Energy consumption of low data rate M2M communications in LTE

LTE is meant to be the new mobile communication standard for Machine-to-Machine communication over cellular networks. This paper takes an insight look on the protocol overhead of LTE for low cost/low complexity LTE sensor nodes used e.g. for smart metering. For this purpose, the user plane protocol in LTE is briefly explained and the connection flow is analyzed with respect to uplink messages required for data transmission. In the end the paper compares the required energy per information bit to the theoretical limits.