Low Power Cellular for Massive IoT

One of the biggest barriers to widespread adoption of cellular technology in IoT is the high cost of hardware for IoT devices, as well as the high cost of ongoing data transmission.
When it comes to IoT deployments, cellular connectivity has traditionally made up a small portion. Although the cellular network is an almost ubiquitous source of wireless connectivity, it is impractical for all but a very few projects. One of the biggest barriers to widespread adoption of cellular technology in IoT is the high cost of hardware for IoT devices, as well as the high cost of ongoing data transmission. Those two price tags are fine for media-intensive consumer devices like smartphones and tablets, but too expensive for IoT projects where lots of low-cost devices deliver small, intermittent data packets. doble CA-CC
Battery powered
Another major hurdle for cellular technology to be used in IoT is how quickly it drains battery power. The high power consumption of a mobile phone's "always-on" radio architecture may be ideal for cell phones. Still, it's a huge disadvantage for IoT devices that don't need or may not have the opportunity to replace batteries.
These two shortcomings overshadow the multiple cellular advantages of IoT, including the biggest advantage: the extensive LTE network infrastructure that already exists in so many regions. The sprawling infrastructure built and maintained by large telcos represents an already built, highly reliable IoT backhaul infrastructure, if the two aforementioned drawbacks can be overcome. Two low-power, low-cost versions of cellular technology—LTE-M and NB-IoT—completely achieve this, making cellular IoT a practical option at scale for the first time. 
LTE-M and NB-IoT
These two new versions of LTE cellular address two shortcomings that have hindered cellular practicality in the past. Unlike the always-on architecture of the main specifications of cellular technology, LTE-M and NB-IoT are designed to extend battery life through sleep cycles and other power-saving features (known as eDRX and PSM modes), allowing devices to operate for 10 years or more No need to change batteries. LTE-M and NB-IoT also address the cost of hardware and data costs, allowing them to compete with other wireless connectivity technologies. Using the cellular network only intermittently to provide batches of temporary data, LTE-M and NB-IoT minimize operational costs. LTE-M and NB-IoT also eliminate the expense that companies have to build and maintain network infrastructure by using public LTE network infrastructure.
By eliminating these shortcomings, LTE-M and NB-IoT turn cell towers into ubiquitous IoT infrastructure. Anywhere you have a bar graph on your phone, you can deploy IoT devices plugged into the same digital infrastructure. This is significant for a long list of use cases, including smart city initiatives, cold supply chains for food and vaccines, remote health monitoring for telemedicine devices, remote monitoring for industrial equipment – all with connectivity addressed via ubiquity Challenging cellular connectivity.
Low Power Cellular Version
Low Power Cellular was created in two versions. This enables engineers to choose the feature set that best suits their given device and network. LTE-M enables engineers to design with wider bandwidths, provide higher transmission data rates than NB-IoT, and achieve up to 10 years of battery life. Engineers typically use LTE-M when higher throughput is the top performance priority for a given project and coverage penetration is low. NB-IoT offers engineers better coverage penetration and longer projected battery life than LTE-M. Engineers typically use NB-IoT when the device's use case and deployment environment make coverage penetration a higher priority than maximizing throughput.
For low-power cellular, one of the key design considerations for engineering teams to keep in mind is that you are not faced with a high-stakes choice between two versions at the start of an IoT project. Cellular IoT allows you to embed both technologies into devices so that your team can use one or the other depending on how the device will be used later and the geographic location where your product will be used. Vendors can later optimize device and IoT network performance by leveraging whatever makes the most sense on a device-by-device basis.
An important thing for engineering teams to keep in mind when working with cellular technology is certification. Certification of any cellular connected device can be difficult due to additional certification hurdles for cellular radio products including regulatory agencies (e.g. FCC/IC, etc.), network approvals (e.g. PTCRB/GCF), and carrier approvals (e.g., AT&T certification) . However, the process can be accelerated and simplified by using a pre-certified cellular IoT socket modem and by having an experienced wireless design house as a partner.
power saving mode
One of the most important pieces of advice I give to engineers is to use battery saver. LTE-M and NB-IoT provide engineers with extensive control over sleep settings to balance performance and power consumption. The key features to know are PSM and eDRX, which work together to enable up to 10 years of battery life. PSM, short for Power Saving Mode, allows a device to be programmed into a deep sleep mode while still being connected. You can program sleep cycles with different parameters, sleeping for a short period of time or over a year. It saves power almost as much as shutting it down, but the device is still registered on the network. It doesn't take time and effort to rebuild network connections. Another sleep cycle feature that can be exploited is eDRX (Extended Discontinuous Reception, Extended Discontinuous Reception), which allows engineers to optimize the length of time between paging cycles by programming a custom pause between paging cycles that is much longer than the default time. This extension of the paging cycle can be as many seconds or minutes as the engineering team wishes, resulting in a significant reduction in power consumption. Tipo de aislamiento CC-CC
cloud connection
Another big piece of advice I give engineering teams about cellular IoT is about cloud connectivity. Cloud computing is critical for cellular IoT because data management can have a huge impact on operating costs. Although NB-IoT and LTE-M are designed to minimize data costs, engineering teams can carefully control these costs through the cloud strategy used. By carefully weighing what you want your device to send to the cloud, what you don't want to send, how often you want this to happen, etc., you can minimize the data transfer cycle of the network and thereby control these costs to a large extent.
Antenna selection
A final important consideration for low power cellular plans is antenna selection. Selecting any antenna is a complex process, especially for cellular projects, because of the wide range of frequencies and bands owned by different operators. The selection process becomes more complicated when LTE-M and NB-IoT are combined with short-range technologies such as Bluetooth. Working with a consultant or company with expertise in antenna selection and implementation can ensure that you select the correct antenna, install it in the correct location on your equipment, and optimize performance based on the exact role and physical location of your implementation.