LTE-M

LTE-M or LTE-MTC ("Long-Term Evolution Machine Type Communication") is a type of low-power wide-area network radio communication technology standard developed by 3GPP for machine-to-machine and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.[1][2] LTE-M includes eMTC ("enhanced Machine Type Communication"), also known as LTE Cat-M1, whose specification was frozen in June 2016 as part of 3GPP Release 13 (LTE Advanced Pro),[3] as well as LTE Cat-M2.[4]

Competing 3GPP IoT technologies include NB-IoT and EC-GSM-IoT.[5] The advantage of LTE-M over NB-IoT is its comparatively higher data rate, mobility, and voice over the network, but it requires more bandwidth, is more costly, and cannot be put into guard band portion of the frequency band for now.[6] Compared to LTE Release 12 Cat-0 modem, an LTE-M model is claimed to be 80% less expensive (in terms of the bill of materials), support up to 18 dB better coverage, and a battery lifetime that can last up to several years.[7] In March 2019, the Global Mobile Suppliers Association reported that over 100 operators had deployed/launched either NB-IoT or LTE-M networks.[8]

  1. ^ "LTE-M – the new GSM".
  2. ^ "eMTC (LTE Cat-M1)".
  3. ^ "Standards for the IoT".
  4. ^ "What is LTE Cat-M2?". everything RF. 2023-03-12. Retrieved 2024-11-02.
  5. ^ "Extended Coverage - GSM - Internet of Things (EC-GSM-IoT)". gsma.com. GSMA. May 11, 2016. p. 1. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  6. ^ "Differences between NB-IOT and LTE-M". 3 May 2018.
  7. ^ Saxena, Vidit; Bergman, Johan; Blankenship, Yufei; Wallen, Anders; Razaghi, Hazhir Shokri (2016). "Reducing the Modem Complexity and Achieving Deep Coverage in LTE for Machine-Type Communications". 2016 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM). pp. 1–7. doi:10.1109/GLOCOM.2016.7842206. ISBN 978-1-5090-1328-9. S2CID 5206557.
  8. ^ "Global Narrowband IoT – LTE-M networks". GSA. March 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.