Unlocking eSIM for IoT: GSMA Specs Making Use Cases More Accessible

Remote SIM provisioning has been one of the most rapidly maturing technologies in the SIM industry. With the advent of eSIM, the connected ecosystem is constantly changing to deliver advanced security, seamless, flexible connectivity and full end-to-end digitalization with a significant positive impact on the market. 

Research from TCA revealed a steady growth in eSIM shipments which saw a 9% year-on-year increase to reach 337 million units in 2021. Similarly, the number of profiles downloaded to eSIM devices (i.e., the number of profiles activated via a remote sim provisioning platform), saw a radical jump of 54% in 2021. 

The ongoing market shift towards eSIM is very real, and if the global chip shortage taught us anything, it is that eSIM is the future. 

Industry leading standards 

Remote SIM Provisioning (RSP) was a standard created by the GSMA and other industry leaders to introduce remote provisioning of operator profiles on an eSIM, which allows users to swap their connectivity providers without replacing the SIM card. The group working on this standardisation came up with two different flavours of RSP, with one intended for consumer devices with eSIM support (check our list of devices here) and the other for M2M devices. 

Both versions of the standards have their pros and cons, but the industry realised that neither was fit for purpose when it came to everyday IoT devices such as cars, cameras or scooters, which could range from battery-operated devices to devices with a user interface, or very simple devices without any Local Profile Assistant (LPA) or eSIM management possibilities. As a result, the group worked on a new RSP standard that addressed the wider range of IoT devices and use cases. 

Overcoming challenges 

This standard was referred to as the new GSMA eSIM IoT Spec, among the first to be designated under a new naming convention so becoming the SGP-31 and SGP-32 Standards. The aim was simply to overcome the challenges faced by both existing standards and to make profile provisioning for IoT devices as seamless as possible. 

Before examining these new specifications themselves in depth, it’s important to note the limitations of the prior consumer and M2M specs which the new versions were designed to address. 

For the RSP consumer specifications, a Local Profile Assistant (LPA) is mandatory to control the profile lifecycle on a device but hosting an LPA on a simple IoT device is technically very challenging. Secondly, user consent is mandatory for installing, enabling, disabling and deleting a profile, meaning that all these actions are user driven. However, for IoT devices that have been deployed in hard-to-reach areas, this kind of user consent is not possible. 

The consumer specification is based on a single method of profile download, which is a user action, so it isn't much help when managing a fleet of IoT devices. 

Overcoming limitations 

M2M specs, on the other hand, aren’t subject to these limitations but they still have to deal with their own unique set of complexities. The main challenge was that M2M standards were wholly dependent on the use of SMS, while SMS is unsupported by most Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN). From a business perspective, M2M specs introduced very complex integrations between multiple SMDP(s) and SMSR(s), and that hurt the go-to-market, impacted the overall investment into the solution and created unavoidable lock-ins for OEMS and MNOs. 

So how did the new GSMA eSIM IoT Spec simplify this? By reusing most of the consumer architecture where there was a single platform (referred to as the SMDP+) and introducing the eSIM IoT remote manager (eIM). The eIM is responsible for remote Profile State Management Operations on a single IoT Device or a fleet of IoT Devices and this can be owned by the OEM to manage their devices without the need for an SMSR. The eIM, unlike the SMSR (from M2M specs), can be associated with multiple eSIMs, where multiple eIMs don’t need any technical integration. It is also possible to delete the association of the Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC) with the eIM which makes it simpler than an SM-SR swap. 

The new GSMA eSIM IoT Spec benefits from the SMDS (Subscription Managed Discovery Service) to send a notification to consumer IoT devices for the downloading of profiles, along with the support of other consumer eSIM download use cases, such as using default SMDP+ address, activation codes and QR codes. 

New generation support 

Another key issue the new standard addressed was the complexity around downloading a profile for battery-constrained devices and ensuring that they get eSIM profiles during a power-on cycle. To address the newer generation devices, profile download via local interface such as Bluetooth or wired connection was made possible. 

Even before the full specifications were released in December 2022, 1GLOBAL had already added the new specs into its RSP roadmap, typical of trailblazers and early adopters of new standards. With 1GLOBAL’s in-house capabilities to develop the RSP, eSIM OS, IPA/LPA and connectivity, they are uniquely equipped to serve Operator, OEM and IoT customers.