Huawei recently launched what it claims as the world's first 3GPP R14-based commercial NB-IoT solution in its eRAN13.1 RAN software release.
This latest NB-IoT solution can be used as a replacement for GPRS-based IoT connectivity with improvements in data rates, cell capacity, cell coverage, and location services.
According to Huawei, operators are in urgent need of a new IoT technology that can support high-data-rate communications to accelerate GSM spectrum refarming.
The first-generation NB-IoT solution in compliance with 3GPP R13 cannot meet the high requirements of a number of IoT applications in fast-growing IoT markets, claims Huawei.
Huawei said the new commercial NB-IoT solution has the following highlights:
- x7 data rates: The uplink peak rate and downlink single-user peak rate can reach 157 kbit/s and 102 kbit/s, respectively. The single-user data rates enable NB-IoT applications to serve as the perfect replacement for the GPRS-based examples.
- x2 cell capacity: The maximum number of users in a single cell can reach over 80,000, almost doubling the cell capacity of the previous release. This will effectively help towards providing large capacity to promote the realization of a fully connected world.
- x2 cell coverage: Huawei proprietary uplink channel estimation enhancement technologies improve the deep coverage capability of cells and reduce network construction costs.
- GPS-free location services: NB-IoT terminals can deliver a positioning accuracy of 50 meters without the integration of GPS modules. Such terminals boast a power consumption and positioning delay that is only half of that provided by a GPS-based solution. GPS-free location services are ideally suited for applications such as asset tracking, logistics, and pet tracking.
Chen Chuanfei, VP of Huawei LTE Product Line
The newly released 3GPP R14-based commercial NB-IoT solution can improve the performance of NB-IoT networks in data rates, cell capacity and cell coverage, expand the potential scope of application for NB-IoT through location services.