The Doppler Quarterly Fall 2018 | Page 53

Across vertical industries, the convergence will also bring about new, long- term market opportunities that do not exist today. 1. IoT Device Layer: Smart devices are tiny computers. This allows enter- prises to move certain time-critical functionality to the "edge" i.e., the device layer at the edge of the wire- less network. That provides high business value in urgent, mission-critical scenarios where you need real-time insights for quick decision making, because you cannot wait for data to get sent to the cloud, ana- lyzed and sent back through the communication pipe. This is particularly useful in manufacturing. Boeing, for example, has implemented IoT edge computing devices in their factories that can stop automatic production processes immediately to prevent possi- ble worker injuries. In the smart car space, edge computing is also criti- cal. If an autonomous car is approaching a red light, it cannot afford any delay to send the sensor data to the cloud and wait for a control command back. When the car senses a red light, it needs to perform analyt- ics on the edge (i.e., in the car), instead of in the cloud, and stop right away. Intel has rolled out several pow- erful chips enabling commensurately powerful edge computing. The chips can be programmed to provide insights using machine learning models running on the device, performing both predictive analytics and anomaly detection. 2. LTE Network: Carriers are offering LTE variations with different power consumption and cost levels, such as high speed/high cost LTE Cat 4 (“cat” is short for category) and lower speed/low cost LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat M1 and LTE Cat NB1. • LTE Cat 4 is used for our smartphones. • LTE Cat 1 is a medium speed LTE standard, ideal for a vast number of more feature‑rich M2M and IoT applications, including those that require video streaming and voice support. It has speeds of 10 Mb/s downlink and 5 Mb/s uplink. • LTE Cat M1 is a low‑power wide‑area (LPWA) air interface that connects IoT devices with medium data rate requirements (375 kb/s upload and download speeds). It enables longer battery life cycles and greater in‑building range than cellular 2G or 3G LTE, or LTE Cat 1. • LTE Cat NB1, aka Narrowband IoT (NB‑IoT), is another LPWA technology that works virtually anywhere. It connects devices on already established LTE networks, and securely and reliably handles small amounts of infrequent two‑way data. Its data speed is very low at about 200kb/s. It has very low power consump- tion and excellent extended range in buildings and underground. It is widely used for smart city and energy meter reading use cases. Industrial enterprises can now pick and choose the best LTE flavors for their use cases. For instance, some companies only need a small amount of data transmitted infrequently (e.g., meters for reading water levels, gas consumption or electricity use). In this case, LTE Cat M1 or LTE Cat NB1 may be the best choices. The arrival of 5G LTE will be a game changing event as it will offer faster speed, lower latency and lower cost per bit than 4G. This will enable uses cases such as autonomous car communication, and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) that require high speed, low latency and low cost. 5G LTE will enable many compelling uses cases and create new market opportunities. FALL 2018 | THE DOPPLER | 51