Power Consumption Analysis of NB-IoT Technology for Low-Power Aircraft Applications

This paper investigates the cellular technology Narrowband Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) as a candidate for aviation applications. After summarizing the relevant use cases, the paper reports on an experimental setup with public and commercial network modes, in order to test the critical parameter of power consumption, and it evaluates the results against the use cases. The test outcome shows that the battery life can be extended up to years by optimizing the power usage of peripherals and utilizing Power Saving Mode (PSM). While NB-IoT comes close to aviation domain, configuration and hardware design is essential to address the use case requirements completely. Additionally, 5G becomes necessary for cases, where NB-IoT misses the application requirements.