NB-IoT Communication Technologies and

Solutions
 Foreword

 Unlike the traditional Internet, the Internet of Things (IoT) works in diverse and
complex communications scenarios. Different wireless communications scenarios
vary in their requirements. We summarize the communications scenarios in which
small packets are occasionally transmitted through passive devices as low-power
wide-area (LPWA) scenarios.
 In LPWA scenarios, NB-IoT is one of the most widely used technologies. This
technology complies with the 3GPP specifications, deployed on authorized
frequency bands of operators, and provides a public network for IoT devices,
encouraging the development of IoT public utilities.

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 Objectives

At the end of this course, you will have knowledge of:

 The evolution of the NB-IoT standards and the development of the NB-IoT
industry
 Key technologies of NB-IoT
 NB-IoT application scenarios and solutions

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 Contents

1. NB-IoT Standard Evolution and Industry Development

2. Key NB-IoT Technologies

3. NB-IoT Solutions

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Evolution of NB-IoT Standards

2016 R13 2017 R14 2018 R15 2020 R16 R17 (initiated)

Increased data rate and Improved

LPWA basic version
capacity, more functions performance, more Improved efficiency, NB-IoT enhancement
--20 dB coverage
--Data rate > 100 kbit/s scenarios connection to 5GC project initiated
--Massive connections
--Multi-carrier --Power consumption: --5G NR coexistence --16QAM (M)
--Low power
transmission 80%↓ --Access to 5G CN --Mobility optimization
consumption
--Locating/Mobility: 80 --Latency: 20% ↓ --Multimode --Carrier service
--Low cost
km/h --Cell radius: 100 km --Interoperability differentiation
--Cat-NB1
--Cat-NB2 --QoS management

Technologies Defined by 3GPP Will Evolve to 5G The industry recognizes NB-IoT evolution and agrees
to incorporate NB-IoT into the overall 5G plan.
 On July 7, 2019, 3GPP and the 5G Promotion Group of MIIT put
forward the NR and NB-IoT proposals to the ITU.
Company Proposal
 3GPP Release 15: NB-IoT and NR can coexist. Existing China  Jointly promot NB-IoT access to 5G devices and the core
UEs are not affected. Mobile network based on R16.
 3GPP Release 16: Technical standards meeting 5G DT  No requirement on developing NR-based LPWA solutions.
requirements are officially accepted as a 5G technical NB-IoT can meet IMT-2020 requirements.
standards. E  In the 5G era, continue using NB-IoT and LTE-M to meet
LPWA service requirements.
Q  NB-IoT/eMTC is 5G mMTC.

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LPWA Technologies Adopted by Global Operators

NB-IoT first
+
eMTC
...

eMTC first
+
NB-IoT

LoRA first
+
eMTC

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NB-IoT Spectrum Selections of Global Operators

APT 700 MHz

Latin America

800 MHz
Germany Hungary

850 MHz

900 MHz
Germany, Holland, Germany
Poland, Austria

1800 MHz

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Huawei Releases World's First Commercial-use NB-IoT
Chip and Network Version
2016.Q4 2017.Q1 2017.Q2 2017.Q4 2018.Q2

Boudica 120 Boudica 120 Boudica 120 Boudica 150 Boudica 150
World's most integrated Sample Trial commercial use Commercial use Trial commercial use Commercial use (including Rel14)

NB-IoT chip
Boudica 120 (3GPP R13) Boudica 150 (3GPP R13&R14)
 SOC: BB +RF +PMU +
AP/SP/CP + eFlash +  Features: PSM/eDRX  Supported frequency bands: 5/8/20/28

SRAM  Coverage level selection  Downlink: 21.2 Kbps; Uplink: 15.6 Kbps

 Three ARM Cores:  Paging  Positioning (OTDOA)

AP+CP+SP  20 dB coverage enhancement  Multicast (SC-PTM)

 Supporting IP and non-IP  Data transmission at the user layer
 Single tone  Supporting both single-tone and multi-
 Integration of third-party applications tone transmission
 Supported protocols:  Third-party application development
CoAP/FOTA/LWM2M/DTLS/TCP/eSIM

Single RAN SRAN12.0 SRAN12.1

versions
Global commercial use

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NB-IoT Ecosystem Partner List
1000+ Industry Partners and 40+ Industries
Smart Smart
Smart water Smart gas
streetlight parking

Asset Smart Smart Smoke Air quality

tracking agriculture meters detection monitoring

Children/Pet Bicycle White Solution

Healthcare
tracking sharing goods integration

Seven NB-IoT Open Labs Mature development environment and test tools

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 Contents

1. NB-IoT Standard Evolution and Industry Development

2. Key NB-IoT Technologies

3. NB-IoT Solutions

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NB-IoT Physical Layer
 System bandwidth: 180 kHz
Physical layer
 Downlink technology: OFDMA; SCS 15 kHz; 12 subcarriers
design
 Uplink technology: SC-FDMA

 To simplify implementation, NB-IoT removes unnecessary physical channels, leaving only three
Physical channels
types of physical channels and two types of reference signals in the downlink and two types of
and physical signals
physical channels and one type of reference signal in the uplink.
 Two types of uplink physical channels:  Three types of downlink physical channels:
 NPUSCH  NPBCH
 NPRACH  NPDCCH
 One type of uplink physical signal:  NPDSCH
 NDMRS  Two types of downlink physical signals:
 NRS
 NSS

• Through a smaller target rate, repeated transmission, and lower-order modulation, NB-IoT
physical channels achieve wider coverage, lower costs, and lower power consumption.

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Key NB-IoT Features

Ultra-low cost Ultra-low power

consumption

Ultra-wide Massive connections

coverage

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NB-IoT Deployment Modes
 The NB-IoT supports LTE-based smooth evolution and flexible frequency band
deployment to meet different requirements of operators, reducing network
deployment and maintenance costs.
UMTS/LTE

LTE-based evolution 180 kHz 180 kHz

Standalone
deployment GSM

180 kHz

LTE
Guard band
deployment 180 kHz

LTE
Supporting smooth In-band
evolution of SingleRAN deployment
180 kHz

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Ultra-low Cost: Communication Chips Specially Designed
for IoT
 Non-essential physical hardware modules are tailored using simplified functions and algorithms,
reducing chip costs.
Broadband, high rate
Full duplex

Kirin

4G chip
Narrowband, low rate
Simplified signaling processing
Single-antenna, FDD half-duplex
Boudica (Only one of the uplink and downlink
150 communications is supported at a time.)

NB-IoT chip

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Ultra-Low Power Consumption: DRX and eDRX

The UE disables the

DRX period receiver to enter
the idle mode.

Time

The UE periodically
DRX
monitors the paging
channel in the PTW to
check whether there are The MME determines the DRX and eDRX periods
downlink services. based on the service type and device capability.
eDRX period
PTW

Time
DRX period
eDRX

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Ultra-Low Power Consumption: PSM

Active state

Data transmission
Paging monitoring

PSM

Idle state Time

Up to 310 hours

The active timer The TAU timer

(T3324) starts (T3412) starts

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Ultra-Wide Coverage: Increased Power Spectral Density,
Time-Domain Retransmission
Deep coverage solution 20 dB more maximum coupling
loss (MCL) than GPRS
Gain increased by
11 dB LTE MCL=142.7
Increased power
GSM MCL=144
spectral density
180 KHz 15 KHz NB-IoT MCL=164

The coverage distance of NB-IoT is

Coverage three times that of GPRS.
Downlink gain increased by 9 dB comparison
Uplink gain increased by 12 dB
GPRS

Repeated
transmission
NB-IoT
NB-IoT signals can penetrate through two
more walls than GPRS signals.

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Massive Connections: Reduced Air Interface Signaling
Consumption and Resource Usage
A capacity of over 50,000 users
Key technology 1:
15 min to 1 day Small uplink service scheduling unit: 15 kHz in NB-IoT VS.180 kHz in LTE

xx byte Business
NB-IoT gateway
platform

50,000 devices per cell
Delay-insensitive
DL Data
Key technology 2: air interface signaling overhead reduction
Key technology 3:
PSM and eDRX reduce the resource usage of each device.
Key technology 4: base station Key technology 5: core
optimization network optimization
 Independent admission and UE context storage
congestion control Downlink data cache
 UE context storage

Traffic model

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Summary of Key NB-IoT Features
10 years Evolution based on
Battery life the live network

20 dB Operator-level
Coverage gain reliability

5 USD
NB-IoT
Module price High security

50,000
Global
Number of NB-IoT Advantages roaming
connections per cell
Low Cost Low Power Consumption Wide Coverage Massive Connections
$5 module cost 10-year battery life 20 dB gain 50,000 connections per cell
 Simplified RF hardware  Simplified protocols and  Increased narrowband  High spectral efficiency
 Simplified protocols to lower chip power PSD  Small-packet data
reduce costs consumption  Retransmission times: 16 transmission
 Reduced baseband  High PA efficiency  Coding gains  Low device activation ratio
complexity  Short TX/RX duration

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 Contents

1. NB-IoT Standard Evolution and Industry Development

2. Key NB-IoT Technologies

3. NB-IoT Solutions

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NB-IoT Solution Architecture
Third-party
application
Application
EPC CoAP HTTP
S1-lite TCP/IP
NB-IoT device MME HSS HTTP/HTTPS Application
P-GW S-GW IoT platform HTTPS
NB-IoT/eMTC
TCP/IP

NB-IoT device NB-IoT eNodeB IoT core network IoT platform

 Wireless connection
 Virtual SIM card
 Sensor port
 Application residence
 Support for NAS data
 Low-cost site solution
 Supporting large-
capacity connections
with new air interface
 Mobility, security, and
connection management
 Secure access for devices
without SIM cards
 UE energy saving
 Congestion control and
traffic scheduling
 Billing
 Support for NAS data
 Compatible with application-layer
protocol stacks
 Device/SIM OTA
 Device and event subscription
management
 Open APIs (to the industry and
developers)
 OSS/BSS (for self-help subscriber
creation and billing)
 Big data analysis

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NB-IoT Application Cases

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NB-IoT Solution: Smart Parking
Challenges to Current Smart Parking NB-IoT Provides More Efficient Smart
Parking Services
Data collection (wireless or wired)
through gateway and data
uploading to the base station
NB-IoT controller IoT
platform
• Accelerated problem handling
Street line • One network for the entire city, facilitating
maintenance and management
• Low power consumption and long service life
• Separated from the real estates, facilitating site
selection and installation
Deploying Parking space • Enterprises do not need to maintain networks, reducing
sensors in each query using operation costs.
parking space the app
Indoor Smart parking-based vehicle
detector
Operating temperature:
–40°C to +70°C
Difficult fault High cost (extra High power Multi-level Diameter: 90 mm; Height: 80 mm
locating devices and space) consumption network Material: aluminum

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NB-IoT Solution: Shared Bikes
Bicycle QR code Innovation of Shared Bikes
Map search
positioning scanning

Remote Payment upon

Billing Station- Positioning Remote Mobile Power
unlocking locking
free unlocking payment supply
Mechanical Lock GPRS Electronic Lock NB-IoT Lock
Operators' Business Models
Capability openness: For example, identity
Service authentication and deposit are not required for
postpaid users.
Cloud services: industry cloud application
• Static passwords: • High-cost • Built-in 13000 Cloud IoT deployment and data storage
services platform
A bicycle can be • The first-generation mAh battery IoT platform: tens of millions of concurrent
used by any one bicycle uses a motor. providing two services; lock management
who knows the The first 30 minutes or years of power Guarantee for unlocking success rate and
password, 5 km of cycling is not supply Connectivity battery life
eliminating bicycle smooth, resulting in • The 20 dB
usage fees. poor user experience. coverage gain
NB-IoT modules
• Lack of • The second-generation ensures the Lock
positioning, (Lite) uses a solar communication of
raising risks of panel, which is easily services such as Bicycle
bicycle theft affected by external remote unlocking
factors (weather and and positioning.
blockage).

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NB-IoT Solution: Smart Street Lamp
High energy Large Legal litigation and public
bill manpower safety joint liability

30-50% of the public mains is Time required to install 50 street

used for power street lamps. lamps: 20 persons, 2 days

Industry
Street lamp Smart city
application
application application
platform
Remote power Remote switch
on/off timer configuration Restful
Platform IoT platform

Real-time status Remote

obtainment troubleshooting Network

Each street lamp saves 2

Remote USD per month. Devices
upgrade Real-time fault reporting,
zero-wait maintenance Street lamp controller NB-IoT modules

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NB-IoT Solution: Smart Meter Reading

NB-IoT
water meter

Ningbo water NB-IoT IoT connection

NB-IoT eNodeB Application
meter controller management platform

Internet+ smart water meter

IoT Platform Values

 Device management (LwM2M/PSM

message caching)
Large quantity Leakage
 Asset management
 SIM card management
 Device status monitoring

Small coverage Difficult connection  Alarm management

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 Summary

 In this course, you have learned NB-IoT technologies in LPWA scenarios,

including NB-IoT evolution, the development of NB-IoT in the industry, and
key NB-IoT technologies and solutions.

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Thank you. Bring digital to every person, home, and
organization for a fully connected,
intelligent world.

Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

All Rights Reserved.

The information in this document may contain predictive

statements including, without limitation, statements regarding
the future financial and operating results, future product
portfolio, new technology, etc. There are a number of factors
that
could cause actual results and developments to differ materially
from those expressed or implied in the predictive statements.
Therefore, such information is provided for reference purpose
only and constitutes neither an offer nor an acceptance. Huawei
may change the information at any time without notice.