Fine-Grained Measurements of Repetitions on Performance of NB-IoT

Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) is an emerging cellular technology designed for Low-Power Wide-Area Network applications. To extend coverage, repetition scheme is introduced to boost the signal during transmission. In this paper, we evaluate the effects of the repetition number on the performance of NB-IoT networks under different signal conditions. Using an empirical approach, we perform extensive field measurements of the critical characteristics such as power consumption and transmission reliability by setting up a software-defined base station. We present detailed analysis of power consumption and packet loss under different repetition settings and signal conditions from both the overall and the phased perspectives. The results show that the repetition setting dramatically affects the power consumption of random access and the data sending phases.