Use Cases of NB-IoT: Three NB-IoT Cases That Will Boost the Future Business Productivity

NB-IoT is dominating in the realm of the Internet of Things. It has out-beaten previous IoT protocols by confirming strong connections to deep remote areas with low data speeds and decade-long battery life to assure cheap maintenance costs on the firmware.

The narrowband internet of things has many applications; the technology is widely used in smart metering, smart cities, smart agriculture, railways to streamline waste dumping, and its use in livestock farming is undoubtedly undeniable.

Here, we have mentioned some of NB-IoT’s most essential use cases in this modern world.

Smart Agriculture

Farming has been and will be the backbone of any agricultural community, the methods of farming are evolving continuously as we are covering different generation gaps, but one thing is the primary requirement of every technique used in agriculture, which is top quality food, with minimum cost to boost the profits.

During farming, different conditions are to be taken into account. This includes moisture, salinity, soil condition, weather temperaments, and a balanced calculation of how many seeds are required at a time.

This process is very time-consuming, though thanks to IoT, many of these things can be calculated using technology. You can check the weather, the condition of the soil, and temperature with a set of equipment.

But the problem here is how to connect all these devices. While keeping the primary function of low cost- more profit alive!

This is where NB-IoT comes into play; different food producers are now deploying NB-IoT Gateways to streamline the farming process. These sensors can connect by using narrowband technology.

NB-IoT connects sensors efficiently due to its deep signal penetration, which can easily reach the deployed sensors, furthermore with low data speeds, the overall cost will be pretty meager.

The sensors deployed are battery-powered, but you don’t need to pull them out and charge them through a socket. Thanks to their brilliant ten-year battery backup, there won’t be any charging requirement.

Moreover, some of the NB-IoT Gateways come with IP68 waterproofing technology. This is very useful in farming as your sensor will be deployed underground.

There are severe chances of high moisture and other fertilizers damaging the sensors. Having an IP68 NB-IoT Gateway, the sensors remain protected from rugged terrain, water, and dust.

Smart Cities

Like farming, the daily lifestyles are also changing at a rapid rate. We used to have a postman to deliver mail. Now we have our own individual Gmail accounts.

In the past, businesspeople had to reach person to person to market their niche all around the city. However, now you have an innovative digital platform that serves as a marketing medium within the town and internationally.

Modern cities are now a connectivity hub; you need an IoT protocol to power devices at every instinct. Parking meters at the car’s parking also use IoT to work efficiently. Railways’ entrance systems, airport systems, and smart grid stations all require IoT to work in a streamlined way.

With different cellular communication protocols like LTE-M, Cat.1 and NB-IoT, business owners are on their way to search for a much cheaper option to power all operations of smart cities without compromising on productivity.

LTE technology can be considered almost equal to NB-IoT, but the former is only suited for 4G connections. Contrary to this, NB-IoT offers both 4G and 2G, which is good news for business owners who want to invest in NB-IoT Gateways in developing countries.

Having low latency and low data rates, NB-IoT is perfect for those devices that don’t require a high-working speed; an example is intelligent parking meters.

Moreover, deploying NB-IoT in smart cities is a low-cost option, as NB-IoT is a product of 3GPP, it can be installed on the already available LTE networks, which will significantly reduce the cost of the infrastructure, adding more to this the longer than ever battery performance thanks to the low data speeds, ensure the longevity of the NB-IoT Gateways.

The connection quality of NB-IoT is excellent with deep penetration signal strength; the remote modules can also be interlinked with each other. Hence NB-IoT has solved the needed historical remote connectivity problem.

Smart Metering

Providing access to electricity and essential utility means is a hectic job that must be managed efficiently. To maintain a proper reading process, meters are deployed all over the city to keep a check and balance.

Conventionally, the water, gas, and electric companies used to send their employees to check readings, which was a time-consuming process and quite expensive for the company. Furthermore, there wasn’t a way to interlink every meter to get an overall electricity consumption of an area.

However, the internet of things has taken metering into its fold; now, in developed countries and most developing countries, smart meters and gateways are deployed to make efficient and accurate readings; they can be easily interlinked with each other thanks to different IoT protocols.

Different IoT protocols are used in smart metering. LTE holds a significant share in smart metering, but the new evolving technology, NB-IoT, seems to offer a much cheaper alternative.

NB-IoT Gateways with RS485 interfaces is a very cost-effective option for smart metering. Business owners can deploy the RS485 NB-IoT Gateways to confirm good connection at low data speeds.

Previously it was challenging to connect meters installed deep inside the building or under maintenance holes. However, thanks to the high signal retention of NB-IoT, the meters can be connected efficiently without compromising on remote locations.

Final verdict

NB-IoT holds many advantages, with low data speeds and high signal strength. This IoT protocol is making its space in multi-smart operations. Not only it is a cheaper alternative to LTE, but using NB-IoT also confirms that you won’t have to spend chunks of bucks on maintenance.