Page 10 - EE Times Europe November 2021 final

10 EE|Times EUROPE

SMART FACTORY
IIoT, IoT Adoption Seen on Fast Trajectory Path

By John Walko

fter a sluggish start, notably in Europe, the pace of adoption spectrum for various terrestrial and satellite uses.
of industrial internet of things (IIoT) networks and the IIoT’s That came hot on the heels of the news that the satellite operator
more consumer-facing relative, the IoT, has picked up. The was planning to combine existing geosynchronous satellites with low-
Aoutlook is brighter — albeit with bumps along the way. Earth-orbit birds and terrestrial 5G networks for an integrated offering,
Companies focusing on designing and manufacturing the very spe- dubbed Orchestra.
cific ultra-low–power chips, chipsets, and modules for the networks are Analysts are also becoming more bullish about prospects for both the
becoming much more positive about the prospects, as are some of the IIoT and IoT, which — save for China, with its massive cellular NB-IoT roll-
cellular network operators. out over the past 18 months — have struggled to make significant impacts.
And perhaps most significantly, large organizations across numerous For instance, Hamburg, Germany-based IoT Analytics posits that
and widely differing sectors, such as utilities, agriculture, logistics, despite the impact of Covid-19 and the global shortage of silicon com-
telemedicine, and transport, are moving from trialing and qualifying ponents due to supply chain issues, the
the variety of IIoT networks now available to implementing them. number of IoT devices is set to increase
According to a recent report from mobile and satellite communica- by 9% this year, to an estimated
tions network operator specialist Inmarsat (bit.ly/3pe5hHu), there has 12.3 billion connected active endpoints,
been “a rapid increase in the maturity level of organizations adopting and that by 2025, there could be over
the technology since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.” 27 billion IoT connections.
Inmarsat polled 450 “global” companies in a variety of industrial sec- But, speaking exclusively to EE Times
tors early this year, and 77% indicated they had deployed at least one Europe, Satyajit Sinha, a principal analyst
IoT or IIoT project, with just over 40% of these having achieved this in at IoT Analytics, noted that “the number
the past 12 months. of connected IoT devices actually came in
The remaining 23% had not yet deployed any project but indicated slightly lower than our midyear forecast of
either that such networks are on their roadmap or that they have IoT Analytics’ Satyajit 11.7 billion connections for 2020, versus
initiated trials. Sinha the actual figure of 11.3 billion. We are
“While our findings point to IoT driving significant uplifts in effi- now forecasting that by 2025, there will be
ciency, sustainability, and safety across global supply chains, there are 27.1 billon connected IoT devices, a slightly lower figure than our earlier
areas where organizations can make improvements,” said Mike Carter, forecast of 30.9 billion.”
president of Inmarsat’s Enterprise operations, commenting on the Sinha pointed to two “critical” factors that have dented the growth
response. “Connectivity, data management, skills shortages, security curve: “The pandemic has impacted both demand and supply, and
threats, and investment levels remain challenges as the world’s produc- the latter was even halted at critical periods, while supply chains and
tion and supply chains become increasingly digitized and intertwined.” access to raw materials were not intact. So during the first half of last
Earlier this year, Inmarsat surprised many by announcing it would year, budgets were frozen. Demand returned during the second half
launch a global narrowband network (NB-IoT) for IoT connectivity, of 2020, but supply was often disrupted. Consequently, many IoT and
targeting maritime, aviation, and government sectors. Dubbed Elera, IIoT initiatives were halted or, in some cases, canceled. And additional
the network is scheduled to launch next year and deploys the L-band supply chain issues are continuing in some regions.”

NOVEMBER 2021 | www.eetimes.eu