CAT-M & NB-IoT Design and Conformance Test

20170614
JianHuaWu 吳建樺
jian-hua_wu@keysight.com
What’s IOT?
Internet of Things
物聯網
 Diverse IoT Applications

Healthcare
Extended coverage
Manufacturing Agriculture

Long battery life

Connected
cities Asset tracking

Connected Smart Energy

cars
Support for a massive number
of devices.
Low device cost Weareables
Low deployment cost

Page 3
Diverse IoT Applications

Healthcare
Data rate / Power consumption
Manufacturing Agriculture

WiFi Cellular
Connected
cities Asset tracking

ZigBee
BT LE LPWAN Connected Smart Energy
NFC cars

Weareables
Range

Page 4
 3GPP for IOT

R12
LTE Cat 0

R8 R12 R13 R13

LTE Cat 1 PSM e-DRX CAT-M1 / Nbiot / EC-GSM
(Power Saving mode)

Page 5
 LTE Cat 1 >> Cat 0 >> Cat M1

• Provide an LTE coverage improvement –

corresponding to 15dB for FDD • Reduced device bandwidth of 1.4MHz in
downlink and uplink
• Enhance the DRX cycle • Reduced maximum transmit power of 20dBm

Page 6
Evolution of MTC/CIoT in 3GPP
CIoT GERAN Clean sheet proposals
• NB-M2M (Neul-Huawei, u-blox, Ericsson, Samsung)
• NB-OFDMA (Qualcomm)
• C-UNB (derivative of SIGFOX)
• NB-CSS (Semtech, derivative of LoRa)
• NB-CIoT (NB-M2M + NB-OFDMA) (Qualcomm, Neul-Huawei, u-blox others)
CIoT RAN Clean sheet proposal
GSM Evolution proposals • NB-LTE (Ericsson, Nokia, MTK, AT&T,
• NB-GSM GERAN Sprint, others)
• EC-GSM (Ericsson others) selection
LTE Evolution proposal
process
• LTE-M 1.4MHz BW
NB-CIoT
TR 45.820 TR 36.888
EC-GSM RAN #69 selection process
September 2015
Clean sheet proposal work
item for further refinement
• NB-CIoT RP-151621
Likely to move forward • NB-LTE
• LTE-M 1.4MHz
• EC-GSM RAN #70 selection process
December 2015
Output for R13 standardization
• LTE-M 1.4MHz Almost certain for Rel-13
• EC-GSM
• NB-CIoT R13 spec June 2016, expect merged OFDMA
• NB-LTE DL and two separate UL TBC
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Page 8
IOT in 3GPP

Page 9
Wide Diversity of Communication Requirements
One transport technology does not fit all use cases
Requirements Devices per Technology
Application

Cars
~ Few Mbps LTE Cat-1
Survelliance ~
$15/module
Billboards

Fleet
~ 100s kbps track Smart LTE Cat-M1
home
~ $8/module
Telematics
Wearables

Asset Street
management lighting

~ 10s kbps Pets

Water LTE Cat-NB1
metering
Trash canes < $5/module
Pulse meter Industry
Blood
Agriculture presure Automation

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Marketing Status
 Marketing Status
• We have counted 4 commercial NBIoT
networks, with several more veryclose to
commercial launch; a further 40 networks in 29
countries trialling,demonstrating or planning to
deploy NB-IoT (plus commitments to
development by multi-country operator groups)
• 2 commercial LTE-M networks (Verizon USA
and AT&T USA) and 12 other networks in 10
countries trialling, demonstrating or planning to
deploy LTE-M.

https://gsacom.com/paper/commercial-volte-networks-
3gpp-technology-iot-networks/
Page 12
Marketing Status

Page 13
Low device cost
Low deployment cost
LTE Cat-NB1 LTE Cat-M1

14
Low Device Cost – Reduce Complexity

https://resources.ext.nokia.com/asset/200178 Page 15
Cat M and NB-IoT 180kHz from 12x15kHz

Deployment options
subcarriers (OFDMA downlink)

LTE 180kHz PRB

(Physical Resource Block)

25x180k=
4.5MHz

Typical 5MHz LTE NB-IoT

5MHz with 25 x 180kHz 200kHz from 1 x 180kHz

NB-IoT in-band
with LTE

TBC NB-IoT excluded NB-IoT LTE guard NB-IoT in 200kHz GSM NB-IoT in 200kHz GSM
from central 6 PRB band spectrum no guard spectrum with guard
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Cat M and NB-IoT 180kHz from 12x15kHz

Deployment options
subcarriers (OFDMA downlink)

LTE 180kHz PRB

(Physical Resource Block)

25x180k=
4.5MHz 6x 180k=
1.08MHz

Typical 5MHz LTE Cat M NB-IoT

5MHz with 25 x 180kHz 1.4MHz with 6 x 180kHz 200kHz from 1 x 180kHz

Cat M in-band NB-IoT in-band

with LTE with LTE

TBC NB-IoT excluded NB-IoT LTE guard NB-IoT in 200kHz GSM NB-IoT in 200kHz GSM
from central 6 PRB band spectrum no guard spectrum with guard
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PSM and eDRX

LTE Cat-NB1 LTE Cat-M1

PSM Flow
paging
PSM mode

UE NAS State Registered Registered Registered

(normal) (normal) (no cell)

RRC State Connected Idle Null

T3324
Power on / Attach

T3412

Tracking Area update

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Power Saving Mode

– It is a specially kind of UE status that can minimize the energy consumption that is
supposed to be even lower than normal idle mode energy consumption.

– This is newly added feature in Release 12 and is specified in 3GPP 24.301-5.3.11

Power saving mode and 23.682-4.5.4 UE Power Saving Mode.

– Similar to power-off, but the UE remains registered with the network

– No need to re-attach or re-establish PDN connections.

– A UE in PSM is not immediately reachable for mobile terminating services.

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 T3412 & T3324
3gpp 24.301

T3324

T3412

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PSM Power Consumption
• The maximum duration of
PSM (T3412) is 12.1 days.
• PSM mode can be cancelled
anytime by the device by
sending a TAU to the
network that does not
include the PSM timers.

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 eDRX - Extended/Enhanced DRX – idle mode

Page

Nokia_LTE_Evolution_for_IoT_Connectivity_White_Paper_EN.pdf 3gpp 24.008, section 10.5.5.32

eDRX - Extended/Enhanced DRX – connected mode

3gpp 36.213

© Keysight Technologies 2016 Page 24

Power Saving Mode and eDRX
Rel-12 Power Saving Mode (PSM) Rel-13 Enhanced DRX (eDRX)

T3412 CONNECTED eDRX

CONNECTED
T3324 Before UE monitoring control Rel-13
channel

TAU
2.56s 9.22s

PSM

-
DRX cycles extended from 2.56 seconds:
Paging UE unreachable
Ocassions • To 9.22 seconds in NB-IoT
• To 10.24 seconds in Cat-M
- T3324 determines for how long the UE will
IDLE eDRX
monitor paging beforing entering in PSM

CONNECTED
Paging Time Window
- While in PSM, UE is not reachable by the
Network and all circuitry is turned off

- UE exits PSM when T3412 expires (TAU) or with

a Mobile Originated transfer - New Paging Time Window which allows longer
paging cycles:
• 3 hours in NB-IoT
• 44mis in Cat M
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Coverage Enhancement

LTE Cat-NB1 LTE Cat-M1

26
 NB-IoT: Key parameters
NB-IoT (LTE) FDD Bands:
Frequency range Support for other features:
1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 66, 70
Duplex Mode FDD Half Duplex type B
$ MIMO No MIMO support
HARQ (1 process only)

UL Power Control (Open Loop only)

Bandwidth 180 kHz (1PRB)
Downlink: OFDMA RSRP, RSRQ Reporting
Multiple Access
Uplink: SC-FDMA
CSI Reporting
Downlink: QPSK
Modulation Schemes Uplink: Single Tone: π/4-QPSK, π/2-BPSK Handovers in CONNECTED
Multi Tone: QPSK
Carrier Aggregation
Coverage 164 dB (+20dB GPRS)
Data Rate ~25 kbps in DL and ~64 kbps in UL (multi-tone UE) IMS

Latency < 10 seconds eMBMS

Low Power eDRX, Power Saving Mode

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 NPRACH Resources (48 sc)

NB-IoT: Coverage Levels

• Up to 3 different Coverage Levels signaled NORMAL ROBUST EXTENDED

via SIB2-NB
• (Normal, Robust, Extreme)

Power Level Received

• (CE Level : 0 ,1, 2)
• ( MCL : 144 db ,154 db , 164 db)

• The coverage level selected determines the

NPRACH resources to use:
• Subset of subcarriers, PRACH NRSRP Thres 1

Repetitions, Max number of attempts,

etc… NRSRP Thres 2

• UE derives the Coverage Level based on

NRSRP measured
o NPRACH resources to be used are
Path Loss
determined by the Coverage Level

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NB-IoT: Random Access Procedure
Preamble repetition :
Preamble symbol group
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, or 128 times
CP

Tcp TSEQ 1st Higher Layer Protocol Interaction

Pseudo Random Hopping

Random Access Preamble

Random Access Response

Scheduled Transmission
(msg3)

Contention Resolution
NB-IoT
NB-IoT Device eNodeB

1st Repetition 2nd Repetition 3rd Repetition

Preambles can be repeated up to 128 times

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NB-IoT: Repetitions
GPRS
– Technique consisting on repeating the same transmission several times:
• Achieve extra coverage (up to 20 dB compared to GPRS) Extended
Coverage
• Each Repetition is self-decodable
• Scrambling code is changed for each transmission to help combination
• Repetitions are ACK-ed just once
– For NB-IoT all channels can use Repetitions to extend coverage

Repetitions = 2 Repetitions = 4 NPUSCH

Format 2

DCI Ack

NPDCCH NPDSCH
Time: in Sub-frames (1ms)

Example: Repetitions used in NB-IoT in NPDCCH and NPDSCH channels

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NB-IoT: Uplink Frame Structure
subcarrier spacing

∆f = 15 kHz ∆f = 3.75 kHz

Uplink Frame Structure
• Single-Tone (MANDATORY):
 To provide capacity in signal-strength-limited
scenarios and more dense capacity
Total available Total available
o Number of subcarriers: 1 12 subcarriers 48 subcarriers
o Subcarrier spacing: 15 kHz or 3.75 kHz (via Random
Access) 1 slot = 0.5 ms 1 slot = 2 ms
o Slot duration: 0.5 ms (15 kHz) or 2 ms (3.75 kHz)

• Multi-Tone (OPTIONAL capability):

7 OFDM symbols
Guard period
 To provide higher data rates for devices in normal
7 OFDM symbols
2304Ts
(75us)
coverage
o Number of subcarriers: 3, 6 or 12 signalled via DCI
160 Ts
o Subcarrier spacing: 15 kHz or
144 Ts
2048 Ts 256 Ts 8192 Ts

o Slot duration = 0.5 m

1 OFDM Symb = 2208 Ts for symb#0 (71.88us)
1 OFDM Symb = 8448 Ts (275us)
1 OFDM Symb = 2192 Ts for symb#1..6 (71.35us)

Same as LTE Can co-exist with LTE

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NB-IoT Uplink Resource Unit Summary

Physical 𝚫f Resource Unit Mod 𝑵𝐔𝐋

𝐬𝐲𝐦𝐛
Channel Scheme
𝑵𝐑𝐔
𝐬𝐜 𝑵𝐔𝐋
𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐭𝒔 Slot RU
length length

3.75kHz 1 16 2ms 32ms 𝜋

BPSK,
2
𝜋
QPSK
1 16 8ms 4
NPUSCH
format 1
3 8 4ms
(UL-
15kHz 0.5ms
SCH)
6 4 2ms QPSK 7

12 2 1ms

NPUSCH 3.75kHz 1 4 2ms 8ms

𝜋
format 2 BPSK
2
(UCI) 15kHz 1 4 0.5ms 2ms

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NB-IoT Uplink Resource Unit (RU)

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NB-IoT: Downlink Frame Structure 1 LTE PRB

Downlink Frame Structure

• Same numerology as LTE (co-existence with LTE) 12 subcarriers
(180KHz)
• Bandwitdh: 180 kHz = 12 subcarriers separated 15 kHz
o Equivalent to 1 LTE PRB
• Durations:
o 1 Frame = 10 subframes (1024 SFN)
o 1 subframe = 2 slots (1ms) 1 Radio Frame = 10ms
o 1 slot = 0.5ms (7 OFDM symbols)
o 1 Hyperframe = 1024 x 1024 radio frames (~ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
3hours) subframes

New Downlink signals

slot 0 slot 1
• NPSS/NSSS (primary and secondary synchronization channels)
12

• NRS (cell reference signals)

subcarriers
New Downlink channels
• NPBCH (physical broadcast channel)
• NPDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) 0 0.5 1

• NPDCCH (physical downlink control channel) time (ms)

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 NB-IoT: Downlink Frame Structure
LTE NB-IoT
Channels are time and frequency multiplexed; Each physical channel occupies the whole PRB;
Multiple channels per subframe Only one channel per subframe
(frequency)

1 PRB
PRB

Subframes
(time)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Subframes
(time)
PSS PBCH CRS PCFICH
SSS PDCCH PDSCH PHICH

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NB-IoT: NPDCCH
NPDCCH (Narrowband physical downlink control channel) R=1 R=2 R=3 R=4

• It carries Downlink Control Information (DCI). Three DCI types defined:

o N0: Used to schedule Uplink transmissions
subframe# 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
o N1: Used to schedule Downlink transmissions
Example where same NPDCCH is Repeated 4 times
o N2: Used to schedule Paging or Direct Indication
• It fully occupies one downlink subframe (Repetitions may be used to
lNPDCCHStart
improve coverage)
• Resource elements are mapped around NRS R0 R1 R0 R1
NCCE1
R0 R1 R0 R1
NCCE1

subcarriers
R1 R0 R1 R0
o In the case of in-band also around LTE CRS and starting
R1 R0 R1 R0
lNPDCCHStartat l symbol
R0 R1 R0 R1 R0 R1 R0 R1
NCCE0 NCCE0
to skip LTE PDCCH (as signaled by higher layers )
R1 R0 R1 R0 R1 R0 R1 R0

• Two Control Channel Elements (NCCE) in every NPDCCH Two Antenna ports Two Antenna ports
Standalone In-Band
• Aggregation Level 1 uses only one NCCE
• Aggregation Level 2 uses both NCCE for more robust transmissions

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NB-IoT: NPDSCH
NPDSCH (Narrowband physical downlink shared channel)
• It carries user data and broadcast information not transmitted on
TS 36.213 Table 16.4.1.3-1
TS 36.213 Table 16.4.1.5.1-1
Number of subframes for NPDSCH
NPBCH (i.e. SIBs-NB, paging or dedicated RRC). NPDSCH Transport Block Size Table

• For the case of user data:

o QPSK only
o Single HARQ process
o TBS ≤ 680 bits
o A single TBS can be mapped to multiple consecutive downlink
subframes (NSF) signaled in DCI N1:
 For example, TBS = 680 requires at least 3 subframes
o Up to 2048 Repetitions used to reach larger coverage
n+5
o Downlink scheduling signalled via DCI Format N1: NSF = 3
 Modulation and coding scheme
 Scheduling delay 1 2 3 4 NPDSCH

 DCI Repetition number

subframe# 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
 NPDSCH Repetition
 Resource Assignment
 HARQ-ACK Resource Index

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Page 39
Names

– eMTC
– Cat M
– Cat M1
– LTE-BL/CE (Bandwdth reduced Low complexity / Coverage Enhancement ) (36.300)

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CAT M Traits (1/3)

– LTE-M1 operate only in 1.4 Mhz (6 RB) bandwidth.

– LTE-M1 operate in Half Duplex mode
– LTE-M1 use the limited (reduced) max transmission power.
– LTE-M1 would mainly operate with legacy LTE using wider system bandwidth (e.g, 10 Mhz, 20Mhz system bandwidth).
– LTE-M1 divide the legacy LTE system bandwidth into multiple sections of 1.4 Mhz and use any one of those
sections (theoretically, LTE-M1 can use different 1.4Mhz section within the system bandwidth at every subframe)
– LTE-M1 does not use PCFICH, PHICH, PDCCH which is required to be spreaded across the whole system bandwidth of
legacy LTE.

Page 41
CAT M Traits (2/3)

– LTE-M1 use specially designed control channel called MPDCCH.

– In LTE-M1, MPDCCH and the corresponding PDSCH (i.e, the PDSCH scheduled by the MPDCCH) is not in the same
subframe. This is called 'Cross-subframe scheduling'.
– LTE-M1 use specially designed DCI formats (6-0A,6-0B,6-1A,6-1B,6-2)
– LTE-M1 can transmit PBCH, PRACH, M-PDCCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PUSCH in repeating fashion. (This is to make
these channels decodable even when the signal quality/power is very poor as in the harsh condition like basement. As
a result, this kind of repeating transmission would make the effect of increasing cell radius and signal penetration)

Page 42
CAT M Traits (3/3)

– LTE-M1 support only the limited number of transmission mode : TM 1,2,6,9 which can operate in single layer.
– LTE-M1 utilize a new physical channel format that transmit SIB/RAR/Paging in repetitive mode without using control channel
– All the resource allocation information (subframe, TBS, Subband Index) for SIB1 decoding is determined by a MIB parameter
(No Control Channel is used for this)
– All the resource allocation information (subframe, TBS, Subband Index) for SIB2 decoding is determined by several SIB1
parameters (No Control Channel is used for this)
– LTE-M1 support the extended Paging (DRX) Cycle

Page 43
What’s common between LTE and LTE-M

– PSS (Primary Synchronization Signal) is common to both legacy LTE and LTE M1
– SSS (Secondary Synchronization Signal) is common to both legacy LTE and LTE M1
– CRS (Cell Specific Reference Signal) is common to both legacy LTE and LTE M1

Page 44
CAT M: CE mode and CE level

• Difference :
• Each of the level differs mostly in RACH and Paging process
• RACH
RRC configuration
Connection Setupand resources (e.g, frequency, time, preamble) associated
with each of the RACH configuration
• Frequency resources used for RACH transmission
• Repetition Number for RACH Preamble

• Who decide the mode? Who decide the level?

• Operation mode is determined by eNB (informed to UE via RRC message)
• the Level within each Mode is determined by UE. (based on the reference signal
power (RSRP) it measure and inform it to eNB by PRACH resource (frequency,
time, preamble) it uses.)

Page 45
3gpp R1-156979

Page 46
SIB1 Repetition

Page 47
•When PDSCH is scheduled by DCI format 6-1A
• the number of MCS field is 4, it means
the maximum MCS is 15
•When PDSCH is scheduled by DCI format 6-2
• the number of MCS field is 3, it means
the maximum MCS is 7
•When PDSCH is scheduled by DCI format 6-1B
• the number of MCS field is 4 and I_MCS
= I_TBS

Page 48
Uplink TBS Determination

CEModeB UE is not expected to

receive a DCI format 6-0B indicating
I_MCS >= 10.

CEModeA

Page 49
Which application need NBIOT / CAT M?

LTE Cat-NB1 LTE Cat-M1

50
Mobility Support in CE mode A Not support
Latency Better Worse
VoLTE Support No support

Page 51
Keysight NBIOT/CAT M solution
NB-IoT Product Development workflow
Anite A9000 protocol development,
conformance and operator Anite Propsim
acceptance channel emulator

R&D Verification Acceptance

Pre-cert Certification
Protocol T4000S RF & RRM
Protocol
System Vue L2/L3 Conformance and Regulatory
Verify OTA test
Develop System
Operator acceptance
System &
Design L1/PHY perf- Lab IOT
Integrate
Simulate Develop ormance
verify
Field trials

RF GCF/PTCRB
RF
Design
Develop
Verify CTIA/CE/FCC regs

 Leading in GCF RF-NB-IoT validations

 First to validate RF NB-IoT and CAT-M
UXM integrated Battery drain test cases together
VSA/VSG test set analyser

Keysight covering the whole RF NB-IoT development cycle

Page 53
Thank you

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