By Darren Cummings – President, Performance Defense
5G mobile networks provide high-performance, reliable network connectivity in areas where it was previously unavailable. By expanding Internet access, 5G mobile networks lay the groundwork for the evolution of modern businesses into connected industry.
This is the third article in a four-part series on the potential impacts of 5G technology for defense and mission-critical IoT.
What is the Connected Industry?
Technological innovations are moving many industries towards the connected industry. As Internet of Things (IoT) devices become more numerous and diverse, many industries are taking advantage of the ability to perform continuous data collection, monitoring, and management in various contexts. This data processing enables decisions to be made more rapidly on more granular and enriched data, enabling process optimization and improved efficiency.
As mobile networks improve and more connected devices come online, many industries have the potential to use these technologies to optimize their operations and address previously unsolvable problems. Some potential examples of what connected industry may look like include:
- Healthcare: Healthcare is already making increasing use of IoT devices for patient monitoring and care. The ability to collect more granular data and offer more continuous care via connected devices can help to improve the standard of care.
- Logistics: Optimally routing shipments while taking changing conditions into account is a hard problem. With connected devices, shipments can be constantly tracked, more efficiently sorted, and re-routed as necessary based on ever-changing conditions.
- Manufacturing: Connected devices enable centralized monitoring and management of manufacturing devices. This allows operations to be optimized and enables rapid detection of any issues.
- Retail: Connected devices allow inventory tracking and customer analytics to be performed in real-time. This enables a retailer to improve the customer experience and optimize turnover.
- Transportation: The development of the self-driving car lays the foundation for the connected automotive industry. Communications between self-driving cars can provide better information for vehicles to optimize routing and improve the safety of passengers and bystanders.
These are only some of the potential applications and opportunities of connected industry. With the right infrastructure, connected devices have the potential to revolutionize and streamline how companies do business.
How Does 5G Benefit the Connected Industry?
Connected industry only works if connected devices have consistent, high-quality Internet access. Broadband ethernet is not a solution for many applications of connected devices due to its limited footprint.
The emergence of 5G networks makes connected industry possible. 5G networks provide a number of advantages compared to earlier generations including:
- Data Speed: 5G networks offer an average speed of 50 Mbps and a top speed of 1-10 Gbps compared to 15-50 and 1 Gbps for 4G/LTE.
- Latency: 5G networks cut average latency from 50 ms to 10 ms.
- Device Density: 5G networks can support approximately 100 times as many devices in the same geographic area as 4G/LTE.
5G networks provide the infrastructure required for the evolution to connected industry. This creates a significant opportunity for organizations looking to develop connected devices and take advantage of the benefits of 5G.
How Performance Defense Can Help
One of the challenges that connected device manufacturers may face when developing connected devices is the relative youth of 5G networks. 5G infrastructure is still being rolled out, and, in many cases, there has been limited opportunity to work the bugs out.
Manufacturers wishing to develop connected systems and applications today can take advantage of Performance Defense’s EDGE Development Kit. This hardware & software kit allows designers, developers, educators, and trainers to accelerate their IoT, M2M, AI & ML, Sensor, and other connected capabilities. The EDGE Development Kit also adds powerful instrumentation including JTAG. With the EDGE Development Kit, practitioners have a robust “hands on” ability to test and integrate 5G and other technology. By working with Performance Defense, companies can quickly make the transition to 5G networks and stay on the cutting edge of the transition to connected industry.
Applications include:
- Military, Corporate, and Academic 5G Training Environment
- Analysis & Data Collection for 5G Prototypes
To learn more about our EDGE 5G-X offerings, contact us today.
Further Reading
This is the third article in a four-part series. If you haven’t already, check out the first two articles in the series:
