Narrowband IoT technologies for smart city applications

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) has been rapidly gaining ground in recent years, due to its potential to revolutionize the way we live and work. The inclusion of the IoT technologies in the daily operations and services in a city spans a wide variety of applications, including transportation, smart parking systems, smart lighting, health care, smart buildings, etc. To deliver specific smart services in a city, heterogeneous IoT objects should be connected in a network, which then can process the collected data and take explicit actions, based on the required service. To this end, there exist a large number of IoT communication protocols, with distinct coverage range, capacity, operational cost, data rate, etc. In this chapter, we analyze the narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) protocol, as one of the key technologies expected to play a leading role in a smart city scenario. Compared to other protocols, the NB-IoT possess unique features that are treated and justified throughout the chapter. The physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layer specifications are detailed, and several smart city applications through a terrestrial NB-IoT infrastructure are described. In addition, a satellite-based NB-IoT system is considered, together with some relevant applications, because of its ability to overcome the limitations of a terrestrial network. Last but not least, the challenges imposed by the satellite channel into the PHY and MAC layer procedures are characterized and supported by numerical simulations. To conclude the chapter, possible solutions and research directions are discussed.