How 5G impacts future IoT development

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How 5G impacts future IoT development

By John W. Koon

1. Introduction

There is an interesting history about the Internet of Things (IoT)! National Semiconductors' (now defunct) early attempt to introduce IoT technology at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Newport Beach in 2001 was indeed ahead of its time. The concept of IoT didn’t gain significant traction until much later, as the necessary infrastructure and widespread adoption of connected devices took years to develop.

Today, IoT is a crucial component of various industries, including smart homes, healthcare, and manufacturing, thanks to technological advancements and the proliferation of 5G networks. Seeing how far we’ve come since those early days is fascinating!

Figure 1: National Semiconductors held an IoT technology conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Newport Beach in 2001. Source: The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel.

The growth projections for the IoT market are indeed impressive. The rapid expansion from 301 billion dollars in 2024 to 690 billion dollars in the enterprise IoT market by 2030 highlights the increasing adoption and integration of IoT technologies across various industries. Similarly, the significant rise in the global cellular IoT connectivity market from 16 billion to 49 billion dollars underscores the critical role of cellular networks in supporting IoT applications. (Figure 2).

Figure 2: IoT market projection. Source: IOT Analytics.

Additionally, Transforma Insights, a research firm, projects that the number of connected active IoT devices will reach 39.9 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 10%, further emphasizing the pervasive nature of IoT in our daily lives and industrial operations. (Figure 3).

The 5G deployments are vital enablers to drive future IoT market growth.

Figure 3: The number of connected active IoT devices will reach 39.9 billion by 2033. Source: Transforma Insights.

2. What is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things includes one or more smart, connected devices or endpoints with various degrees of processing and edge computing capability to share data with the network and each other. Today, IoT is used in almost every industrial, commercial, and consumer market segment including autonomous driving, smart factory, automation, and preventive maintenance, smart home, smart cities, security, asset tracking, supply chain management, agriculture, farming, healthcare, smart medicine and remote surgery, augmented reality applications, activity monitoring, and the list goes on.

According to IOT Analytics, an IoT market research firm, the top IoT applications in 2024 are mostly in manufacturing and related activities. (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Top IoT applications in 2024. Source: IOT Analytics.

Here are more details on future IoT technologies' three most promising uses.

a. Smart factory

The World Economic Forum is the driving force behind Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The goal is to integrate the latest digital and automation technologies to create smart factories, thereby enhancing manufacturing productivity worldwide. Key elements of a smart factory include the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), edge and cloud computing, robotics, analytics, and the digitalization of information for easy access and control. Both management and shop floor workers can wirelessly access manufacturing information anytime. Benefits include preventive maintenance, asset tracking, and big data analytics, all of which contribute to improved efficiency and cost reduction.

b. Autonomous driving

Few people consider autonomous driving as an application of the Internet of Things (IoT). It is a complex use of IoT, combining edge computing, machine learning, and various modern control technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and multiple electronic control systems (ECS) within the vehicle. Many have heard news about robot taxis, also known as robotaxi, like those made by GM’s Cruise division, crashing into other cars in San Francisco during routine driving. Additionally, there have been instances where a fleet of robotaxis stopped in the middle of the road, causing significant traffic jams.

While the concept of fully autonomous vehicles serving the community is indeed noble, it’s important to understand that machine learning, a key component of IoT autonomous driving, is not the sole solution. Additional technologies such as 5G connections and V2X (vehicle-to-everything) connectivity are crucial. The benefits of V2X, including vehicle-to-vehicle communications that inform vehicles of accidents on the road, are significant. In the case of autonomous driving, edge computing capabilities would automatically decelerate vehicles to prevent additional accidents. The 5G connection not only provides vehicles with information about their surroundings but also offers remote control capabilities when vehicles get stuck and need assistance.

The technology may take some time to mature, but the promising combination of 5G and IoT holds great potential to significantly benefit society in the near future.

Compared to smart manufacturing, autonomous driving is a much more complicated process. It requires machine learning, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and a low latency 5G connection to support V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything). Many companies, including GM’s Cruise, have attempted to develop autonomous taxis. However, the deployment has proved to be more challenging than initially anticipated. One reason is that while autonomous driving systems learn from the miles they cover, sometimes they do not learn fast enough. It is not unusual to hear that a robotaxi might stop in the middle of the road due to a misinterpretation of a road sign. Worst of all, it was reported that a robotaxi hit a pedestrian and dragged the person along because there was no sensor installed to detect objects at the bottom of the vehicle.

With 5G and V2X, this problem can be mitigated. The low latency of 5G will provide real-time information about the driving environment to the autonomous vehicle. With remote control capabilities, autonomous vehicles can be unstuck. Additionally, the V2X connection provides the vehicle with additional information from adjacent vehicles and smart buildings. As a result, autonomous vehicles have the information they need to make the right decisions. While this may take some time, autonomous driving will eventually get there. V2X includes Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P), and Vehicle-to-Network (V2N).

c. Remote surgery

Robotic surgeries have significantly advanced in recent years. Prestigious medical institutions such as Mayo Clinic, UCLA Health, and Cleveland Clinic have adopted robotic surgeries for various procedures, including gallbladder removal, gastric bypass, colorectal surgery, and heart surgery. The introduction of 5G technology has made remote surgeries feasible, offering substantial benefits such as providing medical assistance in remote areas and supporting local medical institutions with specialized expertise.

Successful remote surgeries have been performed in several countries, including the USA, Italy, and China, with doctors operating from thousands of miles away. The key to these advancements is 5G technology, which delivers ultralow latency (1 millisecond) and speeds up to 20 Gbps, ensuring reliable, uninterrupted connections during surgical procedures. By integrating 5G, robotic surgeries, and virtual reality (VR) technologies, remote surgeries can be conducted as if the doctors were physically present in the operating room. Although these technologies are still in their early stages, they are expected to continue evolving and improving.

Industry support

There is strong industry support for IoT technology. Many independent standard groups, such as the LoRa Alliance, Wi-SUN Alliance, Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA and formerly Zigbee Alliance), Z-Wave, NB-IoT, LTE-M, and others, have their own specifications and certification requirements. IoT devices certified by one standard group are not interoperable with those certified by another. The performance of different specifications also varies. For example, Wi-SUN FAN technology supports data rates up to 300 kbps with latency less than one second, while LoRaWAN supports data rates up to 62.5 kbps with latency up to 16 seconds. However, actual performance depends on more than just the specifications. Factors such as the environment, device location, network conditions, and software all impact the overall outcome.

“The LoRa Alliance's vision for LoRaWAN has always been to develop a fit-for-purpose low-power long-range IoT networking technology to give end-users access to data that drives efficiencies, improves quality of life, and protects critical resources. As the market-leading LPWAN technology, LoRaWAN’s accelerating deployment at massive scale validates the quality and features of the standard today and guides our work to continue its evolution to meet future requirements,” commented Alper Yegin, Interim CEO & Board Chair, LoRa Alliance.

What are the reasons the industry is so keen on supporting IoT? According to the Wi-Sun Alliance, the main motivators include increased network connectivity efficiency and overall cost reduction. (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Source: Wi-SUN-The-Rise-of-IoT.pdf

3. How 5G Impacts future IoT development

5G has made many improvements over its previous generation 4G, including speed and latency. It also offers many benefits to IoT.

a. 5G performance improvement

When the subject of 5G is brought up, the first thing that comes to mind is speed, which is what most carriers emphasize. Additionally, most people think about download speed and seldom discuss upload speed. This is reasonable because users are often concerned with applications requiring high bandwidth, such as video streaming. However, there are other important considerations, including latency and precision.

Compared to 4G, 5G’s theoretical download speed is 10 times faster (10 Gbps versus 1 Gbps). Latency is just as important as speed. It measures the actual delivery time of data from point A to point B. The 5G latency is 50 times better than that of 4G (1 ms versus 50 ms). The shorter the time, the better the performance. What takes 5G 1 ms to deliver may take 4G 50 ms.

A simple way to understand the relationship between speed and latency is to imagine a freeway with a speed limit of 70 mph but with a traffic light at the entrance controlling how fast vehicles can enter. Network speed is like the freeway’s speed limit, while network latency is like the traffic light. The shorter the wait time at the light, the sooner the vehicle will reach its destination.

b. Benefits to IoT development

As shown in Figure 6, 5G offers a combination of high bandwidth, low latency, and high-density support, which will ultimately enhance IoT's overall performance.

5G provides many benefits to IoT development. Its high-speed performance with low latency ensures efficient IoT connections, resulting in lower overhead and longer battery life for battery-operated devices. The broader bandwidth of 5G increases IoT coverage, supporting millions of connections without sacrificing performance. The near real-time performance is critical in many applications, such as healthcare and remote surgery, autonomous driving, smart cities, industrial automation, and more. By adding edge computing to the endpoints, 5G will further enhance the performance of IoT applications in medical fields, smart grids, oil and gas exploration, and other areas requiring on-device computing capabilities.

Figure 7: The most updated release is REL-18, which describes what was achieved. Source: 3GPP template

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the standard body behind the 5G development is made up of seven international telecommunications standard organizations aka the Organizational Partners. They include the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), China Communications Standards Association (CCSA), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Telecommunications Standards
Development Society, India (TSDSI), Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA), and Telecommunication Technology Committee (TTC). 3GPP is responsible for defining and publishing the various releases of the 5G standard.

The most updated release is REL-18, which describes what was achieved. The next release of REL-19 is scheduled to be completed by September 2025. In addition to the 3GPP, other consortia including 5G America, NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks) Alliance, 5G-PPP (5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership), and IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group, also support 5G.

“Passing the 5G 3GPP specification for private networks and infrastructure is crucial for the advancement of IoT networks. The 5G standard is the only one that ensures interoperability, reliability, and security across a diverse range of devices with IoT use cases. By adhering to these specifications, private networks can leverage the high-speed, low-latency, and massive connectivity benefits of 5G technology, enabling more efficient and effective IoT deployments. Moreover, it provides a framework for scalability, ensuring that IoT networks can grow and evolve without compromising performance or security, which is essential for the sustainability and future-proofing of IoT infrastructures,” commented Dr. Marzieh Veyseh, CPO/CTO & Co-Founder at Arctic Semiconductor.

4. The challenges ahead

While 5G provides a lot of benefits to future IoT, there are challenges ahead.

a. Lack of universal device interoperability

The global market for IoT is ripe with potential, backed by strong industry support. However, the absence of a universal standard poses a significant challenge. Various industry groups are developing their own standards, leading to a lack of compatibility. For instance, a device certified by the LoRa Alliance will not be compatible with those certified by Z-Wave, limiting their interoperability. Despite efforts to unify IoT devices, the market remains fragmented, making it challenging to choose which IoT standard to adopt.

“The biggest challenges typically revolve around understanding and navigating the various performance trade-offs. For devices, the most common trade-offs are range, battery life, and size. For gateways, since you rarely support just one RF protocol, the challenge is co-existence with other RF transceivers,” said Quinto Petrucci, EVP of product and marketing at Trident IoT. “Interoperability is likely the next biggest challenge. While Zigbee and Z-Wave have done a good job focusing on interoperability and backward compatibility, product developers know that some level of actual device testing is still required. The challenge is determining how many and which products to test before launch.”

b. Costly 5G infrastructure

To achieve high-speed 5G performance, robust 5G infrastructure with many small cells is required. An average 5G cell costs $10,000. To achieve good coverage, many of these cells would be needed, and the costs can add up quickly. Additionally, having dense cell towers in rural areas is not practical. Even in metropolitan areas, 5G implementation may not be available in all major cities. For example, in some parts of San Diego, California, T-Mobile 5G is available but not Verizon. Other infrastructure-related challenges, including regulatory and standardization issues, scalability, interoperability, and spectrum availability need to be overcome.

“The 10 Gbps speed of 5G is not available in rural and suburban areas, where the speed is only a little better than 4G.  High-speed 5G requires the new high frequencies, which only transmit effectively about 300 meters and do not pass through walls or windows.  This requires a very dense mesh of small cells which is not cost effective in rural and suburban areas.  It also requires repeaters to bring the signals indoors.,” commented Walt Maclay, founder and chairman of the board of Voler Systems.

c. Cybersecurity challenges

With the increased speed and connectivity of 5G and IoT, the risk of cyber threats also rises. In recent years, hackers have become more sophisticated, and ransomware attacks are growing rapidly. Threat actors not only lock up the data being attacked but also threaten to expose confidential information and sell it on the dark web. Segments like healthcare, energy infrastructure, and smart cities are more vulnerable than others. If attacked, they may face serious consequences. To protect against these threats, additional investments in cybersecurity will be necessary.

5. Summary

The Internet of Things (IoT) applications are ubiquitous today. IoT is used in almost every industrial, commercial, and consumer market segment, including autonomous driving, smart factories, automation and preventive maintenance, smart homes, smart cities, security, asset tracking, supply chain management, agriculture, farming, healthcare, smart medicine and remote surgery, augmented reality applications, activity monitoring, and more. The three most promising uses of IoT are smart manufacturing, autonomous driving, and healthcare, particularly remote surgery.

5G offers many benefits for IoT development, including improved speed performance, better bandwidth, and higher efficiency. However, it also faces challenges such as the lack of universal device interoperability, the costly requirements of 5G infrastructure, and the need to overcome cyber threats from the increased connections of billions of IoT devices.

All things considered, the IoT market is expected to reach $700 billion in the foreseeable future, with more innovative applications to come.

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