Here Comes the Boom: How 5G Will Impact IoT Applications and Devices

Here comes the boom – the IoT boom, that is. The 5G era is here, and whether or not you feed into the hype, there’s no doubt that 5G capabilities will continue to bring unimaginable user experiences. With faster speeds and lower latency expected to transform everything from smartphones, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, manufacturing, construction, natural resources, and more, the impact of 5G is guaranteed to be far and wide. But you know what else is guaranteed to be far and wide? You guessed it – the impact of 5G on IoT.

Naturally, designed to be more robust than its predecessors, this next-generation cellular technology will allow massive amounts of IoT devices to connect. Industries leveraging IoT devices for sensors and industrial and manufacturing applications will come to find out that the potential benefits and impacts of 5G may revolutionize their operations on a large scale.

So what distinguishes 5G from traditional Wi-Fi? What 5G does for IoT is give us a readily-available, standards-based, and common connectivity type that’s reliable, fast, and secure. Whereas Wi-Fi is challenged by its range, the improved speed, capacity, and lower latency of 5G can transmit data at a fast, reliable rate, and at longer distances (although not as far as current 4G technology).

At the end of the day, 5G is more than just speed. Like any functioning process or machine, all parts must work together to achieve a common goal. While speed is important, it’s the blend of speed, connectivity, latency, and range that ultimately support IoT devices and applications. Think about it this way: a delay related to transport sensors or infrastructure could mean the difference between smooth sailing and a 10-car pileup.

In our increasingly remote world, 5G will help us control IoT devices and applications where real-time network performance is critical. But remember, 5G is not the holy grail of IoT, and it’s not the best technology for every application. Here are a few areas where we’ll see 5G will impact IoT:

• Long distance communication: Unlike Wi-Fi, 5G is built to communicate over long distances. Long range IoT sensors and industrial and manufacturing applications will benefit from zero lag capabilities associated with 5G, enabling faster data processing and analyzation.
• Short distance communication: When dealing with short range critical communications, networks require high density endpoints and better availability, both made possible by 5G. This allows automated and wireless-driven applications to retain the quality and connectivity needed for reliable operations.
• Network slicing: In the era of IoT, enterprises must be able to handle large increases in traffic. 5G network slicing will enable enterprises to create virtualized dedicated networks that provide different amounts of resources to different types of traffic. This will support organizations leveraging IoT solutions in manufacturing, utilities, and automotive.

If you’re interested in learning how 5G applications can support your IoT-enabled enterprise, contact us today to discuss your current or future projects. We offer everything from compliance consulting to pen tests and securing IoT with thoughtful integrations of your existing solutions, or new integrations for zero trust, NAC, and more.