5G networks to boost cellular operations, IoT security and network challenges and driving the internet further to the edge.
Editor’s Note: With 2017 virtually upon us, RCR Wireless News has gathered predictions from across the mobile telecommunications space on what they expect to see in the new year.
In the next year, the internet will connect to about 1.5 billion new “things,” and by 2020, more than 20 billion devices will be online. In theory, every one of them will be able to connect to every other. The internet was not created to handle this population explosion of data-generating devices. It won’t collapse suddenly, but it does need to change.
Cellular carriers will win the bandwidth battle
The carriers’ next-generation “5G” wireless networks are being built today. They can support more connected devices at a time, and more importantly 5G networks have lower latency, which is critical in automotive applications (so cars can communicate with each other and with road-side sensors and transmitters). When your device is moving at freeway speeds, high latency communications between two cars can be extremely problematical. The carriers will end up setting standards for (and profiting from) the growth of networked devices.
Security – expect worse
“Internet of things”-based attacks, like the botnet that brought down Twitter and Netflix this year, are going to get more ambitious and more damaging. Attacks on infrastructure (power grids, traffic systems) or on IoT consumer devices themselves (appliances for example) are already being attempted. Eventually, one will succeed. As such, we will see a stricter standard on who has access to what. While personal computers and smartphones get unrestricted access to the internet and the web, there’s no reason that a webcam or a temperature sensor should have the same rights.
The “edge” of the internet will become a huge growth market
Some IoT devices do have the potential to swamp existing networks. Cameras send a lot of real-time rich data. New jet engines are laden with sensors and generate 10 gigabits per second when running, terabits per flight. Cars also are now recording massive amounts of information. If there’s one part of the global IoT network that needs rapid upgrades to serve business, it’s the “edge,” the border between IoT devices and the computers on the internet. The massive amounts of data being generated by IoT needs to be processed, reduced and analyzed before it hits the internet. It’s a big opportunity.
Low-power wide area networks gain mainstream adoption in 2017
For years, cellular connectivity has been the primary transport for IoT due to its ubiquity, scalability and security. But as the number of services enabled by IoT devices continues to grow exponentially, many IoT applications have arisen that require long range and low-power capabilities. And this is where low-power wide area networks come in. For the past few years, a number of different standards, technologies, operators and infrastructure vendors have emerged.
Governments will step in to mandate higher IoT security
High profile distributed denial of service attacks such as those in late October helped to highlight the need for improved levels of security in IoT environments. 2017 will be the year where we see policy makers and governments step in to mandate IoT security guidelines across industries. In fact, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security just issued its “Strategic Principles for Securing the Internet of Things” document in November.
