Evolution of RAN Architectures for Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) Services

According to the International Data Corporation, the Internet of Things market is expected to grow from $655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion in 2020. LTE is the only wide area technology that can reliably support this massive number of connected devices due to its scalability, security, reliability, longevity, standards protection and proven commercial deployments across the globe. Today, LTE supports IoT with Cat-1 devices, while LTE-Advanced extends device battery life to ten years with power saving mode. LTE-Advanced Prod further optimized coverage, device battery life, cost and capacity for connected devices with the introduction of eMTC and narrowband IoT.