Best posts made by Ronan Lacroix

Dear customer,

In the table below, you will find the latest configuration of the PSM timers (Activity timer T3324 and Extended TAU timer T3412) in the DT NB-IoT networks.
Note: all parameters provided below are subjected to change and are therefore only indicative and provided without guarantee. This table shall be seen as a snapshot of DT’s network configuration and values may evolve over time.

As mentioned above, we are currently checking the minimum value for the T3412 timer (reported by users as being set to 2 hours) and will confirm this value asap.

Hi @magnatron ,
There is no general answer to your question, I’m afraid, as both options (automatic and manual network selection) come with benefits and drawbacks that will strongly vary depending on your use case scenario.
In principle, going for an automatic network selection is the safest way to go, as it allows the module to find and attach to any available network according to predefined and standardized rules set in your module and SIM-card (network availability obviously also implies a roaming agreement between your Operator and the Operator of the visited network!).
The main drawback in this case is the time and energy it takes for the device to attach for the very first time, as it usually needs more time to scan all bands and identify all available networks before picking up the most appropriate one (based on the aforementioned rules).
Depending on the region where your solution is deployed, you may however shorten this scan period by only configuring those bands that are relevant for that region, for instance Bands 3, 8 and 20 for most European countries (or even Bands 8 and 20 only for NB-IoT).
Furthermore, note that the device module will usually remember which network it connected to last (the so-called “last registered PLMN network”) and try to re-attach to the same network, hence avoiding the initial long band scan. As a result, there will mostly be no significant drawback for subsequent attaches if your device is stationary or roaming within one single country.
Things however can get more complicated if your device is battery-powered and moving between multiple countries/regions as a band scan will need to be initiated each time the device is leaving the coverage of the last registered network.
In this case, a programmatic approach based on selective manual scans and network selections might provide better results in terms of energy consumption and communication latency, however be aware that such an approach requires a very careful and thorough implementation as the tiniest programmatic failure may lead to the device not being able to attach at all to any network.
I hope this can help you in some ways! @others, please feel free to comment or provide additional advice!
Kind regards, Ronan

@Ronan-Lacroix said in LTE-Cat.M1 Rollout in Germany:

Hi Alfons, Hi Thomas,

I have the pleasure to announce that LTE-M is now available in Germany throughout the country.
Please take a look at https://t-map.telekom.de/tmap2/mobileiot for a detailed view of our coverage map, as well as at https://iot.telekom.com/ for the available pre-paid offerings.

Looking forward to getting your return of experience on our brand new IoT network!

Kind regards,

Ronan

Hi Stefan,

A press release should be issued soon, and more information about the network features and benefits will be posted on this forum in the weeks to come.

Best,

Hi Timo,

Those strong delays are most probably a consequence of the weak network signal strength at your test location.

In CE-Level 2, the device has to repeat the same signal over the radio interface multiple times (up to 2048 repetitions in downlink, and 128 repetitions in uplink!) in order to enhance the link budget and ensure a successful signal transmission.
This has a direct impact on both the data throughput and the communication latency, which you see reflected in the Ping RTT.

This can be solved by improving the signal quality, for instance by changing the location of the device or by using a better antenna.

Best regards,

Ronan

eDRX is being deployed as we speak across our German NB-IoT network, and will be enabled in TMNL shortly thereafter.
We will inform you as soon as it is commercially available there!
Note that eDRX for NB-IoT is already live nationwide in our Magenta network in Austria.

eDRX however is not yet available in our LTE-M networks, but we plan to deploy this feature across our LTE-M footprint (currently Germany, Netherlands and Austria) beginning of next year.

The LTE-M coverage map for Germany is available under: https://t-map-ta.telekom.de/tmap2/mobileiot/.
LTE-M unfortunately isn’t available in the T-Mobile Czech Republic network yet.

@inka-O,

1. As stated above, we will implement eDRX for LTE-M beginning of next year, but we cannot tell you exactly when right now (our current target is Q1 2021). As far as we know, most of the other European LTE-M operators haven’t yet enabled eDRX neither, but also plan to deploy it next year.
2. eDRX does not exist in 2G, only in LTE, and deployed primarily (if not exclusively) in its Low-Power Wide-Area categories (i.e. LTE-M and NB-IoT).
3. PSM is supported in all of DT’s LTE-M networks as well as in all of our roaming partner networks. Like eDRX, PSM has only been standardized in LTE networks and is not available for 2G.

Best regards,

Ronan

Hi MeneerJacco,

You may want to specify the PSM Timer value to be used before entering Power Saving.
If you want the module to enter PSM right after leaving its connected mode, use for instance the command:

AT+CPSMS=1,,,,"00000000"

You may also want to provide a longer TAU timer. To configure for instance a TAU Timer of 3 hours and a PSM of 0s, enter:

AT+CPSMS=1,,,"00100011","00000000"

Best,

Ronan

@Marijn

Title has been fixed!

@inka-O , for detailed information about our LTE-M network footprint and the supported features, please check our documentation library: https://docs.iotcreators.com/docs/introduction-to-lte-m.
You should find an answer to all your questions above!

All features (e.g. PSM, LP-TAU, eDRX) when deployed are available nationwide.

@JakubT,

This essentially depends on your SIM contract and associated tariff. If this tariff includes EU-Roaming for instance, then Roaming in all Roaming Partner networks should be possible, and not only in DT’s own affiliates’ network.
Best regards,
Ronan

@JakubT ,
Could you help us understand what you exactly mean with “SIM-based restrictions”? Which specific issues are you experiencing?
Are you also talking about a network technology specifically (e.g. NB-IoT or LTE-M)?
Best regards,
Ronan

Hi @Alessandro-Parmigiani ,
The RRC inactivity timer is set by the network and cannot be modified by the device. Its value is usually consistent within one network (there are exceptions, though!) but it is not necessarily identical across all network technologies (e.g. NB-IoT and LTE-M).
Note that for NB-IoT, the RRC inactivity timer may also have different values depending on the CE-Level in which the module is (CE0, 1 or 2).

In Germany, the timer is set to 10s for LTE-M and between 20s and 30s for NB-IoT depending on the area.
We are however reviewing those values at the moment and will most probably shorten the RRC inactivity timer for NB-IoT in the near future, especially for CE Level 0 and CE Level 1.
We will gladly inform you via this post whenever this change has been performed!

If your application however does not expect downlink data after sending an uplink message, we strongly recommend using the Release Assistance Indication on NB-IoT to bypass this RRC Inactivity period and immediatly switch to Idle mode (as mentioned by Stefan de Lange above).

RAI is supported across all DT NB-IoT networks, with some regional limitations within our Polish network.
This feature unfortunately isn’t yet available for LTE-M, but has been standardized by 3GPP. It is therefore likely to be implemented in the future both by module vendors and network providers.

Hope this can help!

Best regards,

Ronan

Dear Mr. Bruns,
The eDRX feature unfortunately isn’t yet available in our German network but its nationwide deployment is in preparation. I will gladly inform you via this post as soon as it is done.
If it can help (for test purpose), eDRX has already been enabled in Austria in our Magenta Telekom network and is being rolled out as we speak in our T-Mobile Netherlands network.
Kind regards,
Ronan Lacroix

@Sven-Brandau ,
Please note that “network time” has meanwhile been enabled in our NB-IoT network in Germany, so that AT command “AT+CCLK?” should no longer return an error.
Kind regards,
Ronan

Hi all,

Please note that network time is now also provided over our LTE-M network in Germany, and can be retrieved with the usual AT commands (e.g. AT+CCLK?, AT+QLTS=2, …)

Best regards,

Ronan

Hi @Christian-Jacobsen,

Full LTE-M Roaming support with EMnify will be implemented in Germany on March 18, 2022. From that date onwards, PSM and Long-Periodic TAU features should be available to you with this SIM-card.
Availability dates in Austria and other DT networks however aren’t currently available.

Kind regards, Ronan

@Herr-Bruns

Feature deployment is in preparation, please bear with us a little longer…

Kind regards, Ronan

@Lauwie007
I have not tested it myself, but I guess your live test has just proven it, hasn’t it?
Keep in mind that this time is provided by the local network in which you are actually roaming, so if you’re roaming in say, the Vodafone UK network, this time and associated timezone will be provided by Vodafone UK (if supported as just discussed).
Kind regards, Ronan