3GPP seeks to keep LTE dominant in IoT

Enterprises are currently looking for the best wireless standard to deploy for Internet of Things applications. The companies involved in 3GPP that is responsible for popular wireless standards like GSM, HSPA and LTE, are looking for solutions that will extend the lives of 2G solutions while simultaneously bringing down costs and scale efficiently, according to a report from IHS.

While these companies would like to deploy a combination of LTE and 5G standards, proponents of these technologies admit that the cost and necessary scalability does not exist yet for 3GPP networks. This has led to the rise in new standards like Sigfox and Ingenu, which are designed to be cheap and "massively scalable," with IoT devices in mind.

Ericsson is one of the early companies supporting 3GPP and "massive IoT." It plans on supporting narrowband IoT, which will be a software upgrade to existing IoT networks. NB-IoT is supposed to be capable of fast rollout and secure mobile connections. Its power saving functionality could also give low-bandwidth devices a battery life of 10 years. Ericsson believes the cost of NB-IoT modules could fall to $5 once it reaches a large enough scale, but Sigfox costs $1 per device for those using 50,000 devices or more. NB-IoT also won’t be ready until 2017, which creates an opportunity for Sigfox and other competing standards.

If 3GPP is able to get the price right, it could easily become the dominant standard. LTE towers are already set up across the globe, as it is the dominant 4G standard for smartphones. This fight is mainly about long-range connectivity, though. Standards like ZigBee and Z-Wave that are put into light bulbs and similar products coming out of China are mostly about staying "connected" within the home, and those signals do not need to leave the house. The applications of short-range and long-range IoT products could be quite different, although should power consumption be efficient enough and price falls enough, a long-range standard could start to be used much more.

See a comparison table of selected ZigBee LED bulb suppliers on GlobalSources.com