Experimental Analysis of NB-IoT Performance

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) provides a set of specifications with the potential to support new IoT use cases within the cellular networks. In several IoT use cases, the User Equipment (UE) must be reachable even if it is deployed in remote locations or indoor environments. NB-IoT focuses on low-cost UE with lower power consumption and higher coverage requirements. In this article, we examine if the NB-IoT technology is able to fulfill its design targets considering different traffic and coverage conditions. To do that, we present an empirically based analysis of the factors that impact NB-IoT UE energy consumption and latency. The results show the targets of battery lifetime and latency can be satisfied when the UE is not in extreme coverage conditions or there is no need for extensive use of repetitions. For example, given a UE periodically sending 50 bytes UDP packets, the 10 years target is satisfied if the packets have an Inter-Arrival Time larger than 4 h, 11 h, and 68 h for the Coverage Enhancement Levels 0, 1, and 2, respectively.