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