scope:

Currently, the communication modules produced by different vendors of modules for mobile Internet of things (IoT) devices have different designs, which results in a fragmented communication module market and low compatibility. The universal communication module is a key component to achieve economies of scale for mobile IoT devices, accelerate the progress of research and development and promote the application of new mobile IoT technologies.

This Recommendation introduces the concept of a universal communication module of mobile IoT devices, analyses the requirements for universal communication module implementations of mobile IoT devices, and provides use cases for the universal communication module of mobile IoT devices.

In this Recommendation, the universal communication module actually represents a series of communication modules.

The communication technologies related to all the communication modules which are addressed in this Recommendation - and used by mobile IoT devices - are the 3GPP low power wide area (LPWA) technologies (currently, narrow band-Internet of things (NB-IoT) [b-3GPP TS 36.300] and enhanced machine type communication (eMTC) [b-3GPP TS 36.300]).

Different communication modules can apply to different IoT application scenarios, such as smart utility metering, smart home, logistics tracking, smart bicycles, intelligent buildings and so on.

The scope of this Recommendation includes:

- concept and classification of universal communication module of mobile IoT devices;

- requirements of universal communication module of mobile IoT devices - considering the requirements for the different communication module types of mobile IoT devices;

- use cases of universal communication module of mobile IoT devices.