If you could take a look through time to 10 or 20 years from now, what would you see? Imagine smart cities where every traffic light is configured to optimize traffic patterns and ease congestion. Picture airliners that use data collected from connected jet engines to perform predictive maintenance that saves millions. Envision homes filled with devices that self-regulate climate, lock doors when nobody is home and automatically make coffee at 7 a.m. each day.
With 4G LTE to connect machines to each other and to people, all of the above situations are possible.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is on the cusp of revolutionizing the way we live. In fact, Cisco predicts that by 2020, the planet will be home to a staggering 50 billion connected devices. Additionally, during his recent keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show, Samsung CEO BK Yoon announced that by 2017, 90 percent of products his company manufactures will be IoT devices. So at this point, it’s safe to say most of the tech industry’s “‘big shots”’ are fully invested in a prominent role for the IoT in our future.
The IoT offers value on a number of fronts, such as sustainability gains and enhanced precision and convenience from automation. But perhaps the most valuable use of connected devices for enterprises is the mountain of actionable data that they can collect and transmit.
With that in mind, 4G LTE will become a necessity for IoT development moving forward because the rising number of IP-enabled devices will increase the volume of available data. 4G networks can accommodate up to 10 times more data traffic than earlier-generation cellular technologies with vastly less latency, making it a perfect medium for big data analytics.
Viewing the coming years through the lens of the IoT is extremely exciting. In fact, if time travel were possible, many of us would like to get at least a glimpse of how connected devices will change our lives. But for now, we’ll have to move forward one day at a time, following 4G LTE into the future.