Study on provision of low-cost Machine-Type Communications (MTC) User Equipments (UEs) based on LTE
As LTE deployments evolve, operators would like to reduce the cost of overall network maintenance by minimising the number of RATs. Machine-Type Communications (MTC) is a market that is likely to continue expanding in the future. Many MTC UE's are targeting low-end (low average revenue per user, low data rate) applications that can be handled adequately by GSM/GPRS. Owing to the low-cost of these devices and good coverage of GSM/GPRS, there is very little motivation for MTC UE suppliers to use modules supporting the LTE radio interface. As more and more MTC UE's are deployed in the field, this naturally increases the reliance on GSM/GPRS networks. This will cost operators not only in terms of maintaining multiple RATs, but it will also prevent operators from reaping the maximum benefit out of their spectrum (given the non-optimal spectrum efficiency of GSM/GPRS). Given the likely high number of MTC UE's, the overall resource they will need for service provision may be correspondingly significant, and inefficiently assigned.
Therefore, it is necessary to find a solution to ensure that there is a clear business benefit to MTC UE vendors and operators for migrating low-end MTC UE's from GSM/GPRS to LTE networks.