2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)

Overview of Narrowband IoT in LTE Rel-13

Rapeepat Ratasuk, Nitin Mangalvedhe, Yanji Zhang, Michel Robert, Jussi-Pekka Koskinen
Mobile Radio Research Lab, Nokia Bell Labs
Email: {rapeepat.ratasuk, nitin.mangalvedhe, yanji.zhang, michel.robert, jussi-pekka.koskinen}@nokia.com

AbstractIn 3GPP Rel-13, a narrowband system, named x Improved power efficiency battery life of ten years with
Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), has been introduced to battery capacity of 5 Wh.
provide low-cost, low-power, wide-area cellular connectivity for
x Exception report latency of 10 seconds or less is the
the Internet of Things. This system, based on Long Term
Evolution (LTE) technology, supports most LTE functionalities
requirement for 99% of the devices.
albeit with essential simplifications to reduce device complexity. In addition to the performance objectives, a compatibility
Further optimizations to increase coverage, reduce overhead and objective also requires that NB-IoT system should avoid
reduce power consumption while increasing capacity have been negative impacts to legacy 3GPP cellular systems that are
introduced as well. The design objectives of NB-IoT include low- deployed in the same frequency band and should adhere to
complexity devices, high coverage, long device battery life, and regulatory requirements.
massive capacity. Latency is relaxed although a delay budget of NB-IoT can be deployed in three operation modes in-
10 seconds is the target for exception reports. This paper band, guard-band, and stand-alone. In in-band operation mode,
provides an overview of NB-IoT design, including salient features one or more LTE Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) are
from the physical and higher layers. Illustrative results with reserved for NB-IoT. The total eNB (i.e. base-station in 3GPP
respect to performance objectives are also provided. Finally, NB- terminology) power is shared between LTE and NB-IoT with
IoT enhancements in LTE Rel-14 are briefly outlined.
the possibility to use power spectral density (PSD) boosting for
KeywordsNarrowband IoT; NB-IoT; low power wide area NB-IoT. Sharing of PRBs between NB-IoT and LTE allows for
cellular IoT; cellular IoT design and performance. more efficient use of the spectrum. In addition, although they
are two separate systems, they can be supported using the same
I. INTRODUCTION
eNB hardware. In guard-band operation, NB-IoT will be
The deployment of Internet of Things (IoT), consisting of deployed within the guard-band of an LTE carrier. In stand-
devices of various types interconnected for communication, is alone operation, NB-IoT can be used as a replacement of one
expected to reach a massive scale in the next few years and or more GSM carriers.
wireless connectivity through wide-area networks will be an NB-IoT design is based on LTE. It therefore supports most
important component of this future. In 2015, an estimated 0.4 LTE functionalities with many simplifications and some
billion IoT devices are connected using cellular networks. This optimizations to support low-cost, low-power, and low data-
number will grow to 1.5 billion in 2021, equivalent to a yearly rate IoT services. Reusing LTE design where possible has been
growth rate of 27% [1]. Several releases of LTE have provided vital in achieving rapid specification of NB-IoT in Rel-13. Yet
progressively improved support for low-power wide-area IoT another advantage is the minimization of development effort,
connectivity [2]-[5]. In Long Term Evolution (LTE) Rel-12, which reduces time-to-market.
support for low-cost devices with material cost comparable to In this paper, we provide an overview of the physical and
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) devices was introduced higher layer design for NB-IoT. The paper describes the
[3][6]. In LTE Rel-13, two new features have been introduced techniques that have been specified and provides illustrative
to support narrowband machine type communications (MTC). performance results against the objectives. In Section II, a brief
For the first feature, called enhanced MTC (eMTC), a new UE description of NB-IoT and techniques to satisfy the objectives
category with reduced radio frequency (RF) bandwidth of 1.4 is provided. In Section III, the physical layer design is
MHz is introduced [7]. The system operates in-band as part of described. Higher layer design is discussed in Section IV.
the wideband LTE carrier. Coverage enhancement, providing Section V presents performance results. Enhancements being
improved indoor support, is also introduced in eMTC. considered for LTE Rel-14 are briefly described in Section VI.
The second feature is called narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) [9]. Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section VII.
In contrast to eMTC, NB-IoT is a new system built from
existing LTE functionalities. NB-IoT has been designed with II. NB-IOT DESIGN OVERVIEW
the following performance objectives [9] NB-IoT is a new radio access system built from existing
x Ultra-low complexity devices to support IoT applications. LTE functionalities with essential simplifications and
x Improved indoor coverage of 20 dB compared to legacy optimizations. At the physical layer, NB-IoT occupies 180 kHz
GPRS, corresponding to a Maximum Coupling Loss of spectrum, which is substantially smaller than LTE
(MCL) of 164 dB while supporting a data rate of at least bandwidths of 1.420 MHz. In the downlink, NB-IoT fully
160 bps at the application layer. inherits downlink numerology from LTE. The subcarrier
x Support of massive number of low-throughput devices spacing is 15 kHz and 12 subcarriers make up the 180 kHz
at least 52547 devices within a cell-site sector. channel. In the uplink, NB-IoT supports the same LTE
numerology, but the User Equipment (UE) may be assigned 1,

978-1-5090-3862-6/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE

 2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)

3, 6 or 12 tones. A 3.75 kHz subcarrier spacing is also TABLE I. NB-IOT CHANNELS AND SIGNALS
supported, with a NB-IoT carrier spanning over 48 subcarriers Channel Usage
and occupying 180 kHz as well. For this numerology, four
times expansion on the time domain applies to remain Narrowband Physical Downlink Uplink and downlink
Control Channel (NPDCCH) scheduling information
compatible with the LTE numerology and the UE is always
assigned a single tone. Furthermore, in Rel-13 support is Narrowband Physical Downlink Downlink dedicated and
Shared Channel (NPDSCH) common data
limited only to frequency division duplex (FDD) operation. DL
In the higher layers, simplified LTE network functions are Narrowband Physical Master information for
Broadcast Channel (NPBCH) system access
supported. They include idle mode mobility, extended
discontinuous reception, power saving mode, paging, Narrowband Synchronization Time and frequency
Signal (NPSS/NSSS) synchronization
positioning based on the existing location services architecture,
and access control. In addition, two optimizations for small Narrowband Physical Uplink
Uplink dedicated data
Shared Channel (NPUSCH)
data transmission have been specified. The first one is the UL
Narrowband Physical Random
ability to transmit small amount of data in the control plane via Random access
Access Channel (NPRACH)
Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB). The second one is the ability to
suspend and resume Radio Resource Control (RRC) A. NPSS/NSSS
connection, thus eliminating the need to establish new a
For the in-band mode, since a NB-IoT PRB cannot be
connection at each reporting instance.
located inside the innermost PRBs zone, there is a frequency
With respect to the performance objectives, the techniques
offset between the DC carrier and the center of the NB-IoT
that are used to satisfy each of the performance objectives are
carrier that shall be kept within the 7.5 kHz range to ensure
summarized below:
efficient cell search. Consequently, only a subset of the
Ultra-low-complexity devices: narrowband transmission, available LTE PRB locations is suitable to transmit the
having only 1 receiver chain (i.e. 1 receive antenna) at the NPSS/NSSS signals; a similar constraint applies for the guard-
device, half-duplex operation only, using Convolutional coding band mode. NPSS is transmitted every 10 ms, NSSS every 20
instead of Turbo coding on the downlink, reduced peak data ms, as illustrated in Fig. 1.
rates by limiting the maximum transport block sizes,
supporting only one Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest
(HARQ) process, relaxed processing time, and supporting only
BPSK/QPSK modulation.
Improve indoor coverage by 20 dB: repetitions, PSD
12 subcarriers

12 subcarriers
boosting, and using single-tone transmission with phase
rotation modulations to reduce peak-to-average power ratio in
the uplink.
Support of massive number of devices: single-tone/multi- Fig. 1. NPSS and NSSS transmission.
tone transmission, RRC connection suspend/resume, data
transmission via control plane, multi-carrier operation, and As for LTE, both signals are based upon Zadoff-Chu
access control to prevent system overloading. sequences, of length 11 for the NPSS and of length 131 and
scrambled with a Hadamard sequence for the NSSS. For the
Improved power efficiency: power saving mode, extended NSSS, the physical cell identification is indicated by a
discontinuous transmission/reception, using phase rotated combination of the Zadoff-Chu sequence root index and the
modulations to reduce peak to average power ratio in the Hadamard sequence index, while the 80-ms boundary is
uplink, RRC connection suspend/resume, and data indicated by a time-domain cyclic shift.
transmission via control plane.
B. NPBCH
Exception report latency of 10 seconds or less: RRC
connection suspend/resume, and data transmission via control The NPBCH transmits the Narrowband Master Information
plane. Block (MIB-NB) over a 80-ms block, repeated 8 times to cope
with extreme coverage conditions; the MIB-NB content
III. PHYSICAL LAYER DESIGN remains therefore unchanged for 640 ms. Fig. 2 illustrates
Table I lists downlink (DL) and uplink (UL) NB-IoT NPBCH transmission and shows the narrowband reference
channels and signals. These channels are based on existing signal (NRS) locations. QPSK modulation is used.
LTE channels with necessary modifications to fit into the The MIB-NB size is 50 bits, including spare bits and a 16-
narrow bandwidth used by NB-IoT. A brief summary of each bit CRC; Tail-Biting Convolutional Coding (TBCC) is used for
channel and signal is provided in this section. channel coding. As in LTE, the MIB provides the UE with
essential information such as system frame number (SFN). The
MIB-NB also provides NB-IoT specific information such as
the operation mode, and depending of the operation mode, the
 2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)

channel raster and LTE cell-specific reference signal (CRS) T = Rmax G

information, as well as System Information Block (SIB) where G {1.5, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 48, 64} determines how the
scheduling. The Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) mask search space interval is related to Rmax. The values are
indicates the number of narrowband reference signal ports. configured such that T 4 ms.
Three new DCI formats are defined: format N0 is used for
NPUSCH scheduling, format N1 is used for NPDSCH
scheduling and NPDCCH order, and format N2 is used for
paging and direct indication (where the DCI directly includes
system information update and other fields).
D. NPDSCH
12 subcarriers

The NPDSCH is scheduled by the NPDCCH but is

transmitted after a certain time delay (indicated in the
NPDCCH) to allow the low-complexity NB-IoT UE enough
Fig. 2. NPBCH transmission.
time to decode the NPDCCH: a minimum of 4 ms is
introduced between the end of the NPDCCH and the beginning
C. NPDCCH of the NPDSCH.
Similar to the LTE physical downlink control channel Unlike the NPDCCH, the NPDSCH always occupies the
(PDCCH), the NPDCCH consists of control channel elements entire downlink bandwidth of 12 subcarriers. A single
(CCEs). Within a single PRB pair, two CCEs are defined, codeword may be mapped to multiple subframes from the set
corresponding to the upper six and lower six subcarriers. Fig. 3 {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10}. The maximum transport block size
illustrates this CCE allocation. The maximum aggregation (TBS) that can be transmitted on the NPDSCH is limited to
level (AL), i.e., the number of CCEs to which the downlink 680 bits. Only QPSK modulation is supported and TBCC is
control information (DCI) is mapped, is two. Repetition of employed. Redundancy versions are not supported, while error
NPDCCH transmission is applied only for an AL of two. detection is supported through 24-bit CRC.
Two downlink transmission schemes are defined in all
operations modes: transmission with single antenna port (port
0), and transmission with two antenna ports (ports 0 and 1)
using space-frequency block coding (SFBC). The number of
repetitions of the allocated subframes for NPDSCH that can be
transmitted is selected from {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 192,
256, 384, 512, 768, 1024, 1536, 2048}. Only a single HARQ
process is supported on the downlink. The HARQ is adaptive
and asynchronous. On the downlink, the instantaneous peak
data rate is 170 kbps for in-band operation while the
corresponding sustained peak data rate is about 26.2 kbps.
Fig. 3. CCE allocation in the NPDCCH (in-band operation mode). E. NPRACH
The search space defines the subframes in which the UE The NPRACH is based on single-tone transmission with
should look for an NPDCCH transmission. In NB-IoT, frequency hopping as shown in Fig. 4 for a single user. It uses
repetition of transmissions is an important means of achieving subcarrier spacing of 3.75 kHz (i.e., symbol length of 266.7 us)
coverage enhancement. The maximum number of repetitions of and two cyclic prefix lengths are provided to support different
the NPDCCH transmission configured for the UE, Rmax, cell sizes: 66.7 Ps (10 km) and 266.7 Ps (35 km). Hopping is
depends on its coverage level and is chosen from {1, 2, 4, 8, between groups of symbols, where each group comprises five
16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048}. The UE performs blind symbols and the cyclic prefix, with pseudo-random hopping
decoding within the search space based on the monitoring sets between repetitions of groups.
that are defined (separately for the common search space and
the UE-specific search space) for the configured Rmax. The
actual number of repetitions used in the transmission is also
indicated in the DCI, which allows the UE to determine the end
of the NPDCCH transmissions when it is able to successfully
decode the NPDCCH even before the last repetition.
The starting subframe of the search space is described by
(10nf + floor(ns/2))mod T = floor(DoffsetT)
where nf is the system frame number, ns is the slot index, T is
the period at which the search space repeats, Doffset {0, 1/8,
1/4, 3/8} is an offset parameter. The period is given by
Fig. 4. NPRACH channel.
 2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)

Up to three NPRACH resource configurations can be IV. HIGHER LAYER DESIGN

configured in a cell with each configuration corresponding to a
NB-IoT functionality is specified in the LTE technical
different coverage level. A resource configuration is given by
specifications. LTE functionality and especially eMTC
periodicity, number of repetitions, starting time, frequency
optimizations are re-used for NB-IoT with simplifications and
location, and number of subcarriers. In each NPRACH
optimizations [10][11]. Only essential features for small data
occurrence, {12, 24, 36, 48} subcarriers can be supported. In
transmission are supported in Rel-13. The following features
addition, the transmission can be repeated up to {1, 2, 4, 8, 16,
are not supported [7]: Inter-RAT mobility, handover,
32, 64, 128} times to enhance coverage.
measurement reports, public warning functions, GBR, CSG,
F. NPUSCH HeNBs, relaying, carrier aggregation, dual connectivity,
NAICS, MBMS, real-time services, interference avoidance for
The NPUSCH is designed to provide extended coverage,
in-device coexistence, RAN assisted WLAN interworking,
massive capacity, and long battery life. Specifically, it supports
sidelink communication/discovery, MDT, emergency call and
the following features
CS fallback.
x Single-tone transmission with either 3.75 kHz or 15 kHz Two optimizations for small data transmission have been
subcarrier spacing. specified RRC connection suspend/resume and data
x Multi-tone transmissions (3, 6, 12 tones) using 15 kHz transmission using control plane signaling. In addition, multi-
subcarrier spacing. carrier operation is also supported. They are briefly described
x Low peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) modulation as follows.
schemes (S/2-BPSK and S/4-QPSK modulation) for
single-tone transmission to support efficient power RRC connection suspend/resume A RRC connection may be
amplifier operation. suspended at RRC connection release, and then resumed later.
x Larger transport block that can be mapped to up to 10 Resume ID is provided to the UE. Both UE and eNB store the
resource units. Access Stratum (AS) context together with Resume ID upon
x Time-domain repetition. This improves coverage for UEs connection suspension. RRC connection is established using a
in extended coverage and helps with channel estimation. RRC connection resume procedure. The UE provides the
The definition of a resource unit, defined as the smallest stored Resume ID to be used by the eNB to access the stored
amount of time frequency resource, is given in Table II. information required to resume the RRC connection. Data
radio bearer is supported (one by default and optionally up to
TABLE II. NPUSCH RESOURCE UNIT DEFINITION two). Security is continued and there is no need for the Service
Subcarrier No of No of SC-FDMA Transmission Request procedure to establish AS context if the RRC
spacing tones symbols time interval connection is suspended. A diagram to illustrate data
12 14 1 ms transmission using RRC resume operation is shown in Fig. 6.
6 28 2 ms
15 kHz UE eNB MME SGW
3 56 4 ms
1 112 8 ms Performs access barring check
Based on the information in
MIB-NB and SIB14-NB
3.75 kHz 1 112 32 ms
RA msg1
Preamble
RA msg2
An illustration of NPUSCH multiplexing for different resource RAR

units with 15 kHz subcarrier spacing is shown in Fig. 5. RA msg3

RRC Connection Resume Request
(Resume ID, Short Resume MAC-I, Resume Cause)
RRC Connection Resume
(Radio Resource Configuration,
NCC)
RRC Connection Resume
180 kHz

Complete
S1 UE Context Resume Request
S1 UE Context Resume Response
UL Data
UL Data

Modify Bearer Request

Modify Bearer Response

Fig. 5. NPUSCH multiplexing for resource units. UL/DL data packets

For the NPUSCH, one transport can be mapped to {1, 2, 3,

4, 5, 6, 8, 10} resource units in time. In addition, each Fig. 6. Data transmission using RRC resume operation.
transmission can be repeated up to {1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128}
times to improve coverage. The maximum TBS is 1000 bits. Data transmission via control plane: User plane data is
The instantaneous peak uplink data rate is 250 kbps. However, encapsulated in the Control Plane messages and is transmitted
the sustained peak data rate is only 62.5 kbps once scheduling via Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB). An uplink Non-Access
delay and other timing constraints are taken into account. Stratum (NAS) signaling message or uplink NAS message
Turbo coding is used with incremental redundancy. Only one carrying data can be transmitted in an uplink RRC container
HARQ process is supported and retransmission uses adaptive message. A downlink NAS signaling or downlink NAS data
asynchronous HARQ. can be transmitted in a downlink RRC container message. AS
 2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)

security is not utilized. There is no differentiation between the the similar functionality but different contents. Each SI
different data types (i.e. IP, non-IP or SMS) in the AS. message is transmitted periodically within an associated SI-
Table III summarizes the signaling comparison among the window, but the detailed time/frequency domain scheduling
three methods available for NB-IoT legacy service request information is provided in SIB1-NB, e.g. the SI-window length,
based on LTE, RRC connection suspend/resume, and data SI-periodicity, TBS and repetition pattern, etc.
transmission via control plane.
System Information update: In RRC_CONNECTED, NB-
TABLE III. SIGNALING COMPARISON AMONG DIFFERENT METHODS
IoT UE does not detect SI change, while in RRC_IDLE the
NB-IoT UE checks both MIB-NB Value tag and SI Value tag
Legacy Service Control Plane
RRC Connection in SIB1-NB for SI change. Besides, paging is also used for SI
Direction Request Data
Resume change notification. UE will read different indications in
Procedure Transmission
UL Preamble paging message for SI changes and acquire the updated SI
DL Random Access Response messages from different specific radio frames depending on
RRC how the Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle and the BCCH
RRC Connection RRC Connection modification period are configured.
UL Connection
Request Resume Request
Request
RRC Access control: eNB is able to control different type of access
RRC Connection RRC Connection
DL
Setup Resume
Connection classes and attempt types via system information. Access
Setup barring check is supported for the mobile originating exception
RRC
RRC Connection RRC Connection Connection
data, mobile originating data and mobile originating signaling.
UL Network sharing is also supported in the access barring check.
Setup Complete Resume Complete Setup
Complete
Security Mode
Random Access: NB-IoT supports only contention-based
DL random access, and PDCCH order in case of DL data arrival.
Command
UL
Security Mode

NB-IoT reuses the eMTC PRACH resource classification
Complete according to coverage levels. A set of PRACH resources is
DL
RRC Connection
provided for each coverage level configured by SI. The UE
Reconfiguration selects PRACH resources based on coverage level decided by a
RRC Connection UE downlink measurement, e.g., reference signal received
UL Reconfiguration
Complete
power (RSRP). UE will reattempt preamble transmission from
Total number the PRACH resource at a higher coverage level if it does not
9 5 5
of messages receive a random access response (RAR) even after the
allowed number of attempts of a certain level.
Multi-Carrier operation: Multiple carriers or PRBs can be
Due to the specific uplink transmission scheme in NB-IoT,
supported in NB-IoT to provide more capacity. However,
additional tone information is included in the RAR message
there is only anchor carrier in which UE will access the
and the formula for deriving Random Access Radio Network
network. The UE in RRC_CONNECTED state can be
Temporary Identifier (RA-RNTI) is newly defined. To support
configured with dedicated RRC signaling to move to a non-
the transmission repetitions, the corresponding parameters,
anchor carrier. A non-anchor carrier is not able to broadcast
including the RAR window size and the medium access control
NPSS/NSSS, NPBCH and SIB-NB transmissions, which are
(MAC) contention resolution timer, are extended.
always received by the UE from the anchor carrier.
eDRX: Extended DRX (eDRX) is required for NB-IoT UE to
NB-IoT also supports the following functions.
save power consumption. With eDRX, the DRX cycle is
System Information: The MIB-NB contains new parameters extended beyond 10.24 s with a maximum value of 10485.76 s
to support the special capability requirement for NB-IoT, e.g., for NB-IoT. The H-SFN increments by one when the SFN
the SIB1-NB scheduling index, the deployment configuration, wraps around. It is broadcast by the cell with 8 bits in SIB1-NB
systemInfoValueTag, SFN, hyper SFN (H-SFN) and whether and 2 bits in MIB-NB. Paging Hyperframe (PH) refers to the
access barring is enabled. H-SFN in which the UE starts monitoring paging DRX during
The narrowband SIB 1 (SIB1-NB) contains the necessary a paging timing window (PTW). It is determined based on a
information for UE to camp in the cell, such as cell access formula that is known by the Mobility Management Entity
information as well as the common radio resource (MME), UE, and eNB as a function of eDRX cycle and UE
configuration. It also provides the frequency/time domain identity. During the PTW, the UE monitors paging for the
scheduling information for other System Information (SI) duration of the PTW or until a paging message is received,
messages, and its content is kept unchanged for 40.96 s. SIB1- whichever is earlier.
NB is transmitted in a fixed schedule with a periodicity of 2560
Mobility: Network-controlled mobility including measurement
ms and transmission occurs in subframe #4 of every other
reporting and handover is not supported. The UE stays in the
frame in 16 continuous frames. The TBS and the repetitions
connected mode on the same cell until Radio Link Failure
within the 2560-ms period are indicated by the MIB-NB.
(RLF) occurs or until the eNB releases the connection. Upon
A reduced set of SIB messages are defined for NB-IoT with
RLF the UE transmitting data via control plane optimization
 2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)

goes to RRC_IDLE state and upon RLF the UE transmitting 19-site, 57-cell system setup with wrap-around. Detailed
data via user plane optimization performs RRC Connection Re- system simulation parameters are described in [9]. The traffic
establishment. Idle-mode mobility is supported. Intra- model is based on Mobile Autonomous Reporting (MAR)
frequency reselection is based on the ranking of the cells. Inter- described in [9]. In this model, devices wake up periodically
frequency reselection is based on the ranking of the to transmit a report, then go back to sleep. The inter-arrival
frequencies. Blind redirection without measurement results via time is periodic as follows: 1 day (40%), 2 hours (40%), 1
RRC Connection Release is supported for load balancing. hour (15%), and 30 minutes (5%). The mean inter-arrival time
is 10.6 hrs. The application payload size follows a Pareto
Paging: eMTC paging solution is reused for NB-IoT, i.e.
distribution with shape parameter D=2.5, minimum packet size
repetitions are applied for paging transmission (NPDCCH and
of 20 bytes and maximum packet size of 200 bytes. The mean
NPDSCH). The NPDCCH repetitions start from the Paging
packet size is 32.6 bytes. In addition, a total protocol overhead
Occasion (PO), which is determined by the legacy LTE PO-
of either 65 bytes (without IP header compression) or 29 bytes
table but also considering the valid DL subframe of NB-IoT.
(with IP header compression) are added.
The coverage level for deciding the repetitions is forward to
For capacity, the target is to support at least 52547 devices
the MME by eNB when the UE leaves RRC_CONNECTED
within a cell-site sector. System-level simulation results show
state, and the MME can provide the coverage level information
that at least 250K devices can be supported within a cell site
of the UE, the paging attempt number, and last known Cell ID
sector per NB-IoT carrier. Additional capacity, if needed, can
to eNB in the S1 paging message later.
be acquired through using multiple carriers.
V. PERFORMANCE RESULTS
C. Battery Life
Performance results are summarized in this section
For power efficiency objective, the goal is to achieve
including coverage, capacity, latency, and battery life. Due to
battery life of more than ten years at maximum coverage level
space limitation, only results for in-band operation mode will
(164 dB MCL) using battery capacity of 5 Wh. The analysis
be shown. Performance for this mode can be considered the
assumes periodic uplink reporting with the transactions during
limiting factor since eNB power is shared between LTE and
an uplink reporting event described in [14] and UE is assumed
NB-IoT and also a portion of the NB-IoT downlink subframe is
to remain on the same cell. The four power states and current
reserved for transmission of legacy LTE control channels.
consumptions are transmit (543 mW), receive (90 mW), idle
Additional performance results may be found in [12][13].
(2.4 mW), and power saving (0.015 mW).
A. Coverage Based on these assumptions, the estimated battery lifetime
at maximum coverage level are 10.5 years to send a daily
The target is to enhance cell coverage by 20 dB,
report of 200 bytes and 16.8 years to send a daily report of 50
corresponding to the target MCL of 164 dB [9]. Table IV (at
bytes. This shows that the 10-year battery life target can be
the end of the paper) shows the link budget for NB-IoT in in-
met or exceeded for daily reporting. This long battery life is
band operation mode with 10 MHz broadband LTE carrier. In
possible due mostly to the following features
the downlink, 46 dBm of power is available at the eNB for
x Long eDRX which allows UE to sleep for up to
both LTE and NB-IoT. Out of this total power, 35 dBm is used
for NB-IoT (corresponding to 6-dB power boosting of the 10485.76 seconds while waking up periodically to
check for paging.
baseline). The UE has 23 dBm of total power. Single-tone
transmission is assumed for uplink data channels. Repetitions x Power saving mode where the UE remains registered
are assumed along with transmission of a data transport block to but not reachable by the network. The UE is in the
over multiple resource units defined in NB-IoT. power-off or sleep mode, and will wake up only
From Table IV, it is seen that the target MCL of 164 dB when there is data to send or after timer expiration.
can be achieved for the channels considered through the use of D. Exception Report Latency
Rel-13 features for NB-IoT outlined in this paper. At this
MCL, a physical layer data rate of 0.40 kbps in the downlink Exception report latency of 10 seconds or less is required
and 0.27 kbps in the uplink can be supported. Note that, for the for 99% of the devices. Latency is evaluated at the maximum
NPUSCH, coverage is approximately the same for 15 kHz and coverage level with an exception report consisting of 20 bytes
3.75 kHz subcarrier spacing. This shows that using 3.75 kHz application report, 65 bytes upper layer protocol header, and
subcarrier spacing does not necessarily increase coverage 15 bytes of SNDCP/LLC/RLC/MAC/CRC overhead [9]. The
despite the four times reduction in effective noise power. This following times are used in calculating the latency
is because the symbol length for the 3.75 kHz subcarrier synchronization, master information block acquisition,
spacing is four times longer and therefore the number of random access (including wait time), uplink scheduling grant,
symbols available for a given transmission time is four times and data transmission targeting 99% confidence level.
less than for 15 kHz subcarrier spacing. Analysis shows that an exception report can be successfully
transmitted in approximately 9.9 seconds with 99%
B. Capacity confidence. This time can be reduced since the eNB can
Capacity results are determined using system simulations. discriminate between normal and exception reports and
The macro-cell system simulation scenario is of a traditional provides higher priority to exception reports.
 2016 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN)

VI. REL-14 ENHANCEMENTS REFERENCES

In 3GPP Rel-14, three major enhancements will be [1] Ericsson Mobility Report, https://www.ericsson.com/mobility-report,
June, 2016.
introduced for NB-IoT:
[2] R. Ratasuk, N. Mangalvedhe, and A. Ghosh, Overview of LTE
x Positioning enhancements to allow device tracking. enhancements for cellular IoT, PIMRC, Sept. 2015.
Currently, location services based on Enhanced Cell-ID [3] R. Ratasuk, A. Prasad, Z. Li, A. Ghosh, and M. Uusitalo, "Recent
(ECID) is supported but without any defined performance advancements in M2M communications in 4G networks and evolution
requirements. In Rel-14, core requirements for ECID will towards 5G," ICIN, Feb. 2015.
be defined. In addition, a more accurate location service, [4] A. Kunz, A. Prasad, K. Samdanis, S. Husain and J. Song, "Enhanced
such as Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) 3GPP system for Machine Type Communications and Internet of
Things," IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and
or Uplink-Time Difference of Arrival (UTDOA), will Networking (CSCN), Tokyo, 2015, pp. 48-53, Tokyo, 2015.
also be supported. [5] A. Diaz-Zayas, C. A. Garcia-Perez, A. M. Recio-Perez and P. Merino,
x Multicast downlink transmission to support, e.g., "3GPP Standards to Deliver LTE Connectivity for IoT," IEEE First
firmware update or group message delivery, based upon International Conference on Internet-of-Things Design and
Implementation (IoTDI), Berlin, 2016, pp. 283-288.
the LTE Rel-13 single-cell point-to-multipoint feature.
[6] 3GPP TR 36.888, Study on provision of low-cost Machine-Type
x Support of new UE power class(es) (e.g., 14 dBm 20 Communications (MTC) User Equipments (UEs) based on LTE,
dBm and 23 dBm power classes are supported in Rel-13), v.12.0.0, June 2013.
targeted to small form-factor battery devices. [7] 3GPP TS 36.300, Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-
In addition, miscellaneous enhancements related to UTRA) and Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-
UTRAN); Overall description, V13.4.0, June 2016.
mobility/service continuity and multi-carrier operation will be
[8] LTE Evolution for IoT Connectivity, Nokia White Paper, 2016.
introduced. Available: http://resources.alcatel-lucent.com/asset/200178.
VII. CONCLUSION [9] TR 45.820, Cellular System Support for Ultra Low Complexity and
Low Throughput Internet of Things, V2.1.0, August, 2015.
This paper provides an overview of the emerging 3GPP [10] 3GPP TR 37.869, Study on Enhancements to Machine-Type
Rel-13 technology known as NB-IoT. The design objectives Communications (MTC) and other Mobile Data Applications, V12.0.0,
are outlined. The various physical channels of the new system March 2013.
are summarized while noting the design constraints. The salient [11] 3GPP TR 23.720, Architecture enhancements for Cellular Internet of
Things, V1.3.0, February 2016.
features of the higher layer design are also examined,
[12] Ratasuk, R.; Vejlgaard, B.; Mangalvedhe, N.; Ghosh, A., NB-IoT
considering the simplifications and optimizations that are System for M2M Communication, WCNC, March 2016.
targeted. A short performance analysis is presented, focusing [13] R1-157647, Summary of evaluation results, Huawei, HiSilicon,
on coverage, capacity, battery life, and latency. The results RAN1#83, Anaheim, USA.
demonstrate that the system meets the design objectives. Rel- [14] R1-157247, NB IoT Battery lifetime evaluation in in-band
14 will bring further enhancements to make the technology operation, Nokia Networks, RAN1#83, Anaheim, USA.
very viable for future IoT applications.

TABLE IV. NB-IOT LINK BUDGET FOR IN-BAND OPERATION MODE

Channel NPBCH NPDCCH NPDSCH NPRACH NPUSCH

Transport block size (bits) 256 696 696
Number of resource units 10 10 10
Transmission time (ms) 640 2560 2560
Subcarrier spacing (kHz) 15 15 15 3.75 15 3.75
No of subcarrier 12 12 12 1 1 1
Max Tx power (dBm) 46 46 46 23 23 23
Actual Tx power (dBm) 35 35 35 23 23 23
Thermal noise density (dBm/Hz) -174 -174 -174 -174 -174 -174
Receiver noise figure (dB) 5 5 5 3 3 3
Interference margin (dB) 0 0 0 0 0 0
Occupied channel BW (Hz) 180,000 180,000 180,000 3,750 15,000 3,750
Effective noise power (dBm) -116.4 -116.4 -116.4 -135.3 -129.2 -135.3
Required SINR (dB) -12.6 -13.0 -12.8 -5.8 -11.9 -5.5
Receiver sensitivity (dBm) -129.0 -129.4 -130.1 -141.1 -141.1 -140.8
MCL (dB) 164.0 164.4 164.3 164.1 164.1 163.8