Huawei’s 5.5G solutions promise to revolutionise IoT by enabling battery-free devices and massive connectivity, paving the way for smarter industries.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has long been heralded as a revolutionary technology, promising to provide unprecedented insights into our world and enable truly smart applications across various sectors.
From smart cities to intelligent homes, the potential benefits of IoT are indisputable. However, the path to widespread IoT adoption has been fraught with challenges that have hindered its progress.
Despite the allure of IoT’s capabilities, practical hurdles have emerged that give many businesses pause. The impracticality of implementing and maintaining IoT systems has led some organisations to question whether the benefits truly outweigh the costs and complexities involved. This hesitation has slowed the adoption of IoT technologies across industries.
Enter Huawei’s 5.5G solutions, which the company believes can be the catalyst for making industries across sectors smarter.
The IoT landscape
IoT systems typically consist of a network of interconnected devices that collect and transmit data.
These devices, equipped with sensors and communication capabilities, can range from simple temperature monitors to complex industrial equipment. The data gathered is then processed and analysed to provide actionable insights or automate processes.
One of the primary challenges in IoT deployment is the practicality of large-scale implementation. For instance, consider a supermarket wanting to employ IoT to gain insights into produce freshness.
This would require hundreds of devices deployed on produce boxes, each needing to reliably and regularly transmit updates. The cost implications of such a setup are significant, both in terms of initial investment and ongoing maintenance.
The root of this challenge lies in the power requirements of IoT devices. Traditional IoT sensors rely on batteries, which not only increase the cost per device but also necessitate frequent replacements.
This creates a logistical nightmare, especially in scenarios where devices are deployed in remote or hard-to-reach locations.
Huawei’s 5.5G: a game-changer for IoT
Huawei’s 5.5G technology addresses these challenges head-on by dramatically reducing power consumption in passive IoT through a combination of innovative approaches. One of which is known as extended IoT technology.
Extended IoT obtains energy from the surrounding environment. That means the tags can transmit data without batteries. The technology is designed to be deployed with 5G-Advanced networks, equipped with inter-site resource coordination and joint scheduling optimisation.
At the device level, Huawei says the extended IoT solution consumes power of just 100 uW per device, which is 100 times lower than that of NB-IoT – a low power, wide area cellular technology used for IoT deployments.
This is not only complemented by energy harvesting capabilities, allowing devices to operate on ambient energy from radio waves.
Also, the 5.5G network itself employs AI-driven intelligent management across time, frequency, and space domains, potentially reducing energy consumption by up to 30%.
Equally, the extended range of 5.5G passive IoT means fewer base stations are needed, further lowering overall power requirements.
With native green technologies in Huawei’s 5.5G products supporting deep dormancy and fast wake-up features on site, and daily energy savings from making more energy efficient devices, plus the long-life span and the lack of batteries, mean that ESG requirements are also being taken into account with deployments.
Such collective advancements enable passive IoT devices to operate for up to a decade without battery replacement, marking a significant leap in energy efficiency for large-scale IoT deployments.
Impact on IoT deployment
The implications of these technological advancements are profound. Devices become cheaper to buy and easier to maintain.
Once deployed, they do not have to be changed for a substantial amount of time. This is crucial for organisations wishing to deploy devices in remote locations or areas where frequent maintenance would be prohibitively expensive or logistically challenging.
Moreover, 5.5G can support up to 100 billion connections, allowing IoT to be deployed on an unprecedented scale.
Massive connectivity enables organisations to gather insights across large swathes of their operations, facilitating truly informed decision-making.
This could lead to widespread adoption of passive IoT enabled by 5.5G and usher in a new era of smart applications across various sectors like agriculture, retail, manufacturing and smart cities.
Huawei’s IoT offerings
Huawei’s approach to getting the world to this passive IoT reality is eclectic, encompassing both software and hardware solutions.
On the software front, Huawei’s IoT suite comprises three key services: IoT as a Service (IoTaaS), IoT Device Management (IoTDM), and IoT Device Access (IoTDA).
These cloud-based solutions work in tandem to simplify IoT deployments, manage connected devices, and streamline data collection and analysis. IoTaaS provides an end-to-end platform for rapid IoT implementation, supporting various connection protocols and offering scalability for millions of concurrent connections.
IoTDM focuses on centralised device control, enabling remote operations and lifecycle management, while IoTDA facilitates seamless device connectivity through multiple access modes and protocol adaptations.
Together, these services create a comprehensive IoT ecosystem that enables businesses to harness the power of connected devices without extensive in-house expertise.
In terms of hardware, Huawei recently unveiled at MBBF 2024 a new solution for passive IoT devices. It introduced Passive IoT (P-IoT) to their indoor digital network solution LampSite portfolio. LampSite brings unrivalled 5.5G capabilities indoors for the first time, comprehensively upgrading indoor digitalisation.
The LampSite X solution supports both indoor 10 Gbps and P-IoT access. It can be deployed in half the time compared to other solutions and allows for daily asset stocktaking, a significant improvement over the monthly cycles typical of traditional systems.
Enabling a connected future
IoT represents a pivotal shift in how industries operate, offering transformative potential across various sectors.
With Huawei’s introduction of 5.5G technology, particularly its extended IoT capabilities, the hurdles that have marred the wholesale implementation stand to melt away.
By significantly reducing power consumption and eliminating the need for batteries, Huawei’s approach not only addresses cost concerns but also enhances the feasibility of mass-scale deployments of IoT devices.
And with the capability to support up to 100 billion connections, this technology not only facilitates massive data collection but also empowers organisations to make informed decisions based on real-time insights.
As businesses increasingly embrace these advancements, we can anticipate a future where IoT is seamlessly woven into the fabric of daily operations, driving innovation and efficiency while addressing environmental sustainability through reduced energy consumption and waste.
