LoRA, LTE-M, NB-IoT and mMTC

Course outline : Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology emerged as a term in 2013 not as a new technology standard, but rather as a class of wireless technologies that are well suited to the specific needs of machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT devices. The majority of IoT devices do not require the same speed and bandwidth of consumer cellular devices. However, they do require the longevity of traditional LTE cellular networks. LPWA technology gained prominence as the preferred choice for IoT applications in 2015 when the GSMA wireless industry association defined a series of LPWA Network (LPWAN) standards to help network operators meet the specific cost, coverage and power consumption needs of IoT applications. These standards included LTE-M and NB-IoT. Simultaneously, the LoRa Alliance was formed to strengthen another emerging LPWAN technology adding another wireless connectivity option for low bandwidth, low latency IoT applications.
The goal of this seminar is to introduce these LoRa (Long Range Wide Area), LTE-M (LTE for Machines) and NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) LPWA technologies with their technical characteristics, features, constrains worldwide deployment and plays. These technologies are also compared to understand their domains of application. Strategy of mobile service providers for the deployment of these LPWA technologies is also explained. Examples of IoT service platforms are also presented. The course also introduces the future of IoT in 5G system with two network slices : mMTC (Massive Machine Type Communication) and HMTC (High Performance Machine Type Communication)

1. LPWA technologies (Sigfox, LoRa, LTE-M, NB-IOT) comparison
1.1. LPWA definition
1.2. Technical characteristics, features, constraints
1.3. Device/module view : price, maturity
1.4. Worldwide deployment and players

2. LoRa in detail
2.1. Use cases
2.2. End to end network architecture
2.3. Features
2.4. Characteristics
2.5. Constraints
2.6. Market ecosystem (players, worldwide deployments, etc)
2.7. LoRa at MNO
2.7.1. Offers in Business Unit / roadmap

3. LTE-M in detail
3.1. Use cases
3.2. End to end network architecture
3.3. Features
3.4. Characteristics
3.5. Constraints
3.6. Market ecosystem (players, worldwide deployments, etc)

4. NB-IoT in detail
4.1. Use cases
4.2. End to end network architecture
4.3. Features
4.4. Characteristics
4.5. Constraints
4.6. Market ecosystem (players, worldwide deployments, etc)

5. IoT service platforms
5.1. IoT platform market
5.1.1. Platform typology/taxonomy
5.1.2. Market vision : big players, telcos approach
5.2. Examples of IoT service platforms

6. mMTC/hMTC in detail
6.1. 5G System (5GS) overview
6.2. IoT Slices in 5GS : mMTC and hMTC
6.3. mMTC features and comparison with LTE-M/NB-IoT
6.4. hMTC features
6.5. Interworking between mMTC and LTE-M/NB-IoT