Narrowband-IoT:

pushing the
boundaries of IoT

Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) is
a new standard connecting
internet of things projects.
vodafone.com/iot/nb-iot
The future is exciting.

Ready?
Executive summary
This paper gives technical decision-makers an overview of NB-IoT, the communications
technology that will underpin industrial-grade internet of things deployments.

Introducing LPWA and NB-IoT

Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) describes a category of wireless communication technologies designed to support internet
of things (IoT) deployments. LPWA technologies are designed to deliver:

Strong coverage over large areas, Great power efficiency, so devices Massive scale, connecting
even when devices are underground can run on batteries for 10 years or potentially millions of devices at once
or deep within buildings more without a charge in a single deployment

Low cost communications Low bandwidth, with most use cases

hardware, enabling data collection requiring just a few bytes of data to be
devices to be built for less than $10 transmitted per device per day

A number of different technologies have been developed

to fulfil LPWA requirements, and we believe Narrowband For more detail about LPWA, NB-IoT and its
IoT (NB-IoT) not only offers enterprise-grade technical competition, see page 5.
specifications, but is also the practical choice for carriers,
device manufacturers and ultimately enterprise users.
To understand why NB-IoT is uniquely suited to business
IoT deployments, we compare NB-IoT against two LPWA
alternatives, LoRa and Sigfox.

Narrowband-IoT 2 2017
Key findings
The evolution of the Internet of Things means that there is an urgent need for a low-
power way to connect thousands of devices in field. NB-IoT fits the bill perfectly.

Industrial grade technology:

NB-IoT offers great range, throughput and power efficiency at a low price.
Coverage in challenging deployments. NB-IoT offers other LPWA technologies, thanks in part to advanced
coverage penetration in difficult environments that power-saving modes that minimise unnecessary chatter
characterise LPWA use cases. Because it uses licensed over the network.
spectrum bands (just like 3G and 4G) NB-IoT isnt
Simple designs for cost-effectiveness. NB-IoT has
significantly affected by interference.
been designed to minimise hardware costs, from
Faster data throughput, without limitations on usage. chipset fabrication to antennas. We forecast that
NB-IoT isnt limited by legal restrictions on how often communications component costs will drop to $2 once
each device can transmit so-called duty cycle. full production is reached.
This gives it a performance boost, which is vital when
planning ahead a decade or more.
Flexible power management for 15-year operational For more about the technical advantages of
lifespans. Despite its coverage and performance NB-IoT, see page 6.
advantages, NB-IoT offers comparable battery life to

The practical choice:

NB-IoT is an open standard based on LTE. It has the backing of major equipment manufacturers, and is based on familiar
technology for easier integration into existing infrastructure and processes.

Fast and flexible for carriers to deploy. NB-IoT can Easy to integrate into traditional cellular
be flexibly deployed on any existing network, either technology ecosystems. In many ways NB-IoT
leveraging the LTE network footprint in-band or behaves like LTE, so its familiar to network engineers,
co-existing with other network technologies in application developers and hardware developers.
standalone mode.
Broad market support as an open 3GPP standard.
NB-IoT is an open standard. A critical mass of network For more about the practical reasons in NB-
operators and hardware manufacturers are backing IoTs favour, see page 10.
NB-IoT. Its the safe bet for long-term commitment
gloabally, and benefits from economies of scale.

Secure and available

Security is important in any IoT deployment. NB-IoT inherits LTEs strong security features, making it the safest choice.
LPWA security matters. Even the simplest networked NB-IoT inherits LTEs authentication and encryption.
devices can cause business disruption if theyre NB-IoT mutually authenticates the network and the
breached. Security is critical. device, and encrypts traffic between the device and
deep within the core network.
Securing ultra-simple devices is challenging. The
limited bandwidth and processing power makes even
foundational security practices like authentication and
encryption non-trivial.
For more about the security considerations
Proprietary LPWA technologies dont do enough.
While LoRa encrypts its traffic, Sigfox doesnt. And both around LPWA, see page 14.
are vulnerable to jamming.

Narrowband-IoT 3 2017
Introduction:

Why LPWA technologies matter

The right connectivity can make or break your IoT project. We believe that NB-IoT is the
right option for most low-power, wide-area, business IoT use cases. Let us show you why.

Massive-scale IoT projects have specific connectivity needs

Look at many of the most promising applications for IoT and youll find the same basic wireless connectivity needs.
Whether its smart water meters, connected agriculture, smart cities or asset tracking, these connected devices need:

Long lifespans in the field: devices, such as soil Massive scale, at low cost: devices, such as smoke or
condition monitors in precision agriculture, are often fire alarms or smart rubbish bins, may be deployed in
deployed without reliable access to power. Batteries their thousands or millions. The device and connectivity
must last for the lifetime of the device perhaps a cost must be low and networks must be able to support
decade or more. high density of devices while guarenteeing QoS.

Deep coverage: devices, such as water and gas meters, Low bandwidth: devices may often send only a few
may be deployed in rural areas, beneath manhole bytes of data each day for instance, smart parking
covers or deep within building basements. The network sensors may only ping the network when a bay
connection must offer strong penetration and reach. becomes free. These use cases dont need to support
voice or even duplex data transmission.

No conventional connectivity standard satisfies all of these

criteria. Wired connections are ideal for IoT deployments Machina Research has tracked that there are now
in buildings and offices, but out of the question when more than 40 million active LPWA endpoints, as of
looking at devices in the field, especially where there is no June 2016, and predicts that LPWA technologies
cabling or power. Some wireless technologies like Wi-Fi, will account for more than half of all wireless IoT
Bluetooth or Zigbee dont have the range for large-scale connections by 2024.
deployments. Others like 3G and 4G do offer multi-
kilometre range, but are designed for high data throughput.
And this makes them expensive and power-hungry. For
example, a typical 4G IoT module might cost $40 and have a
battery life of less than a year which is not an issue when
installed in a connected car or digital signage, but would be
unfeasible for an application like a smart parking sensor.

The five 10s of LPWA

Whats needed in applications like these is a low-power, WLANs
Power consumption

low-cost, long-range wireless technology. Thats why in Wi-Fi

HiperLAN
the past few years weve seen the rise of a new category of Cellular
connectivity: LPWA, or low-power wide-area. 2G, 3G, 4G

Short-range
Theres no precise definition of LPWA, but heres a rule of
wireless
thumb: an LPWA device should be able to last for 10 years
Bluetooth
in the field, connect as far as 10km from the cell, and cost IEEE 802.15.4
under $10, when transmitting down to 10s of bytes per ZigBee Low Power Wide Area
Z-Wave
hour. Each cell or base station should be able to support
more than 10k devices.
10m 100m 1km 10km
Range

Narrowband-IoT 4 2017
Many technologies are competing in LPWA
Many different technologies are being developed to Which is the right technology for your LPWA projects
meet these or similar criteria, sponsored by a wide variety connectivity needs? And which is the safest option for
of private companies, consortia, standards bodies and your organisation to bet on in the long run? After all, your
alliances. Weightless, DASH 7, 802.11ah, Ingenu, LTE-M, business cases are based on devices operating in the field
EC-GSM-IoT these, and many others, are all competing for a decade or more.
for market share, and they often take very different
approaches to meet the criteria that LPWA use cases need; Vodafone has evaluated each LPWA technology under
not least, whether theyre based on open standards or built development, and made the decision to commit to NB-
on proprietary technology stacks. IoT. We believe that global standard technologies are
the way forward to guarantee security, interoperability,
However, a few technologies notably Sigfox, LoRa and scalability, quality of service and longevity. In particular,
NB-IoT have emerged as the front-runners in LPWA. NB-IoT is designed to address low-power wide-area
Each has multiple high-profile deployments in the field and requirements and we believe it to be both suited to large-
sufficient technological maturity and market support that scale deployments and have impressive prospects for
they are likely be considered by any enterprise developing widespread market success.
LPWA IoT projects.
This paper describes the many factors that led us to our
decision. If youre involved in technology decisions for your
IoT projects, we urge you to consider our findings.

LPWA standards

3GPP DASH7 Alliance ETSI IEEE IETF LoRa Alliance Weightless SIG

enhanced MTC Low Throughout Weightless-

DASH7 802.15.4k 6LPWA/LP-WAN LoRaWAN
(eMTC) Networks (LTN) W/N/P

Extended
Coverage GSM 802.15.4g
IoT (EC-GSM-IoT)

NarrowBand IoT 802.11: Long

(NB-IoT) Range Low Power
(LRLP)

NB-IoT in a nutshell
NB-IoT is a specification developed by 3GPP, and standardised as part of 3GPP Release 13 in June 2016. Its a cellular
technology related to LTE, designed specifically for LPWA applications, using licensed spectrum on a range of
possible bands. It was designed to offer 20dB coverage improvement versus GSM, 1215 years operation on a single
battery charge, low device cost, and compatibility with existing cellular network infrastructure, with the same level
of security as LTE. It can be deployed in a variety of frequency bands using a bandwidth of only 200 kHz as a self-
contained carrier.

Find out more detail about the features of NB-IoT as described in the 3GPP specification Release 13 from June 2016,
available here: http://www.3gpp.org/images/PDF/R13_IOT_rev3.pdf

Narrowband-IoT 5 2017
NB-IoT:

Industrial grade
LPWA is designed to deliver the greatest coverage for the lowest power consumption,
and at the lowest cost, while still maintaining sufficient real-world data throughput. We
have compared NB-IoT against LoRa and Sigfox in all four areas.

Sigfox LoRa NB-IoT

Coverage 160dB 157dB 164dB

Technology Proprietary Proprietary Open LTE

Spectrum Unlicensed Unlicensed Licensed (LTE/any)

Duty Cycle restrictions Yes Yes No

Output power restrictions Yes (14dBm = 25mW) Yes (14dBm = 25mW) No (23dBm = 200mW)

Downlink data rate 0.1kbps 0.3 50kbps 0.5 200kbps

Uplink data rate 0.1kbps 0.3 50kbps 0.3 180kbps

Battery life (200b/day) 10+ years 10+ years 15+ years

Module cost <$10 (2016) <$10 (2016) $7 (2017) to <$2 (2020)

Security Low Low Very high

Fig 1. Key technical specifications for NB-IoT (from R1-157741, Summary of NB-IoT evaluations results, 3GPP RAN1#83, Nov 2015),
Sigfox, and LoRa (from LoRaWAN: a technical overview of LoRa and LoRaWAN, LoRa Alliance, Nov 2015).

1. Deeper coverage in challenging deployments

LPWA deployments often involve devices being installed Maximum link budget is a way of quantifying a connections
across a large area in less than ideal spots for a strong radio performance accounting for attenuation and other losses,
signal. Devices may be installed underground, deep within and it gives us a simple way of comparing different radio
buildings, or in rural areas far from the nearest mast. communications technologies fairly. Figure 1 shows the
maximum link budget for NB-IoT, LoRa and Sigfox.
A connectivity technology that delivers better coverage
not only means that devices in edge deployments are NB-IoT offers deeper coverage than alternative LPWA
more likely to be able to connect to the network: it also technologies, and compared to conventional GSM/GPRS,
means each device is likely to be able to communicate at a huge 20dB advantage, which equates to a sevenfold
closer to peak throughput, and it means that the network increase in coverage. In our live trials, NB-IoT has been
can manage with fewer base stations (or gateways, shown to penetrate an additional two to three double-
repeaters and signal concentrators, depending on the brick walls, enabling reliable connectivity of devices in
network type) to cover a given area. underground car parks and basements.

157dB 160dB 164dB

LoRa Sigfox NB-IoT
Fig 2. NB-IoT delivers a huge increase in coverage.

Narrowband-IoT 6 2017
2. Faster data throughput, without duty cycle
limitations
Many LPWA use cases require only minimal bandwidth, instead prioritising
coverage and power efficiency. But all other factors being equal, having
more bandwidth available is a good thing. It gives customers more headroom
to evolve their use of the technology in the years ahead. But perhaps more
importantly, it also ensures performance is acceptable even in extended
coverage situations.

NB-IoT has a theoretical bandwidth advantage over both Sigfox and LoRa, with
downlink rates of up to 235kbps (when deployed standalone). By comparison,
LoRas maximum data rate is 27kbps. But at the extreme limits of coverage,
with a signal to noise ratio of -12.6dB, a standalone deployment of NB-IoT
transfers 3kbps downlink (as Figure 3 shows) a significant speed drop due to
repetitions. Apply the same kind of signal degradation to a slower technology
like Sigfox and LoRa and the data transfer rates drop close to zero.

Deep coverage Extreme coverage

Good Cell-edge
+10dB +20dB

SNR > 7.4dB SNR = 7.4dB SNR = -2.6dB SNR = -12.6dB

Downlink (kbps) 235 75 34 3

Fig 3. NB-IoT downlink throughput at different coverage levels (from R1-157741, Summary of NB-IoT evaluations results, 3GPP
RAN1#83, Nov 2015).

The most significant bandwidth constraint for network technologies like LoRa
and Sigfox is that, on their unlicensed spectrum bands, theyre subject to heavy
legal restrictions on duty cycle the percentage of time that a channel may be
actively occupied on the network. Duty cycle restrictions are typically 1%.

Lets see how that impacts real-world data transfer using Sigfox, for example.
A Sigfox message has a maximum payload of 12 bytes, and takes about six
seconds to transmit. At 1% duty cycle maximum, a Sigfox device can send up to
144 messages per 24-hour period, for a daily data maximum of about 1.6KB.

This may not be a problem during normal usage, where a device is only expected
to transmit a daily status update payload of a few bytes. But it may be a real
limiting factor during periods of high activity, when interference demands that
a high percentage of packets are retransmitted, or in exceptional circumstances
such as pushing a new firmware version to a device over the air to secure a
vulnerability.

High network load causes interference in LoRa

Like all radio networks, LoRas performance degrades the further away clients move from the gateway or base
station for LoRa, this starts to be significant at about 2km. LoRa and Sigfox operate in unlicensed ISM bands at
868 MHz (in Europe) and 902 MHz (in the USA). These bands are regulated with duty cycling and output power
restrictions. Additionally, various other services such as wireless alarm systems and remote controls also operate in
this band. These factors significantly affect performance (see Ofcom Final Report, Short Range Devices operating
in 862686 MHz band, Ovum, Aug 2010). But more problematically, LoRas throughput also degrades dramatically
when the network is congested and under high load. Its weak traffic management results in high levels of packet
loss due to collisions and interference. This starts to become an issue when more than just a few hundred devices
are communicating, which is a significant problem one of the defining characteristics of LPWA is that it can scale
to millions of devices. And by contrast NB-IoT is designed to carry 100k200k devices per 200kHz carrier on a cell,
while Sigfox claims up to a million devices per access point.

Narrowband-IoT 7 2017
3. Flexible power management for up to 15-year
operational lifespans
All LPWA technologies prize power efficiency by design. While actual battery
lifespan depends totally on the strength of the devices network reception and
how much data it transfers each day, most LPWA devices can happily endure for
ten years without a charge, even accounting for battery self-discharge and other
factors.

NB-IoT does even better than that. It has been rigorously engineered and in our
statistical models can comfortably achieve lifespans of around 15 years even on
the very edge of coverage, as Figure 4 shows.

Years of battery life for a Cell edge Deep coverage Extreme coverage
5 Watt-hour battery: (144dB MCL) (154dB MCL) (164dB MCL)

50 bytes/day 36.7 33.1 20

200 bytes/day 36.3 29.7 14.2

Fig 4. Estimated battery life (in years) for different coverage levels and data volumes. Source: R1-157741, Summary of NB-IoT
evaluation results, 3GPP RAN1#83, Nov 2015.

There are many ways to reduce power usage and achieve these kinds of
lifespans. Most simply, you can keep the device in idle mode or deep sleep, so it
doesnt waste power chatting to the network between communication sessions.
Power management is fundamentally a balance between message frequency,
device sleep cycles and business case needs.

LTE-M: extra bandwidth for more demanding use cases

For applications where greater bandwidth is needed than NB-IoT, 3GPP standards have defined another LPWA
technology: LTE-M, also known as LTE Cat M1. LTE-M is less flexible in its deployment models and its coverage is
not as strong, but it offers up to 5x the downlink data rate. NB-IoT and CAT-M are complementary communications
technologies that Vodafone can support on its LTE networks. We have prioritised the deployment of NB-IoT
technology initially across our networks to address the immediate need for low power and deep penetration
applications that have not historically been served by cellular connectivity.

South East Water: coverage underground

In Australia, the use of NB-IoT has been trialled with South East Water
to monitor rainwater tanks and pipe flow, as well as to guard against
unauthorised entry to sewers, car parks and other sites. South East Water
ultimately wants to be able to analyse performance, asset condition
and fault management across its networks in real time. Because many
of the monitoring sensors will be installed under manhole covers and
underground, its ideal proof of NB-IoTs ability to offer strong signal
penetration.

Narrowband-IoT 8 2017
NB-IoT features two power-saving capabilities that work in tandem to maximise
performance and efficiency: Extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) and
Power Saving Mode (PSM).

When a device is connected to the network, the network periodically sends

paging messages on its control channels, which devices listen for and can
respond to. Typically these messages happen at least every few seconds,
enabling the network to maintain accurate information about the devices
connected to it, but at the cost of battery life: the devices are effectively always
awake. For maximum efficiency, Power Saving Mode (PSM) enables devices
to slip into a deep sleep state for up to 310 hours, only then waking to update
the network and listen to pages for a brief period before sleeping again. During
deep sleep the device is not reachable. Extended Discontinuous Reception
(eDRX) extends the paging interval cycle up to nearly three hours, eliminating
unnecessary receiver activations while still allowing the network to reach the
client device when needed.

4. Simple designs for cost-effectiveness

One of the main arguments for Sigfox and LoRa is that GSM-family technologies
are generally complex. But NB-IoT has been designed from a cellular standpoint
to minimise many of the factors that have conventionally increased hardware
costs for GSM client devices.

NB-IoT hardware modules for example need limited memory (which is of the
more affordable PSRAM variety), only a single antenna, and have no need for
full-duplex operation, thereby avoiding the cost of an RF duplexer. Compared
to LTE, they have very relaxed constraints on timing delays, making chip design
and production less stringent. NB-IoT devices have lower clock rates and can
therefore be produced on larger dies in more mature semiconductor fabs, at
a lower cost. The use of limited 200kHz bandwidth reduces the size of buffers
and processing blocks, while the choice of decoder simplifies the design of the
modem and digital signal processor (DSP).

As a result of all this, we expect that NB-IoT devices, including baseband and RF
chipsets, will cost as little as $2 by end of 2020, compared to approximately $40
for an LTE device today. This will make NB-IoT communications components at
least as affordable as LoRa and Sigfox.

Narrowband-IoT 9 2017
NB-IoT:

The practical choice

NB-IoT is gaining support from a wide number of industry participants, making it a safe
choice for long-term deployments.

1. Fast and flexible for carriers to deploy

When you choose an LPWA technology, you need to be sure that there will
be networks available where you plan to deploy, with significant national and
international coverage for you to scale up your business.

NB-IoT is a 3GPP standard closely related to LTE technology. As a result, it can

be deployed on almost all LTE base stations, alongside LTE traffic, through
a straightforward software upgrade to the radio access network (RAN).
Vodafone is in the process of adding NB-IoT to about 85% of its network
through a software upgrade, with the rest upgradeable after a small hardware
modification, and the goal is to enable all LTE sites with NB-IoT by 2020. Trials so
far have demonstrated that NB-IoT is able to co-exist with legacy technologies.

Network operators can choose from three deployment options to suit different
network environments, making NB-IoT perhaps the most flexible LPWA
technology. Its designed to fit into 180KHz of spectrum, so it fits neatly within
one or more standard LTE Physical Resource Block (PRB). Where its undesirable
to divert any capacity away from LTE, NB-IoT can also be deployed within the
guard band at the edge of an LTE allocation the gap between frequency
bands thats designed to prevent interference. NB-IoT can also be deployed
standalone on a single GSM carrier spectrum, for example in locations where a
carriers full 4G rollout plans arent yet defined, or standalone alongside an LTE
spectrum band. Whichever way its deployed, NB-IoT does not rely on any other
systems signalling resources.

Most likely deployment options 180KHz NB-IoT carrier

in 200KHz band

In band
LTE carrier GSM carriers
Stand-
alone

Guard band
LTE carrier GSM/UMTS/LTE carrier

Fig 5. NB-IoT is closely related to 4G LTE.

This flexibility of deployment and ability to reuse existing network assets is a

huge advantage over proprietary radio technologies like Sigfox and LoRa, where
new network infrastructure gateways, masts, repeaters and so on must
be deployed and managed separately, either by a carrier or by an enterprise or
consortium of enterprises directly.

Such deployments are not only costly and slow, but may also involve challenges
around planning permission, backhaul provisioning and other intractable
problems, particularly in dense urban areas.

Narrowband-IoT 10 2017
 Aguas de Valencia:
remote monitoring, without the hassle of network
management
Aguas de Valencia is multinational water provider. Its committed to
innovation, and was an early adopter of automated meter reading. Today
it manages more than 600,000 automated meter reading devices, which
until now used a proprietary technology that required Aguas de Valencia
to install and maintain its own infrastructure. It wanted to migrate to a
new communications technology that enabled it to remotely monitor
meters without running its own infrastructure.

NB-IoT was the ideal candidate. Aguas de Valencia worked with Vodafone
on a trial, testing NB-IoTs ability to provide coverage in hard-to-reach
meter locations.

The most important aspect of the trial was to identify locations where its
harder for a signal to reach, such as meter rooms in basements with little
or no coverage, meter boxes below ground, and recess niches with metal
covers that block the signal. So far the results have been very promising
as the signal has been able to reach its destination without any issues in
all of the locations tested. Well be able to outsource communications to a
telecomms carrier that guarantees data quality and security. The life of a
meter is about 10 years, aligned with battery life that this technology will
be able to provide.

Vctor Gonzlez, Director of Meters and Remote Reading, Aguas de Valencia

Narrowband-IoT 11 2017
2. Broad market support as an open 3GPP standard
When you commit to an LPWA technology for ten years or A proprietary technology built on a single vendors
more, you need to be sure that your chosen technology commercial intellectual property will always bear some
has a stable future. degree of additional cost. Sigfox, and LoRas developer,
Semtech, license their technologies to network equipment
Because NB-IoT is an open 3GPP standard, it gives manufacturers and device manufacturers for a fee; this
enterprises the reassurance that theyre making a low- fee is passed on to enterprise customers. When devices
risk, long-term technology commitment, free of the risks are heading toward $2$10 each, and when enterprises
associated with proprietary technology. are potentially buying millions of devices, the intellectual
property overhead becomes significant.
Sigfox is an entirely proprietary technology. Although
there are a number of manufacturers making Sigfox client Conversely, customers that choose NB-IoT benefit from
device hardware, and network operators deploying Sigfox all the effects of market forces. Already NB-IoT has broad
networks, all data moves through the Sigfox cloud, where it support from network operators like AT&T, Telefonica,
can be accessed through APIs. Enterprises choosing Sigfox China Unicom, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Verizon
could be dependent on the fortunes of its controlling and Telstra, as well as Vodafone. Even operators that are
company for future support. You have to think about the deploying LoRa and Sigfox, like Orange, are also investing
long-term security of your smart-metering deployment in NB-IoT.
and choose the safest technology for you.
Overall, NB-IoT is supported by over 30 of the worlds
For its part, LoRa is backed by the LoRa Alliance and the largest operators, which provide communications for more
LoRaWAN networking protocol (co-developed with IBM) than 3.4 billion customers and geographically serve over
is open source, but the underlying radio technology is 90% of the IoT market.
proprietary, so again customers are locked in to a single
provider. This popularity will naturally snowball and reinforce
NB-IoTs position as the most widely availableLPWA
Proprietary solutions are also not subject to the same technology. It also means that customers can standardise
multilateral scrutiny as open standards, nor do they on a single LPWA technology for deployments around the
have the same access to R&D resources during their world.
development. This can be an important consideration
when it comes to issues like security or performance These same trends apply to device manufacturers.
optimisation. Leading equipment makers like Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia,
Qualcomm and Intel are all committed to NB-IoT, meaning
customers will get a wider choice of end devices to suit
different use cases, at a lower cost. As already discussed, it
is anticipated that the end cost of NB-IoT terminals will be
noticeably lower than that of Sigfox and LoRa devices.

If you look at the history of wireless, the only

successful technologies are open standard.
There are no examples of proprietary ones being
very successful, so I cant see how the proprietary
LPWAN vendors can last long-term
Professor William Webb, CEO, Weightless; former President, IET; former Director, Ofcom

Narrowband-IoT 12 2017
3. Easy to integrate into traditional cellular
technology ecosystems
Communications technologies should work well with other elements of the IoT
solution. If theyre challenging to integrate into the applications and processes
that need them, the overall ROI of the project will suffer.

NB-IoT behaves very much like traditional cellular communications

technologies, with predictable traffic handling, security features and so on. On
the Vodafone IoT network in particular, NB-IoT connections can be managed
seamlessly alongside other IoT SIMs on the Global IoT Platform, including
reporting, self-service control over SIM states, use of alerts and business rules,
and API access. Customers dont need to maintain separate processes, user
access rights, software platforms or documentation to manage their LPWA
deployments.

Other LPWA technologies may have unusual behaviour or limitations that

application developers must understand and plan for.

For example, LoRas traffic-handling is extremely limited, and under high

traffic load, packet loss can reach more than 60%. LoRa does support an
unsophisticated flag-based method of confirming packet delivery, but in order
to confirm delivery a second packet must be sent which further increases
load on the network and results in more collisions and even greater packet loss,
and unpredictable latency caused by retransmission of data. This creates real
headaches for developers that rely on assured, timely packet delivery.

NB-IoT Testing Labs will simplify

solution development
The industry community behind NB-IoT is opening
a number of Open Labs across the world, giving
hardware developers and enterprises a place to
build, test and certify NB-IoT-based solutions on a
sandboxed network environment. The worlds first
NB-IoT Open Lab, based in Newbury, was launched
by Vodafone and Huawei in 2016, and a second
opens in Dsseldorf in February 2017. China Mobile,
Etisalat and many others will follow in short order
throughout 2017. To arrange a visit to our Open Lab,
contact your Vodafone Account Manager. Or for
more details about NB-IoT, visit:
www.vodafone.com/business/iot/nb-IoT

Narrowband-IoT 13 2017
Security and availability
LPWA deployments need protecting just as much as any IoT solution. NB-IoT inherits all
the well-proven security measures of LTE.

LPWA security matters Other LPWA technologies dont do

Every survey of enterprise IoT adopters including enough
Vodafones IoT Barometer highlights the importance In the eyes of the security community, there are inherent
of security in IoT deployments. Enterprises are concerned disadvantages to both LoRa and Sigfox: proprietary
that their IoT devices and connections will be vulnerable to code reduces the ability to scrutinise it and identify
hackers looking to steal data, bring down services, or cause vulnerabilities before hackers can exploit them.
disruption by taking control of remote assets.
That aside, neither LoRa nor Sigfox build in sufficiently
Its tempting to view LPWA devices as too limited or robust security. Sigfox has hardly any: the communications
uninteresting to need protecting. After all, whats the channel is not encrypted and there is no authentication
worst that can happen if a hacker can tamper with a simple built in; Sigfox recommends that security is managed
sensor, for example in a smart bin or smoke alarm? The at the application layer instead. LoRa encrypts the
reality is that the security of these devices does matter. message payload using an application session key, and
If an attacker could trigger ten thousand smoke alarms message integrity is verified using a network session key,
simultaneously, tell a councils refuse team that every each provided when the device joins the network. But
bin in the city needs emptying all at once, or overload a cryptographic key management is challenging.
farmers fields with fertiliser by tampering with soil sensors,
chaos would ensue. Furthermore, because ISM radio frequency bands need no
licence to transmit on, its legal for anyone including
Securing ultra-simple devices is malicious hackers to transmit data compatible with the
challenging LoRa specification and thereby jam legitimate LoRa data
transmissions, creating a denial of service effect. Denial of
The challenge is how to adequately secure these devices service is just as damaging as a security breach.
in practice, using the foundational security pillars such as
authentication and encryption. Most LPWA deployments,
by design, have little room for security.
NB-IoT inherits LTEs authentication
and encryption
For a $2$5 device that needs to conserve power, the NB-IoT is a 3GPP standard closely related to LTE and
processor overhead of encrypting and decrypting traffic is inherits all of the security techniques associated with it. A
meaningful. And under the limitations of a 1% duty cycle, secret key built into the NB-IoT SIM at point of manufacture
it can be difficult to spare the few extra bytes needed to is used to mutually authenticate the network and the
authenticate a communications session. That same limited device, and to generate frequently updated session keys
throughput also leaves no spare capacity for patching for encrypting traffic between the device and deep within
devices to close vulnerabilities discovered during their in- the core network.
field lifespan. Layering a central traffic monitoring solution
over the top to identify suspicious traffic is one response, Obviously, where necessary and practical, additional over
but it does little to actually prevent or react to disruption. the top layers of security can be applied to the device,
communications and application to increase the level of
protection.

Narrowband-IoT 14 2017
Next steps
We believe the technological and market advantages make NB-IoT the clear choice for
any enterprise pursuing a LPWA solution today. But youd be right to test the technology
for yourself before making any commitment. Were here to help.

Here are three steps you can take:

Vodafone

Discuss NB-IoT as part of the Experience NB-IoT at our Open Contact your Vodafone
NB-IoT Forum, formed by the GSMA Labs in Newbury, UK or Dsseldorf, Account Manager for sample
contact us for details of how to Germany, to test example NB-IoT modules and SDK support
participate. hardware modules and examine to accelerate your solution
our network testbed, and request development. Find out more at:
the latest information on field trial www.vodafone.com/business/
applications. iot/nb-IoT.

About Vodafone
Vodafone is at the forefront of IoT and of NB-IoT.

We have more than 25 years of experience in IoT and over 45 million active IoT
connections. Our IoT customers represent every sector, giving us deep insight
into the kinds of applications that are driving demand for LPWA technologies.
And were putting that insight to work, as chair of the NB-IoT Forum and one of
the leading developers of 3GPP IoT standards.

Of course, were best known as operators of one of the worlds largest

communications networks, and weve committed to fully rolling out NB-IoT
across it by 2020. Already weve demonstrated live NB-IoT trials and customer
pilots in cities and rural communities across the globe.

But our offering extends far beyond just network connectivity. From our
professional services and testing facilities to support you at the start of your
project, we offer everything you need: our market-leading IoT connectivity
platform, a range of secure, global SIM types, and market-leading hardware both
Vodafone-branded and from a wide range of partners.

To find out more about who we are and what we do, visit vodafone.com/iot

Narrowband-IoT 15 2017
vodafone.com/iot/nb-iot
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