NB-IoT
NB-IoT is the cellular choice for deep coverage (underground, rural) and ultra-low-power IoT: smart meters, agricultural sensors, and asset trackers. NIDD and CoAP integration are key design decisions.
What It Defines
Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) is an LPWA cellular standard using 200 kHz bandwidth, operating in-band, guard-band, or standalone within LTE spectrum. Supports up to ~20 dB coverage enhancement, PSM/eDRX power modes, and Non-IP Data Delivery (NIDD) for minimal-overhead sensor data.
Canonical (Normative)
The global collaboration of telecommunications standards bodies that produces the mobile network specifications: GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSPA, LTE/4G, 5G NR, and IMS. Technical specifications (TS) and reports (TR) are freely available at 3gpp.org. Releases (Rel-8, Rel-15, Rel-17…) provide versioned capability sets.
Related Specs
LTE-M is the go-to for IoT devices needing voice, mobility, and moderate data rates on cellular. PSM and eDRX power modes directly affect battery life design in firmware and device management.
LTE is the dominant global mobile network. VoLTE, QoS bearers, and EPC architecture are directly relevant when building mobile-connected applications, IoT modules, or carrier infrastructure.
CoAP is the HTTP of the IoT world — same REST semantics, fraction of the overhead. Used in NB-IoT NIDD, LwM2M device management, and any embedded system where TCP overhead is prohibitive.
MQTT is the dominant IoT messaging protocol. AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, Google Cloud IoT, HiveMQ, and Mosquitto all speak MQTT. Understanding QoS levels (0/1/2), retained messages, and LWT (Last Will and Testament) is essential for any IoT backend.