Smart Objects: The “Things” in IoT

• This chapter provides a detailed analysis of smart objects and their

architecture.
• Sensors, Actuators, and Smart Objects: This section defines
sensors, actuators, and smart objects and describes how they are
the fundamental building blocks of IoT networks.
• Sensor Networks: This section covers the design, drivers for
adoption, and deployment challenges of sensor networks.
 Sensors, Actuators, and Smart Objects
Sensors
• A sensor does exactly as its name indicates: It senses. More
specifically, a sensor measures some physical quantity.
• That digital representation is typically passed to another device for
transformation into useful data that can be consumed by intelligent
devices or humans.
• Sensors can measure anything worth measuring.
• They are able to provide an extremely wide spectrum of rich and
diverse measurement data.
• Sensors can be readily embedded in any physical objects that are
easily connected to the Internet by wired or wireless networks.
 Different categories of sensors
• Active or passive: Sensors can be categorized based on whether
they produce an energy output and typically require an external
power supply (active) (ex: GPS) or whether they simply receive
energy and typically require no external power supply (passive) (ex:
IR sensor).
• Invasive or non-invasive: Sensors can be categorized based on
whether a sensor is part of the environment it is measuring
(invasive) or external to it (non-invasive).
• Contact or no-contact: Sensors can be categorized based on
whether they require physical contact with what they are measuring
(contact) or not (no contact).
• Absolute or relative: Sensors can be categorized based on whether
they measure on an absolute scale (absolute) or based on a
difference with a fixed or variable reference value (relative).
• Area of application: Sensors can be categorized based on the
specific industry.
• How sensors measure: Sensors can be categorized based on the
physical mechanism used to measure sensory input (for example,
thermoelectric, electrochemical, piezoresistive, optic, electric, fluid
mechanic, photoelastic).
• What sensors measure: Sensors can be categorized based on their
applications or what physical variables they measure.
 Actuators
• Actuators, on the others hand, receive some type of control signal
(commonly an electric signal or digital command) that triggers a
physical effect, usually some type of motion, force, and so on.
• Type of motion: Actuators can be classified based on the type of
motion they produce (for example, linear, rotary, one/two/three-
axes).
• Power: Actuators can be classified based on their power output (for
example, high power, low power, micro power)
• Binary or continuous: Actuators can be classified based on the
number of stable-state outputs.
• Area of application: Actuators can be classified based on the
specific industry or vertical where they are used.
• Type of energy: Actuators can be classified based on their energy
type.
 Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS)
• Referred to as micro-machines, can integrate and combine electric
and mechanical elements, such as sensors and actuators, on a very
small (millimeter or less) scale.
• Automobiles were among the first to commercially introduce
MEMS into the mass market, with airbag accelerometers.
Smart Objects
• Smart objects are the building blocks of IoT.
• Smart objects transform everyday objects into a network of
intelligent objects that are able to learn from and interact with their
environment in a meaningful way.
• We can call smart objects as smart sensor, smart device, IoT device,
intelligent device, thing, smart thing, intelligent node, intelligent
thing, ubiquitous thing, and intelligent product.
 A smart object has following characteristics:
• Processing unit: processing unit for acquiring data, processing and
analyzing sensing information received by the sensor(s),
coordinating control signals to any actuators, and controlling a
variety of functions on the smart object, including the
communication and power systems.
• Sensor(s) and/or actuator(s): A sensor learns and measures its
environment, whereas an actuator is able to produce some change
in the physical world.
• Communication device: The communication unit is responsible for
connecting a smart object with other smart objects and the outside
world.
• Communication devices for smart objects can be either wired or
wireless.
• Power source: Smart objects have components that need to be
powered.
• The power requirements also vary greatly from application to
application.
• Smart objects are limited in power, are deployed for a very long
time, and are not easily accessible.
• This combination, especially when the smart object relies on battery
power, implies that power efficiency, judicious power management,
sleep modes, ultra-low power consumption hardware.
 Trends in Smart Objects
• Size is decreasing: Some smart objects are so small the are not even
visible to the naked eye. This reduced size makes smart objects
easier to embed in everyday objects.
• Power consumption is decreasing: The different hardware
components of a smart object continually consume less power. This
is especially true for sensors, many of which are completely passive.
Some battery-powered sensors last 10 or more years without
battery replacement.
• Processing power is increasing: Processors are continually getting
more powerful and smaller. This is a key advancement for smart
objects, as they become increasingly complex and connected.
• Communication capabilities are improving: It’s no big surprise that
wireless speeds are continually increasing, but they are also
increasing in range.
• Communication is being increasingly standardized: There is a
strong push in the industry to develop open standards for IoT
communication protocols.
Sensor Networks
• A sensor/actuator network (SANET), as the name suggests, is a
network of sensors that sense and measure their environment
and/or actuators that act on their environment.
• Smart homes are a type of SANET that display this coordination
between distributed sensors and actuators.
• When a sensor detects a specified temperature, this can trigger an
actuator to take action and heat or cool the home as needed.
 The following are some advantages and disadvantages that a
wireless-based solution offers:
Advantages:
• Greater deployment flexibility (especially in extreme environments
or hard-to-reach places)
• Simpler scaling to a large number of nodes
• Lower implementation costs
• Easier long-term maintenance
• Effortless introduction of new sensor/actuator nodes
• Better equipped to handle dynamic/rapid topology changes
 Disadvantages:
• Potentially less secure (for example, hijacked
access points)
• Typically lower transmission speeds
• Greater level of impact/influence by environment
 Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs)
• Wireless sensor networks are made up of wirelessly connected
smart objects, which are sometimes referred to as motes.
• The following are some of the most significant limitations of the
smart objects in WSNs:

• Limited processing power

• Limited memory
• Lossy communication
• Limited transmission speeds
• Limited power
Data aggregation in WSN
• Wirelessly connected smart objects generally have one of the
following two communication patterns:
• Event-driven: Transmission of sensory information is triggered only
when a smart object detects a particular event or predetermined
threshold.
• Periodic: Transmission of sensory information occurs only at
periodic intervals.

• For example, in some medical use cases, sensors periodically send

postoperative vitals, such as temperature or blood pressure
readings.
• In other medical use cases, the same blood pressure or
temperature readings are triggered to be sent only when certain
 Communication Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks
• There are literally thousands of different types of sensors and
actuators. WSNs are becoming increasingly heterogeneous, with
more sophisticated interactions.
• WSNs are also evolving from single-purpose networks to more
flexible multipurpose networks that can use specific sensor types for
multiple different applications at any given time.
• Coordinated communication with sophisticated interactions by
constrained devices within such a heterogeneous environment is
quite a challenge.
 The various technologies used for connecting sensors can differ
greatly depending on the criteria used to analyze them.
• Range: This section examines the importance of signal
propagation and distance.
• Frequency Bands: This section describes licensed and unlicensed
spectrum, including sub-GHz frequencies.
• Power Consumption: This section discusses the considerations
required for devices connected to a stable power source
compared to those that are battery powered.
• Topology: This section highlights the various layouts that may be
supported for connecting multiple smart objects.
• Constrained Devices: This section details the limitations of certain
smart objects from a connectivity perspective.
• Constrained-Node Networks: This section highlights the
challenges that are often encountered with networks connecting
smart objects.
 Range
• what will be the area of coverage for a selected wireless
technology? Should indoor versus outdoor deployments be
differentiated?

• Short range: The classical wired example is a serial cable.

• Wireless shortrange technologies are often considered as an
alternative to a serial cable, supporting tens of meters of maximum
distance between two devices.
• Examples of short-range wireless technologies are IEEE 802.15.1
Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.7 Visible Light Communications (VLC).
• Medium range: This range is the main category of IoT access
technologies. In the range of tens to hundreds of meters.
• The maximum distance is generally less than 1 mile between two
devices.
• Examples of medium-range wireless technologies include IEEE
802.11 Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.15.4, and 802.15.4g WPAN.
• Long range: Distances greater than 1 mile between two devices
require long-range technologies. Wireless examples are cellular
(2G, 3G, 4G) and some applications of outdoor IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi
and Low-Power Wide- Area (LPWA) technologies.
 Frequency Bands
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) groups define the regulations
and transmission requirements for various frequency bands.
• Focusing on IoT access technologies, the frequency bands are split
between licensed and unlicensed bands.
• Licensed spectrum is generally applicable to IoT long-range access
technologies.
• Licensed spectrum is that users must subscribe to services when
connecting their IoT devices.
• Examples of licensed spectrum commonly used for IoT access are
cellular, WiMAX, and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) technologies.
• Unlicensed spectrum for the industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM)
portions of the radio bands.
• Unlicensed spectrum is usually simpler to deploy than licensed
because it does not require a service provider.
• It can suffer from more interference because other devices may be
competing for the same frequency in a specific area.
• The sub-GHz frequency bands allow greater distances between
devices.
• These bands have a better ability than the 2.4 GHz ISM band to
penetrate building infrastructures or go around obstacles.
• Several sub-GHz ranges have been defined in the ISM band. The
most wellknown ranges are centered on 169 MHz, 433 MHz, 868
MHz, and 915 MHz.
 Power Consumption
• Powered nodes and battery-powered nodes.
• IoT wireless access technologies must address the needs of low
power consumption and connectivity for battery-powered nodes.
• This has led to the evolution of a new wireless environment known
as Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA).
 Topology
• Three main topology schemes are dominant: star, mesh, and peer-
to-peer.
• For long-range and short-range technologies, a star topology is
prevalent.
• For medium-range technologies, a star, peer-to-peer, or mesh
topology is common.
• indoor Wi-Fi deployments are mostly a set of nodes forming a star
topology around their access points (APs). Meanwhile, outdoor Wi-
Fi may consist of a mesh topology for the backbone of Aps.
 Constrained Devices
• Constrained nodes have limited resources that impact their
networking feature set and capabilities.
 Constrained-Node Networks
• Some IoT access technologies are more suited to specifically
connect constrained nodes.
• Constrained-node networks are often referred to as low-power and
lossy networks (LLNs).
• Low-power - battery-powered constrained nodes.
• Lossy networks - network performance may suffer from interference
and variability.
 Data Rate and Throughput
• The data rates available from IoT access technologies range from
100 bps to tens of megabits per second.
• The actual throughput is less—sometimes much less— than the
data rate.
• Cellular and Wi-Fi, match up well to IoT applications with high
bandwidth requirements.
• Short-range technologies can also provide medium to high data
rates that have enough throughput to connect a few endpoints.
 Latency and Determinism
• latency expectations- for wireless networks, where packet loss and
retransmissions due to interference, collisions, and noise are normal
behaviors.
• Latency may range from a few milliseconds to seconds.
Overhead and Payload
• Most LPWA technologies offer small payload sizes.
• small payload sizes - low data rate and time over the air or duty
cycle.
 IEEE 802.15.4
• wireless access technology for low-cost and low-data-rate devices
that are powered or run on batteries.
• IEEE 802.15.4 is commonly found in the following types of
deployments:
Home and building automation
Automotive networks
Industrial wireless sensor networks
Interactive toys and remote controls
• Collision Sense Multiple Access/Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)
algorithm – avoid collision.
• CSMA/CA is an access method in which a device “listens” to make
sure no other devices are transmitting before starting its own
transmission.
 Standardization and Alliances
• defines low-data-rate PHY and MAC layer specifications for wireless
personal area networks (WPAN).
ZigBee
• ZigBee solutions are aimed at smart objects and sensors that have
low bandwidth and low power needs.
• The main areas where ZigBee is the most well-known include
automation for commercial, retail, and home applications and smart
energy.
ZigBee stack
• The ZigBee network and security layer provides mechanisms for
network startup, configuration, routing, and securing
communications.
• The network layer is also responsible for forming the appropriate
topology, which is often a mesh but could be a star or tree as well.
ZigBee IP
 Physical Layer
physical layer transmission options were as follows:
• 2.4 GHz, 16 channels, with a data rate of 250 kbps
• 915 MHz, 10 channels, with a data rate of 40 kbps
• 868 MHz, 1 channel, with a data rate of 20 kbps
IEEE 802.15.4-2015 introduced additional PHY communication
options
• OQPSK PHY: quadrature phase shift keying (OQPSK) modulation.
OQPSK is a modulation technique that uses four unique bit values
that are signaled by phase changes.
• BPSK PHY: binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulation. BPSK
specifies two unique phase shifts as its data encoding scheme.
• ASK PHY: ASK uses amplitude shifts instead of phase shifts to signal
different bit values.
 frame for the 802.15.4 physical layer

• The Preamble field is a 32-bit 4-byte pattern that identifies the start
of the frame and is used to synchronize the data transmission.
• The Start of Frame Delimiter field informs the receiver that frame
contents start immediately after this byte.
• The PHY Header portion of the PHY frame is simply a frame length
value.
 MAC Layer
The 802.15.4 MAC layer performs the following
tasks:
• Network beaconing for devices acting as coordinators (New devices
use beacons to join an 802.15.4 network)
• PAN association and disassociation by a device
• Device security
• Reliable link communications between two peer MAC entities
 The MAC layer achieves these tasks by using various predefined
frame types.

• Data frame: Handles all transfers of data

• Beacon frame: Used in the transmission of beacons from a PAN
coordinator
• Acknowledgement frame: Confirms the successful reception of a
frame
• MAC command frame: Responsible for control communication
between devices
• The Frame Control field defines attributes such as frame type,
addressing modes, and other control flags.
• The Sequence Number field indicates the sequence identifier for the
frame.
• The Addressing field specifies the Source and Destination PAN
Identifier fields as well as the Source and Destination Address fields.
• The MAC Payload field varies by individual frame type.
• For example, beacon frames have specific fields and payloads
related to beacons, while MAC command frames have different
fields present.
• An FCS is a calculation based on the data in the frame that is used by
the receiving side to confirm the integrity of the data in the frame.
 Topology
• IEEE 802.15.4–based networks can be built as star, peer-to-peer, or
mesh topologies.
• Every 802.15.4 PAN should be set up with a unique ID. All the nodes
in the same 802.15.4 network should use the same PAN ID.
• A minimum of one FFD acting as a PAN coordinator is required to
deliver services that allow other devices to associate and form a
cell.
• FFD devices can communicate with any other devices, whereas RFD
devices can communicate only with FFD devices.
Security
• The IEEE 802.15.4 specification uses Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES) with a 128-bit key length as the base encryption algorithm for
securing its data.
• AES is a symmetric key cryptography. (A symmetric key means that
the same key is used for both the encryption and decryption of the
data.)
• AES in 802.15.4 also validates the data that is sent. This is
accomplished by a message integrity code (MIC).
• To enhance security auxiliary Security Header is created after the
Source Address field, by stealing some bytes from the Payload field.
 IEEE 802.15.4g and 802.15.4e
• This technology applies to IoT use cases such as the following:
• Public lighting
• Environmental wireless sensors in smart cities
• Electrical vehicle charging stations
• Smart parking meters
• Renewable energy
Physical Layer
• Payload size increased from 127 to 2047 bytes.
• Error protection of CRC from 16 to 32 bits.
• Data rates in bands ranging from 169 MHz to 2.4 GHz.
• Data Is modulated onto the frequency
• Multi-Rate and Multi-Regional Frequency Shift Keying (MR-FSK):
Offers good transmit power efficiency due to the constant envelope
of the transmit signal.
• Multi-Rate and Multi-Regional Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (MR-OFDM): Provides higher data rates but may be
too complex for low-cost and low-power devices.
• Multi-Rate and Multi-Regional Offset Quadrature Phase-Shift
Keying (MR-O-QPSK): Shares the same characteristics of the IEEE
802.15.4- 2006 O-QPSK PHY, making multi-mode systems more
cost-effective and easier to design
 MAC Layer
• Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH)
• Channel hopping, also known as frequency hopping, utilizes
different channels for transmission at different times.
• TSCH divides time into fixed time periods, or “time slots,”.
• In a time slot, one packet and its acknowledgement can be
transmitted, increasing network capacity because multiple nodes
can communicate in the same time slot using different channels.
• Information elements:
• Information elements (IEs) allow for the exchange of information at
the MAC layer in an extensible manner, either as header IEs
(standardized) and/or payload IEs (private).
• Enhanced beacons (EBs): EBs extend the flexibility of IEEE
802.15.4 beacons to allow the construction of application-specific
beacon content.
• Enhanced beacon requests (EBRs): EBRs allow the sender to
selectively specify the request of information. Beacon responses are
then limited to what was requested in the EBR.
• Enhanced Acknowledgement: The Enhanced Acknowledgement
frame allows for the integration of a frame counter for the frame
being acknowledged.
 IEEE 802.15.4g/e MAC Frame Format

• The Auxiliary Security header provides for the encryption of the

data frame.
• IE field contains one or more information elements that allow for
additional information to be exchanged at the MAC layer.
 Security

• The MIC is a unique value that is calculated based on the frame

contents.
 1901.2a (wired technology)
• This is a standard for Narrowband Power Line Communication
(NB-PLC).
Technology used in:
• Smart metering: NB-PLC can be used to automate the reading of
utility meters, such as electric, gas, and water meters.
• Distribution automation: NB-PLC can be used for distribution
automation, which involves monitoring and controlling all the
devices in the power grid.
• Public lighting: A common use for NB-PLC is with public lighting—
the lights found in cities and along streets, highways, and public
areas such as parks.
• Electric vehicle charging stations: NB-PLC can be used for electric
vehicle charging stations, where the batteries of electric vehicles
can be recharged.
• Renewable energy: NB-PLC can be used in renewable energy
applications, such as solar, wind power, hydroelectric.
• The first generations of NB-PLC implementations suffered from poor
reliability, low throughput (maximum of 2 kbps), lack of
manageability, and poor interoperability.
• Most recent NB-PLC standards are based on orthogonal frequency-
division multiplexing (OFDM).
 1901.2a Physical Layer
• NB-PLC is defined for frequency bands from 3 to 500 kHz.

1901.2a supports the largest set of coding

• Robust modulation (ROBO)
• differential binary phase shift keying (DBPSK)
• differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK)
• differential 8-point phase shift keying (D8PSK)

• The PHY payload size can change dynamically, based on channel

conditions in IEEE 1901.2a.
• If the size of the MAC payload is too large to fit within one PHY
service data unit (PSDU), the MAC payload is partitioned into
smaller segments.
• The segmentation may require the addition of padding bytes to the
last payload segment.
 1901.2a MAC Layer

• IEEE 1901.2 has a Segment Control field, This field handles the
segmentation or fragmentation of upper-layer packets with sizes
larger than what can be carried in the MAC protocol data unit
(MPDU).
 1901.2a Topology
• Deployment topologies for IEEE 1901.2a are tied to the physical
power lines.
• NB-PLC deployments use mesh topology. Mesh networks offer the
advantage of devices relaying the traffic of other devices.
 1901.2a Security
Security capabilities of IEEE 1901.2a:
• Security Enabled bit in the Frame Control field should be set in all
MAC frames carrying segments of an encrypted frame.
• If data encryption is required, it should be done before packet
segmentation.
• On the receiver side, the data decryption is done after packet
reassembly.
• When security is enabled, the MAC payload is composed of the
ciphered payload and the message integrity code (MIC)
 IEEE 802.11ah
• IEEE 802.11 is a key IoT wireless access technology, either for
connecting endpoints such as fog computing nodes, highdata- rate
sensors, and audio or video analytics devices or for deploying Wi-Fi
backhaul infrastructures.
• This Wi-Fi lacks sub-GHz support for better signal penetration, low
power for battery-powered nodes.
• For these reasons the IEEE 802.11ah has been launched.
Three main use cases are identified for IEEE 802.11ah:
• Sensors and meters covering a smart grid: Meter to pole,
environmental/agricultural monitoring, industrial process sensors,
indoor healthcare system and fitness sensors, home and building
automation sensors.
• Backhaul aggregation of industrial sensors and meter data:
Potentially connecting IEEE 802.15.4g sub networks.
• Extended range Wi-Fi: For outdoor extended-range hotspot or
cellular traffic offloading.
 IEEE 802.11ah Physical Layer
• Various countries and regions use the following bands for IEEE
802.11ah: 868–868.6 MHz for EMEAR, 902–928 MHz and associated
subsets for North America and Asia-Pacific regions, and 314–316
MHz, 430–434 MHz, 470–510 MHz, and 779–787 MHz for China.
• IEEE 802.11ah uses channels of 2, 4, 8, or 16 MHz.
• IEEE 802.11ah uses one-tenth of the IEEE 802.11ac channel speed.
 IEEE 802.11ah MAC Layer
• Enhancements and features specified by IEEE 802.11ah for the MAC
layer include the following:
• Number of devices: Has been scaled up to 8192 per access point.
• MAC header: Has been shortened to allow more efficient
communication.
• Null data packet (NDP) support: Is extended to cover several
control and management frames.
• Restricted access window (RAW): Is a control algorithm that avoids
simultaneous transmissions.
• Target wake time (TWT): Reduces energy consumption by
permitting an access point to define times when a device can
access the network.
• Speed frame exchange: Enables an AP and endpoint to exchange
frames during a reserved transmit opportunity (TXOP).
 IEEE 802.11ah Topology
• IEEE 802.11ah is deployed as a star topology, it includes a simple
hops relay operation to extend its range.
• This relay operation can be combined with a higher transmission
rate or modulation and coding scheme (MCS).
• This means that a higher transmit rate is used by relay devices
talking directly to the access point.
• Sectorization is a technique that involves partitioning the coverage
area into several sectors.
 LoRa WAN (Long Range WAN) Physical Layer
• LoRa modulation is based on chirp spread spectrum modulation,
which trades a lower data rate for receiver sensitivity to significantly
increase the communication distance.
• LoRa WAN use of the main unlicensed sub-GHz frequency bands of
433 MHz, 779–787 MHz, 863–870 MHz, and 902– 928 MHz.
• The data rate in LoRaWAN varies depending on the frequency bands
and adaptive data rate (ADR).
• ADR is an algorithm that manages the data rate and radio signal for
each endpoint.
• The ADR algorithm ensures that packets are delivered at the best
data rate possible.
• Endpoints close to the gateways with good signal values transmit
with the highest data rate, which enables a shorter transmission
time over the wireless network, and the lowest transmit power.
 LoRa WAN MAC Layer
• The LoRaWAN specification documents three classes of LoRaWAN
devices:
• Class A: This class is the default implementation. Optimized for
battery powered nodes, it allows bidirectional communications.
• Class B :A Class B node or endpoint should get additional receive
windows compared to Class A, but gateways must be synchronized
through a beaconing process.
• Class C: This class is particularly adapted for powered nodes. This
classification enables a node to be continuously listening by keeping
its receive window open when not transmitting.
• LoRaWAN endpoints are uniquely addressable through a variety of
methods, including the following:
• An endpoint can have a global end device ID represented as an IEEE
EUI-64 address.
• An endpoint can have a global application ID represented as an IEEE
EUI-64 address that uniquely identifies the application provider.
• In a LoRaWAN network, endpoints are also known by their end
device address, known as a DevAddr, a 32-bit address.
LoRa WAN Topology
LoRa WAN Security
• Implemented two layers of security, protecting communications
and data privacy across the network.
• The first layer, called “network security” applied at the MAC layer,
guarantees the authentication of the endpoints.
• The second layer is an application session key (AppSKey), which
performs encryption and decryption functions between the
endpoint and its application server.
 NB-IoT and Other LTE Variations
• NB-IoT specifically addresses the requirements of a massive number
of low-throughput devices, low device power consumption,
improved indoor coverage, and optimized network architecture.
LTE Cat 0
• Characteristics
• Power saving mode (PSM): This new device status minimizes energy
consumption.
• PSM is defined as being similar to “powered off” mode, but the
device stays registered with the network.
• Half-duplex mode: This mode reduces the cost and complexity of a
device’s implementation.
 LTE-M
• Lower receiver bandwidth: Bandwidth has been lowered to 1.4
MHz versus the usual 20 MHz. This further simplifies the LTE
endpoint.
• Lower data rate: Data is around 200 kbps for LTE-M, compared to 1
Mbps for Cat 0.
• Half-duplex mode: Just as with Cat 0, LTE-M offers a half-duplex
mode that decreases node complexity and cost.
• Enhanced discontinuous reception (eDRX): This capability increases
from seconds to minutes the amount of time an endpoint can
“sleep” between paging cycles.
 NB-IoT
• Three modes of operation are applicable to NB-IoT:
• Standalone: A GSM carrier is used as an NB-IoT carrier, enabling
reuse of 900 MHz or 1800 MHz.
• In-band: Part of an LTE carrier frequency band is allocated for use
as an NB-IoT frequency. The service provider typically makes this
allocation, and IoT devices are configured accordingly.
• Guard band: An NB-IoT carrier is between the LTE or WCDMA
bands.