Narrowband Internet Of Things Applications Research Articles

Energy efficiency optimization of NB-IoT using integrated Proxy & ERAI technique

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardized the NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology in Release-13, aiming to support applications requiring minimal device power consumption, efficient small data transfer, and tolerance for delays. This paper provides two major contributions: first, it characterizes the NB-IoT architecture and its enhancements in subsequent 3GPP releases; second, it introduces an energy-saving technique for NB-IoT user equipment based on semi-Markov processes. Integrating a Proxy state and an enhanced release assistant indication (ERAI), the proposed technique improves upon the traditional Discontinuous Reception (DRX) method in the NB-IoT standard. This novel approach reduces energy consumption during low data communication, distinguishing it from other power-saving methodologies. The effectiveness of this technique is assessed through the power-saving factor (PSF) under various conditions, such as different eDRX durations (T_eDRX), PSM durations (T_PSM), DRX cycle periods (T_ACTIVE+T_SLEEP), and DRX active periods (T_ACTIVE). Our findings confirm that the proposed Proxy & ERAI technique significantly boosts the power-saving capabilities of NB-IoT devices, especially for small data packet transmissions. Theoretical and simulation results indicate that the PSF can be enhanced by up to 99.4% with optimized eDRX durations (T_eDRX) and up to 99.9% with optimized PSM (T_PSM) durations. These results underscore the significant energy-saving potential of our proposed technique, making it highly effective for NB-IoT applications with low data transmission needs.

An optimization NPUSCH uplink scheduling approach for NB-IoT application via the feasible combinations of link adaptation, Resource assignment and energy efficiency

Low-power wide area (LPWA) technology, specifically Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), has emerged as a pivotal sixth-generation (6G) network technology, catering to the demands of massive-type communications (m-MTC), extended battery life, wide range coverage, and high reliability. Despite its advancements, existing studies often fall short in simultaneously addressing energy efficiency, latency, link adaptation, and resource allocation in the bandwidth-constrained environments typical of NB-IoT. The complexity of finding a comprehensive optimal solution for resource allocation is compounded by its non-convex and NP-hard combinatorial nature. This research addresses these challenges by introducing a Hybrid-Optimizer approach, which integrates link adaptation, resource allocation, and scheduling algorithms. This approach aims to identify the optimal feasible combination for each device (UE), focusing on energy conservation and improved signal reception. Applied to the Narrow Physical Uplink Shared Channel (NPUSCH) uplink scheduling in NB-IoT, this method is benchmarked against the conventional Round-Robin scheduling algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the Hybrid-Optimizer approach significantly outperforms the Round-Robin algorithm in terms of scheduling processing time and energy efficiency. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is capable of generating candidate combinations that enhance signal reception in UEs and meet the required subframe criteria, adhering to system modeling assumptions for scheduling optimization.

A Dual-Mode CMOS Power Amplifier with an External Power Amplifier Driver Using 40 nm CMOS for Narrowband Internet-of-Things Applications

The narrowband Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) has been developed to provide low-power, wide-area IoT applications. The efficiency of a power amplifier (PA) in a transmitter is crucial for a longer battery lifetime, satisfying the requirements for output power and linearity. In addition, the design of an internal complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) PA is typically required when considering commercial applications to include the operation of an optional external PA. This paper presents a dual-mode CMOS PA with an external PA driver for NB-IoT applications. The proposed PA supports an external PA mode without degrading the performances of output power, linearity, and stability. In the operation of an external PA mode, the PA provides a sufficient gain to drive an external PA. A parallel-combined transistor method is adopted for a dual-mode operation and a third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) cancellation. The proposed CMOS PA with an external PA driver was implemented using 40 nm-CMOS technology. The PA achieves a gain of 20.4 dB, a saturated output power of 28.8 dBm, and a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 57.8% in high-power (HP) mode at 920 MHz. With an NB-IoT signal (200 kHz π/4-differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK)), the proposed PA achieves 24.2 dBm output power (Pout) with a 31.0% PAE, while satisfying −45 dBc adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR). More than 80% of the current consumption at 12 dBm Pout could be saved compared to that in HP mode when the proposed PA operates in low-power (LP) mode. The implemented dual-mode CMOS PA provides high linear output power with high efficiency, while supporting an external PA mode. The proposed PA is a good candidate for NB-IoT applications.

A Framework for Selecting Optimal Network Protocols for IoT Technologies in Image and Vision-based Applications

The growth of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies and the rapid advances in image- and video-based applications make it necessary to select the most appropriate network protocols that ensure reliable, efficient and robust system performance. This study presents a framework to help select appropriate network protocols for Narrowband IoT applications. This framework evaluates and compares the most popular wireless and wired IoT technologies, especially Narrowband IoT (NB -IoT) and 5G, based on their characteristics, strengths and limitations. The research considers factors such as latency, bandwidth, scalability, energy efficiency and reliability to determine the suitability of these protocols for each application area. This study investigated the performance of these technologies in different environments, including underwater, airborne and land environments. By providing a structured approach to selecting the optimal network protocol for specific applications, this study aims to streamline and improve the deployment and performance of IoT technologies in various industries. While this study offers comprehensive insights into the optimal selection of network protocols for various IoT applications, it primarily focuses on popular technologies and does not account for emerging technologies.

Energy consumption analytical modeling of NB-IoT devices for diverse IoT applications

Internet of things (IoT) has been employed in recent years across multiple disciplines in the Fifth Generation (5G) era. The low power consumption of the devices allows long battery lifetimes with increasing wireless coverage ranges. This paper presents a comprehensive power consumption model for battery lifetime estimation in narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), which is based on the user equipment (UE) state diagram and considers the extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) and power saving mode (PSM) mechanisms. This model has been used to simulate the effect of varying NB-IoT link parameters, covering a range of values defined in the specification, corresponding to a wide range of applications. Indeed, this study focuses on mathematical analysis of UE power consumption, mainly for NB-IoT communication applications. Repetitions, as defined in the standard, have also been considered in the analysis. Extensive simulations have been carried out to show the power of the proposed model, which provides accurate results for a wide variety of network parameters and let the network designer to select the most appropriated setup. They also show that the value of link parameters must be carefully selected to achieve a battery lifetime of more than a decade with a standard battery of 5 Wh capacity.

A Miniaturized Differentially Fed Patch Antenna Based on Capacitive Slots

This letter presents a novel miniaturized differentially fed patch antenna. The antenna works in half-mode by loading shorting pins on one edge of the patch. Two shorted patches are separated by a slot with an interdigital structure and differentially fed by two probes on the opposite sides. Both the two feed probes are close to the short-circuit edge of the patch. Two parasitic shorted strips with pins are placed near the other two opposite sides of two patches for miniaturizing the antenna size. The odd–even mode theory is used to investigate the miniaturization mechanism of the capacitive slot and guide the design. In addition, the slow-wave effect of the interdigital structure can further miniaturize the antenna size. The simulated results show that the electrical size of the antenna is only 0.094 × 0.094 × 0.012 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">${\rm{\lambda }}_{0}^{3}$</tex-math></inline-formula> , which has about a 90.6% size reduction with respect to the conventional square patch antenna. An antenna at S-band is fabricated and measured to verify the feasibility of the design, which is suitable for narrowband Internet of Things applications.

A Dual-Band 47-dB Dynamic Range 0.5-dB/Step DPA with Dual-Path Power-Combining Structure for NB-IoT.

This paper presents a digital power amplifier (DPA) with a 43-dB dynamic range and 0.5-dB/step gain steps for a narrow-band Internet of Things (NBIoT) transceiver application. The proposed DPA is implemented in a dual-band architecture for both the low band and high band of the frequency coverage in an NBIoT application. The proposed DPA is implemented in two individual paths, power amplification, and power attenuation, to provide a wide range when both paths are implemented. To perform the fine control over the gain steps, ten fully differential cascode power amplifier cores, in parallel with a binary sizing, are used to amplify power and enable signals and provide fine gain steps. For the attenuation path, ten steps of attenuated signal level are provided which are controlled with ten power cores, similar to the power amplification path in parallel but with a fixed, small size for the cores. The proposed implementation is finalized with output custom-made baluns at the output. The technique of using parallel controlled cores provides a fine power adjustability by using a small area on the die where the NBIoT is fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS technology. Experimental results show a dynamic range of 47 dB with 0.5-dB fine steps are also available.

Power efficiency enhancement analysis of an inverse class D power amplifier for NB-IoT applications

The power amplifiers (PAs) are generally the most power-consuming building blocks in Radio Frequency (RF) transceivers. This paper presents a high efficiency fully integrated inverse class D power amplifier for the narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) applications. In this design, the PA's power added efficiency (PAE) is improved by inserting two auxiliary PMOS transistors into the conventional topology of class D−1 PA, and the chip area is reduced by proper selection of the RF choke. An on-chip balun is designed to combine the output power of the two transistors, while its primary equivalent inductor resonates with a capacitor at the fundamental frequency. Based on simulation results, the proposed PA achieves 16.5 dBm output power with a peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 51.3%, while operating from a 1-V supply. Moreover, the proposed PA demonstrates the power gain of 21.6 dB and drain efficiency of 57% at the frequency band of 1.85–1.91 GHz. By using 180 nm TSMC technology, the proposed PA occupies a total chip area of 1.19 mm2 (0.85 mm × 1.4 mm), including pads.

NB-IoT Application on Decision Support System of Building Information Management

Internet of Things (IoT) is a popular system architecture for monitoring application such as building, industrial or environment. IoT system produces amount of data that is difficult for operator to process. Decision support system is an information that assists the system administrator to decide a decision when facing a problem. Moreover, the common wireless communication technology to build the IoT system is Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth that have weakness in the coverage area. The weak signals were usually found when implement in smart building application. In this research, we applied Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) to create a building information management system as well as used Support Vector Machine (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) to build the decision support system for building information management. The proposed system was applied in a building which has basement, first floor, and second floor. Each floor was installed end node which consist of sensors, esp-32 and M3510 (NB). Those are three kinds of nodes function in our proposes system, (1) nodes for building, (2) nodes for equipment, and (3) nodes for human activity. The sensors array for node building are placed on windows, doors and glass wall. The human activity nodes recorded from sensor on front door, Passive Infrared sensors and sensor on back door. For equipment management, sensors were placed to monitor pump and water level. The Decision System in this research was built by using the SVM and KNN. Both of SVM and KNN analyzed and decided the decisions based on data from end node. Based on experiment, the proposed NB-IoT design was able to solve the coverage area problem by replacing the Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth. The sensor measurements were perfectly transmitted through NB-IoT and completely recorded in server. The proposed system was work perfectly to monitor, record and classify the normal and abnormal condition when received the alert information from conventional monitoring system. The accuracy of proposed SVM and KNN methods are 96.9% and 94.1%, respectively. The SVM performance is higher than KNN.

NB-IoTtalk: A Service Platform for Fast Development of NB-IoT Applications

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is considered as a promising wireless communications technology for Internet of Things (IoT) especially for the outdoor environment. Many outdoor IoT applications involve large numbers of homogeneous NB-IoT devices. It is tedious to specify and accommodate these devices during application development. To resolve this issue, this paper proposes a service platform for fast development of NB-IoT applications called NB-IoTtalk. This platform utilizes a tag mechanism to provide an easy-to-manipulate graphical user interface to accommodate a large number of NB-IoT devices in an application and transparently show them in a visual map. Our approach automatically creates and parses the device profile used to interpret the payload of an NB-IoT message. We then use a smart parking lot application as an example to investigate the event-triggered reporting of NB-IoT in terms of the time-to-live (TTL) report frequency and the outage detection accuracy. This paper provides the guidelines to set the TTL interval for event-triggered NB-IoT applications.