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5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

February 2020

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 What is the IoT? Everything you need

to know about the Internet of Things
right now
15 How 5G can unlock IoT’s potential
18 Survey: 5G won’t impact many IoT
projects anytime soon
20 5 industries that will be affected by the
combination of 5G and IoT
24 Connected cars: How 5G and IoT will
affect the auto industry
31 Healthcare has many use cases for 5G
and IoT but no infrastructure to support it
33 Autonomous vehicles need well-marked
streets more than 5G
35 CIO Jury: 50% of panelists say 5G will
speed adoption of IoT
37 ANU develops vegetation monitoring
system to help firefighters on the
frontline
40 Will 5G play a role in IoT security?
44 Will the smart factory benefit from 5G?
Industry experts weigh in
49 5G and IoT: How small businesses will
make the most of the revolution

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

WHAT IS THE IOT? EVERYTHING YOU NEED

TO KNOW ABOUT THE INTERNET OF THINGS
RIGHT NOW
STEVE RANGER/ZDNET

WHAT IS THE INTERNET OF THINGS?

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to
the billions of physical devices around

GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
the world that are now connected to
the internet, collecting and sharing data.
Thanks to the arrival of super-cheap
computer chips and the ubiquity of
wireless networks, it’s possible to turn
anything, from something as small as a
pill to something as big as an aeroplane,
into a part of the IoT. Connecting up all
these different objects and adding sensors
to them adds a level of digital intelligence
to devices that would be otherwise dumb, enabling them to communicate real-time data without involving a
human being. The Internet of Things is making the fabric of the world around us more smarter and more
responsive, merging the digital and physical universes.

WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF AN INTERNET OF THINGS DEVICE?

Pretty much any physical object can be transformed into an IoT device if it can be connected to the internet to
be controlled or communicate information.

A lightbulb that can be switched on using a smartphone app is an IoT device, as is a motion sensor or a smart
thermostat in your office or a connected streetlight. An IoT device could be as fluffy as a child’s toy or as
serious as a driverless truck. Some larger objects may themselves be filled with many smaller IoT components,
such as a jet engine that’s now filled with thousands of sensors collecting and transmitting data back to make
sure it is operating efficiently. At an even bigger scale, smart cities projects are filling entire regions with sensors
to help us understand and control the environment.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

The term IoT is mainly used for devices that wouldn’t usually be generally expected to have an internet
connection, and that can communicate with the network independently of human action. For this reason, a PC
isn’t generally considered an IoT device and neither is a smartphone -- even though the latter is crammed with
sensors. A smartwatch or a fitness band or other wearable device might be counted as an IoT device, however.

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS?

The idea of adding sensors and intelligence to basic objects was discussed throughout the 1980s and 1990s
(and there are arguably some much earlier ancestors), but apart from some early projects -- including an inter-
net-connected vending machine -- progress was slow simply because the technology wasn’t ready. Chips were
too big and bulky and there was no way for objects to communicate effectively.

Processors that were cheap and power-frugal enough to be all but disposable were needed before it finally
became cost-effective to connect up billions of devices. The adoption of RFID tags -- low-power chips that
can communicate wirelessly -- solved some of this issue, along with the increasing availability of broadband
internet and cellular and wireless networking. The adoption of IPv6 -- which, among other things, should
provide enough IP addresses for every device the world (or indeed this galaxy) is ever likely to need -- was also
a necessary step for the IoT to scale.

Kevin Ashton coined the phrase

IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO
‘Internet of Things’ in 1999, although
it took at least another decade for the
technology to catch up with the vision.

“The IoT integrates the intercon-

nectedness of human culture -- our
‘things’ -- with the interconnectedness
of our digital information system --
‘the internet.’ That’s the IoT,” Ashton
told ZDNet.

Adding RFID tags to expensive

pieces of equipment to help track
their location was one of the first IoT applications. But since then, the cost of adding sensors and an internet
connection to objects has continued to fall, and experts predict that this basic functionality could one day cost
as little as 10 cents, making it possible to connect nearly everything to the internet.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

The IoT was initially most interesting to business and manufacturing, where its application is sometimes known
as machine-to-machine (M2M), but the emphasis is now on filling our homes and offices with smart devices,
transforming it into something that’s relevant to almost everyone. Early suggestions for internet-connected
devices included ‘blogjects’ (objects that blog and record data about themselves to the internet), ubiquitous
computing (or ‘ubicomp’), invisible computing, and pervasive computing. However, it was Internet of Things
and IoT that stuck.

HOW BIG IS THE INTERNET OF THINGS?

Big and getting bigger -- there are already more connected things than people in the world.

Tech analyst company IDC predicts that in total there will be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by 2025, or
“things.” It also suggests industrial and automotive equipment represent the largest opportunity of connected
“things,”, but it also sees strong adoption of smart home and wearable devices in the near term.

Another tech analyst, Gartner, predicts that the enterprise and automotive sectors will account for 5.8 billion
devices this year, up almost a quarter on 2019. Utilities will be the highest user of IoT, thanks to the continuing
rollout of smart meters. Security devices, in the form of intruder detection and web cameras will be the second
biggest use of IoT devices. Building automation – like connected lighting – will be the fastest growing sector,
followed by automotive (connected cars) and healthcare (monitoring of chronic conditions).

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS

FOR BUSINESS?
The benefits of the IoT for business depend on the particular

IMAGE: GARTNER
implementation; agility and efficiency are usually top consider-
ations. The idea is that enterprises should have access to more
data about their own products and their own internal systems, and
a greater ability to make changes as a result.

Manufacturers are adding sensors to the components of their

products so that they can transmit data back about how they are
performing. This can help companies spot when a component is
likely to fail and to swap it out before it causes damage. Companies
can also use the data generated by these sensors to make their
systems and their supply chains more efficient, because they will
have much more accurate data about what’s really going on.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

“With the introduction of comprehensive, real-time data collection and analysis, production systems can
become dramatically more responsive,” say consultants McKinsey.

Enterprise use of the IoT can be divided into two segments: industry-specific offerings like sensors in a gener-
ating plant or real-time location devices for healthcare; and IoT devices that can be used in all industries, like
smart air conditioning or security systems.

While industry-specific products will make the early running, by 2020 Gartner predicts that cross-industry
devices will reach 4.4 billion units, while vertical-specific devices will amount to 3.2 billion units. Consumers
purchase more devices, but businesses spend more: the analyst group said that while consumer spending
on IoT devices was around $725bn last year, businesses spending on IoT hit $964bn. By 2020, business and
consumer spending on IoT hardware will hit nearly $3tn.

Worldwide spending on the IoT was

IMAGE: IDC
forecast to reach $745 billion in 2019, an
increase of 15.4% over the $646 billion
spent in 2018, according to IDC, and pass
the $1 trillion mark in 2022.

Top industries for the IoT were predicted

to be discrete manufacturing ($119 billion
in spending), process manufacturing ($78
billion), transportation ($71 billion), and
utilities ($61 billion). For manufacturers,
projects to support asset management will
be key; in transportation it will be freight monitoring and fleet management taking top priority. IoT spending in
the utilities industry will be dominated by smart-grid projects for electricity, gas, and water.

Consumer IoT spending was predicted to hit $108 billion, making it the second largest industry segment: smart
home, personal wellness, and connected vehicle infotainment will see much of the spending.

By use case, manufacturing operations ($100 billion), production asset management ($44.2 billion), smart home
($44.1 billion), and freight monitoring ($41.7 billion) will be the largest areas of investment.

WHAT IS THE INDUSTRIAL INTERNET OF THINGS?

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 are all names given
to the use of IoT technology in a business setting. The concept is the same as for the consumer IoT devices

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

in the home, but in this case the aim is to use a combination of sensors, wireless networks, big data, AI and
analytics to measure and optimise industrial processes.

If introduced across an entire supply chain, rather than just individual companies, the impact could be
even greater with just-in-time delivery of materials and the management of production from start to finish.
Increasing workforce productivity or cost savings are two potential aims, but the IIoT can also create new
revenue streams for businesses; rather than just selling a standalone product – for example, like an engine –
manufacturers can also sell predictive maintenance of the engine.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS

FOR CONSUMERS?
The IoT promises to make our environment -- our homes and offices and vehicles -- smarter, more measurable,
and... chattier. Smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo and Google Home make it easier to play music, set timers, or
get information. Home security systems make it easier to monitor what’s going on inside and outside, or to see
and talk to visitors. Meanwhile, smart thermostats can help us heat our homes before we arrive back, and smart
lightbulbs can make it look like we’re home even when we’re out.

Looking beyond the home, sensors can help us to understand how noisy or polluted our environment might be.
Self-driving cars and smart cities could change how we build and manage our public spaces.

However, many of these innovations could have major implications for our personal privacy.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS AND SMART HOMES

For consumers, the smart home is

STEVE RANGER/ZDNET
probably where they are likely to
come into contact with internet-en-
abled things, and it’s one area where
the big tech companies (in particular
Amazon, Google, and Apple) are
competing hard.

The most obvious of these are

smart speakers like Amazon’s Echo,
but there are also smart plugs, light-
bulbs, cameras, thermostats, and the The House that Alexa Built: An Amazon showcase in London
earlier this year.
much-mocked smart fridge. But as

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

well as showing off your enthusiasm for shiny new gadgets, there’s a more serious side to smart home appli-
cations. They may be able to help keep older people independent and in their own homes longer by making it
easier for family and carers to communicate with them and monitor how they are getting on. A better under-
standing of how our homes operate, and the ability to tweak those settings, could help save energy -- by cutting
heating costs, for example.

WHAT ABOUT INTERNET OF THINGS SECURITY?

Security is one the biggest issues with the IoT. These sensors are collecting in many cases extremely sensitive
data -- what you say and do in your own home, for example. Keeping that secure is vital to consumer trust, but
so far the IoT’s security track record has been extremely poor. Too many IoT devices give little thought to the
basics of security, like encrypting data in transit and at rest.

Flaws in software -- even old and well-used code -- are

discovered on a regular basis, but many IoT devices
lack the capability to be patched, which means they The term IoT is mainly used for
are permanently at risk. Hackers are now actively devices that wouldn’t usually be
targeting IoT devices such as routers and webcams generally expected to have an
because their inherent lack of security makes them internet connection, and that can
easy to compromise and roll up into giant botnets. communicate with the network
Flaws have left smart home devices like refrigerators, independently of human action.
ovens, and dishwashers open to hackers. Researchers
found 100,000 webcams that could be hacked with
ease, while some internet-connected smartwatches for children have been found to contain security vulnerabil-
ities that allow hackers to track the wearer’s location, eavesdrop on conversations, or even communicate with
the user.

Governments are growing worried about the risks here. The UK government has published its own guidelines
around the security of consumer IoT devices. It expects devices to have unique passwords, that companies will
provide a public point of contact so anyone can report a vulnerability (and that these will be acted on), and that
manufacturers will explicitly state how long devices will get security updates. It’s a modest list, but a start.

When the cost of making smart objects becomes negligible, these problems will only become more widespread
and intractable.

All of this applies in business as well, but the stakes are even higher. Connecting industrial machinery to IoT

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

networks increases the potential risk of hackers discovering and attacking these devices. Industrial espionage or
a destructive attack on critical infrastructure are both potential risks. That means businesses will need to make
sure that these networks are isolated and protected, with data encryption with security of sensors, gateways
and other components a necessity. The current state of IoT technology makes that harder to ensure, however,
as does a lack of consistent IoT security planning across organisations. That’s very worrying considering the
documented willingness of hackers to tamper with industrial systems that have been connected to the internet
but left unprotected.

The IoT bridges the gap between the digital world and the physical world, which means that hacking into
devices can have dangerous real-world consequences. Hacking into the sensors controlling the temperature in
a power station could trick the operators into making a catastrophic decision; taking control of a driverless car
could also end in disaster.

WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS?

With all those sensors collecting data on everything you do, the IoT is a potentially vast privacy and security
headache. Take the smart home: it can tell when you wake up (when the smart coffee machine is activated)
and how well you brush your teeth (thanks to your smart toothbrush), what radio station you listen to (thanks
to your smart speaker), what type of food you eat (thanks to your smart oven or fridge), what your children
think (thanks to their smart toys), and who visits you and passes by your house (thanks to your smart doorbell).
While companies will make money from selling you the smart object in the first place, their IoT business model
probably involves selling at least some of that data, too.

What happens to that data is a vitally important privacy matter. Not all smart home companies build their
business model around harvesting and selling your data, but some do.

And it’s worth remembering that IoT data can be combined with other bits of data to create a surprisingly
detailed picture of you. It’s surprisingly easy to find out a lot about a person from a few different sensor
readings. In one project, a researcher found that by analysing data charting just the home’s energy consumption,
carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide levels, temperature, and humidity throughout the day they could work
out what someone was having for dinner.

IOT, PRIVACY AND BUSINESS

Consumers need to understand the exchange they are making and whether they are happy with that. Some
of the same issues apply to business: would your executive team be happy to discuss a merger in a meeting
room equipped with smart speakers and cameras, for example? One recent survey found that four out of five
companies would be unable to identify all the IoT devices on their network.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

Badly installed IoT products could easily open up corporate networks to attack by hackers, or simply leak data.
It might seem like a trivial threat but imagine if the smart locks at your office refused to open one morning or
the smart weather station in the CEO’s office was used by hackers to create a backdoor into your network.

THE IOT AND CYBERWARFARE

The IoT makes computing physical. So if things go
wrong with IoT devices, there can be major real-world
consequences -- something that nations planning their
The IoT promises to make our
cyberwarfare strategies are now taking into account. environment -- our homes and
offices and vehicles -- smarter,
US intelligence community briefings have warned
more measurable, and... chattier.
that the country’s adversaries already have the ability
to threaten its critical infrastructure as well “as the
broader ecosystem of connected consumer and indus-
trial devices known as the Internet of Things”. US intelligence has also warned that connected thermostats,
cameras, and cookers could all be used either to spy on citizens of another country, or to cause havoc if they
were hacked. Adding key elements of national critical infrastructure (like dams, bridges, and elements of the
electricity grid) to the IoT makes it even more vital that security is as tight as possible.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS AND DATA

An IoT device will likely contain one or more sensors which it will use to collect data. Just what those sensors
are collecting will depend on the individual device and its task. Sensors inside industrial machinery might
measure temperature or pressure; a security camera might have a proximity sensor along with sound and video,
while your home weather station will probably be packing a humidity sensor. All this sensor data – and much,
much more – will have to be sent somewhere. That means IoT devices will need to transmit data and will do it
via Wi-Fi, 4G, 5G and more.

Tech analyst IDC calculates that within five years IoT gadgets will be creating 79.4 zettabytes of data. Some of
this IoT data will be “small and bursty” says IDC – a quick update like a temperature reading from a sensor or
a reading from a smart meter. Other devices might create huge amounts of data traffic, like a video surveillance
camera using computer vision.

IDC said the amount of data created by IoT devices will grow rapidly in the next few years. Most of the data is
being generated by video surveillance, it said, but other industrial and medical uses will generate more data over
time.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

It said drones will also be a big driver of data creation using cameras. Looking further out, self-driving cars
will also generate vast amounts of rich sensor data including audio and video, as well as more specialised
automotive sensor data.

INTERNET OF THINGS AND BIG DATA ANALYTICS

The IoT generates vast amounts of data: from sensors attached to machine parts or environment sensors,
or the words we shout at our smart speakers. That means the IoT is a significant driver of big-data analytics
projects because it allows companies to create vast data sets and analyse them. Giving a manufacturer vast
amounts of data about how its components behave in real-world situations can help them to make improve-
ments much more rapidly, while data culled from sensors around a city could help planners make traffic flow
more efficiently.

That data will come in many different forms – voice requests, video, temperature or other sensor readings, all
of which can be mined for insight. As analyst IDC notes, IoT metadata category is a growing source of data
to be managed and leveraged. “Metadata is a prime candidate to be fed into NoSQL databases like MongoDB
to bring structure to unstructured content or fed into cognitive systems to bring new levels of understanding,
intelligence, and order to outwardly random environments,” it said.

In particular, the IoT will deliver large amounts of real-time data. Cisco calculates that machine-to machine
connections that support IoT applications will account for more than half of the total 27.1 billion devices and
connections, and will account for 5% of global IP traffic by 2021.

INTERNET OF THINGS AND THE CLOUD

The huge amount of data that IoT applications generate means that many companies will choose to do their
data processing in the cloud rather than build huge amounts of in-house capacity. Cloud computing giants are
already courting these companies: Microsoft has its Azure IoT suite, while Amazon Web Services provides a
range of IoT services, as does Google Cloud.

THE INTERNET OF THINGS AND SMART CITIES

By spreading a vast number of sensors over a town or city, planners can get a better idea of what’s really
happening, in real time. As a result, smart cities projects are a key feature of the IoT. Cities already generate
large amounts of data (from security cameras and environmental sensors) and already contain big infrastructure
networks (like those controlling traffic lights). IoT projects aim to connect these up, and then add further intel-
ligence into the system.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

There are plans to blanket Spain’s Balearic Islands with half a million sensors and turn it into a lab for IoT
projects, for example. One scheme could involve the regional social-services department using the sensors
to help the elderly, while another could identify if a beach has become too crowded and offer alternatives
to swimmers. In another example, AT&T is launching a service to monitor infrastructure such as bridges,
roadways, and railways with LTE-enabled sensors to monitor structural changes such as cracks and tilts.

The ability to better understand how a city is functioning should allow planners to make changes and monitor
how this improves residents’ lives.

Big tech companies see smart cities projects as a potentially huge area, and many -- including mobile operators
and networking companies -- are now positioning themselves to get involved.

HOW DO INTERNET OF THINGS AND 5G CONNECT AND

SHARE DATA?
IoT devices use a variety of methods to connect and share data, although most will use some form of wireless
connectivity: homes and offices will use
standard Wi-Fi, Zigbee or Bluetooth Low
Energy (or even Ethernet if they aren’t

IMAGE: GARTNER
especially mobile); other devices will use LTE
(existing technologies include Narrowband
IoT and LTE-M, largely aimed at small
devices sending limited amounts of data) or
even satellite connections to communicate.
However, the vast number of different
options has already led some to argue that
IoT communications standards need to be as
accepted and interoperable as Wi-Fi is today.

One area of growth in the next few years will

undoubtedly be the use of 5G networks to
support IoT projects. 5G offers the ability
to fit as many as one million 5G devices in a
square kilometre, which means that it will be
possible to use a vast number of sensors in a
very small area, making large-scale industrial
IoT deployments more possible. The UK

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

has just started a trial of 5G and the IoT at two ‘smart factories’. However, it could be some time before 5G
deployments are widespread: Ericsson predicts that there will be somewhere around five billion IoT devices
connected to cellular networks by 2025, but only around a quarter of those will be broadband IoT, with 4G
connecting the majority of those.

Outdoor surveillance cameras will be the largest market for 5G IoT devices in the near term, according to
Gartner, accounting for the majority (70%) of the 5G IoT devices this year, before dropping to around 30% by
the end of 2023, at which point they will be overtaken by connected cars.

The analyst firm predicts that there will be 3.5 million 5G IoT devices in use this year, and nearly 50 million by
2023. Longer term the automotive industry will be the largest sector for 5G IoT use cases, it predicted.

One likely trend is that, as the IoT develops, it could be that less data will be sent for processing in the cloud.
To keep costs down, more processing could be done on-device with only the useful data sent back to the cloud
– a strategy known as ‘edge computing’. This will require new technology – like tamper-proof edge servers that
can collect and analyse data far from the cloud or corporate data center.

IOT DATA AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

IoT devices generate vast amounts of data; that might be information about an engine’s temperature or
whether a door is open or closed or the reading from a smart meter. All this IoT data has to be collected,
stored and analysed. One way companies are making the most of this data is to feed it into artificial intelligence
(AI) systems that will take that IoT data and use it to make predictions.

For example, Google has put an AI in charge of its data centre cooling system. The AI uses data pulled from
thousands of IoT sensors, which is fed into deep neural networks, and which predict how different choices will
affect future energy consumption. By using machine learning and AI, Google has been able to make its data
centres more efficient and said the same technology could have uses in other industrial settings.

IOT EVOLUTION: WHERE DOES THE INTERNET OF THINGS

GO NEXT?
As the price of sensors and communications continue to drop, it becomes cost-effective to add more
devices to the IoT – even if in some cases there’s little obvious benefit to consumers. Deployments are
at an early stage; most companies that are engaging with the IoT are at the trial stage right now, largely
because the necessary technology – sensor technology, 5G and machine-learning powered analytics – are
still themselves at a reasonably early stage of development. There are many competing platforms and
standards and many different vendors, from device makers to software companies to network operators,

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

want a slice of the pie. It’s still not clear which of those will win out. But without standards, and with security
an ongoing issue, we are likely to see some more big IoT security mishaps in the next few years.

As the number of connected devices continues to rise, our living and working environments will become filled
with smart products – assuming we are willing to accept the security and privacy trade-offs. Some will welcome
the new era of smart things. Others will pine for the days when a chair was simply a chair.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

HOW 5G CAN UNLOCK IOT’S POTENTIAL

BOB VIOLINO /ZDNET CONTRIBUTOR

The emergence of 5G, the fifth

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

generation of wireless mobile
communications, will no doubt
have a major impact on how these
services are delivered. Among the
potential advantages are high data
rates, reduced latency, energy savings,
cost reductions, and higher system
capacity.

One of the areas 5G technology has

the potential to affect in a big way is
the Internet of Things (IoT). But just
how large an impact will it be, and in
what ways can 5G help unlock the enormous potential of IoT for businesses as well as consumers?

SLOW ROLLOUT
Broad availability of 5G will not happen overnight. “Deployment of full 5G is some way away yet,” said Paul
Bevan, research director for IT Infrastructure at advisory and consulting firm Bloor. “We are likely to see a
rolling deployment of some 5G capabilities from 2020 onwards,” and best estimates are that full-scale 5G
deployments are not likely until around 2025, he said.

Adoption will be patchy to start with, Bevan said. “By 2025 some verticals or use cases may have just crossed
the chasm, but many will still be in the visionary phase,” he said.

For enterprises, 5G will be a technology enabler but not a solution in itself. “A number of vertical industry
use cases have been suggested and are being investigated,” Bevan said. These will probably involve robotics,
artificial intelligence/machine learning, and big data analytics -- to name but a few.

Each will have different requirements in terms of data rate, speed, latency, reliability, coverage, density, and
location accuracy, Bevan said. The rate of enterprise adoption and rollout will depend on both the perceived
business value of the use cases and the rate at which each of the required 5G capabilities is delivered.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

Economic factors will also impact the rollout of 5G.

“Network operators face significant capital investments
The biggest impact for business
in the coming years on top of their already significant
investments in 4G,” Bevan said. “Understanding the
will be in the ability of 5G to
route to profitable revenue and the collaborations handle massive data volumes with
that are necessary, will determine both the pace of high transaction rates from remote
deployment of 5G and the structure of the supply side and/or mobile locations.
market.”

Network operators will also be looking to a range of

new tools and techniques to reduce both the capital and operating costs of future 5G networks, Bevan noted.
These include, but are not restricted to, automated operations at the edge, software-defined networking (SDN),
network function virtualization (NFV), and Open Compute Project (OCP) hardware configurations.

IMPACT ON IOT
What impact 5G will have on IoT depends on one’s definition of IoT and whether it includes smartphones,
Bevan said. It’s likely that mobile online gaming, video streaming and virtual and augmented reality will be the
initial targets of 5G, he said.

“Much business-oriented IoT will happen without the need for 5G, or is already happening utilizing existing
4G services, Bevan said. “It is in areas requiring low latency, such as autonomous vehicles or, further down the
track, remote robotic surgery that 5G really comes into its own.”

The biggest impact for business will be in the ability of 5G to handle massive data volumes with high trans-
action rates from remote and/or mobile locations. The ability to capture data from remote sensors, transfer it
to large data centers, and apply both AI and machine leaning and data science techniques to it for near real-time
analysis is where enterprises are likely to see the biggest early gains, Bevan said.

One class of 5G IoT use-cases, categorized under the term ultra-reliable low-latency communications
(URLLC), will slowly ramp up throughout the 2020s, said Patrick Filkins, senior research analyst, IoT and
mobile network infrastructure, at research firm International Data Corp. (IDC).

“These services are likely to require adjacent investment in a distributed 5G core and edge computing, located
closer to the end-points,” Filkins said. Telcos will be able to tailor network connectivity for specific vertical
applications by delivering customized service-level agreements (SLAs). “In my opinion, that’s where 5G will
begin to flex its era-defining muscles,” he said.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

The strength of 5G will be in its ability to address not only the low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) IoT
use-case -- which is about providing a low-cost option to connect devices with low requirements from the
network -- but simultaneously address the IoT use cases that fall into the URLLC segment, Filkins said.

“It is realistic to envision an enterprise which may have demands for both network scenarios,” Filkins said.
“Delivering both from a singular, converged architecture could become very compelling, from a simplicity and
cost-reduction viewpoint.”

INDUSTRY BREAKDOWN
Just because 5G might enhance Some sectors are likely to be affected more than others
by the emergence of 5G and IoT.
some aspects of IoT doesn’t
mean IoT will be dependent on For example, in healthcare they could contribute
the next generation of wireless to improving well-being in the population, through
network capability. predicting potential individuals’ health problems and
organizing early medical interventions. Remote robotic
surgery can improve patient outcomes and reduce
costs. “IoT and 5G will be critical elements in our
ability to deliver sustainable health services,” Bevan said.

In manufacturing and integrated supply chains, the technologies will enable automation and coordination of
manufacturing processes across geographically and organizationally dispersed units, Bevan said. This will be
accomplished via connected factories, reducing costs and increasing agility.

Theoretically, all industries will benefit from 5G technology for IoT, as they will be able to independently
design or co-design -- with a service provider -- networks based on their unique needs related to latency,
capacity, and reliability, Filkins said.

IOT WITHOUT 5G
Just because 5G might enhance some aspects of IoT doesn’t mean IoT will be dependent on the next gener-
ation of wireless network capability.

“It needs to be stressed that not all IoT devices need 5G,” Bevan said. “Probably less than half of all the data
generated by IoT devices will need to be transferred to centralized data centers.”

Satellite communications need to be factored into the equation, particularly for less densely populated, rural
areas and also for applications where location accuracy of moving assets is critical, Bevan noted.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

SURVEY: 5G WON’T IMPACT MANY IOT PROJECTS

ANYTIME SOON
MELANIE WOLKOFF WACHSMAN/TECHREPUBLIC

5G is here, and it’s ready to transform the

IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO
enterprise. The next generation of mobile
technology is poised to have a major
impact on Internet of Things (IoT) initia-
tives. Or is it?

Those were just a few of the questions

ZDNet’s sister site TechRepublic Premium
asked when it surveyed 159 professionals
in January about how 5G accessibility is
accelerating IoT projects.

Despite promises of higher bandwidth,

low latency, and ultra-reliability, more than
half (56%) of the survey respondents said that 5G availability is not accelerating IoT projects in their organi-
zations. Here are some reasons why: since 4G worked well enough, companies have not planned any 5G IoT
initiatives; there was a lack in faster deployment resources; and companies were still in early planning stages.
One respondent said it was “too early to buy a 5G kit when the investment in 4G has not yet recovered its
initial costs.”

That left 44% of respondents citing that 5G availability is, in fact, accelerating their company’s IoT projects.
How? The majority (74%) said 5G provided faster access, 68% mentioned more bandwidth, and 63% listed
better reliability. (Survey respondents were able to select more than one option.)

At 61%, remotely monitoring assets in the field was the most popular IoT project that companies plan to
undertake as a result of 5G availability. Almost half (49%) of companies plan to use 5G to control machines
remotely, while 44% plan to use location awareness and indoor mapping for machine learning and tracking
high-value assets. Of respondents saying that 5G will accelerate their projects, 40% plan to leverage smart
office or industrial technology such as geofencing or energy optimization, while 34% of respondents intend to
either harness 5G’s availability for supply chain tracking or to create digital twin models.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

The infographic below contains selected details from the research. To read more findings, plus analysis,
download the full report: Research: How 5G will transform business (available for TechRepublic Premium
subscribers).

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

5 INDUSTRIES THAT WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE

COMBINATION OF 5G AND IOT
BY: MACY BAYERN/TECHREPUBLIC

5G and Internet of Things (IoT) make

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

great partners, but their marriage is
still in its honeymoon phase. Current
smartphone users probably know 5G
as the little symbol at the top of their
screens, which indicates that their device
has a high-quality, low-latency network
connection.

However, the pairing of 5G and IoT is

much more than a clear phone call to your
boss via a car’s Bluetooth. While that use
case might be the most common under
the current 5G standard, Release 15, the next standard will unlock advanced connectivity capabilities.

“Over the next several years, there are going to be tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions of IoT
endpoints deployed for a number of different use cases,” said Bill Menezes, senior principal analyst of
sourcing, procurement and vendor management at Gartner.

“Say you’re in an urban area surrounded by smart buildings. All of [these buildings will] have installed tens of
thousands of sensors for everything from smart lighting and temperature controls, to air quality monitoring
and space utilization monitoring.”

“Then, right outside that building, you’ll have smart street lights, security surveillance, traffic controls, traffic
monitoring, pedestrian safety monitoring, etcetera,” Menezes said. “Then you add on all of the endpoints that
an individual user might have, whether it’s a smartwatch or smart glasses.”

RELEASE 16
This situation is completely viable under the upcoming 5G standard, Release 16, which will surface in the next
couple of months, said Dan Bieler, principal analyst serving CIO professionals at Forrester.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

Under Release 16, 5G will be able to support massive machine type communications, with low latencies
providing the ability to connect a large number of IoT endpoints together in a geographical region, like a
factory environment or inner city space, Bieler said.

5G and IoT won’t stop there. Here are the five industries that will be most impacted by 5G and IoT.

1. MANUFACTURING
One of the biggest use cases in the IoT and 5G space
will be with connected self-driving machines on the
factory floor, Bieler said. These robots have already One of the biggest use cases in
started to surface, but will be bolstered by this new the IoT and 5G space will be with
connectivity, reducing menial tasks for factory workers. connected self-driving machines
Overall, the manufacturing space will be filled with
on the factory floor.
sensors for machine monitoring, providing insights
into the function of those machines and allowing for
predictive maintenance and temperature controls, said Naveen Poonian, president of iBASEt, a manufacturing,
sustainment, and quality software solutions provider.

5G also provides an advantage in retooling. “If you have to retool every couple of years for new models, you
can have all of those IoT endpoints in your machinery,” Menezes said.

“So, if you’re moving machines around, putting different equipment in, or changing configurations, you can
keep the same endpoints without having to run new cabling for them,” Menezes added.

2. SUPPLY CHAIN
Once parts are manufactured, 5G and IoT can also assist with moving the pieces through the supply chain.

With sensors, employees can monitor remotely what pieces have been assembled, processed and shipped.
5G and IoT would be especially valuable in large factories or shipyards, which may contain millions of
IoT-connected parts, all of which 5G connectivity would be able to handle, Gartner’s Menezes said.

3. HEALTHCARE
The healthcare industry is another area that will see significant advancements from IoT and 5G, particularly in
creating better efficiencies in hospital operations, Menezes said.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

“A lot of it is going to be related to types of

endpoints for things like location services. Whether
On the shelves themselves, 5G
it’s patient monitoring, smart prescription bottles,
or drug carts,” Menezes said, noting the example of
and IoT lets retailers observe what
increased efficiency featured IoT-enabled drug carts. products are touched or sold the
most and adjust store inventory
By supplying each prescription bottle on a drug cart
based on those endpoints
with endpoints and multiplying that throughout the
hospital, doctors and nurses can find prescription
medications significantly faster either on that cart or
in the building, Menezes said.

5G and IoT also provides the rapid transmission of large data files, which would allow medics to upload a
patient’s data to a system while on an ambulance or in the field, and have that data transmitted to a doctor in
the hospital. With this technology, doctors can plan a patient’s treatment and prepare for the patient before
they even arrive, Menezes said.

4. RETAIL
For brick and mortar stores to survive in the digital age, they must digitally transform, and 5G and IoT can help.

From the moment a customer walks into a store, 5G and IoT could allow store operators to track the types of
products customers look at and update digital ads in real time to reflect those types of products, said Alfredo
Patron, executive vice president of business development for TeamViewer.

On the shelves themselves, 5G and IoT lets retailers observe what products are touched or sold the most and
adjust store inventory based on those endpoints, Patron said.

Further, all of this data can be processed and digested in real time, allowing retailers to make adjustments
immediately, Patron added.

5. SMART CITIES
Smart cities is another sector already benefiting from the impact of 5G and IoT.

“I used to have a guy come and measure my water meter manually; now they’re installing systems so that you
can do this remotely,” said iBASEt’s Poonian. “With my gas meter, I’m now starting to get data analytics on
how I’m performing against my peers and trying to create cost-saving programs.”

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

While that’s a current use case, IoT endpoints will become even more powerful with 5G connectivity, allowing
for more insights across greater distances. For example, using crowdsourced information, the technology can
evaluate traffic patterns throughout the city and direct crowds to open parking garages via apps in their cars,
Patron said.

“Think of silly situations like big football games where everyone is struggling to find a parking place, partic-
ularly in city centers where there’s not a lot of parking,” Patron said. “Or think of much more dire situations
like storms or natural disaster. [5G and IoT] could redirect people and even control the streetlights for
evacuations.”

The collaboration between 5G and IoT will not only help develop existing projects, but will create use cases
never before considered.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

CONNECTED CARS: HOW 5G AND IOT WILL

AFFECT THE AUTO INDUSTRY
BY: CHARLES MCLELLAN/ZDNET

Autonomous cars (and other vehicles, such as

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

trucks) may still be years away from widespread
deployment, but connected cars are very
much with us. The modern automobile is fast
becoming a sensor-laden mobile Internet of
Things device, with considerable on-board
computing power and communication systems
devoted to three broad areas: vehicle location,
driver behaviour, engine diagnostics and
vehicle activity (telematics); the surrounding
environment (vehicle-to-everything or V2X
communication); and the vehicle’s occupants
(infotainment). All of these systems use cellular
-- and increasingly 5G -- technology, among others.

IMAGE: GSA (GLOBAL MOBILE SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION)

Although 5G networks are still a work in
progress for mobile operators, the pace
of deployment and launches is picking up.
By the end of 2019, according to the GSA
(Global mobile Suppliers Association), 61
operators in 34 countries had launched one
or more 3GPP-compliant 5G services. Of
those, 49 operators had launched 5G mobile
services, while 34 had launched FWA (Fixed
Wireless Access) or home broadband services.
Furthermore, the GSA said, 77 operators had
deployed 3GPP-compliant technology in their
networks and 348 operators in 119 countries
were investing in 5G.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

3GPP Release 16, which is due to be finalised by mid-2020, is an important milestone because it completes
phase 2 of the 5G specification, catering for standalone networks that deliver not only enhanced mobile
broadband (eMBB) and FWA, but also ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC, important for
automotive use cases) and massive machine-type communication (mMTC, important for IoT use cases). Rel
16 also includes specifications around cellular V2X (C-V2X), covering areas like platooning, extended sensors,
automated and remote driving.

IMAGE: 3GPP
Work is now underway on Rel 17, which will include: enhancements to low-power wide-area connectivity
(NB-IoT); a new feature called NR Light, which will cater for low-power/high-bandwidth wearable and
IoT devices; support for millimetre-wave spectrum above 52.6GHz; MIMO enhancements; and support for
non-terrestrial (satellite) networks.

5G AND IOT
Clearly the pieces are moving into place for the rapid growth of 5G-connected IoT solutions in the automotive
space. That’s certainly the view of analyst firm Gartner, which in October 2019 forecast that by 2023 the
automotive industry will be the largest market opportunity for 5G IoT solutions, representing 53% of the total
5G IoT endpoint market in that year.

Gartner predicts that the 5G IoT endpoint installed base will grow nearly 14-fold in the next three years,
from 3.5 million units in 2020 to 48.6 million units in 2023. In 2020, the market will be dominated by outdoor

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

surveillance cameras (2.5m units, 70% market share), but by 2023 these will have been overtaken by automotive
solutions:

DATA: GARTNER / IMAGE: ZDNET

“As the automotive industry will be the largest sector for IoT endpoints and 5G IoT use cases in the long term,
we recommend that CSPs that want to be relevant in the 5G IoT market put this industry at the forefront of
their investments. They should do this in terms of personnel who understand the sector and of partnerships
that will move the market forward,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, senior research director at Gartner, in a
statement.

The leading use case for 5G in the automotive space in 2023 will be embedded connected car modules for
commercial and consumer vehicles (19.1m units, 39% market share), Gartner predicts, followed by fleet
telematics devices (5.1m units, 11% market share) and in-vehicle toll devices (1.5m devices, 3% market share).

The share of 5G-connected cars that are actively connected to a 5G service will grow from 15% in 2020 to
74% in 2023, reaching 94% in 2028, Gartner says. By then, C-V2X will enable the exchange of messages within
and between vehicles, and with infrastructure, pedestrians, cyclists and other elements of the environment.
“Ultimately, connected cars actively connected to a 5G service will help keep traffic moving and improve road
safety,” says the analyst firm.

ROAD SAFETY AND MOBILE COVERAGE ON THE ROADS

There is certainly plenty of incentive to improve road safety. In the UK, the Department for Transport reports
that there were 1,770 road deaths in the year ending June 2018 (nearly five a day), with 26,610 killed or seriously
injured (73 a day) and 165,100 casualties of all severities (452 a day). Of the 21,610 killed or seriously injured,
37% were motorists, 23% pedestrians, 22% motorcyclists and 14% cyclists.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

But if cellular connectivity -- and C-V2X in particular -- is to deliver safer driving, then mobile coverage on the
roads has a long way to go.

C-V2X has two communication modes: direct communication over the PC5 interface on the unlicensed
5.9GHz band, for use cases requiring low latency such as V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle), V2I (vehicle-to-infra-
structure) and V2P (vehicle-to-pedestrian) applications; and latency-tolerant V2N (vehicle-to-network)
communication over the Uu interface on regular licensed-band cellular networks, for use cases like infotainment
and updates on longer range road hazards or traffic conditions.

A fully functional C-V2X ecosystem not only requires

the widespread deployment of roadside units (RSUs)
and on-board units to support direct communication,

IMAGE: OFCOM, CONNECTED NATIONS 2019 REPORT

but also good cellular connectivity on the roads for V2N
communication.

In its Connected Nations 2019 report, UK regulator Ofcom

estimates that, within vehicles, 4G data coverage from all
four mobile operators is available on 62% of motorways
and A roads, and 46% of B roads; outside vehicles, 4G data
coverage rises to 88% of motorways and A roads, and 80%
of B roads. For voice calls the picture is better: 81% of
motorways and A roads, and 68% of B roads have coverage
from all operators within vehicles, rising to 95% and 90%
respectively outside vehicles. Coverage for emergency calls --
which can be made on any network -- is pretty much universal
(99%/96% in vehicle, ~100%/99% outside vehicle).

No comparable figures are available for 5G coverage on the

roads yet, but network coverage checkers are available for EE,
O2 and Vodafone if you want to look up specific areas. The
fourth UK mobile operator, Three, reported in November
2019 that its 5G rollout was “slightly behind our original plan”.

There’s clearly a lot of 5G deployment to go if Gartner’s

2023 forecast is to prove correct. Another issue is that the
Wi-Fi-based (802.11p) rival to C-V2X is still in play in Europe (as ITS-G5) and the US (as DSRC). Ensuring
the security of connected and autonomous cars is another important area where progress is required.

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CONNECTED CAR PLATFORMS

Gartner’s 2019 Hype Cycle for Connected Vehicles and Smart Mobility places 5G at the Peak of Inflated
Expectations (along with ‘micromobility’, ‘in-vehicle advanced UX and UI’ and ‘smart city transpor-
tation strategy’). Gartner covers 26 topics in this Hype Cycle, 16 of which are ‘Sliding into the Trough’ (of
Disillusionment), which tells you a lot about the state of this sector. Here you’ll find ‘mobility-as-a-service’,
‘over-the-air software updates’, ‘vehicle-to-vehicle communications’, ‘autonomous vehicles’ and ‘driver
monitoring systems’, among other topics. Just two areas — ‘connected car platforms’ and ‘in-vehicle wireless
connectivity’ — are deemed to be Climbing the Slope (of Enlightenment) towards mainstream deployment.

As cars become ever more connected, generating and

handling ever-larger amounts of data, so software
companies and cloud providers are becoming As cars become ever more
increasingly involved in the automotive industry. connected, generating and
Microsoft is a leading player in this market with handling ever-larger amounts of
its Connected Vehicle Platform (MCVP). MCVP data, so software companies and
integrates Microsoft’s IoT, security, connectivity
cloud providers are becoming
and edge-computing technology into a cloud-based
increasingly involved in the
solution that connects vehicles to mobility services.
Vehicle sensor telemetry flows into an Azure-hosted automotive industry.
data lake, on top of which OEMs — which include
Volkswagen and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi —
can build their own solutions, leveraging Azure’s analytics capabilities. Microsoft notes that “the platform is
designed to incorporate the latest technologies as they develop, ensuring that connected vehicle solutions stay
up-to-date”, citing 5G and V2X as an example.

In December 2019, Ericsson announced plans to integrate its Connected Vehicle Cloud -- which, it says,
connects over 4 million vehicles across 180 countries worldwide -- with MCVP. Other MCVP partners include
LG Electronics and Cerence (formerly the automotive division of Nuance).

Microsoft’s biggest competitor in the automotive space is BlackBerry’s QNX platform, which in June 2019 was
estimated to be embedded in over 150 million vehicles. At CES 2020, BlackBerry announced a tie-up between
QNX and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

What sort of impact could all this digital transformation have on revenues in the automotive industry? In 2016,
analyst firm McKinsey estimated that mobility and data-driven services — shared mobility, apps, navigation,

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

entertainment, remote services, software upgrades — could create around $1.5 trillion of extra revenue, or a 30
percent boost, in 2030 compared to 2016:

IMAGE: MCKINSEY
CONNECTED VEHICLES AT CES 2020
The automotive sector has featured prominently at CES in recent years, and 2020 was no exception. In the CES
2020 Innovation Awards there were 28 ‘Honorees’ in the Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation category (up
from 22 in 2019), and 13 in the In-Vehicle Entertainment & Safety category (versus 12 in 2019).

There were four ‘Best of Innovation’ winners in the automotive categories: Bosch 3D Display; Bosch Virtual
Visor; Halo Hypersport; and Outsight 3D Semantic Camera.

Damon Motorcycles’ electric-engined Halo

Hypersport is an interesting development.
Motorcycles are a notoriously dangerous form of Gartner predicts that the 5G IoT
transport: in the UK, for example, motorcycles endpoint installed base will grow
comprise just 3.4% of licensed vehicles (Q3 2019 nearly 14-fold in the next three
figures), yet result in 22% of those killed or seriously years, from 3.5 million units in
injured in accidents (year ending June 2018 figures). 2020 to 48.6 million units in 2023.
So any technology that can help riders beat the odds
is very welcome.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

The Hypersport includes electronically controlled

IMAGE: CES / DAMON MOTORCYCLES

4-point adjustable riding positions (Shift), and a
360-degree advanced warning system (CoPilot, which
is powered by BlackBerry’s QNX platform). The
CoPilot sensor suite also collects rider, traffic and
vehicle data and delivers over-the-air functionality
updates.

Other notable automotive news at CES 2020

included: a concept car from Sony; a flying taxi from
Uber and Hyundai; and Snapdragon Ride, a new
autonomous driving platform from Qualcomm.

OUTLOOK
Your next new car won’t be self-driving, but it will be a mobile multi-sensor IoT device -- probably electric
and with 5G connectivity on-board -- that senses its local environment and communicates with cloud-based
platforms. This will enable new business models in the automotive space, keep drivers better informed about
road and traffic conditions, and more effectively assisted in handling them, hopefully resulting in improved
traffic flow and fewer accidents. Passengers will have access to better infotainment systems too -- perhaps
leading to the replacement of “are we there yet?” with “are we there already?”

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

HEALTHCARE HAS MANY USE CASES FOR 5G AND

IOT BUT NO INFRASTRUCTURE TO SUPPORT IT
BY: VERONICA COMBS/TECHREPUBLIC

At a hospital, the Internet of Things (IoT)

CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
makes more sense than in many other places.
Consider: The ROI of connecting blood
pressure cuffs, bed monitors, infusion pumps,
and other monitoring devices, not to mention
tracking staff, inventory, and patients and
other use cases.

Healthcare leaders see even more use cases

for 5G, from quickly transmitting scans
to expanding telemedicine and to using
augmented realitiy and virtual reality experi-
ences to treat patients.

What about 5G and IoT use cases? Healthcare has plenty of those, but not the infrastructure or room on the
IT priority list to implement. Tech leaders are more focused on electronic medical records, interoperability, and
machine learning. Costs become the other big problem associated with each technological advance.Hospital IT
budgets may not be up to the task of securing all those smart devices or building a network to connect them.

Here is a look at where 5G is helping hospitals with IoT and other projects as well as potential roadblocks.

AT&T PARTNERSHIP WITH RUSH HOSPITAL

About a year ago, Rush Hospital in Chicago announced a plan to move to 5G connectivity in one building on
its campus.

The hospital intends to use AT&T’s 5G network, Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC), and other services as
they become available. Rush will manage cellular traffic over both its local network and its wide area network
via the MEC services. This will allow Rush to meet network communications and application processing needs
for its data, enhance the various use cases across its system, and help improve the patient experience. Part of
the network will be designated for patients and visitors with another portion dedicated for the use of Rush’s
physicians and staff.

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Jeremy Marut, the hospital’s chief enterprise

architect, said in an interview that infrastructure costs
Just as there are not enough
pushed the hospital to make the move. He said one
workers to install the new 5G
of the first steps was to install a millimeter-wave
antenna within the hospital’s atrium, where it will hardware, there may not be
connect hospital PCs and devices using a 5G hotspot. enough dollars in hospitals’ IT
budgets to cover 5G hardware in
The hospital system is also building a new patient
those facilities.
care center on its campus, and 5G will be the default
system there.

INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS
Just as there are not enough workers to install the new 5G hardware, there may not be enough dollars in
hospitals’ IT budgets to cover 5G hardware in those facilities.

Accenture predicts that the US wireless industry will invest $275 billion over the next few years to deploy the
5G networks. To make 5G coverage widely available, telecom companies will have to lay fiber, and place tens of
thousands of small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS) on utility poles and other urban infrastructure.

Telecom companies will take on some of the cost of this expansion, but not all. Mckinsey suggested that
operators will consider the joint building of new networks and new revenue models to share the costs.

Also, hospital leaders seem to be waiting for 5G to be more broadly available to businesses in general before
making any investments themselves. Currently 5G is available in specific neighborhoods in about 30 cities in
America. Even in those connected places, coverage is spotty.

The benefits of 5G in healthcare may not reach beyond city limits either. The low latency in 5G connections
could make it easier for people in rural communities to benefit from telemedicine, but only if there is 5G
coverage in those places. Telecom companies are focusing the 5G buildout in urban areas mostly because the
ROI of installing 5G infrastructure in rural communities is non-existent.

American patients and healthcare IT leaders will likely have to wait a few years to see the benefits of 5G and
IoT in healthcare. Patients in China may see some of these advances in care much sooner than American
patients. In China, 30 hospitals, Huawei, the China Association of Medical Equipment, and three major
telecom companies released the first 5G-based standard for hospital networks in September 2019.

A universal standard will accelerate 5G development in digital healthcare improvements, including consultations
and image analysis.

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AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES NEED WELL-MARKED

STREETS MORE THAN 5G
BY: VERONICA COMBS/TECHREPUBLIC

Augustin K. Wegscheider, a partner at

CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
BCG and head of the Center for Mobility
Innovation, said that 5G is a nice-to-have,
but not a must-have for autonomous vehicles
(AVs). The best thing cities can do to prepare
for AVs, he argues, is much lower tech than 5G.

Shared, autonomous, electric vehicles could

reduce pollution, reduce car accidents, and
save lives. These cars can do the most good
when connected with other cars, traffic lights,
and even pedestrians. The missing element is the communications network that allows for all that data sharing.

For vehicles to communicate with everything (V2X), cities could use a wi-fi standard (Dedicated Short Range
Communications, or DSRC) or a 5G standard (Cellular V2X, or CV2X). CV2X has lower latency and more
range, but the wi-fi tech is mature and ready for deployment now. Only about 30 cities in the US have 5G
coverage, and it’s mostly for the consumer market.

In 2018, China picked 5G as the standard for connected cars and dedicated bandwidth specifically for
connected cars. CV2X seems to be winning out as the preferred standard in the US, despite the US
Department of Transportation declining to set a communications standard. The 5G Automotive Association
is pushing for 5G and has more than 100 members including Ford Motor, GM, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan,
Volkswagen, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Nokia, and Qualcomm Incorporated.

In an interview with Scientific American, Sherif Marakby, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, said that a 5G
network would make it easier for AVs to process the huge volumes of data required to operate, which can be
up to 25GB per hour. He also said that cities couldn’t build those networks alone.

WHY PAINT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN 5G

Autonomous vehicle companies are testing cars in several cities, including Austin, Boston, Phoenix, Detroit,
Kirland, WA, Miami, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. Wegscheider said that BCG worked with Boston to

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

develop the transportation elements of the city’s 2030 plan. Several companies are developing AV technology
in Boston, including NuTonomy (now Aptiv), an MIT spin-off company that makes software to build
self-driving cars, and Optimus Ride, another company that started at MIT and is developing self-driving vehicle
systems.

City leaders want to know what kind of communications infrastructure is necessary and would not be outdated
in five years.

“The most financially savvy answer is, don’t do

anything,” Wegscheider said. Shared, autonomous, electric
Wegscheider said that the best infrastructure vehicles could reduce pollution,
investment cities can make is in paint. reduce car accidents, and save lives.
“These cars use Lidar, radar, and cameras to
navigate, so we can make what they see easier to
understand -- like color-coding the curb to show where drop off and pick up are allowed,” he said.

Other low-tech tools could help AV rollouts and city budgets. At a CES 2020 session on mobility, Via CFO
Clara Fain said cities’ leaders should monetize one of their best assets -- roads -- to generate funding for tech
investments. Wegscheider agreed with this strategy.

“From an economical and rational decision-making standpoint, you should price road usage because the city
has the asset, and the utilization is becoming the problem,” Wegscheider said.

When setting fees, Wegscheider said that cities should consider who is in the car and what is the purpose of the
trip. Fees should be lower for vehicles delivering mail or food, and for vehicles carrying several people.

“The more granularly you differentiate the charges, the bigger the impact to affect change,” he said.

European cities have had congestion pricing for several years, and New York will start charging drivers to enter
Manhattan from 60th Street south in 2021. Wegscheider said that type of fee doesn’t reduce congestion, it just
raises revenue.

Kansas City just made public transportation free, a change other cities are considering to encourage people to
take mass transit instead of driving personal cars or using ride hailing services.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

CIO JURY: 50% OF PANELISTS SAY 5G WILL SPEED

ADOPTION OF IOT
BY: TEENA MADDOX/TECHREPUBLIC

The widespread rollout of 5G throughout

CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
the world won’t have an immediate impact on
Internet of Things (IoT) adoption in enterprise
applications, at least according to our CIO Jury.

When asked the question, “Do you think 5G

will accelerate the adoption of IoT within your
industry,” the 12-member CIO jury was equally
divided in its responses, with 50% saying yes,
and 50% saying no.

“I find this an interesting question. I generally

don’t see IoT as a bandwidth hog, and to me, the only significant advantage of 5G over current 4G/LTE is
speed. So, I don’t really see my answer as limited to just my industry,” said John Gracyalny, vice president of
digital member services, Coast Central Credit Union.

Eric Shashoua, CEO and founder of Kiwi for Gmail and GSuite, also rang in with a “no” vote: “In the
enterprise productivity space, 5G is still too inconsistently available for IoT devices to be deployed and be
dependable. That fact also limits the potential range of IoT applications that are available. Yes, IoT would
thrive in a context where devices can be connected to the cloud anywhere and with little cost. 5G isn’t that yet.
Low-cost, ubiquitous connectivity, at 3G speeds, is what would make 80% of the IoT dream a reality.”

However, other jury members, such as Emil Sayegh, CEO of Ntirety, feel that 5G deployments will speed up
IoT adoption. “5G is specifically critical for mission-critical services such as self-driving vehicles, or robotic
surgeries. These services need near-instantaneous, and super low-latency communication independently of
location. It needs to be the same quality of service in rural areas, as it is in NFL cities. These IoT deployments
need IT infrastructure in close proximity and in conjunction with 5G deployments, to minimize latency and
deliver a high level of quality of service ubiquitously.”

The auto industry is one that will benefit from the deployment of 5G networks, according to Roger Berg, vice
president of North America Research and Development, DENSO.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

“5G will absolutely influence the auto industry in a positive way. It will accelerate acceptance of IoT technol-
ogies in mobility, especially relating to vehicle connectivity and advanced manufacturing, and its speed and
capacity to process large amounts of data will bring about new capabilities that improve transportation
efficiency and safety. Still, mobility players will need to be flexible enough to adapt to a diverse set of solutions
to ensure they and their customers create communications systems that are able to ‘talk’ regardless of how they
connect,” Berg said.

One result will be that 5G networks will expose a gap between industrial IoT and residential IoT technologies.

“Many industrial IoT -- including agricultural, medical, transportation, energy, and more -- applications use
mobile wireless networks to connect a myriad of devices back to a data center where the IoT controller is
located. 5G networks will enable higher-density deployments, lower-latency operation, and low-power device
operation, which will greatly benefit industrial IoT applications. 5G networks will be accompanied by other
transformative technologies like edge computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning that will further
accelerate industrial IoT applications,” said Alan DiCicco, solutions marketing senior director at Calix.

“In contrast, residential IoT will continue to be driven by device ecosystems tied to wi-fi, Zigbee, and
other low-power wireless technologies. The Wi-Fi 6 standard (IEEE 802.11ax) includes provisions for very
low-power device operation that should allow the residential smart home IoT device ecosystem to consolidate
into one wireless standard,” DiCicco said.

Here are this month’s CIO Jury participants:

• John Gracyalny, vice president of digital member services, Coast Central Credit Union
• Craig Lurey, CTO and co-founder, Keeper Security
• Madhushan Gokool, head of IT, Ergonomic Solutions
• Emil Sayegh, CEO, Ntirety
• Steven Page, vice president of IT for marketing and digital banking for Safe America
• Dan Jackson, senior director of product management digital workplace, Crestron
• Roger Berg, vice president of North America Research and Development, DENSO
• Alan DiCicco, solutions marketing senior director at Calix
• Eric Shashoua, CEO and founder of Kiwi for Gmail and GSuite
• Alan Taylor, founder at SAPSAV
• Joel Robertson, chief information officer, King University
• Russ Felker, chief technology officer at GlobalTranz
• Kris Seeburn, independent IT consultant, evangelist, and researcher

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

ANU DEVELOPS VEGETATION MONITORING

SYSTEM TO HELP FIREFIGHTERS ON THE
FRONTLINE
BY: AIMEE CHANTHADAVONG/ZDNET

More than 10 million hectares of bushland have so far been burnt during this year’s fire season in Australia.
And based on studies by Australian National University (ANU) researchers, the fires are only expected to
worsen over time.

“More frequent and severe bushfires are

SCREENSHOT: AIMEE CHANTHADAVONG/ZDNET

expected in the coming years,” warned
ANU senior lecturer in environment and
engineering Marta Yebra.

“More people will be living in high-risk

bushfire areas and there will be more
competition for firefighting resources.”

“A holistic perspective on using infor-

mation technology [to fight fires] is to
first prioritise the surveyance in high-risk
areas, and the second is to detect small
fires before they become uncontrol-
lable and then extinguish them. These
could contribute to bleach future fire
management challenges.”
The interactive map that tracks vegetation moisture
With that in mind, Yebra and her team levels taken on 21 January 2020.
worked with the Bushfire and Natural
Hazard Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) to develop a prototype that provides near real-time information
about the moisture content of ‘live fuel’, such as trees, shrubs, grass, and other foliage, and how it could affect
the spread of bushfires.

Yebra highlighted how tracking moisture content in live fuel could help land and emergency managers better
understand potential fire danger areas and improve forecasting to facilitate back burning.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

She said given the severity of this fire season, which was fuelled by a combination of low rainfall levels, high
temperatures, and extremely dry vegetation and soil, access to such information is crucial for fire managers.

“The forests of New South Wales normally burn in Australia as soon as there is a source of ignition and
atmospheric conditions that favour the spread of the fire. However, these fires are not usually very virulent
because the vegetation or fuel -- especially the treetops -- are not dry enough to sustain a fire, and therefore the
fires are controlled relatively quickly,” Yebra told ZDNet.

“However, in 2019 Australia broke records

of high temperatures and low rainfall, which
produced water stress, even in the wettest and Yebra highlighted how tracking
tropical forests of Australia.” moisture content in live fuel could
help land and emergency managers
“We saw this when the 2019 fire season started as
early as September in Southern Queensland and better understand potential
the subtropical rainforests were burning. These fire danger areas and improve
forests are typically too wet to sustain a fire, but forecasting to facilitate back burning.
given that Australia broke records of heat and
drought, even these humid forest types became
flammable and developed into fires.”

The Australian Flammability Monitoring System uses data collected through remote sensors from satellites. The
information is displayed on an interactive map, so fire managers can use the data to determine the placement
of firefighting efforts.

One of these sensors used for the system includes the NASA moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer
that helps determine the characteristics of fuel state and conditions, including moisture content.

There’s also the use of a light detection and ranging sensor, which measures variable distances of vegetation to
the earth to understand different characteristics, such as canopy cover.

“Fuel moisture, cover, and structure are all critical fire danger and behaviour variables. Therefore, quantifying
when and where vegetation is approaching critical levels associated with the occurrence of wildfires is vitally
important for assessing fire danger and behaviour,” Yebra said.

“Additionally, this information is used to find containment lines and help with firefighting strategies. For
instance, it can help locate sites free of trees to winch specialist firefighters in or to try to pick the easiest line to
construct walking tracks to the fire.”

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

Data is also collected from the Japanese Himawari-8

satellite to help detect short-lived active fires, and
“We really don’t have a system
track in detail the evolution of fire lines and fire
radiative power.
for measuring or understanding
what was happening in the live
In addition, the monitoring system draws on satellite fuel environment. It’s a gap in our
data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 to
knowledge, and what this project
analyse fire severity and vegetation recovery.
was doing was attempting to
“Analysing fire severity right after the fire is of address that gap so we can under-
ultimate importance for targeting remediation efforts stand how much has changed.”
to protect, for example, water supplies post fire, while
vegetation recovery will dictate the amount of fuel —Joh Bates, Bushfire and Natural
available for the next fire season,” Yebra said. Hazard CRC research director
According to Bushfire and Natural Hazard CRC
research director John Bates, the prototype system
has the potential to extend the existing system that’s used to map moisture conditions of dead fuel, such as
twigs, fallen trees, or any other dead vegetation.

“We really don’t have a system for measuring or understanding what was happening in the live fuel
environment. It’s a gap in our knowledge, and what this project was doing was attempting to address that gap
so we can understand how much has changed,” Bates told ZDNet.

“Once we have that data and system in place to look and learn what that system can tell us about the
environment and whether something is more or less likely to be subject to burning if a fire came through.”

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

WILL 5G PLAY A ROLE IN IOT SECURITY?

BY: BOB VIOLINO/ZDNET CONTRIBUTOR

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to

CREDIT:GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO
grow as more and more devices, sensors,
assets, and other “things” are connected and
share data. Still, many remain concerned
about the security threats and vulnerabilities
of this environment -- whether it involves
IoT networks, data, or the connected devices
themselves.

Can 5G, the upcoming fifth generation

of wireless mobile communications, help
enhance the security of IoT?

IOT SECURITY CONCERNS

IoT ecosystems can be especially appealing as the targets of attacks such as distributed denial of services
(DDoS), in part because there are so many different components involved.

Two of the major security issues at the moment are the lack of effective security being built into IoT devices
themselves, and the existence of a large number of different standards frameworks, says Paul Bevan, research
director for IT infrastructure at research and analysis firm Bloor research.

“The problem isn’t with the standards themselves; rather it is the challenge of translating between the different
domains and frameworks,” Bevan said. “You are only as secure as your weakest link, and this need to translate
between frameworks could be one such weakness.”

IoT security generally encapsulates existing security threats, but also has some unique challenges, said Patrick
Filkins, senior research analyst, IoT and mobile network infrastructure, at research firm International Data
Corp. (IDC).

For example, enterprises have long juggled with how to address end-point security. “To balance the costs
associated with deploying hundreds, if not thousands of sensors, end-point security is sometimes relatively
unaddressed,” Filkins said. That can leave those end-points open to security breaches. “This puts much of the
security heavy lifting on network and IT resources positioned further away from end-points,” he says.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

Research by Gartner Inc., estimated that worldwide spending on IoT security would reach $1.5 billion in
2018, a 28% increase from 2017 spending of $1.2 billion. The firm expects to see demand for tools and
services aimed at improving discovery and asset management, software and hardware security assessment, and
penetration testing.

HOW WILL 5G IMPACT THE IOT?

The lower latency, increased bandwidth, and ability to dedicate network slices to specific use cases that are
inherent in 5G design specifications will enable a range of new mobile and remote applications not been
feasible with 4G technology, Bevan said.

“The most widely touted have been autonomous vehicles and control of remote medical devices, both areas
where latency issues are likely to have serious, life-threatening implications,” Bevan said. If users need real-time
response from devices in the field then it is likely that 5G will be a major enabler, he says.

The new mobile wireless standard will allow enter-

prises to seamlessly connect more end-points to a
While 5G itself will not address
network, Filkins said. “Of course, being wireless
IoT security threats, it will take a
5G will be another tool for enterprises to connect
concerted effort from a range of end-points as a potential alternative to a wired
stakeholders spanning mobile connection,” he said.
operators, enterprise customers, and
While 5G is being hyped for IoT, many use cases
perhaps specialty vendors to under-
will continue to rely on infrastructure leveraging
stand and address these issues. existing wireless network protocols such as WiFi.
“As such, the use case/application will dictate
which approach best fits,” Filkins said. The low-la-
tency characteristic of 5G will be appealing to many verticals, such as manufacturing, he said.

A key aspect of 5G for IoT is in the design principles related to both the service provider mobile core and
radio access network (RAN) portions of the network, Filkins added. The core portion of 5G is designed to
efficiently facilitate a diverse set of IoT use-cases.

“IoT connectivity needs can vary greatly by industry, which is where 5G will differentiate from prior mobile
generations by enabling operators to service multiple IoT customers and/or use cases from their 5G network
platform,” Filkins said.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

While 5G will eventually apply to both the consumer and enterprise spaces alike, it makes sense that many
operators are focusing efforts to drive cellular IoT on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks with enterprise
customers now, Filkins said. “Over time, these existing LTE-based IoT connections will be serviced by a multi-
access 5G architecture [that] will simultaneously service 5G IoT connections as well,” he said.

As such, 5G can be viewed as a further catalyst to the IoT market as a whole, by enabling mobile operators and
possibly enterprises to apply customized, cellular solutions to an IoT deployment.

5G AND SECURITY ISSUES

While 5G itself will not address IoT security threats, it will take a concerted effort from a range of stakeholders
spanning mobile operators, enterprise customers, and perhaps specialty vendors to understand and address
these issues, Filkins said.

“As the network itself is upgraded to 5G, the need to upgrade network security will also be present,” Filkins
said. “Operators have primarily focused on defending their networks from external, Internet-based intrusions.
With IoT, you have greater potential for intrusions from inside the network or through ‘middle-man’ attacks.”

It is likely that operators as well as enterprises leveraging 5G for IoT will take a closer look at ways to incor-
porate security measures more tactically, Filkins said, with security potentially present at more layers than it was
in prior network generations.”

“The vendor community is also moving swiftly to enhance 5G security, by converging traditional firewall
functions with application visibility and security,” Filkins said. “As more IoT applications are run on the
network, which could be hosted in a traditional data center or in an edge cloud, securing applications
themselves will be at the forefront of 5G security concerns.”

Any 5G security concerns related to IoT will be more present once operators introduce 5G core networks and
further cater to the IoT needs of enterprise customers, Filkins said. Such 5G core network deployments are not
expected to see broad uptake for a couple years, he said, although there will be some China-based operators
that plan to introduce this technology as early as next year.

FOCUS ON DESIGN
“Good security is all about the combination of people, process, and technology; 5G by itself cannot properly
address IoT security issues,” Bevan said. “For sure, if an IoT device is communicating using a SIM [subscriber
identity module], then validation of the device and encryption of the data via a secure link provides at least
part of the end-to-end security solution.”

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

But this capability is available in 4G and older technologies. Bevan said. “5G is not bringing anything new to
the party,” he said. “If the IoT device has been compromised through weak or non-existent passwords, then all
5G is doing is sending some secure but malicious commands to the infected device.”

What’s needed is to design security into the IoT devices themselves, move toward a common set of end-to-end
security frameworks, and essentially shift the issue of security closer to the design phase of both IoT products
and services, Bevan said. This should be backed up by adherence to policies and an increasing use of artificial
intelligence and machine learning to automate security operations, he said.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

WILL THE SMART FACTORY BENEFIT FROM 5G?

INDUSTRY EXPERTS WEIGH IN
BY: CHARLIE OSBORNE/ZDNET CONTRIBUTOR

5G is on its way. The next-generation

wireless technology, expected to offer
speeds far beyond the capabilities of 4G,
has captured the interest and investment of
telecommunications companies and may
become the catalyst for transformation in the
manufacturing sector.

At present, 5G is not necessarily defined

as a standalone system; rather, transitional
technologies including LTE Advanced
and LTE Advanced Pro are being imple-
mented to merge bandwidth across multiple
frequencies and improve device speeds before a full shunt to 5G infrastructure.

Deployments across the 450 MHz - 6 GHz and 4 GHz - 52 GHz range are in play. We can expect gradual
rollouts as telecoms providers build, test, and release the architecture required to facilitate 5G and reliance on
existing 4G infrastructure is peeled away.

Ericsson, Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, Intel, and other vendors are already researching the set of technol-
ogies and some are offering 5G-related hardware solutions, as well as working with telecoms firms in 5G
deployment tests. Pilots are underway across countries including the United States, United Kingdom and South
Korea, and Singapore recently asked its major carriers to submit proposals for 5G spectrum packages.

According to Gartner, the worldwide 5G market will be worth $4.2 billion by the end of 2020 as companies
invest in infrastructure upgrades necessary for rollouts.

When 4G arrived, the major use-case was obvious: content streaming. As consumers began to demand more
bandwidth and better speeds to facilitate using online services including YouTube, Netflix, and Spotify,
telecoms firms answered.

However, when it comes to 5G, the obvious, use cases are not so easily defined.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

Speaking to attendees at the Qualcomm 5G Summit in Barcelona last week, Brian Mecum, Verizon VP of
Device Technology said that the company had already invested billions, but there are no “killer” use cases as of
yet, beyond consumer products, remote working, and connected vehicles.

5G requires an overhaul of existing architecture and may involve software-defined networking (SDN) setups,
multi-access edge computing, and, of course, spectrum -- in which auctions have become a battleground
between competing vendors and each country will have its own version of 5G, rather than sticking to a global,
accepted standard.

Despite a lack of one major case for 5G, the

manufacturing sector has been pegged as a likely area
5G, however, should not be to be transformed by the technology.
considered a replacement for fiber
connections, as 5G infrastructure The smart factory, also known as Industry 4.0,
defines the shift in industrial settings from legacy
will need to be supported by and
systems to connected technologies. This can
underpinned by fiber, especially
include the use of Internet of Things (IoT) devices,
when it comes to small cell deploy- sensors, edge computing, self-healing networks, and
ments and for 5G radios. automation.

Industry 4.0 relies on connectivity. Without a stable,

fast connection, industrial networks cannot capture
or process data on the floor, generated by IoT sensors or at the edge, and this information cannot be used for
equipment monitoring or maintenance. Operators are unable to see problems emerge in real-time, and both
SDN and automation-based architecture may not function properly.

Fiber as a standalone option for connectivity can provide the speed, latency, reliability, and capacity required,
but 5G is eventually expected to offer more -- solving the “last mile” problem -- as well as enhance mobility.

5G, however, should not be considered a replacement for fiber connections, as 5G infrastructure will need to be
supported by and underpinned by fiber, especially when it comes to small cell deployments and for 5G radios.

According to Jonathan Wilkins, director of EU Automation, there are three core ways in which 5G can
improve the manufacturing sector when it comes to device traffic.

Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) is of benefit -- given 5G’s theoretical peak data rate of 10Gbps -- as well
as Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) radio latency of as little as 1 ms which can help keep
industrial operations from disruption, and Massive Machine-type Communication (eMTC), in which 5G can

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

theoretically support up to one million devices per square kilometer, perfect for machine-to-machine (M2M)
communications and industrial IoT applications.

It is expected that the wireless technology will not only facilitate more IoT devices, but also improve data
collection, latency, and the automation of information streams.

“In industrial automation, 5G networks will

eventually be able to replace wired connections
in even the most demanding applications such as
Another major benefit of 5G to the
motion control and high throughput vision systems,” industrial sector is flexibility.
Wilkins says. “Ethernet protocols are still being
standardized by organizations such as 3GPP and
IEEE to accommodate time-sensitive networks (TSNs) into 5G architecture, which will allow 5G to achieve
the low latency and high availability of its Ethernet counterparts.”

Another major benefit of 5G to the industrial sector is flexibility. Through IoT networks of sensors on the
factory floor and through the supply chain, operators can be made aware of problems not in a linear fashion,
but through the real-time collection and analysis of data ranging from machine performance, staff activity, and
logistics -- as well as through predictive analytics.

“In order to deliver a variety of operations -- from the design to the distribution of products -- manufacturers
are currently using Ethernet and WIFI, and 4G LTE, to connect factory devices,” Stefan Spendrup, VP of
Enterprise Mobility at SOTI told ZDNet. “The implementation of 5G however, could allow operators to
power their entire facility, on and off-premises and seamlessly under one network, enabling quicker adoption of
new Industry 4.0 innovations.”

With 5G, industrial operators and staff will not have to rely on fixed, wired communications infrastructure.
This, in turn, could push the smart factory beyond IoT, Big Data, and our current M2M/ML experiments and
towards the adoption of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications.

The shift of Google Glass from a failed attempt to break into the consumer space to becoming a device on the
factory floor for AR-augmented data lookups and training shows how industrial companies are willing to invest
in new technologies that will likely provide an ROI -- but similar mobile devices, by their nature, will always
require reliable Internet connections.

Wearables are one possible category that next-generation wireless will benefit, as could VR headsets and
robotics. Production lines may be sped up, warehouses could use headsets for “pick-by-vision” applications,
and human error rates could be reduced.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

“The very features of 5G are required for effective use of automatic robots, wearables and VR headsets, which
are the technologies shaping the future of smart factories, with 5G being a key enabler for IoT,” Spendrup
added.

The supply chain, too, may benefit from 5G. Research from Capgemini estimates that 75 percent of industrial
players plan to implement 5G within the first two years of the technology becoming available, and according
to Capgemini’s Nigel Thomas, part of the digital manufacturing team, 5G can “enable seamless mobility across
the entire supply chain.”

“In regards to self-triggered order placement based on inventory level, 5G’s ability to connect 10 - 100 times
more devices with better security protocols and 99.999 percent availability will make these transactions more
reliable,” Thomas says. “5G will also allow for virtual testing of parts and packing from suppliers, [such] as 3D
X-ray imaging to create extremely accurate digital replicas of manufactured components to verify their specifi-
cations remotely.”

Another interesting aspect of how 5G will change industrial operations is the “Internet of Skills,” a lesser-
known aspect of the smart factory.

Described by Ericsson as the means to “enable any human being to teach, be taught and execute actions
remotely,” the Internet of Skills requires the efficient capture, transmission and rendering of visual, audio and
perception-based information -- and this, in turn, can only be managed through high-speed mobile networks.

In the Industrial realm, the Internet of Skills may benefit training and supervising staff on the factory floor.

“The ability to share knowledge and skills is an overlooked aspect of Industry 4.0, yet it’s one that’s just
as important as automation or connected devices,” said Rafi Billurcu, Partner of Manufacturing at Infosys
Consulting. “Then workers can access the sum total of all information within the business, from real-time
insight into machinery performance to educational and training resources.”

Despite Industry 4.0 becoming a use case for 5G, that does not mean it will not present a challenge to
companies.

It is unlikely that for many years to come that the industrial sector will be able to achieve the full speeds and
connectivity promised by 5G, as many firms will rely on legacy systems and older networks until upgrades
become necessary.

The initial investment required to shift from wired connections and 3G/4G will also make the switch difficult.
Until 5G-enabled smart factories definitively provide an ROI, companies may choose to bide their time before
spending their funds on overhauling existing infrastructure.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

“To a large degree, the challenges that manufacturers face relate to the efficacy of the business case,” Thomas
added. “For example, if a factory is making the same aerospace parts that they have been manufacturing for the
past 50 years, they might not choose to invest in putting sensors on their machinery. However, if they can build
a business case that demonstrates how the ability to capture manufacturing data will improve quality, output
and productivity, then they will invest.

The difficulty occurs when the entire supply chain is taken into account. Manufacturers will not be able to
mandate down their supply chain that everyone in the network should invest in the technology. It might be
down to manufacturers to invest and then drive a program of adoption and use down the supply chain. This is
likely to be reflected by a hockey stick start, as many investment cases will take time to prove.”

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

5G AND IOT: HOW SMALL BUSINESSES WILL

MAKE THE MOST OF THE REVOLUTION
BY: DAPHNE LEPRINCE-RINGUET/ZDNET

The 5G revolution makes the alluring promise

IMAGE: ABADONIAN/ISTOCK
of boosting the economy by billions of pounds,
but it comes with a big caveat: all the wonders
of faster connectivity will only be achieved if
5G becomes a technology that businesses can
exploit, no matter where they are.

The traditional methods to manage full coverage

are flawed, to say the least. In the UK, only
66% of the country is currently covered by 4G.
The government has set a target to expand 4G
coverage to 95% of the territory, and recently
pledged £1 billion to do so before 2025 -- but
that’s a three-year stretch from the original 2022 deadline. Things could be going better.

5G deployment, however, will be different, according to Philip Marnick, spectrum director at Ofcom. Speaking
at a conference in London about the UK’s 5G rollout strategy, he said: “5G will bring a new set of business
models, and the rules of access to spectrum will have to enable this.”

“The idea is that if you need a bit of spectrum to do what you need to do, you should be able to get it. We are
trying to make that spectrum available to enable new innovations.”

While 5G could provide a big boost for Internet of Things

(IoT) roll outs, progress is likely to be slow: networking
The traditional methods to
company Ericsson predicts there will be somewhere around
manage full coverage are
five billion cellular IoT connections by 2025, but only a
flawed, to say the least. fraction will be 5G, with the rest made up of existing wireless
technologies.

Spectrum -- the radio frequencies required to carry the data you want to transmit -- is usually alocated by
Ofcom to mobile operators via an auction system. But Ofcom now wants to open up spectrum to other,
smaller players -- and particularly, to the businesses that don’t have access to faster connectivity.

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

LOCAL NETWORKS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES

Such businesses are typically located in rural areas, where mobile operators are reluctant to invest. Ofcom’s
new rules, which it put forward a few months ago, offers local licenses to create private 5G networks on a
first-come, first-serve basis. Organizations, under the new rules, could set up their own local 5G networks with
greater control over security and reliability.

This could foster growth in industries ranging from farming to manufacturing, and would “ensure that lack of
access to the radio spectrum does not prevent innovation,” said Ofcom.

The concept of a hybrid network, bringing together

public networks owned by mobile operators and private
networks created by individuals and start-ups, is already “The cost of deploying 5G is
being trialled in Germany. In November, the German significant -- but that’s because
government announced that it was opening spectrum not enough attention is given.”--
on the 3.7-3.8Ghz frequencies to private corporate Rahim Tafazolli, director of
licenses, for 5G applications.
the 5G innovation centre,
Mercedes-Benz, for example, is teaming up with University of Surrey
telecommunications company Ericsson to create a
local 5G network in one of the carmaker’s plants in
Sindelfingen in Southern Germany. The plant’s production systems and machines are connected and operated
via a private 5G network, which the company believes is more secure and reliable.

Rahim Tafazolli, the director of the 5G innovation centre at the University of Surrey, agreed that hybrid
networks will be key to the successful deployment of 5G. “To benefit from 5G, we need to make it an open
platform for businesses,” he said. “A hybrid network will mobilize the entire ecosystem, and enable the devel-
opment of applications and use cases for 5G.”

Tafazolli explained that 5G’s success will depend on three factors: speed, reliability and mass connectivity. And,
despite Ofcom’s spectrum rules, he believes that the sticking point is still likely to be the last one -- ensuring the
nationwide deployment of fast connectivity.

“Ofcom and DCMS want 95 percent coverage, but let’s be realistic: we had the same targets with 3G, and with
4G, and we didn’t meet them,” he said. “Providing nationwide 5G coverage will be difficult, not because of the
technology, but because of the money.”

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 5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

THE SATELLITE ALTERNATIVE

The cost of deploying 5G is significant -- but that’s because not enough attention is given, according to
Tafazolli, to alternative ways of deploying faster connectivity. Terrestrial 5G requires expensive infrastructure,
but satellite technology, for example, could be a cheaper option.

Satellite is a technology that IT company Cisco, for one, is banking on: the company is already using nano-sat-
ellites to help farmers in Australia gain access to connectivity and make the most of the IoT to increase
agricultural productivity.

Cisco Australia’s CTO Kevin Bloch previously told ZDNet that satellites would be needed in the future to
provide wider coverage, and that low-earth orbiting satellites will be the most economical way to reach places
like farms, oil rigs or even the Antarctic.

Bloch said that the combination of terrestrial 5G and satellite technology will provide the optimal economics
for full coverage.

For the same reasons, Tafazolli believes that satellite technology will be an inevitable part of the financial
equation if we are to make fast connectivity a nationwide asset. The money promised by the government to
boost rural coverage will certainly help; “but use it wisely,” he concluded.

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