eMTC and NB-IoT pave the way to 5G/IoT | Solution about:reader?url=https://www.rohde-schwarz.com/us/solutions/wireless-communications/lte/in-...

rohde-schwarz.com

eMTC and NB-IoT pave the way to

5G/IoT | Solution
Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG
13-16 minutes

About 60 % of today's cellular Internet of Things (IoT) devices use

second generation mobile communications technologies, e.g.
GPRS. The transition to the third generation will occur in the next
few years, especially as the need for higher data rates and long-
term network availability increases.

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3GPP IoT standardization on the way to 5G

Because LTE is primarily optimized for the mobile broadband

market, IoT has generated little demand for the 4G technology up
to now. Moreover, the costs for an LTE modem are still relatively
high in comparison to a GSM modem. However some aspects of
LTE make it increasingly attractive:

Improvement of global coverage

Long-term availability

Technological advantages with respect to spectral efficiency,

latency and data throughput

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The need for optimized solutions for the IoT market was recognized
early, and so specific improvements for machine type
communications (MTC) have been developed. For example, Rel.
10 and 11 introduced features to protect the mobile network against
overloading as a result of the many IoT devices (SIMTC, NIMTC).

Machine-Type-Communication LTE/LTE-A/LTE-A Pro

With machine type communications enhancements (MTCe) and low

cost LTE (LC_LTE), Release 12 introduced optimized solutions to
address the main requirements of IoT devices, including low data
traffic, low power consumption and low costs:

Power saving mode (PSM) suited for sensor networks that only

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rarely need to send data to the device

New LTE device Category 0 that is supposed to have only 50 % of

the complexity of a Category 1 modem, achieved by reducing the
supported data rate down to 1 Mbps and eliminating full duplex
mode and multiple antennas

eMTC, or LTE-M, is part of Release 13 and includes additional cost

reduction measures, especially lower bandwidths in the uplink and
downlink, lower data rates and reduced transmit power.

An extension of the DRX timer in idle and connected mode should

provide a significantly longer battery life of several years. There is
also a need for range improvement for applications involving smart
meters installed under extreme receive conditions such as in a
basement, or for widely dispersed devices such as in agricultural
applications. Various techniques, including multiple repetitions of
data or less stringent time and error requirements, should provide
significant improvements.

Rel. 13 also addresses the extremely low cost requirement of the

IoT market with a new technology called NB-IoT. NB-IoT occupies
less than 200 kHz of spectrum and can be deployed in-band by
reusing free LTE resource blocks, or standalone in the spectrum
between neighboring LTE carriers or in free GSM spectrum. The

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intention is to reuse to a large extent features and functions already

available in LTE.

LTE Cat
LTE Cat 0 LTE Cat M1 NB-IoT
1
(Rel. 12) (Rel. 13) (Rel. 13)
(Rel. 8)
Downlink peak
10 Mbps 1 Mbps <1 Mbps 150 kbps
rate
Uplink peak rate 5 Mbps 1 Mbps <1 Mbps 150 kbps
UE receiver
20 MHz 20 MHz 1.4 MHz 200 kHz
bandwidth
Max. UE transmit 23 dBm or 23 dBm or
23 dBm 23 dBm
power 20 dBm 20 dBm
Full Half duplex Half duplex
Duplex mode Half duplex
duplex (opt.) (opt.)
In Release 14, we can expect further improvements and
optimizations to address the mission critical IoT market, for
example by reducing latency down to 1 ms or by enabling vehicle to
vehicle (V2V) communications. These activities will also pave the
way for the fifth generation of mobile radio (5G), for which
extremely low latency, very long battery life and an enormous

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number of devices also play a major role.

Rohde & Schwarz solutions for IoT

Rohde & Schwarz is the right partner for making your IoT products
happen. From GSM to 4G, from R&D to conformance, from testing
chipsets and assembled devices to infrastructure equipment,
Rohde & Schwarz can satisfy your test requirements.

The R&S®CMW wireless communication test platform provides

solutions to test and verify 3GPP machine type communications
(MTC) features as well as LTE Cat 1 and Cat 0 chipsets, modules
and devices. It can be combined with the R&S®CMWrun sequencer
software tool to automate testing of end-to-end applications. This
single platform solution allows a detailed view of different
parameters such as mobile signaling traffic, IP data traffic and
power consumption. Rohde & Schwarz also offers related
conformance test solutions, including solutions for testing the IoT
application behavior as defined by the GSMA.

Resources for LTE-M and NB-IoT

As part of Release 13, 3GPP has specified a new radio interface,

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the Narrowband Internet of Things (NBIoT). NB-IoT is optimized for

machine type traffic. It is kept as simple as possible in order to
reduce device costs and to minimize battery consumption. In
addition, it is also adapted to work in difficult radio conditions, which
is a frequent operational area for certain machine type
communication devices. Although NBIoT is an independent radio
interface, it is tightly connected with LTE, which also shows up in its
integration in the current LTE specifications.

In this whitepaper we introduce the NB-IoT technology with an

emphasis on the tight connection to LTE.

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Rohde & Schwarz presented a compact solution for narrowband

IoT RF performance verification at the GSMA Mobile World
Congress 2017 in Barcelona.

Rohde & Schwarz presented the first one-box solutions for protocol,
RRM and RF certification testing of eMTC and NB-IoT devices at
the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona.

Products for LTE-M and NB-IoT

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R&S®CMW500 Wideband Radio Communication Tester

The all-in-one platform supporting all major cellular and non-cellular
wireless technologies

Protocol testing, including features for machine type

communications (MTC) and operator acceptance tests

Comprehensive end-to-end testing, incl. advanced IP analysis

R&S®CMW290 Functional Radio Communication Tester

Functional testing of cellular and non-cellular devices

Supports M2M/IoT integration at an excellent price/performance

ratio

End-to-end testing of IoT applications, including verification of MTC

features

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R&S®CMWrun Sequencer Software Tool

Easy and straightforward configuration of test sequences without
requiring specific programming knowledge

Detailed view of different parameters such as mobile signaling

traffic, IP data traffic and power consumption on a single platform

Key element of the Rohde & Schwarz award-winning IoT test

solution that goes far beyond pure RF and protocol testing

R&S®CMW-PQA Test System for Performance Quality Analysis

Enables network operators and manufacturers of mobile devices to
more closely examine application behavior

Checks the number of initiated connections and the generated

network traffic volume for each application running on a device

Intuitive user interface enables users to quickly and easily configure

tests and to analyze results in a clearly structured graphical report.

R&S®TS8980 RF Test System Family

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Integrated test system family for LTE, WCDMA and GSM

conformance testing

Full coverage for RF conformance test cases

Support of LTE network operator acceptance tests

R&S®FSV Signal and Spectrum Analyzer

Exceptionally fast and versatile signal and spectrum analyzer for
users working in the development, production, installation and
servicing of RF systems

Measurement applications for GSM/EDGE (including EDGE

Evolution), WCDMA/HSPA+, LTE, WiMAX™, WLAN, CDMA2000®,
and 1xEV-DO vector signal analysis

Frequency range up to 4/7/13.6/30/40 GHz and up to 160 MHz

signal analysis bandwidth

R&S®SMBV100A Vector Signal Generator

Excellent RF performance along with very high output level and

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short setting times

Optional internal baseband generator to allow generation of a

number of digital standards

Support of 3GPP LTE FDD and TDD, LTE-Advanced, 3GPP

FDD/HSPA/HSPA+, GSM/EDGE/EDGE Evolution, TD-SCDMA,
WLAN, and all other important digital standards

Fully fledged GNSS simulator with GPS, Glonass, Galileo, BeiDou

and QZSS/SBAS

R&S®VSE vector signal explorer software

Brings the experience and power of Rohde & Schwarz signal
analysis on your PC

Offering a wide range of analysis tools for troubleshooting and

optimizing designs

Support of R&S®FSL / R&S®FPS / R&S®FSV / R&S®FSVA /

R&S®FSW / R&S®RTO

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