30 April 2019
Ericsson factories across the world are developing and implementing the first 5G and Industrial IoT (IIoT) systems in a real manufacturing environment
Everyone is talking about the Internet of Things, but not everybody knows how it is about to change the way we all live and work, as Nora Wahby explains
The Internet of Things is one of the most talked-about topics in the tech industry today. You cannot attend a technology event without hearing this term over and over again. But the Internet of Things, or IoT for short, is not always easily explained.
IoT is set to have a profound impact on our future. Enabling anything to be connected and providing ’smartness’ to these connected things will bring value across a number of sectors. By 2024, there will be 4.1 billion cellular IoT connections.
Such connections are not specific to one region or industry – they’re emerging everywhere. IoT connects 5.7 million devices every day and promises additional revenue potential of up to 36 per cent, depending on your ecosystem role. For service creators providing end-to-end ecosystem offerings, the value adds up to USD619bn by 2026.
Companies all over the world are vying for position, eager to capture new IoT business potential as there are high expectations for commercial possibilities. Three Ericsson factories in Sweden, Estonia and China are fasttracking the introduction of a new generation of smart manufacturing by developing and implementing the first 5G and Industrial IoT systems in a real manufacturing environment.
On the other hand, IoT is being widely embraced by the MENA region with the number of connected devices growing rapidly – and it is helping to turn the communications sector in the Middle East and Africa into one of the most dynamic and vibrant in the world.
The success of IoT does not only depend on 5G. While 5G is undeniably the underlying connectivity platform for IoT, our research found that 85 per cent of the applications needed in what we call optimizer countries and cities can be achieved over 4G connectivity. That also applies to industries like mining. Then there’s weather forecasting and water management services, smart metering – the list goes on.
Nora Wahby, head of west Africa , Ericsson
Evolution to 4G can lower your cost per Gigabyte, deploy multi-Gigabit 5G ready radios and basebands, boost capacity with Massive MIMO, and address new opportunities in Fixed Wireless Access and Critical Broadband Networks.
Optimizer countries such as Morocco, Egypt, parts of South Africa and Nigeria, are adopting future-proof, scalable 4G network architecture with innovations that are built for tomorrow’s demands.
Now that we know the connectivity is no barrier to IoT, what can it be used for?
Communication and connectivity are key enablers for GDP across Africa and IoT is an enabler for the majority of the industries. Let us look at three sectors critical to everyday life.
Security
By 2024, we’re going to have more than 22 billion connected devices in the world. It’s a vast opportunity but it also brings vast risk. How do you keep billions of devices secure? How about the networks they run on? How do you make sure the data from all those devices isn’t compromised?
IoT security cannot be an afterthought or an add-on. Security must be built in from the beginning. There is an imperative need for enhanced security enablement and IoT can drive that security business and improve the security conditions in bigger cities like Lagos, Johannesburg and others.
When it comes to IoT, security requirements are unique. Connecting devices is different from connecting individual people and personal computers. To verify its identity, an IoT device can’t simply enter a password as a person would.
Similarly, the systems that run our PCs are regularly updated, but IoT has to work all time. A reliable infrastructure is a must, and this is especially true for mission-critical applications.
3GPP technologies provide this reliability. The IoT expands rapidly, and security must be end-to-end.
Agriculture
When you think IoT, agriculture and cultivation may not be the first industries that come to mind. But agricultural businesses can benefit greatly from IoT solutions. As in any industry, repeatable processes become trackable and more efficient with help from sensor-equipped machinery connected to the cloud.
For instance, IoT-based solutions can be used to keep constant watch over fields and greenhouses, using sensors to monitor conditions such as temperature, humidity and soil saturation. AI is applied to correlate that environmental data with the predefined ideal growing conditions for any particular crop. Based on this formula, appropriate adjustments could be made to machinery such as fertilization, irrigation and greenhouse ventilation systems.
We are in talks with many farms and government entities across Africa to provide IoT technology which helps farmers maintain an ideal growing environment for any crop.
Every industry will benefit from IoT
Road traffic management
Big cities like Lagos and Addis Ababa are obvious use cases for IoT solutions that apply real-time data from traffic sensors and cameras to automate and dynamically control traffic lights, warning signals and message signs, resulting in improved traffic flow and operational decision-making.
What are the key steps toward 5G innovation in Africa?
IoT provides an opportunity for mobile operators to bring new products and services to underserved markets, opening new possibilities for growth within the region. Africa remains the region with the highest growth rate in mobile subscriptions globally and ICT and broadband are becoming central to its development. As digital infrastructures and interactions become increasingly central to the functioning of our societies and economies, affordable broadband access will need to be extended to billions of individuals who remain economically excluded.
Broadband is further enabling new technologies environment like cloud, big data, artificial intelligence and IoT. We can already see IoT is making in-roads, but there has to be a readiness within the industries to deploy additional services that improve the quality and service delivered to the customer and at the same time help monetize the platform from a service provider perspective.
There is high demand for data connectivity in the big cities and capitals like Abuja and Dakar. The roll out of applications that can run on 4G do fulfil the requirements of the use cases in those markets.
So, despite 5G being the underlying connectivity platform for IoT, we believe 85 per cent of the applications needed in optimizer countries and cities can be achieved over 4G connectivity.
IoT will connect machines of all different shapes and sizes
In order to unlock IoT’s potential in Africa, regulatory authorities, mobile operators and stakeholders will need to work together. Africa is still looking at spectrum availability and prices of licenses – regulation needs to be in place to promote and drive this. The government should not look at this at a one-time sale opportunity of the spectrum. Instead, it should look at it as a growth engine for the economy.
Failure to understand and fully develop the links across the various stakeholders in the ecosystem could stunt the growth of IoT in the region. It’s also key to remember IoT has two prongs.
One is for creating new opportunities and the other is efficiency. With industrialization, if you automate you might optimize and become less head count intensive – like in factories, for example. At the same time, the amount of data you collect will definitely make firms like ours better understand the needs of industry and help us create more opportunities and offer better services to them.
Naturally, there will be questions surrounding security, but I don’t see any risks. We see countries that suffer from security issues, but connectivity and monitoring can help us create and understand the need and opportunities for improved security services.
To enable all this is the technology, the willingness of the operators and service providers is crucial. Service providers count on innovation to deliver growth, so the impact of IoT cannot be ignored.
