LTE-M communication for low-powered IIoT: An experimental performance study

Overview & Synopsis

This paper presents an experimental study of the communication performance of the Long-Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M) network for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). We conducted an in-depth literature review on the communication networks used by IIoT devices, based on criteria, such as transportable data size, throughput, connectivity, latency, transmission energy budget and cost. Next, we experimented with LTE-M communication for a prototype energy-constrained IoT device. Using the microcontroller and modem, we were able to establish TCP requests (send and receive), as well as HTTP requests (POST and GET). The results of our study show that LTE-M communication offers significant advantages in terms of throughput, latency and energy performance compared with other existing Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN), making it particularly well suited to the needs of IIoT applications. This experimental work opens a wide range of prospects for setting up efficient, highperformance IIoT solutions in industrial environments.