IoT Connectivity Technology
As the number of connected devices rapidly expands, new ways for those devices to communicate are being developed. One type of connection is cellular IoT. Cellular IoT uses the same cellular network infrastructure that mobile phones use, but is designed to support the lower data rates and power constraints of IoT devices.
Cellular IoT works by transmitting data from an IoT device to a base station (also known as a cell tower). Then, the base station relays the information to a cellular network operator’s core network, which connects with other networks or to cloud platforms like AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, IBM Watson IoT Core, and Google Cloud IoT Core.
Traditionally, cellular networks were optimized for creating spontaneous connections between people. That’s why they’re always checking for incoming calls, actively listening for radio signals, and sending periodic tracking area updates. This kind of constant activity is not ideal for IoT devices, since it consumes a lot of power while they’re in “idle mode.”
Newer cellular technologies, like NB-IoT and LTE Cat M1, are designed specifically for IoT use cases. These Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) offer IoT businesses features that dramatically reduce power consumption. They also support the low latency and high coverage of cellular networks, making them a solid choice for connecting IoT devices to the cellular network.
