ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the use of wide-area wireless networks and in particular the third generation partnership project Long-Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced, and LTE Advanced Pro cellular systems, to support machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. It provides an overview of the evolution of wide-area wireless standards from the very first analog systems to contemporary fourth generation systems such as LTE Advanced. The LTE radio interface is based upon orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, which involves transmitting data on a relatively large number of narrowband subcarriers that are orthogonal to each other. Scheduling involves allocating resources, and in particular Physical resource block pairs in the case of LTE, to users on a temporary, semipermanent, or permanent basis. LTE supports both frequency division duplex and time division duplex modes of operation. The primary challenge of supporting M2M/IoT applications in LTE is therefore the number of devices that must be accommodated.
