Ericsson is launching new software for Massive IoT on existing LTE network and this new software addresses the massive number of IoT devices and diversity of their connectivity requirements. The software includes key features enabling cellular networks to support applications such as Smart Cities, Smart Metering, Smart Agriculture.
Welcome to this presentation where it’s my pleasure to go through with you today our latest development of Cellular IoT.
At Ericsson we believe that the Internet of Things is the crucial enabler for releasing a wide range of benefits for society – it‘s in fact a key element for bringing about that Networked Society. That’s why we are continuing to talk about it.
Before getting it started, let’s have a look at the outlook of emerging Internet of Things.
We can see that the Internet of Things is going to have a big impact in the future - but what is it going to mean in practice?
Well, by 2021 we expect that there will be altogether around 28 billion connected devices – of which15 Billions are IoT connected device including M2M devices as smart meters, road sensors, point of sales terminals etc and Consumer Electronics like TV’s, DVRs, wearables, etc.
The number of connected IoT devices is increasing, driven by a growing range of applications and business models, and supported by falling modem costs.
The Massive IoT market segment is emerging with characteristics of small data volumes, roll-out in massive numbers with low complexity low cost devices and quite possibly embedded with no access to on-grid power.
The Massive IoT use-case category includes monitoring, tracking and automation via a large number of sensors, meters and actuators, used widely in utilities, industry and manufacturing, smart buildings, agriculture and environment management, transport and logistics, and smart cities, as well as enabling the development of new kinds of wearable devices. The potential applications for IoT run into the millions, with huge variance in requirements around cost, battery life, coverage, connectivity performance (throughput and capacity), security and reliability, etc.
If operators or services providers handle a number of applications, it may be of great benefit to be able to harmonize communication modules so that they all use the same underlying radio solution to reduce operational effort and complexity.
Cellular is the foundation for Massive IoT
Cellular has a fairly unique combination of characteristics that makes it an better choice for IoT. When comparing inherent capabilities of Cellular IoT with other LPWA technologies like SigFox and LoRa, Cellular IoT offers better performance in terms of unmatched global coverage, Quality of Service, scalability and flexibility of handling a comprehensive range of use given some of the solution like SigFox provides only 100 bps while LTE-M supports up to 1 Mbps. Cellular IoT has also quite an extensive ecosystem based on standardization, supported by many global top operators, device maker, chipset and module vendor and network vendors. Most importantly unlicensed solutions can’t guarantee reliability and security.
Cellular IoT has also the advantage of total cost of ownership thanks to an easy software upgrade on existing networks, and full multiplex and reuse of existing network resource, will help to reduce operational costs in area like service provisioning, monitoring and billing.
No single technology/solution is ideally suited for all the different potential Massive IoT applications, market situations and spectrum availability. 3GPP standardization based LTE-M, NB-IoT, and EC-GSM, are superior solutions to meet the Massive IoT requirements as a family of solutions, and complementary to each other for choice of market based on technology availability, use case requirements and deployment scenarios. EC-GSM serves IoT services for all GSM markets, LTE-M supports a wider range of IoT applications including the content rick ones and NB-IoT covers ultra-low bitrate IoT applications with cost and coverage advantage over LTE-M.
Ericsson did launch EC-GSM offering on 1st September, with commercial availability in Q2, 2016 as part of Network SW 16B. We are now launching LTE-M and NB-IoT offerings, as part of Network SW 17A.
So we are launching today Networks SW 17A with a new suite of software capabilities on existing LTE networks to meet the new challenges of Massive IoT in terms of scalability, diversity as well as cost, battery life and coverage requirements.
This new 17A release, will be available in quarter four of 2016. The release enables a new ultra low-complexity device category named NB-IoT support for a reduction up to 90% of module costs, over 10 years for device battery life-times and up to seven times improved coverage. It also supports massive number of connection, with millions connections per cell site.
Let’s have a look at all of these new features in more details.
As we all know that 5G networks will support a diverse set of virtual network slices with different characteristics and IoT will be a big part of 5G. Operators need to establish their role in IoT using today’s networks to secure that they can leverage the full potential of IoT when 5G arrives.
Today the development of LTE is being pushed in different directions for different applications and business models. There are higher device categories being introduced, which offer better performance in terms of throughput and app coverage. These meet the increasing traffic demands from mobile broadband particularly as video consumption rises or Critical IoT application needs which requires high throughput and low latency.
At the same time there are also lower device categories for Massive IoT applications which trade performance for design simplicity to extend coverage, reduce device cost and extend battery life. That’s what you can see here on the lower line including what we are launching today, i.e NB-IoT. The launch of NB-IoT and LTE related features, along with the previous EC-GSM launch, are the first steps on the road to 5G for Massive IoT.
Ericsson is leading in cellular IoT from 3 domains: Industry, Ecosystem and Customer.
On industry part, Ericsson is a major contributor to NB-IoT standardization work in 3GPP. NB-IoT inherits most components from NB-LTE – most importantly it’s flexible deployment options (stand-alone, guard-band, and in-band) allowing tight interworking with deployed LTE carriers. Following the September RAN Plenary, a number of outstanding options for the Physical layer remained, raising concerns that the industry would not be able to unite behind a single standard going forward. Those concerns where put to an end in the November RAN WG1 meeting, where the complete 3GPP eco system united behind a single track going forward – the physical layer design was inherited from NB-LTE, while allowing flexible bandwidth allocations for single-tone transmissions (inherited from NB-CIoT).
On ecosystem part, Ericsson is working proactively with ecosystem partners such as Intel, Altair, Sequans and Sony, achieved a number world’s first technologies demos and lab testing.
On customer side, we have been working with big operators like Verizon, Orange, SKT and AT&T on different feature trials on LTE-M, EC-GSM, LTE PSM, etc.
Ericsson is the first vendor to launch EC-GSM offering, and now being the first to launch LTE-M and NB-IoT.
Ericsson is an E2E IoT transformation partner for both telecom operators and industries.
We have broad range of offerings that we bring together to help operators and other players create the best solutions for the Internet of Things. As well as connectivity, we provide the IoT platforms, Data Analytics, Security, Customization that in combination have already delivered a wide range of innovative IoT services. We are working today with operators and other players in various industries.
We have a vision of the Networked Society but it is not just about technology. To make the vision a reality it is important to create the ecosystem. That’s why we work with device vendors, application innovators, network operators, infrastructure vendors, cloud service providers and others to be a catalyst for accelerating IoT in cellular.
Our Ericsson approach is to make sure that all the necessary parts exist for the stakeholders and user to benefit from the Internet of Things.
We have proven track records and leadership in all these areas, and hence are very well positioned to help operators as well as industries as they transform to an IoT world.
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Additional notes:
- Connectivity: Understanding the requirements of the various network technology options that best meet their needs
- Platforms: Having the right management and enabling platforms – connectivity, service enablement, billing & monetization platforms – that will create true value
- Data: Identifying the relevant data and applying appropriate analytics to make IoT meaningful to their business, and importantly having the right tools to create cross-industry innovations
- Customization: Having the services needed to tie all the components to meet their unique circumstances, from design to integration and app development to go-to-market strategies
- Security: Having security at the heart of every component from network and device to platforms and services, realizing that every IoT device could make the business network vulnerable
- Ecosystem: Having access to a robust set of partners that can form an ecosystem around a business idea, and brining proven, integrated solutions and established business relationships
The conclusion we draw is that leveraging the business potential of IoT is a strategically important area for operators. Enabling that and making that happen is important to us. That’s why we are launching new solutions with range of new features today - which will support massive device connections and use case diversity, and bring down the costs, increase the range & coverage and extend the battery life for IoT devices. The most importance is that new features and solutions are just a software upgrade on the existing LTE network.
Ericsson is continue to accelerate the use of cellular networks for IoT and help make the Internet of things reality. Within one network, multiple industries with multiple use cases will be supported!