February 29, 2016

If connectivity is the key that unlocks the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), the importance of 3GPP Release 13 should not be underestimated.

This notion was underlined by the recent GSMA IoT Initiative meeting - held during the Mobile World Congress – where speakers expressed appreciation for the work that has been successfully coordinated in 3GPP, to help avoid market fragmentation and to accelerate the IoT market.

The 3GPP RAN Chairman - Dino Flore – delivered a status report to the meeting, guiding attendees through the three headline technologies being specified:

• eMTC – delivering further LTE enhancements for Machine Type Communications, building on the work that started in Release-12 (UE Cat 0, new power saving mode)
• NB-IOT - a new radio added to the LTE platform, optimized for the low end of the market
• EC-GSM-IoT – bringing EGPRS enhancements, which in combination with Power Save Mode (PSM) makes GSM/EDGE systems IoT ready.

Dino Flore’s presentation gave an introduction to this IoT ‘portfolio of technologies’, going in to the objectives and features that each possess.

Further Reading:

• Standardization of NB-IOT completed - June 22, 2016 - Last week 3GPP completed the standardization of NB-IOT, the new narrowband radio technology developed for the Internet-of-Things (IoT).
• 3GPP IoT Standardization Status (November 2015) - 3GPP GERAN WG3 Chairman Rémi Lascoux
• IoT Standards Part II: 3GPP Standards, by Sami TABBANE (ITU training, 2018)

• All roads lead to IoT, from GERAN to RAN (January 2016)

Contact for this article: Kevin FLYNN, Marketing and Communications Officer, 3GPP