LTE Enables Wireless IoT Tipping Point

We have all heard about the “Internet of Things” also known by the acronyms “IoT”, “M2M” (Machine to Machine), and “IIoT” (Industrial Internet of Things) where there will be 50 billion connected devices in 2020 (Ericsson, 2009); Ericsson revised this to 28 billion in 2021 earlier this year. Given that it is 2016 and Gartner predicts 6.4 billion connected “things” this year, we are still pretty far from the 50/28 billion forecast. This begs the question, “How do we separate hype from reality when it comes to IoT?” To help answer this question, I like to frame it in the context of the Engelbart paradigm.

The Engelbart Paradigm

Douglas Engelbart was an early technology pioneer/prophet who invented the ubiquitous computer mouse and developed networked computers, hypertext, and graphical user interfaces over 40 years ago - long before the advent of the internet and modern computers. While not truly appreciated at the time, his vision for the future of computers and our data-centric society was prescient to say the least. He believed that the state of our technology limits our ability to handle information, so he focused on computer-based technologies to directly manipulate information which, as we can now see, has enabled the development of the internet and pervasive computing of today.

Engelbart’s work formed the foundation of the information age. Now, 40 years later, the Engelbart paradigm can be applied again to the internet of billions of things and the associated torrent of data that is generated, managed, and analyzed. We can think of the IoT wireless device technologies and infrastructure with the associated costs and data bandwidth as the enablers for the IoT mass technology adoption similar to the networked computers of 40 years ago. What are the wireless IoT infrastructure enabling technologies? 

Wireless IoT Infrastructure Enabling Technologies

There are several enabling wireless technologies enabling connected devices including standardized short-range technologies like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Z-Wave which have been around for a while and are currently used in many IoT applications in the industrial, home, automotive, healthcare, and utility markets.

There are also proprietary long-range unlicensed-band IoT technologies focused specifically on low power and low cost like SigFox and LoRa. Nick Hunn wrote a good article comparing these emerging IoT-specific wireless technologies - www.nickhunn.com/lora-vs-lte-m-vs-sigfox/. In my opinion, these proprietary, unlicensed technologies are gaining traction in the market primarily due to the lack of low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) cellular-based options.

Obviously, the lower the TCO, the higher the adoption rate for IoT applications. A critical part, as Nick notes, is that the deployment cost needs to be low enough to allow the sensor (IoT) infrastructure to be built out. This will enable the tipping-point in the number of devices and associated data whereby the data analytics become valuable and financial benefits can be reaped.  How do we get to a ubiquitous IoT enabling infrastructure with a low TCO?

LTE is The Wireless IoT Enabler

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the converged, global, 4G standard for cellular that is replacing all 2G/3G (GSM/UMTS) networks including CDMA2000 in the U.S. Although LTE has been deployed for over 7 years providing high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals, it has never really been used for IoT applications due to the high TCO. With the recent availability of LTE Category 1 modules, a much lower cost LTE option with lower data rates more tailored to IoT applications is now available.  LTE Category 1 can support up to 10 Mbps which is overkill for most IoT applications, and the module cost is low enough to enable more widespread IoT device deployments using the same existing, proven global LTE networks. Moreover, in the next 2 years, we will see even lower cost LTE Narrow-Band IoT modules that are even more specific to the low bandwidth, wide-deployment IoT applications being developed.

There will continue to be IoT applications based on standardized, short-range technologies and unlicensed, proprietary wireless systems like SigFox and LoRa; however, long-term, widespread IoT deployments will require the stable, ubiquitous infrastructure of LTE with its inherent scalability, security, and quality of service.