5G: What It Means for Iot

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5G: WHAT IT MEANS FOR IOT

February 2020

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

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 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 GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO 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 asa 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.

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 internet-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 ‘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- IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO IMAGE: 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.

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 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 IMAGE: GARTNER IMAGE: 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.

“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 generating 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 forecast to reach $745 billion in 2019, an increase of 15.4% over the $646 billion IMAGE: IDC IMAGE: 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

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 probably where they are likely to come into contact with internet-enabled things, and it’s one area where the big tech companies (in particular

Amazon, Google, and Apple) are STEVE RANGER/ZDNET competing hard.

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

well as showing off your enthusiasm for shiny new gadgets, there’s a more serious side to smart home applications. 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 understanding 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 vulnerabilities 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

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.

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 industrial 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.

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 improvements 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 intelligence into the system.

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 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 GARTNER IMAGE: 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

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,

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.

HOW 5G CAN UNLOCK IOT’S POTENTIAL

BOB VIOLINO /ZDNET CONTRIBUTOR The emergence of 5G, the fifth 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. IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO IMAGE: 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.

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 transaction 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.

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 generation 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.

SURVEY: 5G WON’T IMPACT MANY IOT PROJECTS ANYTIME SOON

MELANIE WOLKOFF WACHSMAN/TECHREPUBLIC 5G is here, and it’s ready to transform the enterprise. The next generation of mobile technology is poised to have a major impact on Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives. Or is it? IMAGE: ISTOCKPHOTO IMAGE: 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 organizations. 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.

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).

5 INDUSTRIES THAT WILL BE AFFECTED BY THE COMBINATION OF 5G AND IOT

BY: MACY BAYERN/TECHREPUBLIC 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) make 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. IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO IMAGE: 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.

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.

“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.”

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, particularly 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.

CONNECTED CARS: HOW 5G AND IOT WILL AFFECT THE AUTO INDUSTRY

BY: CHARLES MCLELLAN/ZDNET Autonomous cars (and other vehicles, such as 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 GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO IMAGE: 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.

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 MOBILE SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION) GSA (GLOBAL IMAGE: networks and 348 operators in 119 countries were investing in 5G.

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 IMAGE:

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

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

“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.

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-infrastructure) 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, 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 -- 2019 REPORT OFCOM, CONNECTED NATIONS IMAGE: 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.

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 transportation 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,

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 IMAGE:

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.

The Hypersport includes electronically controlled 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 IMAGE: CES / DAMON MOTORCYCLES CES / DAMON IMAGE: 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?”

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) 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 IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO CREDIT:GETTY 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.

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.

AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES NEED WELL-MARKED STREETS MORE THAN 5G

BY: VERONICA COMBS/TECHREPUBLIC Augustin K. Wegscheider, a partner at 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 IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO CREDIT:GETTY 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

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.

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

BY: TEENA MADDOX/TECHREPUBLIC The widespread rollout of 5G throughout 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. IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO CREDIT:GETTY

“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.

“5G will absolutely influence the auto industry in a positive way. It will accelerate acceptance of IoT technologies 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

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 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 information technology [to fight fires] is to

first prioritise the surveyance in high-risk AIMEE CHANTHADAVONG/ZDNET SCREENSHOT: 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.

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.”

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.”

WILL 5G PLAY A ROLE IN IOT SECURITY?

BY: BOB VIOLINO/ZDNET CONTRIBUTOR The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to 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 IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO CREDIT:GETTY 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.

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 enterprises 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-latency 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.

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 incorporate 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.”

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.

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 technologies 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.

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, will need to be supported by and defines the shift in industrial settings from legacy 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

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.

“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 that75 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 specifications 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.

“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.”

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 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 ABADONIAN/ISTOCK IMAGE: 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 The traditional methods to (IoT) roll outs, progress is likely to be slow: networking 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.

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 development 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.”

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-satellites 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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