NB-IoT:

Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a part of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) technology. It was developed to enable a wide range of IoT devices and services. It is one of the new fast growing technologies in our country. It is a 3GPP release 13 standard cellular technology introduced in the year 2016. It has a frequency spectrum from 700MHz to 900MHz.

NB-IoT technology provides us various characteristics such as good indoor coverage, supports massive number of connections, low cost, less power consumption and optimized network architecture. 

WHY NB-IoT?

There are many different technologies used to transfer the data but this NB-IoT uses the licensed frequency spectrum where it does not have an interference with other devices but guarantees a more reliable data transfer. It will enable large number of devices to transfer data when there is no standard network coverage. It can connect up to 50,000 per NB-IoT network cell and penetrates deep underground and into enclosed spaces providing 20dB coverage indoors.

NB-IoT is applicable in industries and acts as a better solution than most other technologies and protocols when it comes to automatic meter reading. This meter reading has the ability to cover large areas and amounts of meters are useful. It can also be applied in agriculture, transport, logistics, environment protection and smart city solutions etc.

SECURITY OF NB-IoT:

NB-IoT can co-exist with all cellular networks ( 2G, 3G, 4G &5G) and benefits from the security and privacy features of mobile networks. There are some security and privacy features that provide for LTE mobiles are

  • User identity confidentiality
  • Entity authentication 
  • Data integrity
  • Mobile device identification

BENEFITS:

  • Easy deployment
  • Has better scalability and quality of service
  • It is a licensed spectrum
  • Highly secure and reliable
  • Extensive range of bandwidth
  • Has long battery life
  • Offers extended coverage compare to GSM/GPRS systems.

DRAWBACKS:

  • It offers lower data rate compared to LTE cat-M1. Since the bandwidth is about 200 KHz it can be used for stationary devices.
  • It does not support VoLTE for speech transmission. Hence voice transmission is not supported.
  • Roaming is not supported in this technology.

USECASES:

  • Smart parking:

Real-time parking information, billing and traffic management.

  • Consumer:

Fitness devices, healthcare monitoring, personal trackers.

  • Logistics:

Tracking of the goods and cargo management.

  • Environmental monitoring:

Monitoring of air and water qualities, forest fire detection and snow conditions.

  • Smart home:

Action monitoring and access control.

  • Agriculture:

Optimize the general agriculture production including crops and livestock.