Vodafone Group, Huawei, and u-blox announced that they have completed what they claim to be the first successful commercial trial of pre-standard narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) using cellular bands. Vodafone and Huawei successfully integrated the technology into the operator’s existing mobile network in Spain, and then sent the first pre-standard NB-IoT message to a u-blox module installed in a water meter.

NB-IoT is a new technology that will extend the use of IoT by making it more efficient to connect objects that require a long battery life and are located in areas of poor Internet coverage. NB-IoT promises to provide up to ten years of battery life and deep indoor penetration. Industry technology standards for NB-IoT will be set with Release 13 from the global standards organization Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

Korea’s operator, KT, and Nokia announced that they have conducted what they claim to be the industry’s first enhanced machine-type communications (eMTC) field trial. The trial was conducted on KT’s LTE network using Nokia’s Flexi Multi-radio 10 Base Station, wherein eMTC used only 1.4 MHz of the full 20-MHz LTE system, leaving the remaining spectrum free for normal LTE traffic. Also referred to as LTE-M with a 1.4-MHz bandwidth, eMTC is a feature that will be fully standardized with 3GPP Release 13, the first step in the evolution of LTE Advanced to LTE Advanced Pro. It will provide data rates of up to 1 Mb/s, up to four times better coverage, and reduce device complexity by up to 80% in comparison to conventional LTE.

Ericsson, Orange, and Intel have completed what they claim to be one of the first live trials of extended coverage global system for mobile communications (EC-GSM) technology for IoT. EC-GSM (formerly enhanced coverage data rates for GSM evolution, or EC-EGPRS) is a new technology that enables new capabilities of existing cellular networks for low-power wide-area IoT applications. EC-GSM can be activated through new software deployed over a very large GSM footprint, adding even more coverage to serve IoT devices. This trial was conducted using the 900-MHz band. Coverage extension of 20 dB beyond GSM coverage was reached, showing a sevenfold improvement in the range of low-rate applications. It also showed the ability to reach challenging locations such as deep indoor basements, where many smart meters are installed, or remote areas in which sensors are deployed for agriculture or infrastructure monitoring use. The live trial proved that full coexistence of such devices with legacy mobile devices is possible. According to the companies, cellular networks optimized for IoT will be operational by 2017.

Full article: IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, Volume 11, Number 2, June 2016