NetworkDataTechnologies

Data connectivityovermobile communications has evolved over time and willcontinue to do so.Each evolution, enabled by new technology, is referred to as a Generation, or ‘G’ in shorthand. Figure 1 shows the overlap and lifespan of the various technologies used in mobile networks. It is important to note that 3G will end before 2G, and that 4G is likely to be with us for some time to come.

2G Service

2G will continue to be operated in the UK until at least 2027. This may, however, be pushed back to 2030 with the impact of Huawei and Covid19. It will become a ‘thinner service’ as some of its existing capacity will be moved across to 5G applications over the next few years.

3G Service - Support ends 2022

3G Networks have a shorter lifespan ahead of them. Most networks are looking at no longer supporting 3G from 2022. What ‘no longer support’ means is open to interpretation, some will winddown coverage and others will look to switch off completely. Most MNOs have not sold any devices that do not support 4G, in the aim to wash out any 3G only users over the last 3 years. Again, you will likely see coverage reductions in the meantime as the favourable frequencies are moved to 4G to further enhance coverage and throughput.

4G – Current technology

4G is, for now, is still current technology and therefore there are not yet any official notices to withdraw it. As the first iteration of the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Stack, it is likely to remain until at least 2035.

5G – Future technology

5G is the next generation of the LTE network, further enhancing speeds and capacity as well as introducing fundamental changes in the way devices connect to the networks, designed with more “always on” capacity. Just like when 4G was released, although 5G has major advantages over 4G, these benefits, generally, won’t precipitate fully to most products in the short term, as speeds of transfer forlarge dataisn’tacurrentrequirement formostIoTapplications.Overtime,the subsets of 5G (LTE-M, NB IoT and URLLC) will be rolled out with further releases of the LTE programme.

NB IoT

NarrowBand-InternetofThings(NB-IoT)isastandards-basedlowpowerwidearea(LPWA)technology developed to enable a wide range of new IoT devices and services. NB-IoT significantly improves the power consumption of userdevices, as it can go into ambient mode and still retain itscredentials with the nearestmast.Thisalsogivesenhancedsystem capacityandspectrumefficiency,especiallyindeep coverage. Battery life of more than 10 years can be supported for a wide range of use cases.

New physical layer signals and channels are designed to meet the demanding requirement of extended coverage – rural and deep indoors – and ultra-low device complexity. It also benefits from all the security and privacy features of mobile networks, such as support for user identity confidentiality, entity authentication, confidentiality, data integrity, and mobile equipment identification. This level of security and the utilitarian nature of the service gives it an advantage over bespoke public frequency services like LoRaWAN or SigFox that do not have national coverage in the UK.

LTE-M

LTE-M is the simplified industry term for the LTE-MTC low power wide area (LPWA) technology standard, released and implemented as a standard before NB IoT. LTE-M is a low power wide area technology which supports IoT through lower device complexity and provides extended coverage, while allowing the reuse of the LTE installed base. This allows battery lifetime up to 10 years or more for awide rangeof usecases.The throughput ishigherthan NB IoTand isseen as adirectreplacement for 2G/3G applications as the 2G & 3G frequencies are re-farmed

As Part Of The

5G up-grade rollout.

As with NB IoT, it is supported by all major mobile equipment, chipset, and module manufacturers. LTE-M networks will co-exist with 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile networks and benefit from all the security and privacy features of mobile networks, such as support for user identity confidentiality, entity authentication, confidentiality, data integrity, and mobile equipment identification. It offers far greater throughput and levels of Security than LoRaWAN and SigFox. (See LPWA).