Why Narrow Bandwidth systems in 5G?


Narrow band is for IOT devices. You see, with LTE and Wi-Fi, they tend to be on the air all the time which means the device, a smartphone or your laptop, will be listening and processing data all the time. With IOT devices, they don’t need to talk all the time. They could be pinged once a day or even just talk when they have something to say. 

While there are several reasons, the main one is battery life. If it is talking all the time, then the power draw is constant and high. Broadband kills any battery because it is talking all the time. To get a 10-year battery life, you need to plan when or how it will talk and listen. You don’t want it drawing on that battery 24/7 because it’s listening and processing data. Think about your laptop and how the Wi-Fi will drain the battery life, just like the display. These are the main draws of power. Well, with many IOT devices there is no display, so they only massive power draw is the radio. If you can have the radio go to sleep until it is needed or to wake up at a time of day, then the battery will last a very long time. 

For example, if you have a water sensor or a gas meter or a water meter, three devices that could be mounted where there is no available power source, you need to make sure that battery will last a very long time. Each device will have a different function.  

•The water sensor may only wake up to send a beacon to let the system know that it is alive and working unless there is a high-water alarm, then it will send out alerts. This way the battery will only work when it must. 

•For the metering, gas or water, it doesn’t need to send information all the time. Only maybe once a month or when it’s queried. It may send information of the usage is extremely high to let people know that there is a massive draw on the product measured. This way the battery will last a very long time, and the company deploying these devices will not need to run power to everything. 

These are just a few examples of how the narrowband will be a slice of the 5G network.

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