Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT): Performance Evaluation in 5G Heterogeneous Wireless Networks

Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a promising cellular technology for enabling future low power wireless area networks (LPWANs). NB-IoT aims to provide seamless connectivity to massive IoT devices that require low throughput, low power, and long-range communication. NB-IoT is based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) with a system bandwidth of 180 KHz. Due to such limited bandwidth requirement, NB-IoT can be deployed within the LTE band. However, considering the future heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNet) comprising of multiple small cells operating under a macro cell environment. In this case, when NB-IoT is deployed, the inter-cell interference becomes worse due to the interference from the macro cell users as well. This raises serious concerns on the performance of NB-IoT. Therefore, in this paper, an extensive investigation of NB-IoT performance in terms of throughput and power consumption is presented in different HetNet deployment strategies. Moreover, an evaluation of cooperative resource allocation scheme for NB-IoT is also discussed in detail. The results show a significant impact on the performance of NB-IoT in HetNet environment. It is observed that, with the cooperative scheme, the gains of up to 24% in average throughput and reduction of 72% in energy consumption can be achieved.