In the last weeks, several tests of mobile IoT (Internet of Things) technologies have been carried out in 5TONIC that have involved Telefónica, Ericsson, and third parties.
Ericsson, Telefónica, and Telit have successfully tested the first End-to-End data communications call on NB-IoT over the air using Band 20 (800 MHz) on Telefónica's network in Spain. This milestone has been achieved using a complete multi-vendor environment using 3GPP standards with Ericsson's radio and packet core technologies together with Telit modules integrating NB-IoT chipsets.
Additionally, Ericsson and Sierra Wireless have successfully executed network and device testing of data communications on CAT-M1 or LTE-M for IoT over Telefónica's network in Spain. This milestone was achieved through the successful interoperability testing of Sierra Wireless modem, which builds Cat-M1 chipsets in and Ericsson's Packet Core and Radio solutions. Band 20 was also used in these tests.
All the tests were carried out in the 5TONIC open lab, previously to being used for several applications that are being demonstrated at the MWC 2017 in Barcelona (5TONIC infrastructure is being used for these demos).
NB-IoT and LTE-M are new 3GPP standardized IoT technologies that will reduce the complexity of the chipsets, minimizing device cost and energy consumption. Advanced functionalities also allow for enhanced coverage for challenging locations and unlock business opportunity for Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) applications compared to current devices deployed in commercial networks. In this sense, they may be considered a first step towards the support of 5G massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) use cases.