Reduced Capability Devices for 5G IoT

The first release of 5G NR (Rel-15) supports Internet of Things (IoT) use cases including ultra-reliable low-latency as well as massive machine type communications. In Rel-17, reduced capability devices are being introduced to support mid-range IoT use cases such as industrial wireless sensors, wearables, and video surveillance. These use cases require low-cost devices to support high reliability, low latency, medium data rate, and long battery life despite being low complexity in design. In this paper, we provide an overview of these devices and describe important features being standardized in 3GPP for complexity reduction, coverage compensation, and power saving.