5G RedCap: Benefits, Use Cases, and Deployment Considerations [2025]

What Is 5G RedCap? 

5G RedCap, short for Reduced Capability, is a variant of the 5G New Radio (NR) standard introduced in 3GPP Release 17. It is designed to serve device types that fall between the high-performance enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and the low-complexity, low-power massive IoT technologies like LTE-M and NB-IoT.

The main goal of RedCap is to provide a middle-ground solution that supports moderate data rates and performance requirements while reducing device complexity, power usage, and cost. It enables new categories of devices—such as industrial sensors, video surveillance units, smartwatches, XR glasses, and health monitors—that don’t need the full capabilities of 5G NR but require more than what existing LPWAN technologies can deliver.

RedCap improves over 4G IoT standards by offering lower latency and higher peak data rates. It also leverages advanced features of 5G like network slicing and 5G core support, making it well-suited for scalable, next-generation IoT deployments. Its simplified radio and hardware design allows for longer battery life and smaller device form factors, helping drive broader market adoption in both consumer and industrial sectors.

This is part of a series of articles about cellular technologies

How Does 5G RedCap Work?

5G RedCap achieves reduced complexity and cost primarily by scaling down the hardware and protocol requirements of standard 5G NR devices. This includes using fewer antennas, narrower bandwidths, and simpler modem capabilities. The reduced feature set still maintains compatibility with core 5G innovations, allowing RedCap devices to operate within 5G networks and benefit from features such as improved latency and network slicing.

One of the key design strategies is lowering the number of radio frequency chains, which decreases both power consumption and device size. This makes RedCap ideal for battery-powered IoT devices that require reliable connectivity and moderate throughput over long lifespans—typically 10 to 20 years.

In terms of performance, RedCap offers higher data rates and lower latency than 4G LTE Cat 1 and NB-IoT. It supports near real-time communication, which is critical for applications like smart grid monitoring, industrial automation, and health monitoring. By integrating into the 5G core network, RedCap also gains access to 5G-exclusive features such as dynamic spectrum sharing and enhanced mobility management.

Overall, RedCap bridges the capability gap between existing LPWAN technologies and full-scale 5G NR, enabling a broader and more cost-efficient deployment of 5G-connected IoT devices across a wide range of use cases.

Benefits of 5G RedCap for IoT

5G RedCap is optimized for the needs of IoT devices that require reliable connectivity without the overhead of full-scale 5G performance. By offering a balanced mix of capability and efficiency, RedCap delivers several advantages for IoT applications:

1. Lower device complexity

RedCap simplifies the 5G architecture by reducing radio features and hardware requirements. Devices can operate with fewer antennas, simpler RF front ends, and less computational processing, making them easier and cheaper to design and manufacture.

2. Reduced power consumption

With lower bandwidth requirements and simplified operations, RedCap devices consume less power. This is critical for battery-powered IoT devices like wearables and remote sensors, where energy efficiency directly impacts device longevity and usability.

3. Cost-effective deployment

RedCap eliminates features such as carrier aggregation and dual connectivity that are not essential for many IoT use cases. By doing so, it reduces the cost of chipsets and modules, making 5G technology more accessible for large-scale IoT deployments.

4. Enhanced network efficiency

Since RedCap devices use fewer resources, they introduce less load on the network. Network operators can handle a higher density of devices without compromising performance, enabling efficient scaling of IoT infrastructures in smart cities, industrial automation, and more.

5. Integration with existing 5G networks

RedCap is fully integrated into the existing 5G NR framework and supports coexistence with full-capability devices. This compatibility ensures that operators can deploy RedCap-capable IoT solutions without needing dedicated network slices or major infrastructure changes.

6. Improved reliability and performance for mid-tier use cases

While optimized for simplicity, RedCap still delivers dependable performance for mid-tier applications such as smart meters, asset trackers, and industrial control systems. It strikes a balance between reliability and resource usage, making it suitable for use cases that fall between low-power wide-area (LPWA) and full 5G eMBB solutions.

Related content: Read our guide to IoT connectivity management platform

5G RedCap vs. Traditional 5G

5G RedCap and traditional 5G serve different performance tiers and application needs, offering distinct trade-offs in complexity, power consumption, and use case focus.

Device Complexity

Traditional 5G is designed for maximum performance and supports advanced features such as carrier aggregation and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas. These requirements demand complex, high-cost hardware, suitable for high-end devices like smartphones, autonomous vehicles, or AR/VR systems. 

RedCap strips away many of these capabilities, operating with fewer antennas and simpler RF chains. It avoids carrier aggregation and other advanced features, leading to a reduced hardware footprint and simpler certification. This makes RedCap ideal for mid-range applications like wearables and industrial IoT devices.

Energy Efficiency

The power demands of traditional 5G make it less suitable for long-life battery-powered devices. 

RedCap offers a more energy-efficient alternative, with significantly reduced power consumption due to its simplified design. This efficiency enables longer operational lifetimes for devices deployed in the field, such as environmental sensors or asset trackers, which may need to run for years without manual intervention.

Data Throughput

Traditional 5G delivers peak speeds that can exceed 1 Gbps, supporting bandwidth-heavy applications like 8K video streaming or real-time AR. 

RedCap provides peak rates in the 64–230 Mbps range. While not designed for high-throughput scenarios, these speeds are sufficient for many IoT use cases, including video surveillance, industrial monitoring, and smart meter data transmission.

Spectrum Utilization

Traditional 5G utilizes wide spectrum allocations and can place high demands on network infrastructure. 

RedCap makes more efficient use of existing spectrum resources by operating within narrower bandwidths. This allows operators to support large numbers of RedCap devices without significantly increasing network load, making it a more scalable option for IoT deployments.

Target Applications

Traditional 5G excels in high-performance scenarios requiring low latency and high data rates, such as autonomous driving, advanced robotics, and immersive entertainment. 

RedCap is optimized for applications that prioritize cost-efficiency, moderate throughput, and extended battery life. Use cases include wearables, smart city infrastructure, industrial sensors, and remote monitoring systems.

Key 5G RedCap Use Cases

Industrial Automation

5G RedCap supports the requirements of industrial automation by offering reliable mid-tier connectivity with moderate data rates and low latency. Industrial sensors and control devices can leverage RedCap’s simplified hardware and reduced power consumption to deliver real-time data in environments such as smart factories and manufacturing plants. 

RedCap enables these devices to function efficiently with robust wireless connectivity and seamless mobility, supporting Industry 4.0 goals like predictive maintenance, process optimization, and asset tracking. Additionally, RedCap devices benefit from extended battery life and simplified integration with 5G standalone networks, allowing scalable deployment without the need for extensive hardware infrastructure.

Video Surveillance

RedCap is well-suited for video surveillance applications that demand moderate throughput and low latency but not the ultra-high speeds of full 5G NR. Surveillance cameras and monitoring systems can use RedCap to transmit compressed video streams reliably over 5G networks, even in high-density environments like smart cities or public venues. 

The reduced complexity of RedCap devices helps lower deployment costs while maintaining the bandwidth needed for clear, consistent video transmission. Latency thresholds below 500 ms are typically sufficient for these systems, aligning well with RedCap’s performance characteristics.

Healthcare Devices

Medical wearables and remote monitoring devices can leverage 5G RedCap for continuous health tracking and patient data transmission. RedCap’s moderate data rate—up to 150 Mbps downlink—meets the requirements of devices like heart monitors, glucose sensors, and portable diagnostic equipment, while its low power consumption helps ensure longer battery life. 

These devices benefit from RedCap’s reliable connectivity and integration with the 5G core, enabling near real-time alerts, efficient remote diagnostics, and seamless operation in healthcare facilities or at-home care settings. For wearable medical devices, typical battery life expectations are one to two weeks, which RedCap supports through energy-efficient protocols like extended discontinuous reception (eDRX).

Wearables

Smartwatches, fitness trackers, and low-end augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) glasses are key targets for RedCap deployment. These devices require higher data rates than LPWAN can provide, but without the full bandwidth and power demands of traditional 5G. 

RedCap balances performance and efficiency, delivering sufficient throughput for sensor data, voice transmission, and lightweight multimedia while keeping devices small and power-efficient. With a peak downlink rate of up to 150 Mbps and support for simplified antenna configurations, RedCap enables mass-market wearables to connect seamlessly to 5G networks. Its support for enhanced positioning features also benefits use cases such as personal tracking and location-based services.

5G RedCap Deployment Considerations

Deploying 5G RedCap devices in existing networks requires addressing several technical and operational aspects to ensure efficient coexistence, coverage, and performance. These considerations span from device design and network configuration to spectrum management and battery life optimization.

Device Complexity and Capability Scaling

RedCap devices are engineered to reduce complexity compared to traditional 5G NR devices. Depending on their configuration, RedCap devices can range from minimal-complexity designs to more capable versions with features like dual receive antennas and basic MIMO support. The most basic RedCap devices offer approximately 65% lower modem complexity in FR1 bands and 50% in FR2 bands compared to standard NR devices. This enables a scalable cost-performance trade-off across a range of IoT use cases.

Power Efficiency Through Extended Sleep Modes

To extend battery life, RedCap leverages features such as extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) and relaxed radio resource management (RRM) monitoring. These allow devices to remain in low-power sleep modes for extended periods—up to 3 hours in idle mode—without compromising basic network connectivity. Battery life can be extended significantly when uplink activity is infrequent and latency requirements are relaxed, with gains of up to 80 times over standard operation.

Coexistence and Network Compatibility

RedCap devices must coexist with high-performance NR devices on the same 5G infrastructure. To avoid degrading network performance, especially in the uplink, mechanisms like separate initial bandwidth parts (BWPs) and disabled frequency hopping are employed. This prevents resource fragmentation and ensures RedCap devices do not interfere with the efficient use of spectrum by full-featured 5G devices.

Additionally, RedCap devices are designed to self-identify early during network access procedures. This allows the network to apply optimized scheduling and configuration parameters, minimizing resource overhead and maintaining network efficiency.

Coverage and Performance Optimization

Although RedCap devices operate with reduced capabilities—such as lower antenna count and narrower bandwidths—they are still expected to achieve coverage comparable to regular NR devices, especially in FR1 bands. In FR2, coverage is supported by maintaining a relatively wide 100 MHz bandwidth and avoiding significant compromises in receive antenna design. Where lower power classes are used (e.g., PC7), traditional techniques such as retransmissions compensate for reduced uplink range.

Scalability and Spectral Efficiency

To ensure high spectral efficiency and system capacity, RedCap avoids introducing excessive signaling or bandwidth waste. The system-level simulations indicate minimal impact on enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) users, even when a high fraction of RedCap devices operate with constrained capabilities. This ensures that network operators can scale RedCap deployments without compromising quality of service for other users.

Migration and Future Evolution

RedCap offers a natural migration path from legacy LTE categories to 5G NR, supporting similar complexity and peak rates as LTE Cat-1 to Cat-4 devices. Future enhancements—such as further reduced complexity and improved positioning support—are planned in 3GPP Release 18. These will expand RedCap’s addressable market to include ultra-low-rate use cases and improve its viability in additional frequency bands, further enabling the evolution of industrial and consumer IoT.

Implementing 5G RedCap for IoT with floLIVE

Where things stand today
As floLIVE owns the entire IoT connectivity stack—from core network to SIM tech and the CMP—you can count on us to implement 5G RedCap as soon as our mobile-operator partners roll it out, and to offer it at global scale through the same portal and APIs you use today.

What to expect from floLIVE’s RedCap rollout

• Seamless activation: RedCap will appear as a selectable access capability, with automatic fallback to LTE in markets still ramping.

• Ready-made policies: Power/latency templates (e.g., extended DRX profiles), QoS presets, and troubleshooting views tailored for RedCap devices.

• Global-local control: Use our distributed core for local breakout and data residency; apply per-tenant security (private APNs, allow/deny lists, SIM–IMEI binding).

• Device onboarding guides: Certified module list, attach/DRX test scripts, and best-practice RF settings—simplifying pilots and mass rollouts.

• Future-proof path: As operators light up advanced 5G features, we’ll expose them through the CMP (e.g., enhanced QoS and slice integration where available).

Why 5G RedCap is a strong promise for the future

• Right-sized 5G for IoT: RedCap delivers the reliability and longevity of 5G with reduced device complexity and cost—a sweet spot between low-power LPWA and high-end eMBB.

• Better battery economics: Streamlined radio design plus modern 5G idle/DRX behaviors translate into longer field life without sacrificing responsiveness.

• Spectrum efficiency & longevity: Built on the 5G roadmap, RedCap benefits from continuous 3GPP evolution—protecting investments as 4G sunsets and new bands come online.

• Simpler SKUs, broader markets: One RedCap hardware family can address more geographies and use cases (sensors, wearables, cameras, industrial) with fewer variants.

• Roadmap momentum: Upcoming enhancements (e.g., eRedCap) tighten the fit for ultra–cost-sensitive devices, expanding addressable use cases over time.

Bottom line
You don’t need to re-architect. Keep building on floLIVE today, and when your target operators enable RedCap, you’ll be able to turn it on, at scale, with familiar tools, policies, and analytics—backed by the same global-local network that powers the rest of your fleet.