5G Enabling Future IoT Innovation: Industry Trends and Insights

Introduction

The advent of 5G technology is set to revolutionize the Internet of Things (IoT). 5G technology to the IoT industry is just like electricity to 4th industrial revolution. Under such an analogy, is it easier to understand the intertwined relationship between 5G and IoT?

With the rapid adoption and quick development of 5G technology, the IoT industry is also undertaking a transformation in reverse. 5G networks are supposed to facilitate the massive rollout of intelligent IoT nodes in vast scenarios. This blog will provide insights and guide you into the transformative potentials of 5G enabled next-generation IoT solutions and innovations.

What is 5G and IoT?

In the context of telecommunications, 5G stands for the fifth-generation technology standard for cellular networks. It was first deployed in 2019 and provides connectivity to most electronic devices due to its high bandwidth, low latency, and faster speed key advantages. (5G, 2024)

The Internet of Things, often abbreviated as IoT, refers to a network of electronic devices enabled with new functions to communicate and exchange information with one another. Each object will have the capabilities of identifying, sensing, networking, and processing for data transmission purposes (Lynn et al., 2020). While recognizing the magic part of the Internet of Everything, people also realize that such high-frequency data transmission among devices may consume higher volumes of energy and generate incremental telecommunication costs, as major restraints and challenges concerning the IoT industry. In the following sections, we will introduce how 5G serves as a disruptive technology, converting such IoT industry challenges into opportunities.

How 5G Drives IoT Innovation?

Increased Speed and Capacity

5G cellular networks offer great potentials and capacities for the development of IoT technology, particularly because of its instrumental role in supporting the greater communication needs of IoT devices. (The Impact of the Internet of Things Supported by Emerging 5G in Power Systems: A Review, 2020) For instance, 5G is significantly faster than 4G networks More specifically, 5G supports a 100x increase in traffic capacity and network efficiency, in contrast to 4G (5G, 2024). Such dramatically increased data transmission speed and traffic capacity make it possible for more IoT devices to coordinate seamlessly within one network. Benefiting from more powerful data transmission technologies like 5G, IoT device developers and hardware manufacturers have more freedom to design and produce IoT products with more complex functions. In addition to being more advanced, more complex functions also mean that IoT products can be diversified and tailored-made to more segmented scenarios. Moreover, products across different application scenarios can even be interconnected.

Enhanced Connectivity and Low Latency

Besides increased network speed and capacity for more IoT devices to be placed, 5G technology also transforms the IoT industry landscape in many other ways. For example, one of the critical advantages is 5G’s low latency and high connectivity. Latency is the amount of time it takes for one device to respond to another. When this number is as small as possible, connectivity increases and more devices could operate simultaneously. In real-life cases, this feature is particularly important for IoT applications that depend on real-time data processing, such as remote surgery, autonomous driving, and augmented reality.

Many IoT followers and enthusiasts are also tech-savvy. They value speed and user experience as two highly-correlated things. 5G technology enables IoT devices to receive instructions, respond, and perform more smoothly for a more responsive and premium user experience. If IoT devices are used to delight users with a better experience, 5G technology is an irreplaceable enabler.

Industry Trends & Insights into Future

5G technology is no doubt a driver. It will unleash a massive 5G IoT ecosystem and critical communication services. The estimated compound annual growth rate of the 5G IoT industry is around 35.1%. And the actual market size is forecast to increase from USD 13.2 Billion in 2023 to USD 59.7 Billion until 2028 (5G IoT Market Size & Share, Trends, Forecast Report 2028, n.d.).

To proceed, let’s dig better into how 5G technology sparks the 5G IoT industry and innovation in various sectors.

5G IoT Industry Quick Overview

How 5G Drives IoT Innovation in Healthcare

The healthcare service sector is one of many industries that will surely benefit from the latest 5G technologies. With 5G technology, more IoT devices and innovations will be more catered to target applied scenarios, such as remote patient monitoring, telemedicine, and advanced medical diagnostics. These areas used to be highly oriented and reliant on connectivity and data transmission.

IoT Innovation in Smart City

Healthcare services are only one but important sector of smart city development. 5G technology also plays a crucial role in facilitating smart city development. With its ability to support a high density of connected devices and provide real-time data processing, 5G can facilitate the deployment of smart infrastructure, including intelligent traffic management systems, smart lighting, waste management, and enhanced public safety systems on a large scale.

In real life cases, over 90% of China's provinces and municipalities have listed IoT as a pillar industry in their development plans and the central government also selected 202 cities to pivot smart city projects (“HOW CHINA IS SCALING THE INTERNET OF THINGS,” 2015). Devices such as smart wearable, smart beacon, smart gateway, smart sensor, and smart tag could be integrated within the network to fulfill and realize the smart city blueprint.

Smart Manufacturing & Industry Automation

Industry automation is one of the top 3 key IoT use cases in Mainland China, with an adoption rate of 62%, higher than the world-average (IoT in China: Market Size, Industries, Vendors, Use Cases, 2023). In the domain of smart manufacturing and warehouse management, Foxconn provides a good example of using private wireless networks and IoT devices to real-time keep track of factory assets such as machines and inventories. The ever connected IoT devices with 5G technology can help business/factory owners to achieve real-time monitoring of the production site and timely alerts of emergency response. In this way, the labor intensive way is replaced and personnel resources could be re-allocated to tasks requiring extra creativity.

Conclusion

5G technology unlocks unprecedented levels of connectivity, speed, and efficiency. The integration of 5G technology with the existing IoT ecosystem is thus poised to revolutionize numerous industries, including smart city, transportation, healthcare, and so on. As the market for 5G IoT continues to grow rapidly, the 5G IoT also exerts substantial economic and social benefits.

Ready to transform your business and industry solutions with 5G IoT hardware? Contact us today to learn more and start your journey towards a smarter, more connected future.

Works Cited

Future Trends and Challenges in Next Generation Smart Application of 5G-IoT. (2021, April 8). IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9418471

HOW CHINA IS SCALING THE INTERNET OF THINGS. (2015). In GSMA Connected Living Programme. Retrieved June 19, 2024, from https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/wp-content/uploads/16531-China-IoT-Report-LR.pdf

IoT in China: Market size, industries, vendors, use cases. (2023, March 15). IoT Analytics. https://iot-analytics.com/iot-in-china/

Lynn, T., Endo, P. T., Ribeiro, A. M. N. C., Barbosa, G. B. N., & Rosati, P. (2020). The Internet of Things: Definitions, Key Concepts, and Reference Architectures. In Palgrave studies in digital business & enabling technologies (pp. 1–22). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41110-7_1

The impact of Internet of Things supported by emerging 5G in power systems: A review. (2020, June 1). CSEE Journals & Magazine | IEEE Xplore. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8928272

5G. (2024, June 15). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G

5G IoT Market Size & Share, Trends, Forecast Report 2028. (n.d.). MarketsandMarkets. https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/5g-iot-market-164027845.html

5G IoT Market is Rapidly Growing at a CAGR 70.40% By 2032. (n.d.). https://www.precedenceresearch.com/press-release/5g-iot-market