COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
COVER FEATURE
INGENIEUR
Connecting a World of Things
By Li Changwei and Wu Ling
Come 2025 there will be 100 billion IoT connections . How can telecommunication companies get into the driving seats ?
Connectivity sits at the heart of interaction , innovation , value , and experience , with more connections coalescing into a sustainable ecosystem . With IoT gathering momentum , telecommunication companies ( telcos ) need to target their strengths , business models , and strategies towards forming an ecosystem that benefits the whole industry .
From Voice to Data to IoT
With the inception of 3G in 2000 and then 4G a decade later , communication has shifted from voice-dominant to data-dominant , with traffic generated by Internet Protocol ( IP ) applications and Internetized Over-The-Top ( OTT ) services .
In 2017 , machine-to-machine ( M2M ) connections exceeded the number of human connections , reshaping communication networks , operations , and services . At Mobile World Congress ( MWC ) 2017 , SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son predicted that the number of connected things will exceed 50 billion in the next five years and 100 billion in the next 10 years . According to Son , IoT will generate untold opportunities for terminals in the area of data generation , the cloud in terms of data analysis , and artificial intelligence across the board .
2017 was a breakthrough year for IoT following the official global launch of Narrow Band or NB- IoT standards in June 2016 and the availability of US $ 1 dollar IoT chips in the US . 4G Long-
Term Evolution ( LTE ) networks are becoming widespread , with penetration exceeding 20 %. We ’ re reaching a point where the conditions are right for wide-scale hyper-connectivity and an explosion in apps .
Horizontal & Vertical
The diversity of IoT application scenarios in different industries ( horizontal ) and specialized requirements ( vertical ) are reshaping services , networks , operations , and business models . Because IoT service scenarios are flexible , change in real-time , and offer infinite expandability , networks and platforms need to support breadth , depth , speed , low latency , cost efficiency , and security .
Resulting trends include 5G , which is necessary for driverless vehicles to avoid collisions due to millisecond latency and 10-Gbps transmission speeds . Software Defined Networking ( SDN ) and Network Functional Virtualization ( NFV ) will enable prioritized on-demand services . And the topdown construction of content delivery networks will transform cloud computing architecture into fog computing , integrating pipes and clouds to guarantee transmission and latency requirements when capacity continually expands .
The diversity of access terminals and near-field access technologies are creating new challenges
20 VOL 73 JANUARY-MARCH 2018