Ericsson rolls out enhanced functionalities and new solutions for IoT

Mobile telecom equipment maker Ericsson has launched enhanced functionalities and new solutions that will enable service providers to address a larger part of the Internet of Things (IoT) market with diverse use cases across verticals including automotive, manufacturing, and utilities.

Among the enhancements is the NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) Extended Cell Range 100 km, which stretches the standards-based limit from around 40 km to 100 km through software updates without changes to existing NB-IoT devices. This opens huge opportunities in IoT connectivity in rural and remote areas, particularly for logistics, agriculture and environment monitoring, a release by the firm said. Ericsson has deployed NB-IoT data connections up to 100 km with Telstra and DISH.

The Broadband IoT solutions being launched include drone detection and link control, radio access network (RAN) slicing, Advanced Subscriber Group Handling, and Multi-Gigabit LTE for 2Gbps data throughput and around 10 millisecond latency. The new solutions will enable a wide range of use cases in automotive, drones, AR/VR, advanced wearables, smart manufacturing, and smart utilities.

Ericsson has announced four key segments through which it plans to take the IoT revolution forward. The four areas are Massive IoT, Broadband IoT, Critical IoT and Industrial Automation IoT. While Broadband IoT will offer higher data transfer rates, Industrial Automation IoT will provide industries with better services in extremely demanding environments.

Fredrik Jejdling, executive vice-president and head of networks, Ericsson, said, “Cellular IoT is moving from early adoption with Massive IoT to global rollout. (Massive IoT provides cellular connectivity to low-complexity IoT devices based on NB-IoT and Category M (CAT-M) technologies.)

We are now describing ‘what’s next?’ for our customers and how they can make the most out of their 4G and 5G investments on the same network and address more advanced IoT use cases across industries.”

Luke Ibbetson, Vodafone Group head of technology R&D, said: “As 4G was the era of the smartphone, so we expect 5G to be the era of IoT. We have already seen extraordinary growth in Vodafone’s IoT technology capability in recent years, with the introduction of network technologies like NB-IoT and C-V2X.”