5G IoT empowers a new life in the future

So far, the focus on 5G has been mainly on the consumer market, but as people become more aware of 5G's high speed, low latency and connection density, a huge market in the B2B sector is also beginning to develop. To illustrate the wide range of applications of various verticals and 5G in the Internet of Things, Quectel has studied 6 real-life examples that show how 5G and IoT are changing business models around the world.

IoT Analytics estimates that the number of 5G-connected devices (both IoT and non-IoT) worldwide will reach 1.2 billion by 2025, up from about 11 million in 2020. Meanwhile, GSA's August 2020 Market Snapshot reports that there are now 92 commercial 5G networks operating in 38 countries, indicating that there is a large market base with 5G coverage for industry to exploit. Moreover, more operators are set to launch 5G soon, with 392 operators in 126 countries announcing their investments in 5G by the end of July 2020.

So, 5G is penetrating many markets, but in terms of IoT, is it a network in search of an application? In many cases, yes. Existing IoT applications do not require the capabilities of 5G, or simply do not have the business case to justify the cost of 5G. For many IoT applications, the bandwidth provided by Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN), 3G and 4G/LTE is sufficient for their data transmission needs. However, as 2G cellular networks are retired and the trend of replacing 2G with NB-IoT becomes more widespread around the world, the opportunities for 5G IoT are beginning to emerge, and the current NB-IoT and CAT M1 LTE networks will integrate seamlessly into the 5G core network.

5G’s core benefits are high speed, low latency, and connection density, essentially delivering a paradigm shift in performance compared to alternatives. Even the highest performance versions, such as LTE-Advanced and LTE-Advanced Pro, don’t come close to the performance levels of 5G, which truly delivers a step change in data rates and low latency. This makes 5G the first cellular technology suitable for mission-critical applications and highly latency-sensitive media applications.

6 5G IoT use cases

To illustrate the various verticals and broad applications that 5G can enable in IoT, Quectel has examined six use cases for how the technology can be leveraged, selecting situations where the application strictly requires 5G or is a strong enabler of application performance. Figure 1 highlights the emerging and already operational business cases for 5G in IoT.

Use cases include: automotive, medical, manufacturing, agriculture, media and smart cities, This article provides an example use case, from remote surgery to ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) for factory automation and personnel safety, detailing how some or all of 5G's attributes can drive new business cases. 5G does support some very important use cases, but there are also use cases that generate real revenue for organizations deploying 5G.

For example, a farm in the Netherlands is using 5G robots to optimize the removal of excess plants in farmland. The robots have an accuracy of 95%, exceeding humans and increasing yields at a lower cost.

As the first company to create 5G modules, Quectel is in a leading position, and its modules include the most advanced features and capabilities on the market. For example, the 5G module's powerful edge computing and storage algorithms utilize up to 1.5GHz Cortex-A7 as the main boot processor and a powerful digital signal processor (DSP) up to 1.5GHz, as well as low-power double data rate 4X (LPDDR4X) memory supporting 1.8GHz. These features ensure that customers' devices have the processing power required to create and play high-quality video content.

Extensive experience enables Quectel to integrate up to 18 interfaces into 5G modules, making them suitable for a wider range of application scenarios. These include support for extended application processors, sensors, memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GNSS and Ethernet, as well as interfaces such as USB 3.1, PCIe, RGMII, PCM/12S, 12C, SPI, GPIO, SDIO, SIM, PWM, etc. This provides media device manufacturers with the widest range of choices to support the requirements and preferences of global broadcast customers.

Wireless communication module industry has strong demand

Currently, in the M2M scenario, cellular communication modules (2G/3G/4G) are more widely used, and LPWAN modules (NB/IoT, LoRa) will be rapidly used in the future. According to the forecast of GAMA (Global Association of Mobile Operators), the number of global cellular communication M2M connections was about 300 million in 2015, and is expected to reach 1 billion by 2020. Including LPWAN, the overall number of connections is expected to reach tens of billions. At present, the rapid development of large-scale markets (annual demand of more than 10 million sets) such as smart meters, mobile payments, smart cars, and smart grids leads the industry demand.

What is a wireless communication module?

The wireless communication module enables all kinds of terminal devices to have the ability to transmit information online, and is the information portal for all kinds of smart terminals to access the Internet of Things. It is the key link connecting the perception layer and the network layer of the Internet of Things. All device data generated by the terminals in the perception layer of the Internet of Things needs to be gathered to the network layer through the wireless communication module, and then the equipment is remotely controlled through the cloud management platform. At the same time, the management efficiency of various application scenarios is effectively improved through data analysis. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the wireless communication module and the Internet of Things terminal. It belongs to the underlying hardware link and is irreplaceable.

In the M2M (machine-to-machine communication) application scenario, wireless communication modules currently mainly refer to cellular network modules (2G/3G/4G modules). With the development of NB-IoT technology, LPWAN modules (Lora/NB-IoT modules) will become alternative upgraders of cellular communication modules and be promoted on a large scale in the future. In addition, positioning modules (GPS, GNSS modules) are often used together with cellular communication modules, so they can be regarded as wireless communication modules in a broad sense.

China is currently the world's largest M2M market, with 100 million connections in 2015, and this number is expected to reach 350 million by 2020. LPWA technology will provide an additional 730 million connections, and the total number of connections is expected to exceed 1 billion, accounting for one-tenth of the world's total connections.