NB-IoT presentation for IETF LPWAN

Antti Ratilainen

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 NB-IoT targeted use cases

NB-IoT
eMTC Low cost
Ultra reliable
EC-GSM Low energy
TEXT Very low latency
Small data volumes
Very high availability
Massive MTC Massive numbers Critical MTC

… …
“Tactile
Traffic safety Internet” Smart Industrial
Capillary networks & control grid application
Sensors, actuators

LPWAN@IETF97
 NB-IoT Design targets
•  NB-IoT targets the low-end “Massive MTC” scenario:

Low device cost/complexity:<$5 per module

Extended coverage: 164 dB MCL, 20 dB better compared to GPRS

Long battery life: >10 years

Capacity: 40 devices per household,

~55k devices per cell

Uplink report latency : <10 seconds

LPWAN@IETF97
 Basic Technical Characteristics
NB-IoT

•  Targeting implementation in an existing 3GPP GSM STAND ALONE

network
200kHz
•  Applicable in any 3GPP defined (licensed) GUARD BAND
frequency band – standardization in release 13 LTE LTE
200kHz
•  Three deployment modes INBAND
LTE
•  Processing along with wideband LTE carriers 200kHz

implying OFDM secured orthogonality and

common resource utilization The capacity of NB-IoT carrier is
shared by all devices
•  Maximum user rates 30/60 (DL/UL) kbps Capacity is scalable by adding
additional NB-IoT carriers

LPWAN@IETF97
 NB-IoT overview
›  M2M access technology contained in 200 kHz with 3 deployments modes:
–  Stand-alone operation
–  Operation in LTE “guard band’
–  Operation within wider LTE carrier (aka inband)
›  L1:
–  FDD only & half-duplex User Equipment (UE)
–  Narrow band physical downlink channels over 180 kHz (1 PRB)
–  Preamble based Random Access on 3.75 kHz
–  Narrow band physical uplink channel on single-tone (15 kHz or 3.75 kHz) or
multi-tone (n*15 kHz, n = [3,6,12])
–  Maximum transport block size (TBS) 680 bits in downlink, 1000 bits in uplink
›  L2, L3:
–  Single-process, adaptive and asynchronous HARQ for both UL and DL
–  Data over Non Access Stratum, or data over user plane with RRC Suspend/
Resume
–  MTU size 1500 bytes
–  Extended Idle mode DRX with up to 3 h cycle, Connected mode DRX with
up to 9.216 s cycle
–  Multi Physical Resource Block (PRB)/Carrier support

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 NETWORK DEPLOYMENT
•  Maximum coupling loss 164 dB which has been reached
with assumptions given in the table below, which shows
the link budget for uplink
–  Urban: deep in-building penetration
–  Rural: long range (10-15 km)

Numerology 15 kHz 3.75 kHz

(1) Transmit power (dBm) 23.0 23.0
(2) Thermal noise density (dBm/Hz) -174 -174
(3) Receiver noise figure (dB) 3 3
(4) Occupied channel bandwidth (Hz) 15000 3750
(5) Effective noise power = (2) + (3) + 10*log ((4))
(dBm) -129.2 -135.3
(6) Required SINR (dB) -11.8 -5.7
(7) Receiver sensitivity = (5) + (6) (dBm) -141.0 -141.0
(8) Max coupling loss = (1) - (7) (dB) 164.0 164.0

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 Relevant L1 characteristics

•  Highest modulation scheme QPSK

•  ISM bands vs licensed bands
–  NB-IoT currently specified on licensed bands only
–  Narrowband operation (180 kHz bandwidth)
•  in-band (LTE), guard band (LTE) or standalone operation mode (e.g. refarm the GSM carrier at
850/900 MHz)
–  Half Duplex FDD operation mode with 60 kbps peak rate in uplink and 30 kbps peak rate in
downlink
•  Maximum transmission block size 680 bits in DL, 1000 bits in UL (In Rel-13)
•  Use repetitions for coverage enhancements, up to 2048 reps in DL, 128 reps in
UL data channels
•  > 10 year battery life time

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 Relevant L2 characteristics
•  Supported MTU size is 1500 bytes for both, NAS and AS solutions
•  Error correction, concatenation, segmentation and reassembly in RLC Acknowledged
Mode SGW
–  Error correction through ARQ MME
–  Segmentation to segment the SDUs from PDCP into the transmission block sizes for physical layer
•  Non-access stratum (NAS) and Access stratum (AS)
–  NAS is a set of protocols used to convey non-radio signaling between the UE and the core network,

S1-U/EPS Bearer
passing transparently through radio network. The responsibilities of NAS include authentication,
security control, mobility management and bearer management
–  AS is the functional layer below NAS, working between the UE and radio network. It is responsible
for transporting data over wireless connection and managing radio resources.

DoNAS
–  In NB-IoT, an optimization for data transfer over NAS (DoNAS) signaling is also supported,
–  Also AS optimization called RRC suspend/resume can be used to minimize the signaling needed to
suspend/resume user plane connection.
–  Non-IP support, which enables the usage of other delivery protocols than IP as well
•  L2 security
–  Authentication between UE and core network.

DRB
–  Encryption and integrity protection of both AS and NAS signaling.
–  Encryption of user plane data between the UE and radio network.
–  Key management mechanisms to effectively support mobility and UE connectivity mode changes.

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 NB-IoT system architecture
•  Architecture is based on evolved Packet Core (EPC) used by LTE
•  Cellular IoT User Equipment (CIoT UE) is the mobile terminal
•  evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) handles the radio
communications between the UE and the EPC, and consists of the evolved base
stations called eNodeB or eNB
•  NB-IoT security properties
•  Authentication and core network signaling
security as in normal LTE
•  Security supporting optimized transmission of S6a
user data HSS
•  Encrypted and integrity protected user data can be sent
within NAS signaling (no AS security for DoNAS).
•  Minimized signaling to resume cached user plane
security context in the radio network.
T6a

CIoT MME SCEF

Uu S1
CIoT UE E-UTRAN
SGi
SGW P-GW CIoT
Services

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 Summary for NB-IoT
NB-IoT

Deployment In-band & Guard-band LTE, standalone

Coverage (MCL)
164 dB

Downlink OFDMA, 15 KHz tone spacing, TBCC, 1 Rx

Single tone: 15 KHz and 3.75 KHz spacing, SC-FDMA: 15 KHz tone
Uplink
spacing, Turbocode
Bandwidth 180 KHz
Highest modulation QPSK
Link peak rate (DL/
DL: ~30 kbps UL: ~60 kbps
UL)
Duplexing HD FDD
MTU size 1500 B
TBS Max. transmission block size 680 bits in DL, 1000 bits in UL, min. 16 bits
Repetitions Up to 2048 repetitions in DL and 128 repetitions in UL data channels
PSM, extended Idle mode DRX with up to 3 h cycle, Connected mode DRX
Power saving
with up to 10.24 s cycle
UE Power class
23 dBm or 20 dBm
LPWAN@IETF97
 UE categories for massive MTC

Rel-8 Rel-8 Rel-12 Rel-13 Rel-13

Cat-4 Cat-1 Cat-0 Cat-M1 NB-IOT

HD-FDD / HD-FDD /
FD-FDD / FD-FDD / FD-FDD / FD-FDD /
Supported duplex modes TDD TDD HD-FDD
TDD TDD

DL link peak rate [Mbps] 150 10 0.375 / 1 0.3 / 0.8 ~0.03*

UL link peak rate [Mbps] 50 5 0.375 / 1 0.375 / 1 ~0.06**

Highest DL modulation scheme 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 16QAM QPSK

Highest UL modulation scheme 16QAM 16QAM 16QAM 16QAM QPSK

Max number of DL spatial layers 2 1 1 1 1

Number of receive antennas 2 2 1 1 1

UE bandwidth [MHz] 20 20 20 1.080 0.180

Maximum transmit power [dBm] 23 23 23 20 or 23 20 or 23

LPWAN@IETF97 * DL system peak rate: 0.23 Mbps **UL system peak rate: 0.25 Mbps
 WORK IN PROGRESS, TO BE DONE

•  Further enhancements for NB-IoT (and eMTC) are being worked on for next
3GPP Release.
•  These enhancements include the following topics
–  Positioning
–  Multicast
•  Support multi-cast downlink transmission (e.g. firmware or software updates, group message delivery) for NB-IoT
–  Non- Anchor PRB enhancements
–  Mobility and service continuity enhancements
–  New Power Class(es)
•  Evaluate and, if appropriate, specify new UE power class(es) (e.g. 14dBm), and any necessary signaling support, to support lower
maximum transmit power suitable for small form-factor batteries, with appropriate MCL relaxations compared to Rel-13

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