Now 5G has attracted much attention, but in the next few years, 4G will also assume a large share of cellular IoT connections, and it is also the main source of cellular IoT revenue for operators. Among them, LTE Cat1 is a designated category of IoT between the high-speed LTE category and the low-speed Internet of Things, and LTE Cat 1 is a branch worthy of attention. Judging from the current development trend of the cellular Internet of Things, the opportunity for LTE Cat 1 to assume the main role of 4G Internet of Things connection has already begun.
According to 3GPP related standards and specifications, UE category is a collection of a series of variable wireless performance parameters in uplink/downlink, including many wireless characteristics, the most important of which is the rate supported by the user equipment. The corresponding relationship between various "UE Category" and supported rate is shown in the following table:
Generally speaking, the transmission capability of the terminal is determined by various parameters of the UE Category between the base station and the user terminal, and the base station adjusts its own parameters according to the UE Category Set up and communicate with the user terminal reasonably. From this perspective, the UE Category is also the basis for the design of various terminals of different levels in the industrial chain. Among them, Category 1 is the user terminal level of the lowest version of the parameter configuration, allowing the industry to design "low version" 4G terminals at low cost, generally referred to as Cat 1.
Of course, the "low version" 4G terminal Cat 1 also plays an important role in the industry. For example, some mobile phone manufacturers consider using Cat 1 chips to launch 4G elderly smartphones, because many elderly phones only require basic call and data functions. Cat 1 supports VoLTE and low-rate data at a low cost, providing mobile phone manufacturers with a new choice. However, the significance of Cat 1 in the field of Internet of Things may be more important. Practitioners in the Internet of Things industry should be familiar with a picture similar to the following:
This pyramid structure reveals the distribution of cellular IoT connections: 60% of IoT connections require narrowband networks to provide services, while low-to-medium rate IoT devices require Cat 1 or eMTC networks to provide services, and only about 10% of high-speed services require 4G Cat. 4 or above or 5G eMBB to provide services. Looking back at our current cellular IoT industry ecology, it can be clearly seen that narrowband services and high-speed services have mature networks and industry ecology, while the medium and low-speed IoT networks and related industry ecology, which account for 30%, are still relatively blank. Therefore, the development of Cat 1 network and related industries is of great significance to complement the main scenarios of the Internet of Things.
In 2016, China Telecom announced the commercial plan of Cat 1 and launched the Cat1 module subsidy program, but in the past few years, Cat 1 has not ushered in the expected large-scale connection. Of course, it may not be the best time then, and the entire industry has undergone many changes in the past few years. Is it a better time to promote Cat 1 again?
Intergenerational migration of cellular Internet of Things connection methods has begun. According to data from the market research organization Counterpoint, in the next few years, the number of cellular IoT connections will undergo a migration from 2G+4G-based to NB-IoT+4G-based.
Prior to this, although the official plan of domestic operators' 2G/3G withdrawal from the network has not been released to the public, the industry has already had clear expectations for it. Due to the long life cycle of IoT devices, under the risk of 2G/3G withdrawal, users may consider not adopting 2G/3G connection methods when making decisions. However, the NB-IoT network coverage and industry chain were not yet mature at that time. The Internet of Things applications at medium and low speeds lack new connection methods, and users do not have many options, so they can only choose traditional 2G/3G.
However, the current NB-IoT industry ecosystem is ready, and if Cat 1 can currently exert its strength, it is indeed a better opportunity to promote the intergenerational migration of cellular IoT. The newly added medium and low rate terminals are connected via Cat 1. A considerable part of the existing medium and low rate 2G/3G terminals have reached the end of their life cycle before 2025 and can be replaced with Cat 1, thereby migrating some of the 2G/3G connections to On 4G.
Module hardware price cost has further decreased. In recent years, the 4G IoT industry has developed rapidly. Chip and module design and production processes have become more mature and stable. The hardware cost has dropped significantly. The number of participants has also been relatively abundant. Start to enter the range below 70 yuan.
Since Cat 1 belongs to the 4G series, it can directly reuse 4G existing resources. Under the current background, with the help of the mature 4G industry chain, Cat 1 as a low-profile 4G, only need to make small tailoring changes to the existing 4G products, it is possible to quickly market and reduce the cost to the range expected by the industry .
Among them, the AM430 of Beijing Miracle IOT is an LTE CAT1 wireless Internet of Things module, which uses the ASR 3601 chip platform and supports LTE-FDD/LTE-TDD/GSM. Support VoLTE voice, support data communication, reserved USB, USIM, SDIO, PWM, UART, peripheral interfaces, easy to integrate.
In the past few years, Chinese operators have built the world's largest 4G network, and the coverage and depth of the network are far ahead of overseas operators. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the total number of 4G base stations nationwide has reached 5.19 million by the end of September this year, accounting for 64.2% of all base stations. The network infrastructure of this scale provides an environment that can be accessed anytime, anywhere for mobile communication users across the country. With the help of 4G network infrastructure, Cat 1 can also provide IoT users with the opportunity to access anytime, anywhere. It can be said that its network infrastructure is not weaker than 2G/3G and NB-IoT, which is a migration to Cat 1 for IoT connections. Lay a good foundation. Moreover, there are not many alternatives for the connection scheme of the medium and low-speed cellular Internet of Things. This is also an opportunity for the rapid development of Cat 1.
