Making a real difference to industrial M2M connectivity

Network topologies and capabilities will expand to accommodate new technologies and the billions of new devices expected to come with the IoT. Short term goals will include eliminating unplanned device downtime and optimising asset performance, but in the long term IoT technology will also help address the critical macro trends that pose genuine threats to future prosperity.

For example, to really cut carbon emissions energy must be used far more efficiently; IoT technologies will prove indispensable. They’ll greatly increase efficiency in virtually every aspect and they’ll help us attack the carbon problem in other ways. Located on the California-Nevada border, the new Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is capable of producing nearly 400MW of electricity and it generates no carbon dioxide. The system relies on thousands of mirrors that must be continually positioned to aim at a single focal point. As the Earth rotates, the mirrors must move too and until recently there would have been no practical way to keep so many mirrors aligned. With IoT, managing enormous numbers of remote devices will be commonplace.

After growing slowly and steadily throughout human history, world population finally passed 1bn, somewhere around 1820. At that point population growth began to explode. By 1920 there were 2bn people. Half a century later it had doubled to 4bn. World population is currently over 7bn. Every time the population doubles we theoretically need twice as much of everything, from food to transportation systems, but the same effect can be achieved by making existing systems twice as efficient. By extending intelligence to the edge of our networks, collecting and analysing unprecedented quantities of real time data and making intelligent decisions, IoT technologies will vastly increase efficiency. And when you increase efficiency in a system, you’ve increased its capacity.

Studies indicate that, while population growth has begun to slow, people are living longer. NEHI (formerly the New England Healthcare Institute) estimates that poor medication adherence now accounts for up to 13% of total health care expenditures, or $290bn (USD) annually in unnecessary costs. Patients fail to take their pills according to the correct schedule and sometimes they forget to take them at all. A ‘smart’ prescription bottle could compare prescriptions to actual usage and alert a healthcare professional if scheduled medication has been forgotten. Future intelligent remote devices will let users monitor and test many aspects of their own health without leaving home and they’ll be able to upload the data to be analysed in the cloud. Technology may not change diet or exercise habits, but it will make health care more efficient. That efficiency will be crucial as the elderly population and their associated health care costs continue to grow.

As we face the problems of the future, the deployment of IoT technologies will become increasingly important, helping us to face the problems that really matter.