BACKGROUND

Fifth generation (5G) technology aims to operationalize different wireless technologies such as millimeter wave (mW) bands, along with LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and legacy cellular standards. 5G can support applications that have never been supported before in any wireless technology, including augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), internet-of-things (IoT), device-to-device (D2D) communication, machine type communication (MTC), carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC), relay nodes, autonomous cars, mission-critical applications, industry automation and control, etc.

5G will be readily used by billions of subscribers around the world that want access to voice-centric technology and rich multimedia applications, video streaming, rich Internet browsing, chatting and voice over legacy IP networks. In addition, 5G networks will need to support billions more Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) devices. NB-IoT technology is a low power, wide area network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed by 3GPP to enable a wide range of devices and services. NB-IoT devices have low-complexity, low power consumption, low data rates, use limited bandwidth, extended coverage, and low hardware cost. Some NB-IoT devices have no mobility support.

NB-IoT devices can independently operate in licensed or unused bands of a 5G network and/or by using specific resource blocks allocated by base stations for NB-IoT communications. NB-IoT technology has a core protocol stack and can perform operations that are defined by 3GPP specifications. Examples of NB-IoT applications include smart metering (e.g., electricity, gas, water metering) for commercial services, intruder and fire alarms for homes and other properties for emergency services, and personal applications for measuring health parameters, tracking people, animals, or objects for non-commercial services. Other examples include smart city infrastructures such as smart lamps and connected industrial applications such as welding machines or air compressors.

