Performance of narrow band internet of things (NBIoT) networks

Narrow Band Internet of Things (NBIoT) is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology that has been standardised by 3GPP in Release 13 to work in cellular networks [15]. The main characteristics of NBIoT are its extended coverage compared to other cellular technologies such as LTE; its high capacity is due to its narrow channel bandwidth of 180 KHz, which also supports the possibility of these devices having a long battery life of up to 10 years, as well as low device complexity - all of which result in low device costs [2]. NBIoT can be deployed in one of three different options, namely: a) standalone, b) in-band and c) guard band deployment mode. These characteristics of NBIoT makes it very useful in the IoT industry, allowing the technology to be used in a wide range of applications, such as health, smart cities, farming, wireless sensor networks and many more [1] [25]. NBIoT can be used to realise the maximum possible spectral efficiency, thereby increasing the capacity of the network. Penetration of NBIoT in the market has dominated other LPWANs like Sigfox and LoRA, with NBIoT having a technology share of close to 50 percent [31]. This study is aimed at exploring the deployment options of NBIoT and determining how network operators can realise the greatest value for their investment by efficiently utilising their allocated spectrum. The main target is to derive the best parameter combination for deployment of the NBIoT network with acceptable error rates in both the uplink and the downlink. Different characteristics of NBIoT were discussed in this study, and the performance of the various approaches investigated to determine their efficiency in relation to the needs of the IoT industry. The error rates of NBIoT, when used in an existing LTE network, were the main focus of this study. Software simulations were used to compare the different parameter settings to see which options provide the best efficiency and cost trade-offs for structuring an NBIoT network. The results of the tests done in this study showed that the error rates are lower for standalone deployment mode than for in-band mode, which is mainly due to less interference in standalone mode than in in-band mode. The results also show that data transmitted in smaller Transport Block Size (TBS) in the Down Link (DL) has less errors than if it’s transmitted in larger blocks. The results also show that the error rate gets lower as the number of subframe repetition increases in the downlink, which is mainly due to the redundancy in sending the same data multiple times. However in the uplink, the results show that the error rates are comparable when the signal has poor quality

An effective technique for increasing capacity and improving bandwidth in 5G narrow-band internet of things

In recent years, the wireless spectrum has become increasingly scarce as demand for wireless services has grown, requiring imaginative approaches to increase capacity within a limited spectral resource. This article proposes a new method that combines modified symbol time compression with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MSTC-OFDM), to enhance capacity for the narrow-band internet of things (NB-IoT) system. The suggested method, MSTC-OFDM, is based on the modified symbol time compression (MSTC) technique. The MSTC is a compressed waveform technique that increases capacity by compressing the occupied symbol time without losing bit error rate (BER) performance or data throughput. A comparative analysis is provided between the traditional orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system and the MSTC-OFDM method. The simulation results show that the MSTC-OFDM scheme drastically decreases the symbol time (ST) by 75% compared to a standard OFDM system. As a result, the MSTC-OFDM system offers four times the bit rate of a typical OFDM system using the same bandwidth and modulation but with a little increase in complexity. Moreover, compared to an OFDM system with 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM-OFDM), the MSTC-OFDM system reduces the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by 3.9 dB to transmit the same amount of data

Evaluation of Radio over Plastic Optical Fiber Communications

In this work, we have experimentally evaluated the performance of a Radio over Plastic Optical Fiber (RoPOF) communications link by simultaneously transmitting Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) signals over 75-meters of PMMA large-core Graded-Index POF (GI-POF)

CER/TER - the new metric for TCP connection robustness evaluation and comparison

This article presents new metric for TCP connection robustness evaluation and comparison. This metric is focused on TCP connection and transmission continuity rather then on maximal throughput or minimal RTT. This metric is developed especially for evaluation of narrow band networks. That is why it is very convenient to use this metric for networks such as Internet of Things networks or industrial sensor networks. Our metric is based on observing if connections or transmissions are successfully finished or not. It is possible to optimize this metric for specific situations. This metric can be used in both the real networks and in discrete simulation environments

Method Using IOT Low Earth Orbit Satellite to Monitor Forest Temperature in Indonesia

The Purpose of this paper is to ensure the proper functioning of the Monitoring Forest Temperature program in Indonesia using the IoT Narrow-Band Low earth orbit Satellite. As a new technology for monitoring the temperature continue to expand, its implementation in developing countries particularly in Indonesia requires strategic guidance of how the whole process will be executed. Nevertheless, due to this, cross-sectoral partnership in technology, policy, budget, industry is essential to be addressed. The World Bank has recorded the loss from forest fire where 28 million people directly affected including 19 people who died and over 500 thousand people suffered from respiratory problems. Smokes from forest and land fires have also struck Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam respectively. To respond to this, the IoT ( Internet of Things ) now comes with an extensive feature, using the capability of satellite reach. The Narrow Band Low Earth Orbit Satellite has released a feature for IoT connect to Low Orbit Satellite and transmit the data from the sensor directly. Therefore, we argue that this technology is crucial and needs to be functioned immediately to monitor forest temperature in Indonesia

increasing efficiency of resource allocation for d2d communication in nb iot context

Abstract Internet of things (IoT) and device to device (D2D) communications are among the novel promising technologies in the current releases of 4G and they will play a fundamental role in the next generation 5G as well. In this paper, it is investigated the impact of allocation strategies that take into account the mutual interference in D2D Narrow-Band IoT terminals and cellular terminals transmitting in the same resource block. In a multi-cellular downlink context, the proposed approach and the analysis can serve also as an efficient criterion for selecting the target SINR, useful for managing the power control in the uplink. The rate improvement, measured with the proposed approach, is between 10% and 15% w.r.t. conventional techniques

Doubling the Number of Connected Devices in Narrow-band Internet of Things while Maintaining System Performance: An STC-based Approach

Narrow-band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) method that was first launched by the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) Rel- 13 with the purpose of enabling low-cost, low-power and wide-area cellular connection for the Internet of Things (IoT). As the demand for over-the-air services grows and with the number of linked wireless devices reaching 100 billion, wireless spectrum is becoming scarce, necessitating creative techniques that can increase the number of connected devices within a restricted spectral resource in order to satisfy service needs. Consequently, it is vital that academics develop efficient solutions to fulfill the quality of service (QoS) criteria of the NB-IoT in the context of 5th generation (5G) and beyond. This study paves the way for 5G networks and beyond to have increased capacity and data rate for NB-IoT. Whereas, this article suggests a method for increasing the number of connected devices by using a technique known as symbol time compression (STC). The suggested method compresses the occupied bandwidth of each device without increasing complexity, losing data throughput or bit error rate (BER) performance. The STC approach is proposed in the literature to work with the conventional orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to reduce bandwidth usage by 50% and improve the peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). Specifically, An STC-based method is proposed that exploits the unused bandwidth to double the number of connected devices while keeping system performance and complexity. Furthermore, the {\mu}-law companding technique is leveraged to reduce the PAPR of the transmitted signals. The obtained simulation results reveal that the proposed approach using the {\mu}-law companding technique increases the transmitted data by twice and reduces the PAPR by 3.22 dB while maintaining the same complexity and BER