Businesses are now integrating with the Internet of Things (IoT) devices in droves, but doing so is also placing an enormous burden on online infrastructure and servers alike. This will require businesses to optimize their WiFi systems to handle each IoT device connected to their network.
Without bandwidth management technology, it will quickly become a nightmare for IT administrators to micromanage each IoT device and allocate bandwidth based on varying levels of the performance requirement.
Furthermore, you can’t trust any single technology to make sense of the different types of IoT devices connected to a factory’s network. This is because there is a long list of IoT protocols, every with its own rules and standards. The only way to make these devices work in synchronization with each other, without conflicts, and downtime, is to consolidate these protocols over time and have at least one, standardized protocol to accommodate different IoT profiles.
Some examples of such profiles include:
- Moderate data rate vs low data rate
- Low latency vs ultra-low latency
- Standard availability vs critical availability
- Moderate power vs ultra-low power
How WiFi can Help
WiFi can address most of these profiles because of the sheer variety in its family of standards. It can play an essential role in just about every IoT environment, along with or in conjunction with other specialized protocols.
A few examples of IoT usage, such as video apps connected to security and vehicular services, will require access to a wireless broadband network, configured to work with low latency.
WiFi can be fine-tuned to support narrowband and broadband IoT applications from a unified platform to work at different degrees of signal range and power consumption.
The next iteration of 5G standards will support IoT focused capabilities such as low latency of as few as 4 milliseconds and high availability.
Importance of Bandwidth Management in Factories
Most factories consist of different types of servers, data, and network connections that don’t give administrators any wiggle room to properly optimize business application performance. This is why it is important to utilize effective bandwidth management like REZRV to control network traffic so that critical applications can stay connected to internet resources.
Bandwidth management controls allow you to effectively allocate bandwidth network usage, regardless of which industry you’re operating in. Furthermore, you can get a bird’s eye view of how departments are using bandwidth and control usage based on their requirements.
Low power wide area network (LPWAN)
LPWAN connections are prominent examples of the need to adapt existing technology for IoT, for use with WiFi as a common link. Many non-WiFi technologies are operating in an unlicensed wireless spectrum. LoRaWAN and WiFi use unlicensed tech to provide support to a large percentage of IoT devices. These technologies will disrupt private and public businesses and make it possible to adopt 5G.
LPWAN can provide support to applications such as asset tracking, smart HVAC, and smart transportation, to name just a few examples.
LPWAN shows an excellent example of how both licensed and unlicensed technologies can coexist without running into conflicts.
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