A Comprehensive Guide to Long-Term Evolution(LTE)

LTE UE Categories

Twenty-two LTE UE Categories defined in the LTE protocol describe the performance specifications of LTE devices. Different LTE UE Categories come with differing parameters. Such as data rate, power consumption, frequency spectrum, and signal coverage.

Without the help of LTE UE Categories, the LTE base station can not communicate with LTE devices effectively. The reason is that the base station needs to determine the performance of the UE on the LTE UE Categories information from this equipment. Then it could be able to communicate with it accordingly. The table below shows each LTE UE category’s data.

LTE Category Chart

At Dusun IoT, we are focused on the commercial and industrial use cases of LTE-M, LTE CAT4, and LTE CAT1, as our customers are mainly distributed across industrial, home automation, and medical landscapes. So the remainder of this article discusses these three UE categories’ meaning in that context.

CAT M1 (LTE-M)

What is CAT M1

CAT M1, also known as LTE-M, is a low-power wide-area(LPWA) technology suitable for IoT applications with Low to Medium Data and Usage. To provide better power efficiency and a more extended signal range, CAT M1 trades in data rate. 

And as a complementary technology to NB-IoT, LTE-M operates on a 1.4 MHz spectrum with a transmit power of 20 Bm. In addition, it provides faster upload and download speeds of 1 Mbps and lower latency of 10 to 15ms.

Advantages of CAT M1

CAT M1 devices have significant advantages for the cellular network, IoT developers, and customers. In addition to its ability to manage low to medium data transfers, including voice-over IP and firmware and software updates.

LTE-M has another significant advantage: LTE-M is backward compatible with existing LTE networks, which means carriers do not need to spend money to create the new station.

Thanks to its Low power consumption capability, it enables maintenance costs drastically to decrease compared to other cellular connectivity options

LTE CAT1

What is LTE CAT1

CAT1 is an LTE UE Category designed explicitly for Machine-to-Machine(M2M) and IoT applications. To save power and cost for large-scale or long-range IoT system, bandwidth and communication demand is decreased. 

Explore LTE M gateway

LTE CAT1 supports 10 Mbit/s downlink speed and 5 Mbit/s uplinks. And it is best suited for use cases dependent on both high-speed data transmission and the reliability of the 4G network.   

CAT1 is the only fully-functional cellular IoT option at the moment, which is used to create the link between IoT devices and the existing LTE networks in early attempts. 

Advantages of LTE CAT1

• • High data streaming throughput

• • Lowe latency for wake-up application

• • Wider global coverage

LTE CAT4

What is LTE CAT4

LTE CAT4 is the most common and simpler high-speed LTE UE category that supports uplink data rates up to 50Mbps and downlink data rates up to 150Mbps, which enables applications like high-quality video surveillance, routers, etc. 

To provide this performance, the LTE CAT4 utilizes the simplest MIMO configuration: the 2×2 MIMO(2 TX antennas and 2 RX antennas). And it is best suited for IoT applications requiring higher throughputs and more bandwidth.

Advantages of LTE CAT4

• • High data rates ranging from (10-100Mbps)

• • Worldwide coverage,

• • Handover capability,

• • voice over LTE (VoLTE)

• • low latency

Which is Best For Your Application

Dusun is a leader in developing and manufacturing smart gateway you need to have to get ahead in your IoT gateway solutions. We provide various products using 4G LTE technology like CAT1, CAT4, and CAT M1 for different usage scenarios.