LWM2M for Cellular IoT: Protocol Implementation and Performance Evaluation

With the growing number of IoT devices, numerous IoT protocols are being developed to provide the market with options based on product requirements. With the release of cellular IoT (CIoT) technologies in the Czech Republic, recently LTE Cat-M, the focus shifts towards not only satisfying the requirements of the device application but also minimizing the generated traffic and overall co-existence of many devices under one cell. It led to the modification of the existing and the creation of new IoT protocols designed to generate as little overhead traffic as possible while adopting the existing well-known communication schemes. Namely, the new UDP-based protocol for IoT, LWM2M strives to be the alternative to the well-established IoT protocols used outside of CIoT. This paper explains the communication principles and capabilities of the well-established IoT protocols with a heavy focus on the LWM2M protocol. Further, it describes difficulties during user implementation of the LWM2M protocol. Furthermore, two carefully designed scenarios are used to compare the differences among these protocols, focusing on generated overhead as it is subject to a fee paid to the network operators within the CIoT networks.