The evolution of technology is a relentless march forward, with each step transforming our lives and businesses in profound ways. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the telecommunications industry, where rapid advancements and ubiquitous usage of mobile network technologies have profoundly transformed our societal and economic landscape. However, as we witness the sunsets of 2G and 3G – the forefathers of modern cellular connectivity – the question arises: what is the optimum successor? This essay aims to critically analyze Long-Term Evolution (LTE) as the potential answer to that pressing question.
a.Factors Influencing IoT Connectivity
In the burgeoning ecosystem of the Internet of Things (IoT), connectivity is a complex equation defined by cost, capacity, speed, and power consumption. As more devices connect to the internet, these parameters become pivotal in decision-making processes for businesses relying on these technologies.
Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network technologies offer some apparent solutions, providing cost-effective, power-efficient, and relatively low-speed connections – a promising choice in many contexts. They provide the necessary scale for IoT applications while managing to keep costs and power consumption to a minimum. However, these technologies bear their share of challenges. The most apparent one – inconsistent global coverage – severely restricts the scope of their application. Furthermore, the relatively lower speed and higher latency of LPWA technologies may not meet the needs of certain latency-sensitive applications, narrowing their efficiency spectrum.
b.LTE – A Stepping Stone or a Destination?
LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, has been hailed as a game-changer in the telecommunication realm for over a decade. Serving as the bridge between phasing out technologies such as 2G and 3G and the emerging 5G, LTE brings an interesting competitive edge to the table. It operates in a sweet spot that combines greater capacity, lower latency, and somewhat more affordable costs when compared to its technological predecessor and successor, respectively.
However, is LTE a mere ‘stepping stone’ in the technology progression, or could it be a destination in itself for IoT applications? To answer this, we need to delve deeper into what LTE offers for IoT deployments.
With LTE, the challenges of speed and latency posed by LPWA and, to an extent, NB-IoT, are addressed, making it an attractive prospect for use cases that require real-time data transmission and faster feedback loops. These advantages extend LTE’s usability beyond static or slow-moving IoT applications and into the domain of fast-paced IoT applications, such as autonomous vehicles and remote surgery, which require seamless global coverage.
Yet, while LTE generally excels in performance compared to NB-IoT and LPWA, it inherits similar concerns regarding comprehensive coverage, primarily in rural and remote areas. As a result, LTE’s capacity to fully succeed in 2G and 3G depends on the expansion of its network coverage to include these underserved regions.
c.LTE and IoT: The Path Forward
Despite NB-IoT’s promising features and the futuristic allure of 5G, LTE’s balance of speed, latency, and cost arguably positions it as an excellent transitional answer to the sunset of 2G and 3G.