Whitepaper: Mobile Networks in a smart digital future - deploying a platform for IoT and NB-IoT
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The document discusses Siemens' platform for supporting Internet of Things (IoT) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) networks. It describes the growth of IoT and the need for specialized core network functionality to handle the diverse communication needs of IoT devices. The Siemens platform provides standards-compliant implementations of Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF), Machine Type Communication Interworking Function (MTC-IWF), and MTC Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (MTC-AAA) to securely interface IoT/MTC applications with cellular networks. It also features scalability, redundancy and virtualization.
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Whitepaper: Mobile Networks in a smart digital future - deploying a platform for IoT and NB-IoT
- 1. www.convergence-creators.siemens.com Siemens Convergence Creators Mobile Networks in a smart digital future – deploying a platform for IoT and NB-IoT Supporting 3GPP SCEF, MTC-AAA and MTC-IWF The Internet of Things is set for astounding growth – not in some distant future but rather just around the corner. Boston Consulting Group predicts spending on IoT technologies to reach €250B by 20201) . This dynamic is taking place across major industries, driven by use cases about to impact the everyday life of most people as well as businesses worldwide. When deploying IoT, four principal infrastructure compo- nents come into play. On one end, devices provide desir- able client functions and/or data entry points. On the other end, server applications collect, evaluate and/or respond to the device data. In between, radio access establishes physical device connectivity, and the core net- work manages the actual communication and handles all subscriber and session data. The challenge for the core network in an IoT environment lies in accomodating specific demands on data exchange protocols, authentication, subscriber and session manage- ment, and security considerations. It is directly tied to the breadth of IoT applications, which lead to substantially diverging communication requirements for the variety of IoT subscribers. To illustrate use case differentiation, a closer look at what types of connectivity are handled in IoT is helpful. IoT Core Network Applications R adio Access Devices
- 2. 2 The following two polar usage profiles reflect the breadth of IoT applications: • Human-like communication requirements: characterized by long or permanent connectivity, very frequent client-requests, and transactions with high bandwidth and low latency, drawing a lot of power. • Single-purpose M2M communication requirements: characterized by very short connectivity, inversion of information flow as there are no client requests to server/network. Transactions in low bandwidth and high latency suffice. Low power requirements become a major factor. There are many intriguing uses for clients with a human- like communication profile, including for example con- nected cars. Nevertheless, when looking at sheer num- bers, a vast majority of IoT subscribers will be operating closer to the latter category. To provide coverage for those subscribers, various LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) solutions exist. Proprie- tary (i.e. non-3GPP) technologies include SigFox and LoRa while LTE-M (LTE Cat-M1) and NB-IoT (Narrow-Band IoT) represent (3GPP) cellular IoT, operating in the LTE bands. NB-IoT and LTE-M are shaping up to become complemen- tary de-facto IoT standards4) . IoT technology: 2016 combined MNO partner revenue, number of countries with deployed (non-IoT) networks of MNO partners, spectrum, and 4G base station upgrade requirements 2) 5) $578 billion $241 billion $175 billion ~79 countries ~34 countries ~2 countries Licensed / 3GPP cellular Unlicensed / proprietary Unlicensed / proprietary Mostly software upgradable Hardware upgrades needed Hardware upgrades needed
- 3. 3 To meet today’s and tomorrow’s demands of MNOs regard- ing IoT and NB-IoT, Siemens Convergence Creators has designed a control plane platform that addresses several key aspects of IoT and NB-IoT networks. Multiple design goals needed to be considered: Providing a future proof architecture for data control plane applications such as AAA or PCRF was one principal objec- tive, realizing data less front ends running the services and separate back ends for all associated data was another. Furthermore, the solution should have intra site redun- dancy with no single point of failure. Adding multidimen- sional scalability including geo-redundancy to the mix, the platform shall be able to have frontend and backend serv- ers added without downtime to increase the number of transactions per second (TPS) and concurrent subscribers/ devices as needed. All that without complex peer failover configuration, including reshaping without peer reconfiguration with only one virtual IP assigned to peers. While LTE-M is better suited for higher-bandwidth commu- nication requirements, NB-IoT shines in massive, ultra-low cost, narrowband deployments and also features improved indoor coverage. Both have been optimized in 3GPP Release 13 for low complexity and low device power with 10 years of battery life. NB-IoT additionally offers reduced device bandwidth of 180kHz and single PRB operation5) . Lux Research projects that by 2022, NB-IoT connections based on LTE 4G networks will dominate low-power wide area network (LPWAN) connections with over 90 percent market share2) . Siemens IoT Manager Interfaces to Network Elements www.siemens.com/convergence-creatorsrestricted © Siemens Convergence Creators Holding GmbH. 2016, All rights reserved Siemens IoT Manager Interfaces Siemens IoT Manager 3GPP SCEF, MTC-AAA, MTC-IWF SCR LDAP FCAPS, SNMP VNF-Ve Files SMS (SMS-SC GMSC, IWMSF) SGSN MME AS SCS S6t S6m S6n T4 T6b T6a API or REST Tsp OSS NFV SCR: Siemens Common Repository, Telco-grade in-memory database for all data 5G rel15 Evolution not shown (NEF, Network Exposure) S6m/S6n can be used with integrated MTC-AAA module HSS SCEF, MTC-IWF, and MTC-AAA with 3GPP standards compliance The race to adapt existing networks or build new opti- mized ones for NB-IoT is on – and it is about capturing rel- evant market share – analysts expect a CAGR of 70 to 90 percent for the global NB-IoT market in the next five to seven years3) . To participate in the growth, IoT optimizations to the core will need to be performed to support a massive number of devices with very low data rates. This includes deploying a dedicated core network with IoT specific features, signal- ling reduction and overload control, and resource and subscription optimization and scaling.
- 4. 4 The Siemens Control Plane architecture as outlined above is of course also available virtualized on VMWare and on KVM/OpenStack including support for an external VNF Manager. It supports redundancy with anti-affinity rules, including Availability, Resiliency, Failover, Scale-out and all other Siemens Control Plane characteristics. Virtualization – Siemens Control Plane Cloud Platform Architecture Resilience by geographical distribution www.siemens.com/convergence-creatorss reserved Virtual Load Balancer Virtual Load Balancer vOAM Server vOAM Server vBackend Server vFrontend Server Service 1 vFrontend Server Service 2 vFrontend Server Service 3 vFrontend Server Service 1 vFrontend Server Service 2 vFrontend Server Service 3 vBackend Server Session and user data synchronization in principle takes place between two, three or more geographically distrib- uted sites as Active-Active or Active-Passive with auto- mated or half-manual switch-over and fallback. Aiming at avoiding complexity wherever possible, the dynamic session information is synchronized between sites, which results in substantial bottleneck reduction. Picking up on established industry trends, a cloud native approach, centralized subscriber data management and NFV decomposition are also part of the package. In general, the use of advanced IP concepts allows to keep the user plane elements simple, resulting in optimized inter-site traffic requirements.
- 5. 5 The Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF) was defined to securely expose services and capabilities pro- vided by 3GPP network interfaces to external IoT/Machine Type Communications (MTC) applications or servers. With 3GPP release 13, a new standard for NB-IoT C-SGN with SCEF was introduced. 3GPP compliant SCEF is part of the Siemens NB-IoT platform. It is not only used for device triggers like wake-up or notify user equipment (UE), but also implements new key IoT functions like APIs to IoT enterprises, AAA, External ID, Non-IP Data Delivery (NIDD), UE reachability and Set QoS. SCEF is a key component of NB-IoT, acting as a bridge between the telco and non-telco worlds, enabling external IoT applications to communicate via 3GPP network interfaces. Siemens IoT Manager - overall view MTC-IWF (inter-working function) and MTC-AAA support is realized compliant with 3GPP standards (release 12). For MTC-AAA this includes 3GPP MTC interfaces, device HSS profiles and device handling, mapping and grouping. Lean MTC sessions are optimizing memory usage and realize independent scalability of TPS and number of devices. MTC-IWF handles server originated device triggers, exter- nal communication requests from IoT backends with Auth Service Control System Requests, as well as MSISDN/ device ID to IMSI mappings and integration of online and offline charging. SCEF, MTC-IWF and MTC-AAA with 3GPP standards compliance www.siemens.com/convergence-creatorsrestricted © Siemens Convergence Creators Holding GmbH. 2016, All rights reserved Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF) for Cellular IoT (C-IoT) UE MME SCEF Application Server (AS) NAS NIDD RESTful APIs External ID group HSS Ext. ID Up to billions of low-cost, low-power devices Need for Low Power Wide Area (LPWA), e.g. NB-IoT Non-IP Data Delivery (NIDD) SCEF is key component Secure exposure of network services and capabilities * user equipment Policy AAA www.siemens.com/convergence-creatorsrestricted © Siemens Convergence Creators Holding GmbH. 2016, All rights reserved Siemens IoT Manager Overall view Siemens IoT Manager 3GPP SCEF, MTC-AAA, MTC-IWF SCS AAA, PCRF SCR DB tbd Enterprise Applications Non IP via NB small (100kbit)5G Radio 5GC Enterprise ApplicationsEnterprise ApplicationsEnterprise Applications ePC C-SGN 2G/3G SMS IP via 4G, LTE-M, 5G, …Mbit/s NB 4G Radio + LTE-M GSM LoRa SigFox WiFi device car factory machines
- 6. 6 SCEF authentication and load handling SCEF Use Cases Before an NIDD transfer via SCEF is initiated, two different registration steps are required by the application server (AS) and UE. As part of the registration procedures, SCEF uses both the S6t-interface to the HSS and the T6 interface to MME/C- SGN as part of the registration procedures. APIs for NIDD are not yet defined and may be optionally secured by SCEF and the AS with a secure server. Further- more, SCEF can downgrade the load information in case Most of the use cases for SCEF are based on the expecta- tion that the number of devices will grow exponentially and data size per device remains small. In addition, to be the specified load exceeds the local limits maintained in the SCEF’s configuration. Once the authentication is successfully concluded, NIDD transfer between AS and UE is possible in both directions. Should a delivery attempt fail, there are multiple available courses of action. For example, in case the UE is not regis- tered, SCEF can buffer the data and deliver it later when conditions become suitable. Alternatively, the SCEF may use SMS to cause the UE to attach to the mobile network. able to handle the requirements stipulated by Infrequent Small Data Transmissions, future optimization of the EPC might also be required. Mobile Autonomous Report- ing (MAR) exception report • smoke alarm detectors: alarms • smart meters: failure notifica- tions (e.g. power failure) • any devices: tamper notifications a few bytes (~20) sporadic, rare (a few times per year) not required Mobile Autonomous Report- ing (MAR) periodic reports • sensors: periodic sensor data (weather, traffic, etc.) • smart meters: periodic metering reports 20 – 200 bytes 1 day (40%), 2 hours (40%), 1 hour (15%), and 30 min- utes (5%) not required Network Triggered Action (Network Commands) • switch on/off (standby) • request for meter reading • trigger to send uplink report a few bytes (0 – 20) 1 day (40%), 2 hours (40%), 1 hour (15%), and 30 min- utes (5%) required in some cases Software update/reconfigu- ration model large ( 2000 bytes) twice per year required SCEF Use Cases General Examples Response Data Size (typical) Frequency (typical)
- 7. 7 Usage Control via Gy interface • Device exceeds the subscribed uplink or downlink rate • Device exceeds the number of attachments for the time period • Device exceeds the quota of event subscription/notification • Device exceeds the quota of NIDD subscription Changing the billing party of a session • An enterprise offering a client to pay for an online session after cli- ent purchases a product • Free connection services Information to 3rd parties about network issues In case of non-reachability of the UE the SCEF informs the enterprise whether this is due to the network or the UE itself. 3rd party interaction for UE Patterns The enterprise can inform the Operator of patterns of a UE, so the Operator can better tune the network, used for differen- tiation between fixed and mobile devices. Infrequent Small Data Transmissions Highly efficient handling of infrequent small data transmis- sions for ultra-low complexity, power constrained, and low data-rate ‘Internet of Things’ devices (Cellular IoT devices). Tracking Devices Highly efficient handling of tracking devices using small data transmissions for ultra-low complexity, power constrained, and low data-rate ‘Internet of Things’ devices (Cellular IoT devices). SCEF Use Cases Billing/Control SCEF Use Cases Technical Examples Examples / Description Would you like to find out more about the capabilities of the Siemens Platform for IoT, NB-IoT and SCEF? Contact Siemens Convergence Creators with your questions or to arrange a demo: Oliver Korfmacher Product Line Manager LTE Business Unit [email protected] Sources: 1) https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2017/01/29/internet-of-things-market-to-reach-267b-by-2020 2) http://www.luxresearchinc.com/news-and-events/press-releases/read/ nb-iot-standard-poised-take-90-share-low-power-wide-area 3) http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/narrowband-iot-enterprise-application.asp, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-narrowband-iot-market-forecast-2017-2024-300434777.html 4) https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/2015/09/28/harmonizing-industry-narrowband-iot-specification 5) Nokia: LTE evolution for IoT connectivity - https://resources.ext.nokia.com/asset/200178
- 8. All hardware and software names used are brand names and/or trademarks of their respective holders. © Siemens Convergence Creators GmbH, 2017. All rights reserved. SCVC-PGCON-CORE-B-EN-201707-R01.1 Subject to change without prior notice. The infor- mation in this document contains general descriptions of the technical options available, which may not apply in all cases. The required technical options should therefore be specified in the contract. Siemens Convergence Creators – engineering a smart digital future. We are leading experts in engineering the solutions for our customers’ digital transformation. We engineer opportunities that turn visions into reality. Our solutions deliver sustainable value to our customers! Siemens Convergence Creators GmbH Autokaderstraße 29 1210 Vienna, Austria Customer Service Number: +40 268 409 400 [email protected]