Understanding IoT (Internet of Things), IoT Networks and Use in Telecom

Hello Folks, welcome back to Learnizo Global. This article will help you understand the term IoT, IoT Networks, and how telecom companies use IoT to provide distinguished services.

What is an Internet of Things (IoT)

In very simple words, “IoT is a collection of devices that are connected to the internet and communicate with other connected devices through wireless networks (Cellular and Wi-Fi) using embedded sensors.”

Over 55 billion IoT devices will be in use by 2025 as compared to 9 billion in 2017 as per research from Business Insider. Research by Cisco predicts that by 2022 there will be 14.6 billion machine-to-machine IoT connections. Below are some specific areas where IoT devices are used:

IoT for Manufacturing

Also known as IIoT (Industrial IoT) are the devices used by manufacturing companies, usually consisting of network-connected sensors. These devices are used by the companies to monitor manufacturing data and reduce human errors in the QA process and facilitate machine’s needs by timely monitoring machine’s health and repairs and replacements.

5G Networks and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are the technologies that will help IoT in the future.

Consumer IoT Devices

Consumer IoT devices are sold to the average person rather than large enterprises and include devices in consumer’s homes. These devices are connected to the Internet and can communicate with the outer world being controlled by smartphones. These devices can be used by people to purchase items online, secure their homes, and monitor their health.  Other examples include devices in autonomous cars, smart appliances, and wearables.

IoT Medical Devices

IoT medical devices are used for real-time patient monitoring with chronic ailments to provide more comprehensive and quantitative data. Interactive mobile applications and consumable data help patients more involved in their own healthcare decisions.

IoT Networks

An IoT network is a collection of interconnected IoT devices which communicate with each other without the need for human involvement. 4G LTE and 5G network infrastructures are mostly associated with IoT networks as they are built to support the resource demands of the IoT. Telecom operators use IoT to deliver a collection of products and services that bring additional value to their existing networks.

IoT in 4G LTE

Release 13 of 3GPP has introduced LTE IoT which is a suite of two complementary narrowband technologies namely, eMTC (enhanced Machine-Type communication) and NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT). Both eMTC and NB-IoT seamlessly coexist with other LTE services and are optimized for lower complexity/power, deeper coverage, and higher device density. LTE networks can provide coverage of 60,680 LPWA (Low Power Wide Area- Technology that supports IoT) devices per square kilometer.

Devices using eMTC (enhanced Machine-Type Communication), deliver data rates up to 1 Mbps while utilizing only 1.4 MHz device bandwidth (1.08 MHz in-band transmissions of 6 resource blocks) in the existing LTE FDD/TDD spectrum.

NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) leverages narrowband operations, using 200 kHz device bandwidth (180 kHz in-band transmissions of 1 resource block) in LTE FDD, to deliver throughputs of 10’s of kbps.

Together, they expand the LTE technology portfolio beyond mobile broadband and are starting to connect the massive IoT today.

IoT in 5G

5G introduces many specifications to support massive IoT among them major push to IoT is given by three major use cases. They are enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), and Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC).

According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index published in 2019, it is predicted that “IoT connections will represent more than half (14.6 billion) of all global connected devices and connections (28.5 billion) by 2022.” 5G networks are able to handle 1 million devices per square kilometer.

There would be an exponential increase in mobile network traffic as IoT devices are predicted to increase in numbers along with the high user density. This requires the network to support higher data rates which are achieved using eMBB.

mMTC focus on improving signaling protocols and messaging procedures to reduce traffic congestion when there are a very large number of devices communicating. Such devices are required to have low power consumption and low data rates according to mMTC.

Mission-critical applications (e.g. Remote Surgery) on IoT devices and applications that demand safety as a priority (e.g. self-driven cars) need highly reliable connections with low latency which is achieved by URRLC.

We will discuss more IoT and Edge computing in our other articles. Till then stay safe and happy learning with Learnizo Global.