Guidelines for an Energy Efficient Tuning of the NB-IoT Stack

Abstract

In this paper, we study the energy consumption of Narrowband IoT devices. The paper suggests that key to saving energy for NB-IoT devices is the usage of full Discontinuous Reception (DRX), including the use of connected-mode DRX (cDRX): In some cases, cDRX reduced the energy consumption over a 10-year period with as much as 50%. However, the paper also suggests that tunable parameters, such as the inactivity timer, do have a significant impact. On the basis of our findings, guidelines are provided on how to tune the NB-IoT device so that it meets the target of the 3GPP, i.e., a 5-Wh battery should last for at least 10 years. It is further evident from our results that the energy consumption is largely dependent on the intensity and burstiness of the traffic, and thus could be significantly reduced if data is sent in bursts with less intensity, irrespective of cDRX support.