Enhanced 3GPP system for Machine Type Communications and Internet of Things

The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has been working on developing specifications on Machine Type Communications (MTC), also known as Machine to Machine Communications (M2M), which is all part of Internet of Things (IoT), a technology that enables machines and devices to be inter-connected via the internet. This paper presents recent M2M/IoT feature enhancements in 3GPP. These features include architectural enhancements for inclusion of a service exposure framework, group based IoT management, efficient monitoring mechanisms for IoT devices, optimization of IoT device power consumption, and high latency communications. These M2M/IoT related functionalities and enhancements are a continuing effort within 3GPP to make the mobile network fulfil the ever changing M2M/IoT requirements, and in so doing allow operators/service providers to offer unique services.