What is NB-IoT?

What is NB-IoT

The cellular-based Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) has become an important branch of the Internet of Everything. NB-IoT is built on a cellular network and only consumes about 180KHz of bandwidth, and can be directly deployed on a GSM network, UMTS network or LTE network to reduce deployment costs and achieve smooth upgrades.

Focusing on the Low Power Wide Coverage (LPWA) Internet of Things (IoT) market, NB-IOT is an emerging technology that can be widely used around the world. It has the characteristics of wide coverage, multiple connections, low speed, low cost, low power consumption, and excellent architecture. NB-IOT uses the license frequency band, and can be deployed in three ways: in-band, guard band, or independent carrier to coexist with the existing network.

Prospects and advantages of NB-IOT

Mobile communication is moving from the connection between people and people to the connection between people and things and things and things, and the Internet of Everything is an inevitable trend. However, the current 4G network is not capable of connecting things to things. In fact, compared with short-range communication technologies such as Bluetooth and ZigBee, the mobile cellular network has the characteristics of wide coverage, mobility, and large number of connections, which can bring more abundant application scenarios and should become the main connection technology of the Internet of Things. As an evolutionary technology of LTE, 4.5G not only has a peak rate of up to 1Gbps, but also means more connections based on cellular IoT, support for massive M2M connections and lower latency, which will boost high-definition video, VoLTE and IoT applications are rapidly spreading. The cellular IoT is opening up a market that has never been seen before.

For telecom operators, IoT applications such as the Internet of Vehicles, smart medical care, and smart homes will generate massive connections, far exceeding the communication needs between people.

 NB-IoT has four major characteristics: First, wide coverage, which will provide improved indoor coverage. Under the same frequency band, NB-IoT has a gain of 20dB compared to the existing network, and the coverage area is expanded by 100 times; second, it has the ability to support massive connections. Capability, NB-IoT one sector can support 100,000 connections, supports low latency sensitivity, ultra-low equipment cost, low equipment power consumption and optimized network architecture; the third is lower power consumption, NB-IoT terminal module The standby time can be as long as 10 years; the fourth is the lower module cost, and the enterprise expects a single connected module to be no more than 5 US dollars.

Focusing on the Low Power Wide Coverage (LPWA) Internet of Things (IOT) market, NB-IOT is an emerging technology that can be widely used around the world. It has the characteristics of wide coverage, multiple connections, low speed, low cost, low power consumption, and excellent architecture. NB-IOT uses the license frequency band and can be deployed in three ways: in-band, guard band, or independent carrier to coexist with the existing network.

Because of its low power consumption, wide coverage, low cost, and large capacity, NB-IoT can be widely used in various vertical industries, such as remote meter reading, asset tracking, smart parking, and smart agriculture.