Empowering Near-URLLC IoT with 5G DECT-2020 NR: Current State and the Road Ahead

DECT-2020 is a standardized multi-hop technology for 5G massive machine-type communications (mMTC). By relying on multi-hop communications, DECT-2020 allows for cost-controlled flexible deployments that enable a plethora of new services, whose requirements in terms of latency, reliability, and throughput are difficult to satisfy by utilizing cellular Internet-of-Things technologies (CIoT). In this article, we outline new DECT-2020 use-cases ranging from mMTC to ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), showing that many modern services lie between these two extremes. We utilize system level simulations to demonstrate how these "near-URLLC" use-cases are satisfied by the DECT-2020. We show that the current evolution of DECT-2020 can provide near-URLLC operation when no multi-hop communications are required, even under interference from competing URLLC/ mMTC traffic. However, provisioning of near-URLLC services over multiple hops requires additional enhancements.