Lab: NB-IoT signaling trace inspection

Lab Scenario: A Smart Meter's Daily Hello

In this lab you will walk through an annotated NB-IoT signaling trace captured from a smart electricity meter performing its hourly report. The meter is installed in a residential basement, measures CE Level 1, and uses Control Plane CIoT optimization. The trace begins with the meter waking from PSM (Power Saving Mode), performing cell synchronization, executing the random access procedure, sending its data via NAS, and returning to PSM. The full cycle takes roughly six seconds — short enough for the meter to maintain a ten-year battery life on a single primary cell.