The driving force behind today’s smarter cars, homes, factories, and cities is the myriad of Internet of Things (IoT) devices now in place. They can collect data on almost any physical or environmental parameter, such as pressure, temperature, light intensity, and humidity, and transfer large amounts of data to the internet by means of unlicensed wireless communications bands.
Given the increasing speeds of cellular wireless communications networks such as 4G LTE and the emerging 5G New Radio (NR) high-speed networks, once the data from IoT devices has been stored on “the cloud” of servers connected on the internet, it can be applied almost instantly for monitoring and analysis. In turn, hospitals become safer, production plants are more efficient, and homes and cities become “smarter” and more livable.