Advantages of AADI

For Operators:

eSIM cards sales to all IOTs (each and every device)
Save gNB cost, Centralized only a few gNB for Nation
Can go with an aggressive eSIM pricing strategy
Utilize Fiber broadband and recover Fiber investment
Ensure growth by influencing eSIM compulsory for Authenticated IOT Security through Govt

For IOT Suppliers:

Become compliant with 5G IOT Tenders and Propose
Save cost, No need to upgrade RF/Radio or Stack/chipset upgrade.
Save cost, No need to equip devices with SIM card/UICC slots
IoTs become capable of SMS/broadcast sending/ receiving

For End IOT Consumer:

Save cost on 5G upgrade for IOT
Build your own private 5G Network with very small investment
Secure all devices with 5G standard authentication and security
Single Dashboard monitoring of multiple Vendor

Click here to explore AADI

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Cientra’s Unique Industrial IoT Platform

Today, in the IoT world, there is a requirement to connect the devices through a common platform for interoperability and ease of scalability. 5G is one acceptable common platform where not only mobiles but IoT are also connected by the same standard. Many issues and challenges need to be solved to achieve this interoperability and scalability.

Challenges are many. Most of the IoT’s are not 5G and do not have 5G-Stack and SIM. These can be provided from the cloud and devices can become 5G-device. First of all, a very small %tage of land is covered by 5G spectrum. Also, devices need 5G radio capability. Radio connectivity can be solved if other means of connectivity (wifi, 4G hotspot, LoRa etc) are available and 5G protocols are augmented. Then they become interoperable like 5G devices and can communicate through gNB. They can reach gNB by IP and such gNBs can be called IP-gNB. Devices need 5G eSIM to operate as 5G devices. The remote eSIM method eliminates the need for a SIM slot. Cientra 5G IoT Gateway is a combination of an Aggregator to which all IoT’s will connect and a set of remote NAS stack and IP-gNB. Overall, all these challenges are solved with AADI.

This solution connects the NR and non-NR devices to the 5G network and makes 5G features available to all devices seamlessly. NR devices are connected through NR-gNB and non-NR devices are connected through IP-gNB, after they are converted to 5G devices, by provision of remote 5G virtual stack and eSIM. Thus all devices are connected as 5G ubiquitously.

A non-5G device is enabled to function like a 5G device. Since it connects to IP-gNB through IP, it Eliminates the need for 5G spectrum. Even if No 5G-SIM slot is available in the device, it can work with eSIM situated in the cloud. Single eSIM can be allocated to multiple devices, but one at a time and the device-serial-number + eSIM combination becomes the temporary identity.

Since it’s a 3GPP standard 5G platform where all devices register and operate, we achieve multi-vendor compatibility. Any IoT device can connect to any operator 5G Core. Standardization enables 5G standard Authentication, Security and Authorization etc

You can start a 5G network with a small investment. IoTs are Connectible with IP beyond geo-boundaries with a single IP-gNB, connecting IoTs from anywhere. Standard 5G OSS/BSS can be deployed. As a part of 5G network, it gives Flexibility to use proven 5G Existing utilities like Billing, NMS, AI/ML predictions etc. The system is hostable in the cloud or within your Premises. Own 5G IOT Network and deploy and start NOW, as No infrastructure and spectrum is required. This provides a big cost saving to consumers.

About our AADI

Cientra AADI is a complete 5G end-to-end software solution for IoT conversion to 5G-IoT.

IoT Protocol Agnostic Connectivity

Aggregator implements TCP/UDP socket and above that any IOT protocol and session layers can be processed. Our platform is transparent to the IOT protocol and works just like any mobile network where any protocol used is of no concern

IoT 5G Stack & SIM allocation
Once AADI receives a connection request from IOT to register, it coordinates with IP-gNB on UE-Stack and eSIM availability. Based on the Company/group and serial number, the PLMN/Core allocated will be derived and within that Company/group/Core/PLMN, the availability of eSIM will be checked. If available, one will be allocated to the requesting device and a Virtual remote UE(-Stack) will be created to represent the IoT. Then it will act like a 5G device and can send the NAS messages to the 5GCore through gNB.

Once the IoT is equipped with eSIM, 5GStack and IP, it communicates all the NAS signaling with 5GCore, through gNB. It will complete the Authentication and Security procedures with 5GCore. This is common to all the IoT whether they will use HTTP, web socket, MQTT, COAP or any other protocol to communicate.

Normally RRC protocol will reside in the gNB and RRC will convey the NAS messages. Here NAS messages will be carried by IP, which is more commonly available. Thus 5G Radio need is eliminated and the IoT connection is made easy with 5G Network through IP. This specialized IP-gNB, which receives the NAS messages through IP, is called IP-gNB. This is a deviation from 3GPP and this is our solution.

NAS Interface for IOT

AADI-connected IoTs will be allocated a NAS stack and an eSIM and thus become a 3GPP UE. UE supports NAS protocol functions. It can support the 5GMM and 5GSM NAS messages like Registration, Authentication, Security etc. It implements complete Control plane signalling with C-IOT optimization features. The implementations of IoT are according to the 3GPP specs 24.501. It can support the authentication procedure and security procedure whenever networks trigger the registration.

gNB follows the 3GPP protocol implementation and has the interfaces of N2 and N3 as per the specs. The Radio interface is modified to be IP interface. The devices will connect to the gNB by IP and not through the NR-PHY & RRC. This change management is facilitated by an entity called Aggregator and 5G-UE-Stack, which represents the IoT for 5G protocol conversion. The UE-Stack and an eSIM is allocated to the device when the login request comes. These functions are controlled by additional functions of gNB which makes it 5G-IoT-Gateway. This IP-gNB manages the contexts of each IoT as UE and manages their control plane and user plane requirements.

IP-gNB

N2 and N3 Interface from AADI to 5GCore

Standard 3GPP N2 interface is used between AADI and 5G-Core to transfer the control plane messages. To establish the connection between AADI and 5GC, we are using the SCTP protocol. The N2 interface is used to establish the NGAP connection over SCTP between the gNB and 5GC. AADI supports both Non UE-associated services and UE-associated services. By using the N2 interface, we are doing UE context setup and release, PDU Session establishment and release, sending SMS to the IOT, and conveying downlink and uplink NAS messages as a payload. It supports CM idle and CM connected operations such as UE Context release.

N3 interface is used between NG-RAN and 5G-Core to transfer the user plane Data. To establish the connection between gNB and 5GC, we are using the GTP protocol. It is used to establish the GTP connection over UDP between the gNB and 5GC.

AADI IP-gNB can be configured to be connected to a 3rd party 5GCore network by configuring the gNB and the respective external Core Node. Also, based on the slice requested, a Core may forward the Registration Request to another core through the gNB Re-Route message.