Today, I am coming to "blow NB". Well, the title has been spoiled. This NB is NB-IoT.
In the past year or so, NB-IoT can really be said to be a big red. In the communication circle, in addition to 5G, it means the Internet of Things. If the Internet of Things, eight achievements are talking about NB-IoT.
In the current 5G has not come, NB-IoT is basically leading the way, the scenery is infinite.
The major exhibitions will definitely not lose its presence.
So, what exactly is this NB-IoT? What are the advantages? What can I do?
With these questions, today, Xiaozaojun will come and sigh with you.
Before we specifically talk about NB-IoT, let's talk about IoT without "NB".
What is IoT
As we all know, after the continuous development of 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, and the widespread popularity of smart phones, we have basically realized the connection between people anytime and anywhere.
From the early telegraphs, to the later calls and text messages, and now to the instant delivery of pictures, audio, video and other multimedia, our communication technology has been very powerful.
Connected between people
So, is communication enough to the present level, is that enough? Is it up to the top?
Obviously not.
Human pursuit of technology and pursuit of life will not stop there. Technology has the potential to be tapped and demand is constantly emerging.
Be sure to meet your needs.
If there is no demand, create one.
- Xiaozao Junsky
Driven by the business, the communication manufacturers will continue to take out new ideas and lift the appetite of the users to obtain orders.
If there are no new things, what does communication Wang rely on to make money and support the family?
So where is the new demand point? Where is the next road?
The communicator shifted his gaze from the "person" to the "thing".
Since people are already finished. Next, let's connect with things? Connect all the objects to the network.
So, the Internet of Things was born.
Internet of Things (IoT, Internet of Things)
A network of people communicating with each other is called a human network.
A network that communicates between things, called the Internet of Things.
Speaking of it, it's that simple.
But, you said that even if you have a connection, what good is it?
This advantage is really big.
Imagine these scenarios:
If all the cars are connected, is automatic driving achieved? The path, distance, and speed will be coordinated between the car and the car, and the car accident will never happen again.
If all the home appliances are connected to the Internet, and they are controlled at any time, if they have not arrived home, they will first turn on the air conditioner and water heater. If they go out and forget to turn off the lights, they can turn off the lights remotely and remotely monitor them. Is it more convenient and safe?
Even animals, if all the rare wild animals in the reserve are connected, can scientists more easily detect their state of life and better protect and study?
This is only a small part! In fact, as long as you use your brain, all kinds of ideas are simply a source!
The application scenarios of the Internet of Things are far more than these
This is equivalent to digging into a “big gold mine†with enormous commercial and social value.
If you want to know more about NB-IOT more specific applications, it is recommended to participate in the EETOP Internet of Things Ecological Development Forum (Shenzhen Station) held in Shenzhen on April 18th.
According to forecasts, in 2020, the number of “terminal connections†will reach 50 billion, and the number of “connections†will reach four times that of “number of connectionsâ€.
Not to mention the size of the market, it is predicted that the global Internet of Things market will reach 19 trillion in 2025! And it is the dollar!
Such a big piece of cake is a lifeline for the growing communications industry. How can communication companies let go?
As a result, the entire industry is like a chicken, and they have begun to embrace the Internet of Things.
NB-IoT and LPWAN
The Internet of Things is not really a new concept. Many years ago, people came up with the Internet of Things. Moreover, for many years, the Internet of Things has been quietly developing.
In 1995, Bill Gates’s book The Road to the Future mentioned the Internet of Things.
However, for technical reasons, what has been developed in the past is the WLAN Internet of Things. As you can see from the name, WLAN=Wireless LAN is a kind of IoT network with a small coverage.
WLAN Internet of Things, represented by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-wave and other technologies.
This kind of WLAN Internet of Things cannot fully meet the requirements of the industrial applications mentioned above.
Speaking of this, Xiaozaojun wants to ask everyone a question:
For you, what are the characteristics of the network that you care about?
I think, the first thing you think of is speed (network speed).
When you use your mobile phone to surf the Internet, of course you want to be fast. At present, our mainstream communication standard, LTE, has reached a theoretical speed of 300Mbps. Of course, the actual experience speed is far from reaching. However, under normal circumstances, this speed can meet most of our current work and life needs (playing games, watching videos).
In addition to speed, is there anything else?
There is. For example, power consumption, coverage, cost, and number of connections.
The first three are well understood, power consumption affects standby time, coverage affects signal quality, and cost affects usage costs. The number of connections is the number of terminals. For the Internet, it is the number of mobile phones. Simply put, it is how many communication terminals each cell can accommodate.
These indicators, the requirements of the human network and the Internet of Things are completely different.
Some indicators can be tolerated for the Internet, but for the Internet of Things, it is likely to be fatal.
For example, power consumption, if your phone consumes a lot of power, it will not be a big charge. However, for smart water meters, if the power consumption is large, change the battery every day, can you eat it? Change once a month, water plants and water plant workers will collapse?
NB-IoT IoT Water Meter
The Internet of Things is very sensitive to several indicators of power consumption, coverage, and number of connections. For speed, most IoT applications are not sensitive. (You think, copy a meter reading, report the position latitude and longitude, can have a few bytes? How much bandwidth does it need?)
Back to the topic, the WLAN Internet of Things is mainly limited by coverage and power consumption.
Thus, the concept of LPWAN was proposed.
LPWAN, Low Power Wide Area Network, low power WAN. The name has two of its most important features: low power consumption, wide coverage.
As for the speed, the requirements are not high enough to be enough.
Compared to other network types (WLAN, 2/3/4G), the positioning of LPWAN is completely different, as shown in the following figure.
LPWAN emphasizes coverage, the rate of sacrifice is the rate
There is also a name called LPWAN called cellular Internet of Things. The name also embodies the commonality between it and the 2/3/4G cellular communication technology, which is provided by a base station or similar device.
Cellular communication network
The LPWAN Internet of Things also includes many technical standards. Currently more mainstream are: NB-IoT, LoRa, Sigfox, eMTC.
Well, yes, our NB-IoT is one of them. The full name is Narrow Band IoT, which is a narrowband Internet of Things (narrow bandwidth, slow speed).
These technical standards are proposed by different manufacturers or communication organizations. The Internet of Things market is very big, and everyone wants to share a piece of it.
LPWAN is still in a melee state as a whole.
In the constant game and competition process, NB-IoT stands out and is in a leading position.
Can be equal to NB-IoT, is eMTC, English full name is a bit long, is enhanced machine type of communication, enhanced machine type communication. However, eMTC and NB-IoT have different application scenarios, and eMTC is suitable for IoT applications that require speed and bandwidth. For reasons of space, I will not introduce it in depth.
For LoRa and Sigfox, because of the spectrum, the competition is more disadvantageous:
LPWAN technical standard comparison
What is the spectrum? Simple to understand, is the lane above the highway. Whether there is a legal lane of your own, of course, will affect the future of fate. LoRa and Sigfox do not have their own dedicated frequency bands in China, which is inherently insufficient.
If you want to know more about NB-IOT more specific applications, it is recommended to participate in the EETOP Internet of Things Ecological Development Forum (Shenzhen Station) held in Shenzhen on April 18th.
Development of NB-IoT
As the protagonist of this article, we will focus on NB-IoT.
NB-IoT is currently very competitive among several major standards, especially in our country, which is highly sought after.
There are many reasons why it is so hot.
First of all, it is indeed a very NB technology.
In terms of several indicators of the communication network we just mentioned, NB-IoT excels in other aspects besides the rate.
In terms of power consumption, NB-IoT sacrificed the rate but switched back to lower power consumption. The simplified protocol and more suitable design greatly improve the standby time of the terminal. Some NB terminals have a standby time of 10 years!
In terms of signal coverage, NB-IoT has better coverage (20dB gain), even if your water meter is buried under the manhole cover, it will not affect the signal transmission and reception.
In terms of the number of connections, each cell can support 50,000 terminals, which is quite awkward. Even if the community squeezes 50,000 pigs, it is easy to monitor each head.
The most important, the cost price. If you are a cow, if the cost is high, the price will not be affordable. It is also no good. The cost of the NB-IoT communication module is very low, and each module is expected to be pressed to within $5 or even lower, which is conducive to mass purchase and use.
In short, the characteristics of NB-IoT are: eating less, using less, being able to work, not paying attention... really a standard model worker...
In addition to its own advantages, the popularity of NB-IoT has a lot to do with the backing behind it.
Its backing is the No.1 in today's communications equipment vendors -
In recent years, Huawei has been actively arranging for NB-IoT without any effort, and has been working hard to boost it.
Through the following figure, we can see the role played by Huawei in the evolution of the NB standard.
Take the phone, please turn to the phone. The computer can only look at the neck.
In addition to Huawei, operators are also very popular with NB-IoT.
Because NB-IoT is a network for operators, unlike a network like LoRa, it is an independent network. To use the NB-IoT terminal, the carrier's NB-IoT network must be used. In this case, operators are of course actively promoting NB-IoT.
More importantly, the government strongly supports the development of the NB-IoT network. To this end, it has also issued a number of documents, designated to allocate special spectrum, and promote the standardization of industry standards.
Even mobile operators that do not have FDD-LTE licenses (NB-IoT only supports FDD-LTE), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has granted the right to use FDD-LTE for NB-IoT. (It can be seen that the government is quite "eccentric" to NB-IoT.)
Huawei + major operators + government, such a strong background, NB-IoT is not difficult to think of it!
At present, the three major domestic operators have launched their own NB-IoT commercial network, established a large number of NB-IoT base stations, and also announced tariff standards and packages.
However, although the NB-IoT is very strong, it is unlikely that it will dominate the world.
Because of the different application scenarios, the technical requirements of the Internet of Things will continue to diversify. In other words, the future of the Internet of Things, must be the coexistence of a variety of technical standards, combined to play a role, it is impossible to be a complete monopoly.
Shenzhen Ruidian Technology CO., Ltd , https://www.wisonens.com