From Telit: "The State of 5G and IoT | Current and Future Applications"

As society runs rapidly into the information age new advancements in artificial intelligence, data processing, and wireless communications have given rise to the faster exchange of wireless data. With 4G speeds reaching comfortable download speeds up to 2 Gbps, expect the next jump to 5G to push mobile performance from 2.4Gbps (current LTE Cat 20) topping out at nearly 20Gbps, boosting the performance and capabilities of newly wired fiber-optic networks.

Internet of Technology (IoT) solutions will connect more than 75 billion devices by 2025. While 5G is not yet available commercially, the coming evolution of communications will bring the world to a faster, smarter future.

Read on to discover how businesses are utilizing and preparing for 5G Mobile IoT today, and how this innovative technology will seek to improve every facet of our working and personal lives in the near future.

What is 5G IoT?

5G technology is about a new radio communication system known as 5G New Radio (5G NR) and an entirely new core network that aims to improve wireless connections worldwide. It also includes the concept of multiple access for connectivity technologies like satellites, Wi-Fi, fixed line and cellular (as standardized by the 3GPP).

With IoT enabled devices in mind, 5G is meant to connect more devices at higher speeds and make things like lag nearly non-existent, giving way to a seamless user experience.

Mobile IoT technologies are characterized as a low-cost, low-power consumption solution. They improve coverage both indoors and outdoors compared with existing wide area technologies, offer secure connectivity and authentication, are easier to deploy to a network’s topology, and are designed around network scalability for capacity upgrades.

This means businesses, city developers, and other industrial enterprises can connect more devices with better capability, for much less – all with the power of 5G speeds at their fingertips.

Mobile IoT systems are paving the way for 5G

Mobile IoT refers specifically to Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies using licensed spectrum bands. Both 3GPP narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and Long-Term Evolution Machine Type Communications (LTE-M) technologies are integral to the new 5G era of fast broadband communications. LPWA paves the path to 5G with undisrupted information flow. These 4G technologies are expected to continue under full support in 5G networks for many years and releases to come.

3GPP technologies like 4G LTE and 5G are designed to help businesses to reach a wide network across hard-to-reach areas and require both a large deployment strategy and architecture.

Think of smart metering solutions in factory warehouses where operators must remotely regulate power usage and facility or equipment temperature control across multiple sites for thousands of connected devices. IoT makes this possible, and easily so.

Existing cellular networks are adapting to the growing need to service the many billions of new devices needing better connectivity solutions. 

Since 2016, have been launched (as of November 2018). Enterprises deploying either NB-IoT or LTE-M are futureproofing their IoT projects because when 5G rollouts become commonplace these two Mobile IoT standards will continue into foreseeable 5G releases (from 3GPP Release 15 on).

Current Applications of 5G IoT

As mentioned above, 4G standards including NB-IoT, LTE-M and LTE which remain integral parts of early releases of 5G, are currently providing mobile IoT solutions for smart cities, smart logistics, and smart metering, but only in small pockets so far.

As adoption grows with more network rollouts, they will evolve and be used to access multimedia content, stream augmented reality and 3D video (which requires high-bandwidth) as well as for critical communications like factory automation, smart grids and more. 

5G IoT will be used to improve quality of life for everyday users from personal application to, fundamentally changing how we work and how we live.

With 5G IoT, facilities will continue improving to send critical upgrades to entire networks without freezing functionality, halting operations, or overheating and overloading servers.

Current industries that will continue benefiting from these 5G IoT enhancements include:

• Automotive and Transportation
• Smart Factories
• Smart Buildings
• Smart Cities
• Smart Utilities
• Security and Surveillance
• Agriculture
• Retail
• Healthcare
• Aerospace

Future 5G Use Cases 

Smart homes, synced watch and phone devices, and fitness apps are fairly commonplace now, and will grow with the speed and performance capabilities of 5G. With a heavy reliance on mobile IoT on such a grand scale today, in the next 20 or so years, the 5G future will look completely different. We will see the large-scale automation of vehicles, utility services like waste management and energy production through smart grids, and smart environmental monitoring that will help to cut down greenhouse gases and pollution.

Think of being able to park a smart car in a parking garage and gain wireless charging through the city grid while you work and then messaging your car to drive itself from the parking garage to your office door.

Farmers in rural areas will be able to more easily monitor and track crops, livestock and machinery through drones and chips.

Home users will be able to automate grocery lists, optimize power usage, and stream their favorite forms of entertainment from anywhere.

Society will be more efficient, smart cities will live up to their name, and users can expect personalized streams of information catered to their liking.

Your Industry Standard for 5G Integration | Telit

As a worldwide leader in IoT solutions, Telit makes it easy for your enterprise to evolve to make the most of 5G capabilities.

Source: https://www.telit.com/blog/state-of-5g-and-iot-current-future-applications/

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