NB-IoT vs LTE Cat M1: Demystifying Performance Differences under Varying Radio Conditions

The completely redefined requirements across the industry sectors accelerated the need for a new set of communication technologies. The European Union (EU) supports the need for remote metering, sensing, and monitoring; for example, all the newly installed smart electricity meters in the Czech Republic since 2024 must be equipped with a communication module for wireless data transmissions. In this paper, we take the opportunity of tight cooperation with the Vodafone Czech Republic and test the two prominent representatives of communication technologies in the licensed frequency spectrum, Narrowband IoT (LTE Cat NB1) and LTE Cat M1. These technologies are compared side by side, and the results related to the network throughput and jitter in strictly defined radio conditions are shown. On the one hand, the data indicates the clear differentiation between the technologies; on the other hand, the communication scenarios' complexity makes the technology's final choice more complicated. Key parameters, e.g., battery life, traffic pattern, network latency, and throughput, are discussed in the last section of this paper to steer the final decision.

I. Introduction

Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and LTE Cat M1, two emerging low-power wide area (LPWA) technologies, have become the fundamental part of the fifth generation (5G) of cellular systems. Initially defined by the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) in release 13, both technologies were introduced as alternatives to the already available technologies for long-range communication, i.e., LoRa(WAN) and Sigfox. The definition of both technologies builds upon the 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) standard with additional features concretely designed for the needs of the industry sector and demanding data transmissions. Compared with the technologies working in the license-exempt frequency spectrum (LoRaWAN, Sigfox, Wireless M-BUS, etc.), the 3GPP cellular technologies for the internet of things (CIoT) and industry 4.0 utilize the dedicated (licensed) frequency spectrum exactly as the fourth generation of the cellular systems do [1], [2].