The market has become saturated and purely focused on pricing.

There is too much emphasis on connectivity and insufficient focus on supporting use cases. This has led to an explosion in the number of connectivity providers offering SIM management platforms.

IoT use cases fall into three main categories – Tracking, Monitoring and Management – all supported by smart advanced analytics. Connectivity should be seen purely as an enabler to support the above requirements.

The main criteria should be on global or regional deployment rather than worrying about which network or country should be available. 

Round-the-clock access is a minimum requirement; hence, network availability is a must without questioning whether multi-networks per country are supported. 

The available technology is essential, but you cannot dictate the roadmap of network providers. Hence the only requirement should be for support of the latest technologies today and in the future.

Because of the strong push for connectivity providers, the focus of IoT deployments has become distorted. IoT companies are not connectivity specialists and do not understand all the complexities of global connectivity.

All they want is to enable their use cases !

The market is driven by complex pricing models depending on network, country, technology, and forecasted volumes. 

IoT deployments should not care about these enablers but ensure their availability is guaranteed.

Pricing Models in IoT Deployments

Complex pricing models are not required either. A single price element should be used irrespective of the number of networks, geographic coverage, or available technology. This can be easily integrated into the cost of ownership of individual use cases or IoT assets. 

Today, analytics is based on simple reports from network and SIM triggers because the connectivity providers, most of whom have a network operator relation, are driving the solutions. There is a need for advanced analytics to support IoT deployments where the industry is expanding into all verticals that have their own unique requirements. Support for an exponential increase in IoT assets, both with old and new software versions, will be needed.

With the exponential increase in IoT deployments, security is another critical issue that should not be underestimated. Smartly secured edge devices connecting to highly secure clouds or backbones can offer a solution. The cellular network does offer its own security, but the link to the IoT asset is still vulnerable. 

Private 5G and IoT Deployment

Private 5G networks that will support IoT in an enterprise-controlled area will further enhance security, at least within their own premises.  

IoT deployments covering large sites or sites across multiple geographies will benefit from private 5G. They will be managed by in-house IT departments and hence subject to internal security and management processes. 

The internal departments guarantee connectivity and monitoring within the private network, but when the asset leaves the private network, they will again be exposed to the public domain. The handover between the private and public networks must be seamless; otherwise, the use case will not fail. 

This complexity increases when the asset moves across geographies or even to other private networks in other countries. They again need to be seamlessly tracked, monitored, and maintained. Advance analytics will have to play a more significant role in supporting this, and network operators are not positioned to offer this. 

Successful IoT deployments will require solutions that address their use case supported by advanced analytics rather than just trying to get the best connectivity partner.

Connectivity is purely an enabler.

This article was contributed by our expert Kam Mehta 

Frequently Asked Questions Answered by Kam Mehta 

Q1. What are IoT communication models?

IoT communication models allow people and things to be connected at any time and space using any network.
There are several IoT communication models, such as:

• Request and Response Model
• Publisher-Subscriber Model
• Push-Pull Model
• Exclusive Pair

Q2. What is the vision of IoT?

IoT can be envisioned from 2 different perspectives. One is Internet-centric, where internet services are the focus as data is generated. And a second perspective, where IoT is considered thing-centric architecture and smart devices take centre stage.

Q3. What are the applications of 5G and IoT together?

The applications of 5G along with IoT have primarily concentrated on enterprise and industrial networking, customer premise equipment (CPE), mobile computing, video broadcasting, and fixed wireless access (FWA).

It will enhance the user's quality of life and has been adopted by various industries like automotive, factories, smart buildings, smart cities, utilities, security and surveillance, agriculture, retail, and healthcare.