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19 cellular networks because leasing space on a tower is not always necessary as with cellular, and it covers wide geographical areas. What it comes down to, whether in residential, home automation, or industrial applications, is the application itself. LPWANs offer capabilities similar to cellular networks, such as carrier-grade security and mandatory features, and are likely cost-competitive. Early research estimates are that LPWANs can address approximately half of IoT use cases. While 5G realities may push cellular to an even greater IoT presence, LPWANs can still play, especially on a competitive-pricing basis. The Cellular IoT Evolution LTE is the basis of the cellular industry's IoT approach—not only building on it but also refining it along the way, while lowering complexity as well as costs. As IoT applications increase, the anticipation of 5G and its IoT focus is now within reach. The most recent release of cellular industry standards in Release 13 is a precursor to what will usher in 5G. Implementation of these standards will take place below 1GHz, a level conducive to long- range and building penetration. Release 13 standards will also include long battery life based on a power saving mode, shared carrier capacity, and the adoption of more advanced coding and increasing signals' spectral density. • LTE-M, also called Enhanced Machine Type Communication (eMTC) and LTE Cat-M, evolved from the LTE standard in Release 12 with further advances, including less power to operate and enabling IoT device operation for 10-plus years in a broad range of applications. It features a host of important benefits including security, cost advantages, and data integrity. • NB-IoT, or Cat-M2, is a narrowband version of LTE for IoT, as a part of Release 13. While NB-IoT may have a high upfront cost, it may be a low-cost option in the long run. It eliminates the need for a gateway and has limited data rates that enable multiple simultaneous uplinks. Leading to the 5G, it's the most advanced cellular standard dedicated to the IoT. • EC-GSM-IoT (Extended Capacity (EC) Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) for IoT), a variation of GSM optimized for IoT in Release 13, features enhanced data rates and compatibility with legacy GSM technology. EC-GSM- IoT represents the wireless protocol in use by 80 percent of smartphones worldwide. • Standardized in 2019 or 2020, 5G is expected to deliver enhancements to NB-IoT and EC-GSM-IoT. Expectations are that it will provide a new infrastructure and design with inherent capabilities, offering new low-cost services, low-energy consumption, reliability, security, and scalability—all important for an IoT implementation. The cellular technology evolution initially involved a move from Release 8, which offered peak downlink rates to 150Mbps and required data rates to fall to 150kbps in narrowband-IoT to meet IoT requirements. The same was true for channel bandwidths of user equipment, which declined from a maximum of 18MHz in Release 8 to 180kHz in narrowband-IoT. Another important consideration was modem complexity (which decreased by 85 percent over time). In short, the evolution of cellular technology to meet the needs of the IoT has been the opposite of what the industry hopes it will achieve in 5G for traditional voice and data services Specification Release 8 Cat. 4 Release 8 Cat.1 Release 13 Cat. 1 (eMTC, LTE-M) Release 13 Cat. NB1 (NB-IoT) Peak download rate 150Mbps 10Mbps 1Mbps 170kbps User device receive (channel) bandwidth 1 to 18MHz 1 to 18MHz 1.08MHz 180kHz Maximum user device transmit power (dBm) 23 23 20/23 20/23 Modem complexity (%) 100 (baseline) 80 20 15 Instead of following the trends of the past, the industry's plan for 5G is to reduce data rates and simplify the complexity of cellular IoT networks and their components. The LPWAN Alternative LPWAN providers rely on unlicensed, open standards such as LoRaWAN, administered by the LoRaWAN Alliance, and such proprietary solutions as Sigfox, Weightless, Nwave, and Ingenu: LoRaWAN To date, LoRaWAN has achieved broad industry acceptance with more than 400 alliance members. The acceptance means lower LoRa baseband and radio-frequency (RF) hardware costs, which have already declined more than 50 percent and the trend will likely continue. It's important to differentiate LoRa, LoRaWAN, and LinkLabs offerings: • LoRa is the open standard physical layer administered by the LoRaWAN Alliance. • LoRaWAN is the media access control layer providing networking functionality. • LinkLabs uses the Sematech LoRa chipset in the Symphony Link solution that operates without a network server. Instead, it uses an eight-channel base station operating in the 433MHz or 915MHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands Table 1: The evolution of cellular IoT technology.

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