How 5G technology can contribute to the Internet of things use cases?

5G is becoming a reality for advanced markets and is expected to be deployed commercially by most Tier One Mobile operators as early as 2022. Already Verizon, AT&T, Swisscom Telstra have announced that their 5G network will be fully commercially available, with 5G smartphones for sales with full national coverage by the end of the year.

The primary driver for 5G development can be summarized into 3 main areas: improving Telco's data production costs, creating new revenue streams in vertical segments and providing a superior customer experience for Mobile data services. For Telcos to remain competitive and cope with the enormous traffic explosion driven by mobile internet, upgrading their networks to 5G will be crucial. Ericsson expects that 5G could reduce Telco's data production costs 10 times.

The telco industry has more recently expanded its focus from just consumer retail business to connecting machines. The first steps of that evolution were the deployment of low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), such as narrowband (NB)-IoT and Long-Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M), which enable devices to transmit at low traffic levels, enough to power use cases such as wireless point of sales, meter reading and asset location tracking. 

5G will expand the capabilities for machine communications, enabling much greater density of such connections, much higher bandwidth, and ultra-low latency.

Key 5G capabilities and their relationship with IoT

5G is expected to bring four main improvements to existing mobile networks. These new capabilities will allow Telco, enterprise and developer ecosystem to expand/enhance their use cases on IoT.

1. Enhanced Mobile Broadband 

One key 5G improvement is enhanced mobile broadband or eMBB. 5G incorporates new technologies and allocates a much larger amount of newly assigned spectrum (e.g. 100Mhz to 1Ghz) to enable up to 10 times more capacity per site. These improvements will benefit consumer user data experience and enable newer use cases as virtual reality or ultra-high definition video streaming. In relation to IoT context, it will support use cases that require a lot of bandwidth, such as surveillance cameras, data collection from test vehicles, and other use cases that involve the transfer of large volumes of sensor data.

2. Massive Machine-Type Communications 

Another critical capability of 5G is the ability to handle a massive number of devices connecting to the network. According to Ericsson by 2023, there will be more than 23 Billion connected devices, many of these will be connected to a 5G network. This large number of devices connected will create a new paradigm on how to build networks since until now mobile networks have been designed for people using mobile services. 

Because IoT devices will outnumber mobile phones network design principles will move beyond population coverage and device throughput. Device density will start playing a big role in future networks, generating only a small amount of data traffic but becoming more and more abundant. 

ITU-2020 target for device density is the enablement of 1 million devices per square kilometer, an exponential order of magnitude compared to existing networks. These low-traffic devices are expected to proliferate in very high numbers and to operate at very low power levels to ensure long battery life, and so 5G's mMTC specifications are designed to support those requirements.

3. Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications 

Another key feature of 5G is called ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC). The objective is to provide very high-quality and reliable connectivity for critical communications. While mobile networks have dramatically improved the quality of service over the years, latency has remained problematic. The standard latency on existing mobile networks can make online gaming impossible, while industrial control systems could fail, cause costly damage, and even result in injuries or disasters if they were dependent on unreliable mobile networks.

5G is intended to upgrade mobile networks to deliver the reliability and low latency expected of wired infrastructure, as required for the most critical use cases. The 5G standard is expected to provide near real-time latency between 1ms-5ms. This will enable remote machinery control, mission-critical communications and remote surgery among other use cases. This 5G capability will become available beyond 2021 as it also requires telcos to upgrade mobile core networks. 

4. Network Slicing

One big challenge for Telcos is how to combine different capabilities, quality of service and service level agreement for various type of use cases. The requirements in different IoT scenarios can vary dramatically from enabling healthcare devices to provide higher bandwidth for virtual reality gadgets. Many use cases will require different degrees of bandwidth, quality of service and latency. 5G will be able to support any combination of the three features with the use of network slicing, which will allow operators to define a virtual network with the desired parameters and allocate it to a given use case or customer.

 One network slice could include very high bandwidth and very low latency, such as a high-definition virtual-reality game, while another could provide high bandwidth without the guaranteed quality and low latency, maybe for a traffic surveillance camera. Still another slice could allocate an ultra-low latency, but with only very low traffic volumes, perhaps for mission-critical safety sensors transmitting urgent data on oil and gas platform. Network slicing requires significant upgrades to core networks and management systems. Most analysts expect to only be available by 2022. 

Mapping 5G capabilities with Industry verticals

Not all IoT use cases will require 5G networks and it will depend mainly on the quality of service needed. Remote control of a manufacturing robot will require very high reliability and very low latency (URLLC). Without it, the use case will be too dangerous and inaccurate. Nevertheless, some other use cases will work without 5G, despite they could be benefited by ultra-low latency and higher throughput. Some examples of enhanced use cases are real-time video and image recognition and real-time voice analysis.

IDC has created a simple analysis of use cases and the impact on 5G

The case of 5G for Manufacturing Industry 4.0

The manufacturing sector is a good example of how 5G can help with the broader transformation. In this segment, companies are gradually implementing industrial automation. Industrial automation typically requires wired connectivity to ensure quality, reliability and security functioning, but installing cabling is difficult, costly, and inflexible. In the future, factories would explore ways to simplify their reconfiguration so that they can rapidly shift production between products.

Ultra-reliable wireless connectivity would greatly increase flexibility for faster reconfiguration, and it would enable more usage of autonomous mobile machinery, like fork trucks, remote machinery, and wearable sensors. Factories will also deploy a variety of other use cases at the same time. These include driverless vehicles for supply chain, multimedia security systems (video surveillance, entry control, door/building automation, and asset tracker), workplace safety systems, environmental monitoring, HVAC controls, smart building monitoring, and many others. Several of these use cases will rely on different 5G capabilities. Some of them will rely on high bandwidth, such as video surveillance and advanced entry-control systems utilizing video and facial recognition, while others depend on the high density of low-bandwidth connections, such as door-opening sensors, environmental sensors, smart building systems, and basic entry control systems. Some of these systems are also critical and require high reliability and low latency, such as some workplace safety systems and the industrial automation mentioned before.

5G gives manufacturing industry the capabilities to flexibly deploy a variety of use cases that can dramatically transform operations by leveraging the network features that each use case requires.

How Telcos can leverage on 5G and IoT

5G represents a large opportunity for Telcos in IoT. Nevertheless, opportunities are diverse and scattered in many areas. Telcos need to work with partners across the ecosystem to develop skills and technology to support the various IoT use cases of the future. This process will take time and effort as the learning curve will include process, technology, and people reskilling.

To address the industrial segment related to IoT use cases, Telco's network will require to flexibly handle the diverse requirements of those use cases. Telcos should be working now to modernize their networks (virtualization, automation, orchestration) so that they will be able to implement the key 5G features, including network slicing.

5G network design will vary based on local needs. Telcos must master new tools available and build their networks incrementally to support IoT use cases as they become relevant and as they grow. Telcos should develop plans and strategies for 5G deployments in different frequencies, coverage areas, and use-case adoption scenarios.

Other areas for developing their understanding of IoT is related to Private enterprise networks. Telcos should start working on private networks with enterprises using LTE and 5G. The vision for managed private 5G enterprise networks involves managing business and mission-critical communications. Telcos need to develop their business models, capabilities, and reputations over time by working with key vertical segments and deploying in stages, while also proving their reliability and skills. Starting earlier will help Telcos to be better positioned to play a key role in industrial automation in the future.

It is also critical for Telcos to play a significant role in working now within industry associations, standardization bodies, academia, and other frameworks in industries like manufacturing or automotive.