3GPP Throws Yet Another IoT Flavor at Enterprises

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3GPP’s 5G NR Release 17 in the spring of this year introduced “reduced capability” (RedCap) devices, also known as NR-Light, aimed at the low-cost, low-throughput Internet of Things market. But Mobile-Experts Principal Analyst Joe Madden thinks it is all too much, too soon.

“Enterprise markets do not like having a new standard every couple of years,” Madden told Inside Towers. “They might be fine buying a 2004 technology and use it for 40 years, instead of changing all the time.”

From 2015 to 2018, 3GPP released several protocols that would allow for IoT devices to LTE. RedCap is the 5G equivalent to LTE CAT-M and Narrowband IoT, both of which operate at lower bandwidths and channels compared with LTE CAT-1 and LTE CAT-1bis.

With RedCap, 5G IoT devices can be designed that are low-cost because they are smaller, lower power, and don’t need a great deal of processing power. The RedCap devices can connect a large number of devices, as well as process monitoring sensors for deeper operational insight and operate smart surveillance cameras. On the consumer side, they can connect high-end smart watches, health monitors, and provide broadband access for entry-level tablets and smartphones.

“You can have 5G broadband IoT devices that get into the hundreds of megabits per second, but a lot of IoT applications don’t need the high-throughput and they don’t need the low-latency. They just need a low-cost device that works,” said Madden. “RedCap uses the resource blocks in such a way that the processing required on the chip is low, and you can make a relatively small and cheap modem.”

But, Madden notes, the wireless industry has already been providing enterprises with small cheap modems for several years using the LTE standard. The enterprise market, unlike the consumer market, does not want to upgrade its technology every one to two years, he added.

“I think the wireless industry has this assumption that if they just get the right product, enterprises are going to buy like crazy,” Madden said. “That did happen with smartphones, but it’s not it’s not going to happen in the IoT business.” Releasing new standards on a frequent basis might have the opposite effect of actually reducing sales into enterprise markets by causing too much change, he added.

Qualcomm counters that 5G was created to cover an “unprecedented range” of capabilities with a single global standard. Under the 5G banner, standards cover extremely high and low throughputs. RedCap resides in the Goldilocks sweet spot of the middle ground, the OEM states. 

“There exists an opportunity to address a broad range of mid-tier applications more efficiently, with capabilities between these extremes,” Qualcomm said. “5G NR-Light brings the mix of capabilities in throughput, battery life, complexity, and device density needed to cost-effectively power diverse use cases.” For example, NR-Light may play a role in smart cities through smart grids, environmental sensors, predictive maintenance, utility meters, and high-resolution surveillance.

By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor

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