LTN(Low Throughput Network)

What is it ? 

LTN stands for Low Throughput Network. You can easily guess what it is from the name itself.

Yes, it is special type of network that is specialy optimized for low throughput data traffic.

Then you may ask. How low it should be to be called 'Low Throughput' ? If you have been addicted too much about LTE, LTE Advanced. You may have difficult even imagining low throughput case. Probably the lowest throughput you may think of would be Cat 0 throughput which is about 1 Mbps.

Is this low enough ?

No. It is way, way, way high throughput for LTN.

Then, what kind of throughput you are thinking about in LTN ?

It is about 10~100 bits per sec typically and even in max throughput case it would be just about 50 k bits per second.

Are you sure ? Do you have such a many application with this little/tiny throughputs that we have to think of brand new network architecture ?

The answer is Yes. I will post a separate page for LTN application later.

What are the major characteristics of LTN ?

I think ETSI GS LTN 003 is well describing the major characteristics of LTN in terms of Protocol and Radio Access. It states as follows :

• Long Range Communication : LTN enables long-range data transmission (distances up to 40 km in open field) and/or communication with buried underground equipment.
• Low Engergy Consumption : LTN operates with minimal power consumption in the device modems that allows operation on several years even with the standard batteries.
• Low Throughput : LTN implements low throughput along with advanced signal processing that provides effective protection against interferences.

Main Target Application

With all the characterestics mentioned above, LTN can be a good solution to the applications as follows :

• M2M : LTN is particularly well suited for low throughput machine to machine communication where data volumn is limited and latency is not a strong requirement.