NB-IoT since June 20 this year, NB-IoT standard core protocol freeze, become the communications industry's biggest hot spot, it will bring wide coverage, large connection, low power, low-cost network solutions for the Internet of Things era. However, for NB-IoT to mature and popularize, it must first be accepted by the application market. For the application side of the enterprise, only the technology to bring real value and change can drive them to actively follow up, so it is particularly important to understand what these enterprises have for NB-IoT and other wide-area Internet of things technology.

       This article from the characteristics of the three types of industry to talk about those things NB-IoT applications.

Nb-IoT brings hope to smart wearable products

      NB-IoT is suitable for a variety of industry applications, in fact, NB-IoT can also be used in consumer electronics. Shanghai Oufu Communication Technology Co., Ltd. released a NB-IoT smart wearable device. Yu Wenjie, CEO of the company, said that the demand for smart watches to become independent terminals (with SIM card) is clear, but the existing technology is not optimistic, the future smart wear and Internet of things terminals must be Plug&Play (plug and play) independent terminals, today's smart wear and trackers are based on 2G and 3G, power consumption is a big problem. These networks and chips are customized products for mobile phone applications, and mobile phone applications have tended to be more high-speed and high-bandwidth LTE, causing technical bottlenecks such as large power consumption and large chip area for smart wearable products. In addition, the gradual withdrawal of 2G and 3G networks has made the development of intelligent wearable independent terminals more confused.

Smart wear for communication technology needs are low power consumption, small size, low speed and low cost, NB-IoT is exactly the best to meet these needs, but also the urgent need for smart wearable devices technology, in addition, NB-IoT deep coverage characteristics can make the antenna of wearable products more simple, in the wearable product small antenna can also achieve good results.

"NB-IoT technology gives us hope that products such as smart bracelets and smart watches can be used independently as mobile phones, independent of mobile phones, and may last for more than 30 days; And the need for more application scenarios, such as positioning and tracking, beyond what is worn on people, is also very clear." Yu Wenjie said.

Figure 1: NB-IoT smartwatch released by Shanghai Erfu

NB-IoT devices need to generate value in order to be accepted by everyone, which devices can generate value? Yu Wenjie believes that consumer electronics and medical products, pets, object tracking and so on, which can add emotional factors to these applications can allow users to invest in consumption and increase the APU value. The upgrading of these products is better, further accelerating the sales of NB-IoT products, and ultimately reducing the cost of NB-IoT rapidly, making the development of NB-IoT products easier.

NB-IoT helps traditional enterprises upgrade through iot

Under the impact of the Internet of Things, traditional enterprises urgently need a suitable means to achieve industrial transformation and upgrading. The significance of wide-area Internet of Things technology for traditional enterprises is reflected in the interconnection of various devices and the resulting creation of a variety of rich applications, improve enterprise efficiency and reduce costs, and help transformation and upgrading.

Sander Group Co., Ltd. is a well-known large-scale professional environmental protection and new energy enterprise in China. Business covers water, solid waste treatment, sanitation, renewable resources, new energy, ecological agriculture and other fields. The company is actively transforming to open, iot, big data, and cross-border strategies, but it has encountered a lot of resistance in the process of iot.

Zhan Jie, technical director of the Internet Innovation Center of Sander Group, said that this resistance comes from several aspects. First, the signal is weak, and many of Sander's businesses are in remote areas and the working conditions are not good. There are also many devices in the ground, where the signal is relatively weak;

Figure 2: iot Assist 1 - Weak signal

Second, the power consumption is large, such as the water meter and other instruments in its water business generally use GPRS communication modules, because of the large power consumption, so the battery often needs to be more slippery;

Figure 3: iot Power Assist II - High power consumption

The traditional positioning method uses GPS, but GPS is easily shielded by building objects. In many working conditions, there is basically no GPS signal through the base station to locate, but the base station positioning is relatively not so accurate;

Figure 4: iot resistance 3 -- poor positioning

Fourth, the cost is high, for example, the cost of GPRS module and antenna is 20, the number of connected devices is very large, if you want to connect 1 million devices, it can be imagined that the cost is very high.

Figure 5: iot resistance IV - High cost

In the face of these challenges, Zhan Jie succinctly put forward his expectations for NB-IoT: "NB-IoT is a good wide-area Internet of things technology, and I hope that NB-IoT can have stronger signals, less power consumption, more accurate positioning, and lower costs to help realize the true Internet of everything."

Special industry applications expect NB-IoT to bring key breakthroughs

If traditional enterprises such as Sander have high hopes for NB-IoT, the special application industry is no exception. For example, on-site monitoring in emergency management often requires the use of various sensors and communication technologies including satellites, radar and GPSR to achieve monitoring and early warning. Yao Xiang, deputy general manager of emerging Jihua Emergency Equipment Technology Co., LTD., said that in addition to the need for breakthrough sensor technology, on-site monitoring also needs to make breakthroughs in communication technology.

On-site monitoring in emergency management puts forward many requirements for communication: the system is stable, the transmission is reliable, and the monitoring equipment is integrated with AD hoc network module, which can not rely on external network; On the premise of ensuring the quality of communication, the larger the range of communication supported, the better. Available dry battery power supply, good point as small as possible; Good environmental adaptability; Easy maintenance, preferably maintenance-free. Emerging narrowband iot technologies such as NB-IoT with wide coverage, low power consumption, low latency, and stability may become key technologies to promote the development of field monitoring.

Taking the floating water monitoring system used to realize the water quality monitoring of large areas such as lakes, reservoirs and rivers as an example, it takes the buoy as the carrier, integrates the reagent free water quality monitoring sensor suitable for long-term operation to determine the water quality parameter indicators, obtain the water quality parameter data, and realizes the data transmission and remote control through GPRS. The system is helpful to grasp the water quality of surface water in time and realize continuous monitoring and early warning of water quality. "Among them, the GPSR communication module volume and power consumption is large, the use of NB-IoT is expected to greatly reduce the transmission power consumption and communication module volume, to achieve the miniaturization of the entire target detection system, low power consumption, to achieve a wider range of distributed monitoring." Yao Xiang said.

Figure 6: Traditional floating water monitoring system uses GPSR module, and NB-IoT can help reduce volume and power consumption

Of course, NB-IoT can also be applied to many industries, including intelligent transportation such as intelligent parking, intelligent street lights, intelligent cars, hydropower, coal, hot gas and industrial intelligent meter reading, monitoring and alarm systems, intelligent logistics, agriculture and the environment and so on. The Internet of everything is a long-awaited change for human beings, and the emergence of low-power large-scale connection and large-scale coverage of iot technologies such as NB-IoT will cause the transition and acceleration of the entire iot industry.