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What's the Big Deal about the Cellular IoT Narrowband Radio Technology (NB-IoT)?

rscasny

Cellular-based IoT has been going through some growing pains recently.

 

The cellular industry once believed it would win the SuperBowl of IoT Connectivity until non-cellular low-power wide-area technology (e.g., SigFox, Lo-Ra, etc.) made an end run around them and started building out networks and capturing market share in the highly competitive IoT connectivity solutions market.

 

But the with the recent completion of the NB-IoT standard by 3GPP, the cellular standards org, the IoT "connectivity" pendulum appears to be swinging from LPWA to Cellullar once again.

 

What is the big deal about NB-IoT technology? 3GPP says the NB-IoT standard is the specification for cellular-based, low-power, wide area (LPWA) networking technology for IoT uses. It boasts that NB-IoT provides:

 

  • Low throughput a very large number of devices
  • Deep coverage for nodes located in hard-to-reach places (i.e., smart utility meters located deep in basements)
  • Low power consumption for very long battery life (10-20 years).
  • Low Complexity allowing for low-cost devices

 

As a result, NB-IoT technology makes cellular IoT connectivity a viable alternative to non-cellular LPWAN technologies.

 

What do you think?

 

Do you think cellular IoT will ultimately take market share away from non-cellular LPWA technologies? Or has NB-IoT technology come a bit too late, and well after IoT engineers and product designers have already decided to opt for non-cellular LPWA technology such as SigFox, LoRa or others?

 

Would you consider using cellular NB-IoT technology for a future project?

 

Feel free to share your thoughts below in the comments section.

  • in reply to Instructorman

    Perfectly right.

     

    But, with e-SIMs the cost for the SIM could be minimal and only related to the “account management”.

     

    But imagine that You have 10.000 metering devices over a whole country…..they need a loooong LPWA network to be accessible/ to access !

     

     

     

    Da: Instructorman 

    Inviato: mercoledì 23 novembre 2016 17:29

    A: Gianenrico Cravenna

    Oggetto: Re:  - What's the Big Deal about the Cellular IoT Narrowband Radio Technology (NB-IoT)?

     

     

     

     

     

     

    <https://www.element14.com/community/?et=blogs.comment.created> element14 Community

     

     

     

     

     

     

    What's the Big Deal about the Cellular IoT Narrowband Radio Technology (NB-IoT)?

     

     

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  • From my perspective it may come down to cost.  If every IoT node that is to be connected to an NB-cellular network needs a SIM card and the carriers want to charge even a small monthly access fee, then, from an economic perspective, LoRa looks better.  This assumes that the technical capabilities of both are the same in a given situation.  There will be cases where NB-cellular offers superior performance, or simply works where LoRa doesn't.  It may be then that a hybrid ecosystem develops using several radio technologies appropriate to the installation scenario.

     

    And yes, I would very much consider using NB-cellular technology in an IoT application.

  • In my opinion both technologie will survive, unless there is a cut-throat pricing from Telcos on NB-Iot traffic.

    "Traditional" LPWA cn be very cheap if you have many/multiple devices dispersed in a limited space, so it make sense to have one or few repeater built and service provided, may be then relying data through a cell network (or land line, for that matter).

    And there may be sectors/application where a relevant data stream has to be taken into account for; or mobility is important.

     

    The great advantage of NB is that it, apparently, simplifies life for the users who have static applications, low volume data flow and limited or no mobility.

    Examples: besides the water and power metering, many control functions/services for remote equipment can be designed and brought to the  market with a very limited cost on deployement.

    It did struck me the new of an Agreement between a noted Cell Telco and a Maritime Satellite Communicatio provider: just think of all and every plant/machine on a ship connected through NB-IoT to a "maintenance" Cloud, feeding data for predictive maintenance and allowing the delivery to exact day and Port the ship arrives.........

    ALSO a direct connection from field device to Company "Cloud" will allow to immediatly control the Quality of Data, as there is no gateway and controls to go through.

     

    We'll have to see if the players will be too greedy and kill the cchicken.....

  • As with any new technology it all depends.

     

    I can see where and easy to use cellular connection could be robust enough, depending upon the Iot device growth.

    It will still take time to resolve useful update rates for some devices and just how the connection can handle data surges during event trigger events.

     

    As for using cellular connection it depends on ease of use, transparency of connection and secure but robust access to the data of only your devices.

     

    So keep us updated on this technology and the development of devices and tools for other engineers to begin playing with its potential.

     

    Time will resolve everything.

     

    DAB