Cellular (4G/LTE)

Cellular data operates over radio waves. The fourth generation networking technology, 4G, is an IP-based networking architecture handling both voice and data. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a 4G technology. It handles data rates up to 300 Mbit/s.

LTE can handle fast moving mobile devices (such as mobile phones or telematics units). It can handle devices moving out of range of one network and into another without disruption. Due to higher power needs, it usually requires either constant power or frequent battery charges. LTE supports different categories of services.

A newer category, LTE Category 0 (LTE Cat 0), is designed for IoT requirements. It has lower data rates, capped at 1 Mbit/s maximum. LTE Cat 0 also reduces bandwidth ranges, which allows for significant complexity reduction. It is still able to operate on all existing LTE networks and supports low power constrained IoT devices.

Cellular coverage is not available in all areas, though. There are still some places where you will not find a signal. For analytics, this means that if your IoT device moves around, it could venture into an area without a signal. Data could be lost in this case, unless it is buffered until the signal is recovered.