Narrow-Band Internet of Things for Smart Metering Infrastructure in Urban Area: Medan City Case

Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is a 3GPP standards-based Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology that provides a broad coverage range of connection for many devices, low and efficient power consumption, and easy deployment. However, NB-IoT deployments in an area are varied due to the coverage and capacity size affected by the different geographic, demographic, and economic trends. This research aims to study NB-IoT's deployment for Smart Metering Infrastructure (SMI) in an urban area in Indonesia, namely Medan city, hoping that an adequate and optimal coverage and capacity calculation are accomplished. After conducting the simulations and calculations, this research obtained that NB-IoT deployment for SMI in Medan city is feasible by requiring a minimum gateway of 17 sites. Based on the simulations that have been completed. The average acceptable signal level and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in Medan city are −57.79 dBm and −4.37 dB, respectively. Lastly, the average received signal strength (RSSI) is −79 dBm. These results have fulfilled the minimum requirement of implementing NB-IoT in the urban area, Medan city.