Characteristics of Narrowband IoT (nb-ioT) technology that supports smart city management, based on

Project assumptions

Analysis of the use of NB-IoT technology is possible due to the funds received from the city of Wroclaw under the recurrent ‘Mozart’ Municipal Support Programme for Higher Education and Science and the Economic Activity Sector. It was adopted in 2012 by the City Council of Wroclaw. Its purpose is to support the Wroclaw labour market by enabling companies access to the intellectual potential of scientists.
As part of the project, the City provides financial support to scientific and business partnerships for the implementation of projects they submit in various fields, such as biotechnology, medicine, construction, IT, robotics and many others.
On one hand, participation in the program gives the company the opportunity to take advantage of the intellectual potential of the scientist and use his extensive, specialised knowledge for the development of the company. On the other hand, the scientist gains the opportunity to work in a business environment and use his knowl- edge in practice.

The subject of the project led by the author and Nokia is to identify all possibilities to apply Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technology in particular urban spaces. Its aim is to analyse of various possibilities for LPWA technology to be used in a city, that is aspiring to be perceived as smart city.

With reference to the concept of an intelligent city, the project analyzes six areas (i.e. smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart people, smart living, smart governance) in the context of the application of Low Power Wide Area technology. LPWA is a technology that includes both Narrowband IoT and LTE-M technology. It enables data transmission using the infrastructure of cellular networks and opening direct access to the Internet for mass industrial applications. The main benefit resulting from the use of LPWA is the fact that the technology uses the existing radio transmission medium, i.e. LTE or in the future 5G. Unlike LoRaWAN, where the radio layer must be first implemented/ installed. In addition, a very high level of security is ensured because the above technol- ogies are standardised by 3GPP.
LPWA is a cellular technology designed for communication that does not require high data rates. Thanks to this, it has a number of advantages. For example, it can be used in places that are difficult to access, e.g. underground car parks or basements (high sensi- tivity of devices) and extremely low energy consumption. In addition, it provides the ability to support a large number of devices in a wide geographical area. The advantages of LPWA technology make it applicable in smart cities, providing significant support for the Internet of Things.
In the following part of the article, the characteristics of NB-IoT technology, being a part of LPWA, will be presented as well as its application in selected cases.

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