research-article

NB-IoT Coverage and Sensor Node Connectivity in Dense Urban Environments: An Empirical Study

Authors:

Cheuk-Wang Yau,

Sukanya Jewsakul,

Angela P. Y. Lee,

Edith C. H. Ngai,

Philip W. T. Pong,

Jiangchuan LiuAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks (TOSN), Volume 18, Issue 3

Article No.: 49, Pages 1 - 36

https://doi.org/10.1145/3536424

Published: 15 September 2022 Publication History

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks have enabled smart infrastructures and novel applications. With the recent roll-out of Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) cellular radio technology, wireless sensors can be widely deployed for data collection in cities around the world. However, empirical evidence regarding the coverage and connectivity of NB-IoT in dense urban areas is limited. This article presents an empirical study that focuses on evaluating the coverage and connectivity of NB-IoT in a dense urban environment. We have designed an NB-IoT sensor node and deployed over 100 of them in high-rise apartment buildings in Hong Kong. These sensor nodes utilize a commercial NB-IoT network to collect high-resolution water flow data for machine learning model training and provide timely feedback to users. We collect and analyze the empirical NB-IoT signal measurements from the sensor nodes deployed in various challenging outdoor and indoor environments for over three months. These empirical measurements reveal correlations between NB-IoT connectivity and sensor installation environments. We also observe that inter-cell interference, as a result of coverage by multiple neighboring NB-IoT cells in a dense urban environment, is a source of connectivity degradation. We discuss potential issues that IoT application designers and system integrators might encounter in practical NB-IoT devices deployment, and we propose a transmission decision algorithm based on signal measurements for mitigating energy wasted due to transmission failures. Finally, we demonstrate the results and the benefits of using high-resolution water flow data collected by our purpose-built NB-IoT sensor nodes for studying the patterns of domestic water consumption in Hong Kong.

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NB-IoT Coverage and Sensor Node Connectivity in Dense Urban Environments: An Empirical Study

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks

ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks Volume 18, Issue 3

August 2022

480 pages

ISSN:1550-4859

EISSN:1550-4867

DOI:10.1145/3531537

Editor:
Yunhao Liu
Tsinghua University, China

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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ACM Journals for the Design of Smart and Connected Systems

Publication History

Published: 15 September 2022

Online AM: 17 May 2022

Accepted: 03 May 2022

Revised: 08 April 2022

Received: 01 November 2021

Published in TOSN Volume 18, Issue 3

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.3103/S0146411624010097
Kousias KRajiullah MCaso GAli UAlay OBrunstrom ADe Nardis LNeri MDi Benedetto M(2024)A Large-Scale Dataset of 4G, NB-IoT, and 5G Non-Standalone Network MeasurementsIEEE Communications Magazine10.1109/MCOM.011.220070762:5(44-49)Online publication date: May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.011.2200707
Wang HWu YNi QLiu W(2024)Cross-Layer Framework for Energy Harvesting- LPWAN Resource Management Based on Fuzzy Cognitive Maps and Adaptive Glowworm Swarm Optimization for Smart ForestIEEE Sensors Journal10.1109/JSEN.2024.338275424:10(17067-17079)Online publication date: 15-May-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2024.3382754
Astudillo León JDuenas Santos CMezher ACárdenas Barrera JMeng JCastillo Guerra E(2023)Exploring the potential, limitations, and future directions of wireless technologies in smart grid networksComputer Networks: The International Journal of Computer and Telecommunications Networking10.1016/j.comnet.2023.109956235:COnline publication date: 1-Nov-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.comnet.2023.109956

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