2G/3G will be phased out soon, and NB-IoT will start to take over

With the upcoming decommissioning of 2G/3G networks, NB-IoT is beginning to take over and continue to expand its territory.

It is reported that smart gas meters, smart water meters, smart electric vehicles, and smart fire protection have become the main application scenarios of NB-IoT, and the number of connected devices in the four industries has exceeded 10 million. With the official commercial use of the R14 version and the selection of 5G for new infrastructure, what can NB-IoT do? What are the application scenarios and trends?

2G/3G networks are being phased out, and NB-IoT is taking over

In October 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that the conditions for the withdrawal of 2G and 3G networks have gradually matured, and encouraged operators to actively guide users to migrate and switch networks, and use limited frequency and network resources in the development of 4G and 5G mobile communication networks to reduce overall costs.

Overseas, 2G and 3G network withdrawal plans have been launched since around 2016. Operators including AT&T in the United States and Telstra in Australia have all withdrawn 2G networks by the end of 2016.

Yang Guoxing, director of product management department of Shanghai HiSilicon Smart IoT Product Line, pointed out at the "5G NB-IoT "Billion" Journey Online Industry Summit" on April 15:

China Mobile's TDS-CDMA and China Telecom's CDMA 3G networks are basically shut down one after another. We expect that the withdrawal of 2G networks will also become a reality in the next 1 to 2 years. In the future, NB-IoT, 4G and 5G will coexist for a long time.

However, 2G and 3G networks carry most of the medium and low-speed application scenarios, including voice wearables, POS checkout systems, tracking and positioning, and industrial Internet. New bearer networks will be needed. Low-power, low-speed NB-IoT is obviously a good choice for these application scenarios.

According to Yang Tao, Vice President of Huawei's China Carrier Business Unit:

• Previously, smart gas meters, smart water meters, smart electric vehicles, and smart fire protection have become the four application scenarios where the number of NB-IoT device connections has exceeded 10 million. Among smart gas meters, NB-IoT meters account for 80%, and among smart water meters, NB-IoT meters account for 60%, and the industry's production and sales rate has therefore increased by 5-10 percentage points;

Today, smart homes, smart factories, consumer electronics, and logistics tracking have also become emerging business scenarios enabled by NB-IoT.

Regarding the smart home scenario, Yang Tao specifically mentioned, "For example, for white appliances such as air conditioners, the WiFi installation rate has exceeded 45% in the past, but the online rate is very low, as low as 10%. The main reason is that for many families, once the connection is interrupted, it is complicated to restore the connection, and the customer experience is poor. When using the NB-IoT network, it is equivalent to the operator providing cloud repair and cloud maintenance, which greatly reduces the threshold for ordinary people to use and greatly improves the online rate. Today, we are also seeking greater development of NB-IoT in the home market."

Despite this, NB-IoT is still in the early stages of exploration and trial in its application in smart home scenarios.

Yang Tao believes that IoT connections can be divided into three categories based on bandwidth requirements: 70% are connections with low data volume requirements, 20% are connections with medium data volume requirements, and 10% are connections with high data volume requirements. NB-IoT is suitable for the first two types of connection applications.

This classification is also the pyramid structure of 1:2:7 of China's operator IoT connections. Li Kai, chief product officer of China Unicom IoT, pointed out that "by 2022, domestic operators' IoT connections will account for about 25% of global business, and the overall business will present a pyramid structure of 1:2:7. The largest number of connections is at the bottom, including public utilities such as smart meter reading, smart street lights, smart parking, smart animal husbandry, and smart home appliances (accounting for 70%, with about 2.8 billion connections), which mainly rely on narrowband IoT including NB-IoT."

For this reason, Huawei and the 5G Internet of Things Alliance released 100 application scenarios, including shared economy emergency management, smart cities and other fields, in order to create new infrastructure in the NB-IoT field.

Testing and application of R14 version: speed increased by 5-7 times, capacity increased by 2-8 times

According to Leiphone.com, NB-IoT has been developed for nearly five years. NB-IoT was first proposed in 2015. In June, 3GPP officially launched the NB-IoT standard project.

At present, the commercial NB-IoT solutions on the market are still mainly based on the initially developed R13 version. However, this year, more and more chip modules supporting the R14 version of NB2 will be launched.

According to Chen Jianhua from Tianyi IoT Solutions Department, "NB-IoT based on R14 version has achieved certain improvements in uplink and downlink rates, carrier capacity, mobility performance, network coverage, concurrent access and device positioning service capabilities. Among them, the rate has increased by 5-7 times. The uplink rate of R14 version NB-IoT has reached 150kbps and the downlink rate has reached 100kbps; the carrier capacity has expanded by 2-8 times and supports multi-carriers; the mobility supports a mobile speed of 80km/h."

Cao Ming, vice president of Huawei's wireless product line, pointed out that "in early April this year, Tianyi Telecom (Terminal) Company announced the results of the tender for 3 million modules, requiring the modules to support R14. The quotations of most manufacturers were lower than or on par with 2G modules, which shows that NB-IoT modules have begun to have absolute advantages over 2G networks in terms of performance and price."

Thanks to the enhanced performance of NB-IoT R14, new IoT application scenarios, including shared bicycles, elderly care, and child tracking, are increasingly being carried by NB-IoT. Yang Guoxing also pointed out, "Through network upgrades and improved terminal capabilities, NB-IoT has the ability to replace all 2G non-voice IoT services, including new IoT applications with mobility and positioning requirements, which will increasingly be carried by NB-IoT."

It is reported that as early as November 2019, Tianyi IoT had already carried out NB R14 version application scenario testing in cooperation with Nanjing Telecom, Huawei, Zhengzhou Vcom, Zhejiang Lierda, and Boshijie.

According to Chen Jianhua, "We have completed or are completing the business testing of NB R14 in 5 provinces and 18 cities. The entire group and pilot provinces have also organized special teams to conduct testing. Now many customers have successfully tested in our pilot cities and are also considering transformation and upgrading of terminals."

Build networks on demand: Operators' NB-IoT plans for 2020

At the "5G NB-IoT "Billion" Journey Online Industry Summit", in addition to China Telecom (Tianyi IoT) announcing its 2020 deployment plan for NB-IoT, China Mobile and China Unicom also announced their 2020 planning and deployment for NB-IoT. The latter two specifically mentioned one point, that is, building networks on demand.

Regarding the similarities between the 5G network currently under construction and the NB-IoT network, Xiao Qing, general manager of China Mobile IoT Integrated Circuit Innovation Center, pointed out three points:

First, we build networks and develop services at the same time, and the network covers on demand. In the process of developing NB-IoT services, we found that the coverage of NB-IoT is not as good as the traditional 2G and 4G network coverage. We cover and build on demand. In the future, 5G will not be able to achieve full coverage of the whole city. Like the current 2G and 4G networks, they will develop services only after good coverage. The network also needs to be built on demand.

Second, the main application scenarios of 5G and NB-IoT in the future will be for corporate users and smart cities, which is different from the original individual-oriented business.

Third, the application value of NB-IoT and 5G services lies in services and solutions, as well as further mining and analysis of data, which is very different from the original business model that was mainly based on connectivity.

It is reported that China Mobile's NB-IoT network currently covers 346 cities, achieving full coverage of main roads above townships, and the base stations have completed the 900M frequency band FDD transformation, which can be opened by software and has the ability to be deployed quickly. As of the end of February 2020, the number of related users has exceeded 43 million.

Regarding the development of NB-IoT business in 2020, Xiao Qing pointed out that it will mainly focus on four aspects: network guarantee, ecological construction, technology research and development, and support capabilities. Specifically:

• Network security: Strengthen NB network coverage, integrate indoor deep coverage solutions, and improve cross-provincial security efficiency.
• Ecosystem construction. Expand technical verification and launch the NB R14 version; deepen the industry market, focusing on water and fuel meters, fire protection, sharing, electric vehicle monitoring, finance, home, tracking and positioning.
• Technology research and development. Increase module research and development to further reduce terminal prices; set up a low-power laboratory to share high-quality solutions.
• Support capabilities: Integrate cloud-pipe-end integrated solution capabilities, upgrade NB coverage maps, and implement NB positioning capabilities.

Li Kai of China Unicom IoT also said that NB-IoT does need to build networks on demand.

At the same time, Li Kai also pointed out:

• Today, we have reached a consensus that, for NB-IoT, it is very difficult for operators to make money only by connecting. We must build an ecosystem through NB. We have made new changes to the business model, empowering more value and making money from other parts of the value of the Internet of Things. Through the three things of platform, ecology and network, we empower various traditional industries in the Internet of Things and carry out digital upgrades in the industry.

Huawei's NB-IoT chip supporting R14 will be commercially available in Q4

"Currently, all commercial NB-IoT connections are based on the capabilities of 3GPP R13, which mainly utilizes the technical advantages of NB-IoT in low power consumption and wide and deep coverage, and is applied to fields such as water meters and gas meters," Yang Guoxing pointed out. "NB-IoT needs to further expand its application scope to fields such as smart wearables, smart door locks, POS machines, shared bicycles, etc., which have higher requirements for security, mobility, and latency. The performance of chip modules needs to be further improved."

It is reported that Huawei Boudica 200 further integrates security, positioning subsystem, near-end communication, and low-power Bluetooth functions on a SoC. According to Yang Guoxing:

• In terms of low power consumption, Boudica 200 reduces power consumption by 50% in sleep and receiving states compared to current products.
• In terms of integration, the number of BoMs is reduced by 50%, integrating MCU, BB, RF, Flash, RAM, and PA;
• The integrated low-power Bluetooth 5.0 capability makes proximal maintenance and testing functions more convenient.

In addition, it is said that the chip also has an independent security subsystem, supports integrated SIM functions, integrates BLE 5.0 and GNSS, and can support 3GPP R15 and can be upgraded to support 3GPP R16.

According to Yang Guoxing, Boudica 200 began to support customer Design in June this year and will be able to be shipped commercially in Q4 2020.

NB-IoT development status: infrastructure still needs to be improved

As of the end of last year, more than 700,000 NB-IoT base stations had been built in China, and the number of mobile IoT device connections nationwide exceeded 1 billion, of which more than 100 million were NB-IoT devices.

At the same time, Liu Yulin, deputy director of the Information Development and Communications Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also pointed out at the meeting:

First, NB-IoT applications need to be further popularized. At present, most of China's NB-IoT connections are concentrated in a few cities, and most cities are still lacking, and a large number of base stations are still in a light-load or no-load state;

Second, the proportion of advanced mobile communication technologies used in IoT connections needs to be further improved. Compared with NB-IoT, 4G, and 5G advanced technologies, 2G and 3G technologies generally have lower utilization rates. Among the existing IoT connections, 2G/3G still accounts for a large share, and accounts for nearly 20% of new IoT connections;

Third, NB-IoT network coverage needs to be further improved. In some areas, NB-IoT network construction cannot meet the requirements of 2G/3G network migration.

It can be seen that although NB-IoT faces a wider range of application scenarios, in order to continue to expand rapidly in the next few years, it still needs operators' base station coverage, integrators' product solutions, equipment manufacturers' application exploration, and a more complete Internet of Things ecosystem.

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