LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, which includes a steady stream of new 3GPP standards designed to meet the unique requirements of IoT applications. How can device OEMs, systems integrators, and enterprise users decide which one is the best fit for their particular use case?

Start by considering your application’s top requirements for speed, device cost, power, coverage, and longevity. For example, many IoT applications are low bandwidth and require affordability, long battery life, and the ability to remain in service for five years or longer. Those are a good match for low-power wide-area (LPWA) technologies known as LTE Cat M1 and LTE Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT).

NB-IoT: Broad Applicability and

Availability

As its name implies, NB-IoT uses a narrow slice of spectrum, which helps reduce device costs, making it a good fit for price-sensitive applications such as asset trackers, pet trackers, utility meters, and agricultural sensors. NB-IoT debuted as part of 3GPP Release 13 and initially supported maximum downlink speeds of 21 kbps and 62.5 kbps uplink. Release 14 increased those speeds to 120 kbps and 160 kbps, respectively.

Those relatively low speeds are one of the ways that NB-IoT maximizes battery life. Applications such as tracking and sensing aren’t continually uploading large amounts of data. Instead, their devices can transmit a few kilobytes and then put themselves in low-power mode for a few minutes or a few hours. Module vendors say that up to 10 years of battery life is possible when a device is designed to take full advantage of NB-IoT’s power-saving features, which include extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX), Power Saving Mode (PSM), and RRC Inactive (RAI).

Mobile operators can easily support NB-IoT with their existing infrastructure, which is why NB-IoT service is widely available in North America and the rest of the world. This is important for devices that will travel around a country, continent, or the planet — such as shipping container trackers — because roaming is available. It’s also valuable for developing applications that can be sold in multiple countries and continents.

Cat M1

Cat M1 is a good fit for IoT applications that require more bandwidth (up to 1 Mbps), lower latency, and other capabilities that NB-IoT doesn’t support, such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE). It also supports eDRX and PSM but prioritizes speed over battery life compared to NB-IoT.

If an application’s devices move frequently, Cat M1 is a better option because it’s designed to accommodate more mobility than NB-IoT.