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LTE-M or LTE-MTC ("Long-Term Evolution Machine Type Communication"), is a type of low-power wide-area network radio communication technology standard developed by 3GPP for machine-to-machine and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.[1][2] LTE-M includes eMTC ("enhanced Machine Type Communication"), also known as LTE Cat-M1, whose specification was frozen in 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro), in June 2016.[3]

Competing 3GPP IoT technologies include NB-IoT and EC-GSM-IoT.[4] The advantage of LTE-M over NB-IoT is its comparatively higher data rate, mobility, and voice over the network, but it requires more bandwidth, is more costly, and cannot be put into guard band portion of the frequency band for now.[5] Compared to LTE Release 12 Cat-0 modem, an LTE-M model is claimed to be 80% less expensive (in terms of the bill of materials), support up to 18 dB better coverage, and a battery lifetime that can last up to several years.[6] In March 2019, the Global Mobile Suppliers Association reported that over 100 operators had deployed/launched either NB-IoT or LTE-M networks.[7]

3GPP Narrowband Cellular Standards


[8][9] 		LTE Cat 1 LTE Cat 1 bis LTE-M NB-IoT EC-GSM-IoT
LC-LTE/MTCe eMTC
LTE Cat 0 LTE Cat M1 LTE Cat M2 non-BL LTE Cat NB1 LTE Cat NB2
3GPP release Release 8 Release 13 Release 12 Release 13 Release 14 Release 14 Release 13 Release 14 Release 13
Downlink peak rate 10 Mbit/s 10 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s ~4 Mbit/s ~4 Mbit/s 26 kbit/s 127 kbit/s 474 kbit/s (EDGE)

2 Mbit/s (EGPRS2B)

Uplink peak rate 5 Mbit/s 5 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s 1 Mbit/s ~7 Mbit/s ~7 Mbit/s 66 kbit/s (multi-tone)

16.9 kbit/s (single-tone)

159 kbit/s 474 kbit/s (EDGE)

2 Mbit/s (EGPRS2B)

Latency 50–100 ms not deployed 10–15 ms 1.6–10 s 700 ms – 2 s
Number of antennas 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1–2
Duplex mode Full duplex Full or half duplex Full or half duplex Full or half duplex Full or half duplex Half duplex Half duplex Half duplex
Device receive bandwidth 1.4–20 MHz 1.4–20 MHz 1.4 MHz 5 MHz 5 MHz 180 kHz 180 kHz 200 kHz
Receiver chains 2 (MIMO) 1 (SISO) 1 (SISO) 1 (SISO) 1 (SISO) 1 (SISO) 1 (SISO) 1–2
Device transmit power 23 dBm 23 dBm 23 dBm 20 / 23 dBm 20 / 23 dBm 20 / 23 dBm 20 / 23 dBm 14 / 20 / 23 dBm 23 / 33 dBm

Deployments

As of March 2019 the Global Mobile Suppliers Association had identified:[7]

As of February 2022, GSMA had listed LTE-M as being launched on 60 commercial networks.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ "LTE-M – the new GSM".
  2. ^ "eMTC (LTE Cat-M1)".
  3. ^ "Standards for the IoT".
  4. ^ "Extended Coverage - GSM - Internet of Things (EC-GSM-IoT)". gsma.com. GSMA. May 11, 2016. p. 1. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  5. ^ "Differences between NB-IOT and LTE-M". 3 May 2018.
  6. ^ Saxena, Vidit; Bergman, Johan; Blankenship, Yufei; Wallen, Anders; Razaghi, Hazhir Shokri (2016). "Reducing the Modem Complexity and Achieving Deep Coverage in LTE for Machine-Type Communications". 2016 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM). pp. 1–7. doi:10.1109/GLOCOM.2016.7842206. ISBN 978-1-5090-1328-9. S2CID 5206557.
  7. ^ a b "Global Narrowband IoT – LTE-M networks". GSA. March 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Preliminary specification". 3GPP.
  9. ^ Luo, Chao (March 20, 2017). "3GGP TS45.001: GSM/EDGE Physical layer on the radio path" (ZIPped DOC). 3gpp.org. 14.1.0. 3GPP TSG RAN WG6. p. 58. Retrieved May 27, 2017.
  10. ^ "Mobile IoT Network Launches". Internet of Things. Retrieved 2023-03-19.

External links

Cellular network standards
Mobile phones
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