5G Internet of Things in Commercial Buildings

The long-awaited 5G technology is finally here. Smartphone sales are expected to account for more than 40 percent of global smartphone sales by 2021, growing to 69 percent by 2025. But in the business environment, the benefits to consumers pale in comparison to the promise of 5G. With it, 5G will also bring change to our buildings. The architectural benefits of smart technology have long been recognized, but a decade ago, the idea of retrofitting existing buildings with smart building technology seemed daunting. In addition to the high cost, the sensors needed to make buildings smart lacked at least four key technologies: battery life, computing power, connectivity options, and bandwidth, which prevented widespread adoption by most organizations. Around the middle of the last decade, the movement to renovate older buildings began to gain momentum with the emergence of more Internet-of-Things devices designed specifically for buildings. Many of the barriers to retrofitting facilities were also eliminated, including the unlimited computing power and storage space available in the cloud. This greatly improves battery efficiency and life, as well as a variety of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, cellular networks, ZigBee, and Bluetooth. As we move into the 5G era, it's important to understand the difference between this generation of wireless connectivity and how it will change the way buildings operate. Limitations of 4G LTE Cellular networks are one of the most common and flexible types of device connectivity. For a long time, it was the first choice when enterprises wanted to connect their IoT devices to the cloud, but didn't want to use cables or Wi-Fi to place those devices on the corporate network. Until recently, 4G LTE was the world's top mobile standard and the best choice for connecting IoT devices to the cloud using cellular protocols. But even though 4G is far superior to 3G in terms of speed, it still imposes physical limits on the amount of data that can be transmitted and the number of individual devices that can be connected. In many cases, a 4G LTE network can be overwhelmed, such as when it tracks the real-time movement of hundreds of occupants through a facility, the location and performance reports of thousands of devices, and the real-time interaction and control of mobile devices with building systems. If you've ever attended a large conference, sporting event, or concert, you've likely experienced a smartphone that successfully connected to a 4G network, but set a depressing number limit. Now, with the growth of a distributed hybrid workforce, 75% of people believe that reliable broadband connections must be significantly improved to fully support hybrid work. 5G Bandwidth Enables the Internet of Things 5G promises to solve the broadband access and coverage problem by dramatically increasing the number of connected devices in buildings, and could revolutionize and accelerate the market for smart building technologies in the post-epidemic workplace. Unlike 4G, 5G is a unified platform designed to support a 100x increase in traffic and a 10x reduction in end-to-end latency, thereby enabling a vast network of things such as cell phones and building systems to be virtually ubiquitous and enabling fully connected smart buildings. And, because 5G itself can support all spectrum types and bands and can optimize the spectrum to be used in real time, it also offers a wide range of deployment models (from traditional macrocells to hotspots), as well as new interconnection m5G Internet of Things in Commercial Buildings As we enter the 5G era, it's important to understand the difference between this generation of wireless connectivity and how it will change the way buildings operate. The long-awaited 5G technology is finally here. Smartphone sales are expected to account for more than 40 percent of global smartphone sales by 2021, growing to 69 percent by 2025. But in the business environment, the benefits to consumers pale in comparison to the promise of 5G. With it, 5G will also bring change to our buildings. The architectural benefits of smart technology have long been recognized, but a decade ago, the idea of retrofitting existing buildings with smart building technology seemed daunting. In addition to the high cost, the sensors needed to make buildings smart lacked at least four key technologies: battery life, computing power, connectivity options, and bandwidth, which prevented widespread adoption by most organizations. Around the middle of the last decade, the movement to renovate older buildings began to gain momentum with the emergence of more Internet-of-Things devices designed specifically for buildings. Many of the barriers to retrofitting facilities were also eliminated, including the unlimited computing power and storage space available in the cloud. This greatly improves battery efficiency and life, as well as a variety of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi, cellular networks, ZigBee, and Bluetooth. As we move into the 5G era, it's important to understand the difference between this generation of wireless connectivity and how it will change the way buildings operate. Limitations of 4G LTE Cellular networks are one of the most common and flexible types of device connectivity. For a long time, it was the first choice when enterprises wanted to connect their IoT devices to the cloud, but didn't want to use cables or Wi-Fi to place those devices on the corporate network. Until recently, 4G LTE was the world's top mobile standard and the best choice for connecting IoT devices to the cloud using cellular protocols. But even though 4G is far superior to 3G in terms of speed, it still imposes physical limits on the amount of data that can be transmitted and the number of individual devices that can be connected. In many cases, a 4G LTE network can be overwhelmed, such as when it tracks the real-time movement of hundreds of occupants through a facility, the location and performance reports of thousands of devices, and the real-time interaction and control of mobile devices with building systems. If you've ever attended a large conference, sporting event, or concert, you've likely experienced a smartphone that successfully connected to a 4G network, but set a depressing number limit. Now, with the growth of a distributed hybrid workforce, 75% of people believe that reliable broadband connections must be significantly improved to fully support hybrid work. 5G Bandwidth Enables the Internet of Things 5G promises to solve the broadband access and coverage problem by dramatically increasing the number of connected devices in buildings, and could revolutionize and accelerate the market for smart building technologies in the post-epidemic workplace. Unlike 4G, 5G is a unified platform designed to support a 100x increase in traffic and a 10x reduction in end-to-end latency, thereby enabling a vast network of things such as cell phones and building systems to be virtually ubiquitous and enabling fully connected smart buildings. And, because 5G itself can support all spectrum types and bands and can optimize the spectrum to be used in real time, it also offers a wide range of deployment models (from traditional macrocells to hotspots), as well as new interconnection methods (such as device-to-device and multi-hop grids). This means that as more and more organizations reassess their real estate needs and look for smart ways to adopt hybrid work models that match the way their workplaces are actually used. 5G enables broader deployment of sensors that register and share data almost immediately at any node on the network - whether it's connected to the office's HVAC system, an employee badge, or a home office desk purchased by a company for a remote employee. 5G Internet of Things in Commercial Buildings After more than 20 years of using cloud and desktop technologies, especially those created for the construction industry, it's clear that migrating to a new software platform will be a major undertaking, but the end result will outweigh the initial effort. However, even with all the advantages that 5G offers, we still need careful planning and an understanding of usability. Availability applies not only to the location of existing facilities, but also to whether the various technology solutions that may be used in future facilities actually support 5G. 5G is rapidly spreading to most major metropolitan areas in the U.S., but rural areas and geographically dispersed organizations, including other countries/regions, are likely to face standardization challenges in the near term. Many of the currently installed PropTech solutions are likely optimized to transmit only small amounts of data at slower intervals than those supported by 5G. This may mean that some of these solutions will not be able to achieve higher performance from 5G networks due to the technical limitations of the existing hardware itself. So, in many cases, existing infrastructure such as routers that currently only support 4G will also need to be replaced. The move to 5G also requires careful planning and collaboration between the facility's organization, at the enterprise level, and the IT department within the local facility. First, collaboration usually starts with convincing IT teams that the end result will be beneficial to them, such as explaining how moving IoT devices from wired and wireless networks to cellular networks will reduce traffic to the internal infrastructure. Increasing bandwidth will also reduce downtime for users of these devices and may reduce the use of IT support resources. As part of the transition plan, it is recommended that you also use this time to review your Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), data management and security policies. More importantly, work with your local carrier to understand their specific 5G tower migration plans to ensure that the expected migration time is within the maximum uptime. The smart building market has grown rapidly over the past few years as the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of new technologies such as sensors for workplace utilization and occupancy, indoor air quality (IAQ), and building equipment monitoring. Now, between the additional pressure on landlords and owners to meet new sustainability requirements, and organizations adopting new work patterns during the Great Resignation, measuring building performance and quality, along with accurate data, will be key to understanding when and where things are working well, and what needs to be improved. In order to achieve this goal, it is hoped to see more organizations adopt all the features supported by 5G networks. 5G is the ultimate catalyst for the realization of smart buildings. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)