan Wanwan.

We all know that the scene of the Internet of Things is not the same as the traditional Internet used by mobile phones and computers. So, in terms of wireless communication scenarios, what are the characteristics of the Internet of Things? First of all, when the IoT devices of the perception layer are sending and receiving data, the data packets are relatively small, and the frequency of receiving and sending is relatively low. Sometimes only less than ten pieces of data need to be sent per day. Secondly, in order to improve the service life of IoT devices, these devices consume relatively little energy, so this also requires devices to consume relatively low power when communicating.

To sum up, it is passive, small packet, and occasional communication needs. Based on such scenario requirements, it is required that the communication network must have low power consumption and wide coverage, that is, the LowPowerWideArea scenario.

In the LPWA scenario, the most popular technology at the moment is the NB-IoT communication technology. It is widely used in today's public utilities and urban management, so it is very important to understand the technical details and solutions of NB-IoT for learning the Internet of Things.

This article will take you to learn more about the NB-IoT standard evolution and industry development.

NB-IoT standard evolution

The NB-IoT technology standard was first proposed by Huawei and Vodafone, and later attracted some manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Ericsson. From the beginning, NB-M2M has undergone continuous evolution and research, and evolved into NB-IoT in 2015. In 2016, the NB-IoT standard was officially frozen. Of course, the NB-IoT standard is still undergoing continuous evolution. Many features have been added to R14 in 17 years. By the R14 version, NB-IoT has a higher rate and also supports site positioning and multicast services. NS. At the latest meeting held on July 9, 2020, the NB-IoT technology has been officially accepted as part of 5G.

What benefits does this incident have for NB-IoT? When the NB-IoT technology is classified as a 5G standard, that is to say, even IoT devices connected to the network through NB-IoT can eventually connect to the 5G core network and enjoy 5G edge computing, network slicing, etc. Some services. Therefore, this event is very, very important for NB-IoT. However, since the current NB-IoT does not support access to 5G networks, the technology still needs to undergo continuous evolution and technological evolution before it can enter the 5G network.

Operator LPWA technology selection

Figure 1 Distribution of LPWA technology choices of global operators

As can be seen from the above figure, when most operators around the world choose LPWA technology, they first choose to deploy an NB-IoT network, and then deploy an eMTC network. The reason is that operators tend to deploy a network they do not have before, because there was no network like NB-IoT to support low-power wide area network scenarios, and they have never designed a network specifically for equipment. For use by IoT terminal devices.

The operator networks used before are actually for people to use. In order to facilitate people's communication, they have voice communication and higher and higher transmission rates, and so on. But NB-IoT is different. This network speed is very slow, and the experience is definitely very poor if humans use it, but this network is very suitable for the underlying equipment. One reason is because the coverage is very wide, and the other reason is low energy consumption and low speed. As for the eMTC network, its rate is higher than that of NB-IoT, and it also supports voice communication, so it is relatively similar to the 2G network currently being used by users. Therefore, after the 2G network is withdrawn, operators can choose to use eMTC instead of the 2G network. This is why most operators choose to deploy the NB-IoT network first and then deploy the eMTC network.

Operators NB-IoT technology spectrum selection

For operators, in addition to the issue of selecting technology, the other is the issue of spectrum selection, because this is an unavoidable issue. If you want to meet the low-power wide area network scenario, the frequency band of the network must be low enough, because it must not only meet the wide coverage, but also meet the penetration of the network. Most of the Internet of Things devices at the perception layer, such as gas meters, water meters, etc., are placed in the kitchen cabinet, which is equivalent to being shielded layer by layer. If the network penetration is not enough, there is no way to connect with the device. .

Figure 2 NB-IoT spectrum selection of global operators

At the same time, the lower the frequency band, the stronger the penetration, and the higher the frequency band, the weaker the penetration. So it can be seen from Figure 2 that for operators, they are equivalent to taking out the most suitable part of the frequency band. Therefore, most operators deploy in the 700 to 900M part, which is the SubG frequency band. Of course, there are a few parts like China Unicom, and some of them are placed at 1800M. Therefore, as mentioned above, the NB-IoT network is mainly deployed in the SubG frequency band, not because it is all in the SubG frequency band.

In addition, because the NB-IoT network is based on the 4GLTE network. Therefore, operators will select some of the 4G base stations to upgrade the software as the base stations of NB-IoT. But China Unicom is different, because China Unicom's 4G base station is based on 3G base station upgrades. So it is equivalent to that it can directly use the 3G1800MHz base station to upgrade to the NB-IoT base station, so after the smooth upgrade of the base station, China Unicom directly uses the NB-IoT network at 1800M, which saves a lot of cost. This is why China Unicom can deploy an NB-IoT network at 1800MHz.

NB-IoT industry development

In addition to network technology, base stations and frequency bands, if you want to use this network, you must also have chips that support the connection of equipment and base stations. Therefore, Huawei launched the Boudica120 chip as early as R13. Because it was launched relatively early, the function of the chip is not particularly strong. It only supports the SubG frequency band and does not support mobility, which are features that only evolved in R14. So based on some of the new features of R14, Huawei has introduced the Boudica150 chip to meet the use of new features.

Figure 3 NB-IoT industry ecology

Figure 3 shows the application of NB-IoT technology. In fact, NB-IoT involves more fields. Applications such as water meters, gas meters, street lights, smart parking, etc. are all involved.

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