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IoT

30 billion IoT devices by 2027

… and why 1 in 12 will rely on satellite connectivity

By Dr Dawie de Wet (Pr. Eng. M.Sc. Eng.), group CEO of Q-KON and chief engineer for Twoobii,
a southern African supported satellite broadband service.

he Ericsson 2021 mobility report IoT market in perspective
forecasts that by 2027 there will be To understand the communications requirements of different IoT applications we can
Tover 30 billion Internet of Things consider the following market overview provided by Growth Enabler. This groups IoT
(IoT) connected devices in use globally. devices into two distinct user groups: businesses and individuals. These two user groups
Previously, Ericsson forecast 20bn can then broadly be classified into nine segments as shown below.
devices for 2023, and the actual number
in 2021 was 14.4bn, showing that their Communication network perspective
growth projections are broadly accurate. The Ericsson communications analysis further divides the IoT market into wide-area and
Between 2021 and 2027, connected IoT short-range applications. The short-range segment largely consists of devices connected
devices are expected to increase at a by unlicensed radio technologies, with a typical range of up to 100 metres, such as Wi-Fi,
(compound annual growth rate) CAGR Bluetooth and Zigbee. This category also includes devices connected over fixed-line local
of 13%, driven by new use cases and area networks and powerlines.
increased affordability, plus the usual bell The wide-area segment comprises devices that use cellular connections, as well as
curve models of innovation adoption. unlicensed low-power technologies, such as Sigfox and LoRa. At the end of 2021, an
Connected IoT devices will include estimated 1.9 billion IoT devices were already connected via cellular connections. This
connected cars, machines, meters, number is projected to reach 5.5 billion in 2027, or almost 100% of the projected 5.9
sensors, point-of-sale terminals, billion devices in the wide-area category. By 2027 the short-range segment in contrast, is
consumer electronics and appliances, expected to be 24.3 billion devices, or some 80% of the connected devices market.
and wearables. The wearables category
could conceivably expand to include Connectivity requirement
implanted devices, although there It’s important to note that the Ericsson analysis does not make it clear that the short-
would be multiple ethical issues to range communication network architecture must include a wide-area network circuit, or
overcome here. From a communications backhaul link, that connects the “on-site” short-range network with the centralised cloud
perspective, IoT services are grouped as infrastructure.
wide-area IoT, cellular IoT and short- Each and every Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Zigbee network deployed by a user must also be
range IoT applications. integrated with a reliable backhaul link to access the IoT applications hosted in the cloud.

Internet-of-Things Market Overview

Consumer Segment Business Segment
Use-cases: Use-cases:
1) Connected homes 5) Retail
2) Wearables 6) Industrial
3) Connected cars and 7) Smart Utilities & Energy
4) Personal health. 8) Healthcare 9) Smart Cities.

For consumers, the value proposition For businesses, the value proposition
is to save time and money and is reducing business continuity risk
heighten personal convenience. through predictive “sensor driven”
analytics that optimise operational
Device adoption is set to grow as performance, reduce costs and
machine sensors in smartphones, consequently increase profits and
wearable devices and other smart customer impact.
devices become more prevalent,
effective, relevant and affordable.

EngineerIT | May 2022 | 11