With the development of mobile communication technology, on the basis of the traditional “short-range” Internet of Things technology, many emerging “long-distance” Internet of Things technologies have emerged. Among these Internet of Things technologies, the most we introduce are LoRa and NB- IoT, in fact, eMTC is also widely used.
NB-IoT, LoRa, Sigfox, and eMTC all belong to Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN for short), that is, low power wide area network technology. LPWA technology covers a long distance, low power consumption, high security and reliability , more suitable for large-scale IoT application deployment.
eMTC, enhanced Machine-Type Communication (enhanced Machine-Type Communication), also known as LTE-M (LTE-Machine-to-Machine), is used for LTE networks between machines, that is, LTE networks suitable for the Internet of Things. One of the IoT technologies evolved from LTE. In order to be more suitable for communication between things and lower costs, the LTE protocol has been tailored and optimized. eMTC supports a peak rate of up to 1Mbps for uplink and downlink, and can support rich and innovative IoT applications.
Both eMTC and NB-IoT are technical standards launched by 3GPP. As the creator of LTE, 3GPP has always regarded the Internet of Things as an important evolution direction of LTE. In the first version of LTE R8 (Release 8), in addition to Cat.3, Cat.4, Cat.5 and other terminal levels that meet broadband multimedia applications, there is also a terminal level Cat. 1. It can be used in “low rate” applications such as the Internet of Things. But in the initial stage of LTE development, Cat.1 was not paid attention to by the industry. In order to meet the cost requirements of the Internet of Things and reduce the complexity of the terminal, 3GPP added a Cat.M1 terminal with a channel bandwidth and a radio frequency receiving bandwidth of 1.4MHz in R13. And Cat.M1 is eMTC.
Features and advantages of eMTC
eMTC is a technical standard launched by 3GPP, so eMTC also has four basic features:
1. Big connections
The density of network coverage has been enhanced, and the number of accesses per square kilometer has reached 1 million.
2. Low power consumption
The power consumption is extremely reduced, the battery life is greatly improved, and the theoretical battery life can reach 10 years.
3. Low cost
The complexity of the system is greatly reduced, and the cost is reduced accordingly, and the cost of the module is less than 10 US dollars.
4. Wide coverage
The network coverage capability is enhanced, and the network coverage capability of eMTC is 15dB stronger than that of LTE.
In addition, eMTC has other advantages:
1. High speed
eMTC supports uplink and downlink peak rates of up to 1Mbps, far exceeding the rates of IoT technologies such as GPRS and ZigBee, and can support richer IoT applications, such as low-speed video and voice.
2. Mobility
eMTC supports mobility in the connected state, and IoT users can seamlessly switch to ensure user experience. Suitable for wearable devices such as smart watches.
3. Positionable
Position positioning can be performed without adding a GPS chip. It is suitable for scenarios such as logistics tracking and cargo tracking.
4. Support voice
eMTC can support VoLTE voice and can be widely used in wearable devices in the future.
5. Network multiplexing
eMTC can be directly upgraded and deployed based on the existing LTE network, and it can share the site and antenna feed with the existing LTE base station. Rapid deployment at low cost is possible.
Of course, eMTC is not a perfect technology. In terms of coverage capability and layout cost, eMTC is inferior to NB-IoT.
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Application Development of eMTC
At present, in the Asia-Pacific region, the penetration rate of NB-IoT is higher; in North America, the penetration rate of eMTC is higher. At present, eMTC networks are mainly deployed overseas, such as the United States, France, Japan, and South Korea, among which American operators have the best coverage.
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Operators supporting eMTC deployment
As early as the beginning of 2017, AT&T, KPN, KDDI, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Telefonica, Telstra, TELUS and Verizon jointly announced support for the global deployment of eMTC. Domestic LPWAN technology is dominated by NB-IoT, and eMTC networks are only deployed on a small scale.