5G Networks will give rise to Intelligent Devices

• Smart grids and smart factories. 5G, combined with “network slicing,” which allows network resources to be allocated on demand, is being tested with traditional power and factory models. In 2017, China’s Huaweidemonstrated a network slicing application for the smart grid, showing how 5G can be used to restore power in 300 ms. It upends traditional models in its ability to be secure, reliable, and high-performing at a low price. Similarly, Ericsson and China Mobile jointly showed how these technologies provide cost-effective, real-time, and low-energy solutions for various manufacturing scenarios.
• VR and AR. According to Qualcomm, 5G is needed to take VR and AR to the next level for uniform automotive video streaming (when self-driving cars become the norm), social sharing at crowded venues (upload capacity of 12.5 Tbps/km2), 6 DOF immersive content (high throughput, low latency),  and remote control/tactile internet (low latency). Kaleido partner Jaimy Szymanski extends the thinking around how AR/VR and 5G will be technologies in tandem growth.
• Smart agriculture. Lanner reports that 5G networks will provide farmers and the agricultural industry Smart Farming IoT technologies for tracking, monitoring, automating and analyzing their agricultural and industrial operations.
• Industrial IoT (IIoT). Relative to many other industries, the IIoT industry entails more complex data issues for the following reasons: the variety of data source types, messy data, complex data relations, different sizes, different volumes, and varied frequency. Initiative’s like The OpenFog Consortium, launched by Cisco, entail data-intensive IoT applications and analytics with the goal of addressing the complex data issues by enabling AI, IoT, and 5G to work together with fog computing.
• Autonomous driving. Intel is making 5G modem chips that will transfer gigabits of data on a second by second basis over wireless networks. They believe that this will make autonomous cars smarter by allowing the cars to communicate with a connected infrastructure that will help process sensor, safety, and other information quickly.
• Law enforcement. 5G’s ultra low latency combined with distributed simultaneous localization and mapping (D-SLAM) will allow law enforcement to exchange live vision feeds between front-end agents dealing with an incident. The benefits are that it will improve the mission’s overall efficiency, as well as situational awareness at an individual level when going into an unknown field.
• Marketing. AdAge sees 5G changing marketing in some distinct ways. They see an opportunity for hyper-personalization, with consumers interacting with holographic brand representatives based on what they find attractive. And with 5G’s ultra fast download speeds, they see rich mobile video experiences taking off.
• Security and Identity. Blockchain has the potential to mitigate some of 5G’s security issues. It could help lower the cost of fraud in roaming and identity management, it could secure P2P connectivity for thousands of IoT devices in a cost-efficient manner, and it could be used with identity and data management, with telecom companies providing subscribers unique IDs for automatic authentication on e-commerce websites.
• Internet of tasks (“tactile internet”). The tactile internet is able to precisely and synchronously map a person’s movements, giving rise to the possibility of duplicating the person’s work remotely and synchronously. This has real-world applications with its near-zero (one ms) latency. Using this technology, a surgeon, for example, could perform remote surgery on a soldier located in a different part of the world.
• Adult Entertainment. The adult entertainment industry has long been early adopters of technological shifts, starting with VHS in the late 1970s. Now, they’re leading the way with VR. It’s estimated that more than 50% of all VR content is adult-related and that adult content is a large driver of hardware sales. Gene Munster, head of research firm Loup Ventures, estimates the 2017 revenue for the VR adult market to be $93 million, with the possibility of reaching $1.4 billion by 2025. But, the industry faces barriers from large headset makers like Samsung, Sony, and Facebook’s Oculus. Producers feel that the headset makers block adult apps from their online stores, making it harder for consumers to access adult VR content.
• Supply Chain. As 5G takes off, it will create supply chain opportunities. A couple of key opportunities relate to hardware and smart logistics. The hardware industry will see a boom with the need for new devices and platforms, aimed at both consumers and carriers. Qualcomm and Samsung are currently focusing on consumer needs by developing modems and routers, respectively. And Nokia and Ericsson are targeting carriers, with Ericsson saying they already developed the first 5G radio system. Smart logistics, a subset of IIoT, will be enhanced with 5G by negating much of the human error by changing the manual nature of the industry. The overall benefits are time and cost savings, exemplified through passive RFID tags and “digital twins.” Passive RFID tags can be attached to inventory to automate the process of tracking and recording, as well as sharing this data with relevant parties in real time. When cargo in transit is damaged, smart logistics will clearly show which party is responsible. “Digital twins” (a virtual replica of physical assets, processes or systems) can be used in smart logistics to log changes in real time so that companies can quickly respond to events, such as shipment delays, shortages, and extreme weather. Some of the benefits, as reported by Deloitte, include: always-on agility, connected community, intelligent optimization, end-to-end transparency, and holistic decision-making.

Read the full post on the Kaleido Insights website to learn more.