NB-IoT Technology

Insights
For Partner Markets
July 2017

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So far so good!

• Jun’16: NB-IoT 3GPP spec ready

• Sep’16: World First NB-IoT call in Spain

• Jan’17: 1st NB-IoT Commercial Network with the Huawei

E2E in Spain

NB-IoT Vodafone Test device

• Mar’17: 1st NB-IoT call with Ericsson and the central
Affirmed core in Ireland

• May’17: Mar’17 3GPP spec deployed. Commercial network

stable
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NB-IoT is Vodafone main option from all those available for LPWA
More Battery Life, More Coverage, Lower Speed & Lower cost modules
High
Requirement LPWA: LPWA:
Performance Basic M2M
Category Relaxed Full Capability
M2M
GSM
2G EC-GSM
Evolution
3G
Technology LTE Cat 4
Solutions LTE Cat1
CAT-M (or LTE-M/LTE-eMTC) LTE Evolution
Existing M2M technology
NB-IoT
Licensed 3GPP M2M Technology in Rel. 13
Unlicensed Alternative Technology
SigFox Unlicensed
LORA/Semtech
+ many others

NB-IoT work item in 3GPP was started in Sept’15, completed by Jun’16, enhanced in Mar’17
LPWA: Low Power Wide Area
NB-IoT: Narrow Band Internet of Things

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Over 1000 NB-IoT calls from Oct’16 in the last 4 months using a
Huawei E2E to plot coverage in water meter company locations
• Location: Moncada (Spain) – 5 commercial sites.

• 800 LTE In-Band. 9 dB power boosting vs LTE on the RS (2x37W for

LTE with 2x2 MIMO, 2x3W for NB-IoT with 2T1R)

• Huawei E2E solution with RAN and C-SGN

• 174 static locations, 41 from Aguas de Valencia (AdV)

• 2 NB-IoT devices used:

AdV Locations

Other L800 sites

without NB-IoT Vodafone test device Huawei Test device
ISD ≈1500m Trial area in Vodafone Spain Neul/U-Blox Neul/Quectel
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 NB-IoT trial results in Moncada with AdV are showing over 99,9%
success rate
Stability test results with AdV in phase 2 (Moncada) • New B656 SW from Neul dropped the chip issues to 0
while testing in the trial area (Moncada)
100,00% 99,66% 100,00% 99,80% 100,00% 99,82% 100,00% 100,00%
100%
90% 97,56% 98,64% 99,80% 98,56% 98,57% 99,25% 99,05% • 3GPP non-backwards compatible CRs already
80% introduced in Vodafone Spain and working stable
70% 76,87%
60% Test Core environment maintenance
50% • Over 50 AdV locations working with NB-IoT since May
40% 15th
30% UL Packet Success Rate (%)
20%
UL Retransmission Rate/DL Packet Success Rate (%)
10% • Aggregated uplink success rate over the 97% target
0% on the 1st attempt, 99,9% after retransmissions
Note: Test profile sending/receiving automatically 100 bytes on each
device every hour in the uplink and downlink
Note: only 8 days showed here for simplicity. Similar daily values up now

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 In-band: Cell Edge +20dB is a challenge in a multi-cell cluster
NB-IoT coverage gain vs signal quality and interference
• 100% NB-IoT Success in 41 Water Company
X = no 2G coverage (AdV) locations, LTE 18% failure.
AdV Location Good Medium Cell Edge Cell Edge Cell Edge • 19% AdV locations benefit from NB-IOT
30 + 10dB + 20dB
distribution
Signal to interference/Noise Ratio (SINR) (dB)

27% 29% 25% 13% 6%

25

20 NB-IoT adds coverage 900m

value here
15
• 900 m far from antenna
10 • 2m hole underground
AdV - Indoor • No LTE service
5 • > 20dB coverage vs GSM
Street - Outdoor
0

-5
Worse coverage +20dB is achievable
in multi-cell only if the downlink
-10 NB-IOT works well above this line interference is not the limiting factor,
-12dB i.e., similar to a single cell case. The
-15
average UL/DL throughput are 200 and
380bps, on target.
Coverage Level Gain vs GSM
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 Cell Edge +20dB has been achieved in 2 live scenarios where LTE could
not reached
AdV Location 1 (Moncada)
900m
• 900 m far from antenna
• 2m hole underground
• No LTE service
• > 20dB coverage vs GSM
Note: yellow dots represent messages
ISD ≈1500m on the call flow
Coverage - RSRP (dBm) Quality - SINR (dB)
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Parking Corazon de Maria, 48 (Madrid)
• 300m far from antenna
• 4 floors underground
300m • 327 parking spaces,48 tested
• > 20dB coverage vs GSM
• 90% NB-IoT, 31% LTE
• NB-IoT partial service at floor #4
• Each floor adding ≈10dB loss
ISD ≈600m
Floor Coverage - RSRP (dBm)
 Beyond +10dB there´s an extra battery impact in devices due to
multiple data repetitions needed in the interfered environment

100 Byte delivery average Time (s) • When the device wakes up in the same cell (after PSM),
the delivery time is only dependent on the coverage
2G Coverage 43,1 level (repetitions)
Reference X = no 2G coverage

Good Cell Edge Cell Edge Cell Edge • If the device wakes up in a new cell (after PSM), the
+ 10dB + 20dB
24,5
delivery time is mostly dependent on the re-sync
Beyond 10 Secs Æ Battery Impact vs process which takes up to 5s
Target 10years 16,5
14,8 13,8
10,8 • The power-On process is the most timing consuming
6,8 7,9
4,0
6,3 4,9 action due to the security and core attach requirement
2,5
Delivery time including Network sync and data delivery through RRC setup process in DoNAS
Repetitions CC0/CC1/CC2: PDCCH = 8/16/32 or 128, PDSCH = 1/8/16 or 128, PUSCH = 1/2/32
From Wake Up (Same Cell) From Wake Up (New cell) From Power ON Timers to be extended in MME and RAN to reach max coverage level vs BAU

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 How much and often data is sent and where the device is located
determine whether the battery life can work up to 10 years
Battery life (in years) sending 100 bytes/day Battery contributors at +0dB (left) and 20dB (right)

19,3
17,9 RRC release Idle
RRC release Idle
1% 3%
0% 2%
Rx in Scan (same
12,7 connected
Deep sleep cell)
Rx in 15% 1%
22%
9,6 connected
27% Deep sleep Scan (cell
40% change)
4%
RRC
RRC Setup 100B Request
100B Delivery 5% delivery 8%
7% Scan (same 39%
RRC Requestcell) RRC Setup
7% 7% Scan (no cell 9%
Good Cell-edge (+0dB) Deep coverage Extreme coverage change)
Assumptions: (+10dB) (+20dB) 3%
• Battery power: 5200 mWh (2xAA) Consumption source: UBlox
• Voltage: 3.6V Data delivery consumption critical with +20dB. Deep
• Inactivity timer: 5s. 20s would drop the battery life 30-50%. Idle time: 4s sleep and Rx in connected critical at other levels
• No cell change in idle (-4% in case of cell change)
• No battery self discharge, no processor, 100% efficiency, no SIM access

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 The NB-IoT device is key on delivering NB-IoT targets. Vodafone needs
to ensure a correct certification process to avoid service quality impact
30
Antenna Sensor / Actor Applications Configuration Firmware
Vodafone test device
25
Signal to interference/Noise Ratio (SINR (dB)

RF port
20
?
15 ?
UICC

10

5 Battery Enclosure Board Module Chipset

RF port
0

-5 Huawei test device The Vodafone test device has a lower access
performance from cell edge +10dB due to self-
-10
interference caused by module/antenna
-15 interactions
-20

Coverage Level Gain vs GSM

We may need external antennas to reach the maximum coverage gain capability NB-IoT can deliver
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 Guard-band deployment in L800 can help on improving the coverage
targets and gap in performance due to interference

180 KHz NB-IoT Carrier 9 Easy and fast deployment

“In Band”
9 Very scalable on capacity
CURRENT × It requires 1:1 NB-IoT deployment on L800 due to
LTE carrier adjacent carrier and inter-symbol interference
× It reduces LTE capacity

9 It minimizes any interference coming from LTE cells

“Guard Band”
THE 9 It does not require a 1:1 deployment so overall
EVOLUTION LTE carrier interference may be reduced by deploying less cells
9 It does not reduce LTE capacity
× 2 NB-IoT Carriers on this deployment mode max

We will trial guard –band with different LTE800: NB-IoT deployment ratios from Jun’17

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 NB-IoT commercial use cases are starting from June 2017
• Commercial pilots starting from
June 2017: water meters, gas
meters; movement, humidity, fire
or vibration detectors; container
trackers, dash buttons, smart-
parking solutions

VF-TK ‘remote monitoring solution’ for Siemens Healthcare

Dash button Suitcase tracker Water/gas meters Temperature, Humidity and battery meter with Vodafone test device

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IoT status in a nutshell

‰ Spanish Testing Conclusions:

• NB-IoT in water meters PoC had a 100% service success rate vs 82% in LTE.
• Spanish commercial network stable: 99.9% service success rate measured with a water
company.
• +20dB extended coverage vs GSM is a challenge in In-Band configuration.
• In extreme conditions we need best-in-class devices.

‰ Next steps:
• Guard-band trial to see performance without In-Band Interference from June.
• Finish Ericsson and Nokia NB-IoT trials with extended coverage
• CAT-M technology can complement NB-IoT. CAT-M will be trialled in Spain from June.
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Cat-M and NB-IoT technology coexistence
• NB-IoT is suitable for any LPWA use case. CAT-M will complement NB-IoT offering voice,
mobility and enhanced throughput but with less coverage
• The minimum RAN SW level is: Ericsson: MI17.Q3; Huawei: SRAN12.1; Nokia: FDD-LTE17A
• Based on the implementation of NB-IoT/CAT-M in a L800 cell, there is an impact on the LTE
radio interface:
Service Downlink Uplink
NB-IoT In-Band -6% -11%
NB-IoT Guard-Band 0% 0%
CAT-M no load -3% 0%
CAT-M maximum traffic ‐11% ‐7%

• CAT-M requires an upgrade of the local EPC/C-SGN and/or VF Group IoT platform depending
on the architecture defined and services provided

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 NB-IoT is suitable for any LPWA use case. CAT-M may complement NB-
IoT offering voice and enhanced throughput with less coverage
CAT-M can address 81% of Group Enterprise LPWA CAT-M can deliver enhanced throughput in
current use cases, whilst NB-IoT can address 100% good radio conditions compared to NB-IoT

2G Coverage X = no 2G coverage
Cell Edge (0dB) Reference
19% 17% Good Cell Edge Cell Edge Cell Edge
+ 10dB + 20dB
375
Higher throughput = lower message latency
10dB Extended 64
Coverage Uplink
18
10
17
10
throughput 2 2
20dB Extended (kbps) 1

64% Coverage 0,2 0,2

x
Cat-M1 Cat-NB1 MultiTone Cat-NB1 Single Tone
Source: Global Enterprise and Networks CoE - Strategy
(1.4MHz) (200kHz) (200kHz)
4
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 NB-IoT is best for long life, infrequent messaging LPWA use cases,
and CAT-M is best for wearable / real-time voice IoT applications
Drive wearable and real-time voice IoT towards Drive LPWA use cases onto NB-IoT
the use of CAT-M (e.g. smart meters)
(e.g. voice capable / wearables/ Current 2G/3G IoT solutions)

CAT-M Target Application Characteristics: NB-IoT Application Characteristics :

• Real-time voice requirement
• Instantaneous and frequent messaging requirement
• Typical throughputs of 375kbps (peaks up to 800kbps) in
good conditions ..suited to large firmware updates
• Does not require +20dB extra coverage
• Does not required 10 year battery life
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• No real-time voice required
• Infrequent periodic messaging (few messages per day)
• Low throughput requirement (<200kbps) – minimal
firmware requirement
• Requires +20dB extra coverage
• Long battery life (up to 10 years)
 CAT-M technology to be trialled with Huawei and Qualcomm in Spain
from June
SRAN12.1 Current release Commercial
LAB OSS Test HSS
OSS Legacy EPC
Leganes
Test
SRAN12.1GA Apr’17 S1 + S1 Lite S6a
LTE
CAT-M
eNB Sec_GW Trial Core
NB-IoT NB-IoT Milan
SGi
CAT-M 6 Sites Server
LTE CAT1 Bilbao
CAT-M Trial layout

• Max 6 week trial in 6 commercial sites using Qualcomm (EVKs) and Quectel&Telit modules (CAT-M + NB-
IoT + 2G in same chip) against Huawei E2E
• Scope includes CAT-M/NB-IoT coverage, throughput, delays and radio signal quality comparison
• Voice under discussion
• Risk: Detected impact on some LTE devices based on Hi Silicon and Mediatek chip when activating CAT-
M (L800 coverage loss): 14% of LTE devices aprox in Vodafone Spain

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 CAT-M could be provided either over local EPC/C-SGN and/or VF Group
IoT equipment upgrade. Architecture is pending on key decisions
Local EPC/IoT
LTE
Network
Architecture impacting key decisions:
Current local EPC
1. How to meet Lawful Interception local
CAT-M1
eNB CAT-M & NB-IoT local requirements at IoT world
Core

2. Enterprise and Consumer IoT commercial

eNB strategy, use cases and business models
Vodafone Group IoT
Centralised Platform
LTE 3. Commercial negotiation outcome
eNB
C-SGN

Notes: IMS features to support CAT-M voice

NB-IoT 3GPP Rel-13 Dedicated Core (DECOR) allows directing of devices to the proper network slice. Alternatives available
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Q&A
 Backup

Insert Confidentiality Level in slide footer

NB-IOT delivers
Optimised power consumption
> 10 year battery life
Limited throughput
< 200kbps
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High propagation: better coverage High end-point density Low complexity devices
X7 area
GSM
2 walls
NB IoT
$ $
Targeting modules costing a
+20dB link budget (vs GSM) >100,000 connections per cell
few $
Global standard in licensed
Bi-directional communication LTE level security
spectrum
Uplink and downlink capability Ciphering, integrity, SIM based Standardised R13 (June 16)
authentication
NB-IoT vs Non 3GPP solutions
Non 3GPP solutions NB-IoT
Low device cost
Battery life
Indoor coverage
Licensed spectrum
Latency
Standard solution
Software based upgrade
Security
Capacity
Bidirectional communications

22 25 July 2017
 LTE M2M Evolution
High Performance LPWA: LPWA:
Basic 4G M2M
4G M2M Relaxed Full Capability

Cat 3/4 Cat 1 Cat M NB-IoT

E2E Support TODAY TODAY H1/2017 H1/2017
DL/UL Rates 150Mbps/50Mbps 10Mbps/5Mbps < 1Mbps < 200kbps
Sector Capacity >200k >200k >50k >200k
Coverage -4dB GSM -4dB GSM +11dB GSM +20dB GSM
Battery 1 years today 1 years today > 10 years > 15 years
Full Duplex
Duplex Mode Full Duplex Full Duplex Half Duplex
Half Duplex (Opt)
Bandwidth ≤ 20MHz ≤ 20MHz 1.4MHz 200KHz
Device Power 23dBm 23dBm 20/23dBm 20/23dBm
Security High High High High

More Battery Life, More Coverage, Lower Speed & Lower cost modules
* Earliest date for Power Saving Mode core upgrade and new devices
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 NB-IoT E2E High Level Architecture – Centralised C-SGN

Local Market Network Centralised Network

IoT
devices
Local EPC VF Group IoT
EPC Group Core
eNdB Group Platforms
S6a CSDB GGSN
SeGW
MME HSS P-GW GDSP Customer
S/P-GW SGi Application Sw upgrade
Server
IP Transport Hw upgrade
eNdB Access Core S6a S5/S8 MSG Proxy
(BEP) (CPN) New Element
C-SGN MTC Config works
IP Transport
Lite MME NB IoT Core Server
International
eNdB (MSP/IP BB) Lite S-GW

IoT
IP Sec
90128XXXXXXXXXX
S1
IPVPN (Local) IPVPN (International)
Local IP S1-Lite Global IP
Addressing Addressing

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23/01/17: Vodafone completes (global) 1st NB-IoT commercial launch
2016 2017
Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

(19/09/16) World First NB-IoT call MWC

Vodafone NB-IoT Trials

Vodafone completes the world’s
first trial of standardised NB-IoT
on a live commercial network (23/01/17) 1st NB-IoT Commercial Network

(11/10/16) PR-Smart Parking Case

The future in our hands with the

commercial launch of NB-IoT in
Vodafone Spain
Vodafone and Huawei demonstrate
the first commercial application of
NB-IoT technology, connecting a car
park with its 4G network
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NB-IoT Solution
API Customer
Interfaces
SGi

C-SGN Central NB-IoT

Capability
Central P-GW HSS IMSI Global M2M
C-SGN Range Platform

NB-IoT NB-IoT
Local Opco
OR C-SGN Deployment

Central C-SGN platform Local C-SGN platform

NB-IoT Devices
NB-IoT reduces the complexity up 85% while providing x4 times the
coverage, an extended battery life over 10 years with a limited data rate
Technology Cat-4 Cat-1 Cat-M NB-IoT
Coverage
(Rural Range Extension)
x1 x1 x2 x4
Uplink Throughput
(Mbps in good RF conditions)
< 50 <5 <1 < 0,2
VoLTE support (yes/no) Yes Yes Yes No
Complexity Reduction
(relative to Cat-4 modem)
0% 20% 80% 85%
‘Typical’ battery-life
(years - but note use cases differ)
< 1 Year < 1 Year up to 10 years > 10 Years
Antenna’s Required
(# of antenna required)
2 2 1 1
Operation Mode
(full/Half duplex)
Full duplex Full duplex Full/Half duplex Half duplex
UE Operating Bandwidth
(Spectrum supported in MHz)
20 20 1,4 0,2
UE transmission power
(in dBms)
23 23 23/20 23
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 The NB-IoT sustainable throughputs achieved are not far from the
theoretical maximum targets but it has limited value
2G Coverage • The sustainable throughput measured is considering one
Reference X = no 2G coverage packet at MAC layer sent through all the DL/UL process
Good Cell Edge Cell Edge Cell Edge • It is not considering repetitions, overhead, or BLERs so its
21,3 21,3 21,3 + 10dB + 20dB
usage is limited, instead packet delivery delay is more valuable
THROUGHPUT VALUES ONLY GIVEN
AS REFERENCE Max DL Throughput: 680/32=21,3kbps Max (3ms, next search space)
15,6 15,6 15,6
DL 1ms 4ms 3ms 12ms 1ms

12,4 UL 23 bits 680 bits 2ms

11,5
Search space: 32ms

7,2
6,2 Single Tone Max UL Throughput: 1000/64=15,5kbps
5,0 Max (3ms, next search space)
4,2
DL 1ms 8ms 1000 bits 1ms
2,2
1,2 0,7 UL 23 bits 32ms
0,4
Search space: 64ms
Theoretical Trial Theoretical Trial
NPDCCH NPDSCH NPUSCH
DL sustainable Throughput (Kbps) UL Sustainable Throughput (Kbps)
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 NB-IoT activation puts some trade off on LTE of extra interference
and throughput loss up to 8%
What Huawei simulations say Test site is VX15V (Active test)
System Bandwidth Single UE Experienced Rate Loss KPI Item PRE POST LOSS
5 MHz 10% to 25% LTE800 AVG TH DL (10 MHz) 41.1 40.02 -2.6%
10 MHz 8% to 20%
15 MHz 5% to 15%
LTE800 AVG TH UL (10 MHz) 18.19 16.72 -8.1%

20 MHz 3% to 10% LTE800 MAX TH DL (10 MHz) 50.94 50.27 -1.3%

Typical scenario with 10 online UEs and 20% cell
load LTE800 MAX TH UL (10 MHz) 21.65 21.09 -2.6%

Impact on LTE after NB-IoT activation based on counters: +3-5dB RSSI increase on adjacent
• DL/UL average user throughput: - 3.5% LTE PRBs observed in Ericsson
RAN (TBC in Huawei)
• DL/UL average cell throughput: 2.64% in DL and 7.77% in UL
• 20% extra power consumption in the 800 band due to the LTE “power symbol feature” inefficiency
of +50%
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