DECEMBER 2022

Some IoT use cases that

CHANGED
THE WORLD
– and some that will
by Juan Pedro Tomas
Editor, Enterprise IoT Insights

REPORT SPONSOR:
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

Introduction expect to gain operational savings from Smart lighting

Was there ever a tech movement more- automating meter data collection, re- Smart lighting seems to be one of the
hyped than IoT? Maybe, maybe not. But duced truck rolls, improved billing accu- most established use cases in the IoT space.
for all its world-changing promise, it has racy, improved asset management and Moreover, these IoT-based systems are also
proved harder to justify IoT deployments non-technical loss reduction. being used as a platform for the provision of
– and importantly, to scale IoT deploy- While the intangible societal benefits additional IoT applications. According to Na-
ments – than it was supposed to be. At of AMI and smart lighting are harder to dim Abdulrahim, global public services sci-
the same time, the market has estab- quantify, benefits such as increased equity entist at Huawei Enterprise Business Group,
lished a number of reference use cases and access to services, improved customer turning lighting poles into multi-functional
as no-brainer gateway IoT investments engagement, reduced carbon footprint, smart poles with the aim of providing many
for enterprises, including as platforms increased safety and expanded economic IoT-based services initially requires a com-
for wider-reaching smart systems. This development opportunities can be expect- munication backbone connecting this in-
report considers some of these – from ed when cities and utilities adopt these frastructure. “Thereafter, many IoT sensors
smart lighting, to smart metering, to IoT-based use cases. can be added like micro base station, envi-
smart maintenance, to smart environ- To know more about the specific details ronmental monitoring, Wi-Fi, video surveil-
mental monitoring, and more – and con- of the already well-established IoT use lance, digital signage, emergency call/pub-
siders the hard and soft return-on-invest- cases, and the ones that will emerge in lic broadcast, intelligent power distribution,
ment calculations in each case. According the future and that still needs to show the ITS sensors, EV chargers, smart mobility as
to many voices in the industry, the hard clear benefits of such implementations, En- well as linkage to nearby devices like waste
ROI benefits of advanced metering infra- terprise IoT Insights interviewed analysts, management and irrigation management,”
structure (AMI) and smart street lighting representatives of tech providers as well as Abdulrahim said.
technology are pretty clear. Those voices customers already implementing some of According to Marcia Walker, research
highlight that utilities and cities should the use cases. director for the Internet of Things (IoT)

2
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

lighting solutions, said it had installed on energy (…) What I see initially is the
22,000 smart streetlights in the German energy savings as the primary use case
city of Dortmund as of mid-2022, in a with the addition of convenience for re-
project aimed to help Dortmund improve mote control, labor savings as well as re-
energy efficiency, increase public safety, placement of basement generators with
reduce CO2 emissions, and lower mainte- battery packs as extra pluses later, said
nance costs. The project covers main roads, Greg Corlis, principal, emerging technol-
secondary roads, residential streets and ogies at KPMG U.S.
parking lots across the German city. Meanwhile, Pavel Zaitsau, director of
As part of this project, Tvilight installed marketing, solutions and partner eco-
smart wireless street light controllers and system at Actility, explained some of the
its CityManager light management system benefits of the smart lighting use case
to enable the system operators to moni- with an example of a recent deployment
tor, manage and control the entire pub- in which the French firm took part. “The
“What I see initially is the
lic lighting infrastructure remotely. Also, project will cover 200 square kilometers
energy savings as the primary automatic fault alerts/notifications help and provides smart street lighting to
use case with the addition turn expensive reactive maintenance to more than 1.3 million people, improving
of convenience for remote effective and economical proactive main- community and road safety, and reduc-
control, labor savings as well tenance, Tvilight said, adding that the light ing carbon emissions by up to 80%. NNN-
as replacement of basement management system helps pinpoint where Co, Wellness TechGroup, Actility and their
and what type of failure has occurred to partners will replace [Uruguay’s capital]
generators with battery packs
enable the maintenance crew to arrive at Montevideo’s existing lighting system
as extra pluses later.”
the right location and perform the repairs with LED technology and roll out an
Greg Corlis, Principal, Emerging Technologies, swiftly. This, in turn, reduces unplanned interoperable remote management sys-
KPMG U.S.
night patrols, and ultimately the mainte- tem, which is designed to reduce carbon
program at consultancy firm IDC, smart nance costs, the Dutch firm said. emissions by 31,500 tons of CO2 per year.
street lighting is key to improving munic- Tvilight also noted that its smart street The project will also improve the quality
ipal operational costs, citizen safety and lighting solution offers precise control over of public lighting services and provide
road infrastructure management. “Ben- the street lights, enabling the city of Dort- greater efficiency and operations man-
efits include lower power consumption mund to provide adequate illumination that agement to the whole city. Another point
through LED lighting, intelligent dimming boosts both citizen safety and traffic safety. is reducing light pollution,” Zaitsau said.
and reduced field maintenance. Valuable A motion-sensor-based, light-on-demand “The direct benefit [of smart street light
uses are being utilized including signal- system will be used at selected locations deployments] is seen in lower mainte-
ing lights to indicate road conditions (e.g., in the city to enhance the public’s need for nance costs, notably in terms of truck roll
blinking) or emergency public safety (e.g., safety. According to the European compa- reductions. Indirect benefits are seen in im-
flashing red), which are available to opera- ny, the smart street light solution deployed proved security for citizens, and additional
tors through management software. These in Dortmund saves over 50% in terms of services such as air quality monitoring,
systems can be interfaced with enterprise energy consumption, and it prevented over barometric, humidity, or temperature sens-
systems including traffic management, 710 tons of CO2 during the first half of 2022 ing. Smart connected street lighting can
emergency response systems/911, weath- through smart switching and dimming. even be used as a local mesh network, act-
er, and other data feeds,” Walker said. “Studies [related to smart lighting proj- ing as a relay, connecting cities and states,”
Tvilight, a Dutch provider of smart ects] I have seen are around 45% savings said Jeremy Gosteau, senior director of IoT

3
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T F E AT U R E R E P O R T

air quality to improve city services or en- lighting project over a period of ten years,
hance the quality of life of residents. while the city of Glasgow, in Scotland, will
“Smart street lighting is an anchor obtain 60% energy savings through the
for smart cities and provides a flexible deployment of smart streetlights.
high-performance city-wide mesh network “Tampa Electric Co. is seeing annual
and a city-wide management software operations and maintenance reduction of
platform. Itron has 4 million streetlights $2 million from smart streetlights,” Evans
controlled by its CMS software – Street- added.
light.Vision (SLV), and the world’s largest Smart metering / energy
streetlight deployment at Florida Power There is no doubt that another well-es-
and Light. Depending on a city’s needs and tablished IoT use case is smart metering,
drivers, we have a technology platform, where smart meters are deployed with the
which serves as the foundation for a con- aim of recording information such as con-
nected city that provides energy and water sumption of electric energy, natural gas
savings, improves safety and security, deliv- or water. Smart meters communicate the
ers traffic and parking solutions and helps information to the consumer for greater
“The direct benefit [of smart
cities deliver their communities advanced clarity of consumption behavior and ser-
street light deployments] is
urban digital services,” said Dan Evans, di- vice providers for system monitoring and
seen in lower maintenance rector of smart cities at Itron. Commenting customer billing.
costs, notably in terms of truck on the savings generated through the de- Marco Stracuzzi, head of product mar-
roll reductions. Indirect benefits ployment of smart lighting projects, Evans keting at Telit, noted that smart meter-
are seen in improved security said that the city of Chicago would see en- ing currently represents a key market for
for citizens, and additional ser- ergy savings of $100 million with its smart the company in terms of revenue. The

vices such as air quality mon-

itoring, barometric, humidity,
or temperature sensing. Smart Connected street lighting market to reach
connected street lighting can $8.74 billion by 2027
even be used as a local mesh
network, acting as a relay, con- The connected street sighting market was val- global market for linked street lighting sys-
necting cities and states.” ued $1.8 billion in 2021 and estimated to reach tem technologies. In Europe, a number of
$8.74 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 29.6 lighting organizations are putting forth a lot
Jeremy Gosteau, Senior Director, IoT Product Mar-
keting 4G and 5G at Sequans Communications % during the 2022-2027 period, according to a of effort to put in place smart lighting con-
recent report by research firm MarketDigits. “Due trols in both the public and private sectors.
product marketing for 4G and 5G at Se- to the connected LED’s remote dimming, on/off North America is expected to grow at an
quans Communications. capability, and lower power requirement, con- outstanding CAGR during the projection pe-
Gosteau added that cities with smart nected street lighting systems often save 25% of riod. Energy laws and regulations are being
street light networks can add on various energy. This improves energy efficiency through implemented in North America to regulate
additional sensors with little additional effective management,” the report states. energy use, encouraging the use and ad-
cost and bring new services to a city’s local “By accelerating the deployment of smart light- vancement of smart lighting technologies
area network for things like monitoring of ing, Europe will take the lead. Europe rules the in the region.”
garbage collection, parking availability, or

4
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

executive highlighted that besides utility

meters, for automatic reading of electrici-
ty, water and gas consumption, the energy
segment also covers smart grid applica-
tions – like gateways to connect secondary
stations in the distribution network. “The
other sub-segment is renewables, like
solar panel inverters, which are normally
connected with cellular for monitoring and
remote control,” said Stracuzzi.
He also pointed out that electricity
meters usually run on LTE-M or NB-IoT
technologies, while water and gas meters
mostly run on NB-IoT, as they are battery
operated. “But there are differences in the “With regards to metering as-a- “The ROI is coming mainly from
tech options, based on the region. The platform, all utilities have plans gains of productivity as well as
LPWAN technology often depends on re- to offer more services through gains in terms of security/safe-
gional deployments. In the U.S., LTE-M is their meters. There are a few ty. Introducing sensors allows
very popular; in Europe, there is more frag- cases where these services are the replacement of repetitive
mentation, with some projects on Cat-1
already being delivered, and a manual tasks with automation,
even if they don’t need Cat-1 performance,
few requests to put more in- which directly reduces the cost
because it is the only technology available
nationwide. But for gas and water, NB-IoT
telligence inside the modules. of workforce. It also makes the
is quite well deployed in Europe and is a But it is mostly a vision for the work more efficient, based on
good technology for those projects,” Stra- future. Current projects are not real-time data analytics.”
cuzzi added. really architected that way.”
“With regards to metering as-a-plat- Pavel Zaitsau, Director of Marketing, Solutions and
Marco Stracuzzi, Head of Product Marketing, Telit Partner Ecosystem, Actility
form, all utilities have plans to offer more
services through their meters. There are a
few cases where these services are already reduce workforce. Smart metering also The Actility executive noted that meter-
being delivered, and a few requests to put allows utilities to detect fraud and tamper ing enables utility companies, cities, mu-
more intelligence inside the modules. But and carry out preventive and corrective nicipalities, buildings and industrial sites
it is mostly a vision for the future. Current maintenance scheduling, he added. to improve the performance of their water,
projects are not really architected that “The ROI is coming mainly from gains of gas and electricity distribution systems, as
way,” he continued. productivity as well as gains in terms of se- well as reduce infrastructure investment
According to Abdulrahim of Huawei, curity/safety. Introducing sensors allows the and operating costs by implementing au-
smart metering integrates smart energy replacement of repetitive manual tasks with tomated consumption monitoring, meter-
meters, communication networks and data automation, which directly reduces the cost ing, and leakage detection.
management. This IoT use case enables of workforce. It also makes the work more “On the other side, the soft ROI is coming
utilities to carry out real-time consumption efficient, based on real-time data analytics. from improved safety and security of peo-
reading, accurate invoicing, load planning The maintenance becomes more efficient ple and assets,” Zaitsau added
and forecasting as well as save time and and less costly,” said Actility’s Zaitsau. Evans of Itron noted that smart metering

5
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

solutions give cities and utilities the ability

to access real-time and actionable data on
a unified platform, which leads to more in-
formed decisions, quicker response times
and more efficient operations and also
leaves room for additional Distributed In-
telligence (DI) applications over time. “A
perfect example of this is Tampa Electric
Company (TEC). TEC is realizing operation-
al savings, understanding the state of their
distribution system and applying correc-
tive actions where and when needed with
AMI operations. After partnering with Itron
to install smart streetlights and 200,000
DI-enabled smart meters, TEC gained valu-
able, real-time data for revenue protection
and customer safety that the utility didn’t
have before. As part of the full population
rollout, TEC now has over 800,000 DI-en-
abled smart meters with nearly 720,000
of them running grid-edge applications,”
Evans said.
“TEC now has the resources to focus
on more high-value work while moving
low-value repetitive work to new workflow The analyst also noted that a recent study “Smart metering brings value to utilities
automation. The utility has experienced carried out in Austin, Texas, showed that providers on many levels. First and most
an immediate return on investment with some properties experienced water savings well-known is the cost saving enabled
a number of benefits including over 97% of 20-30% after the first year of installation. by no longer needing to send out meter
successful installation success rate, over Sequan’s Gosteau said that the utilities readers, and making the data collected
425,000 truck rolls saved and over 9,000 sector is also moving towards cellular IoT readily uploaded to the cloud so that the
post-installations managed and resolved because of its ubiquity, and because it is utility can access it and bill accordingly.
in AMI operations,” Evans added. reasonably priced and low in power con- Additional applications can be offered via
According to Corlis of KPMG, smart me- sumption. “An increasing number of util- cloud access that brings a unified view to
tering will have a resurgence as utility pro- ities providers today are deploying smart utilities companies, and this is where the
viders have to upgrade their existing AMI meters for monitoring either the consump- expertise of the smart meter vendor brings
infrastructure. “These upgrades will im- tion, or the network, or both, resulting in differentiation. One can monitor an entire
prove efficiency as well as increase security significant operational gain. The entire grid, for example, and take actions when
of the energy grid,” Corlis said. smart meter value chain—chipset vendor, an abnormality is detected such as increas-
Corlis also noted that the deployment of module maker, connectivity supplier, com- ing the frequency of meter reading for bet-
smart metering solutions enables a cut in munication unit maker, meter and utility— ter grid monitoring upon an unexpected
labor cost due to no need for readings as is well established, and the business case event, or closing a valve in the gas distri-
well as leak detection and remote shutoff. well known,” he said. bution system when a leak is detected or

6
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

an earthquake is anticipated. These addi- managers identify risks and improve secu- then you need Cat-1. With CCTV cameras,
tional benefits help improve the network’s rity processes by collecting and analyzing you need to transmit media, so you need
reliability, providing indirect mid- and data from connected devices. Cat-1 or even Cat-4 – for better through-
long-term cost saving in maintenance and Stracuzzi of Telit noted that home and put, depending on the quality of the video
security,” Gosteau added. business security– alarm panels and sur- required,” Stracuzzi added.
In the ROI calculation, Gosteau pointed veillance cameras, covering all the alarm “Thieves can easily jam the cellular trans-
out that once an IoT technology is adopted systems in houses and other buildings, mission of a GPS tracker but they cannot
for a smart metering project, utilities need and also CCTV systems in offices and cities detect and jam a LoRaWAN tracker. This
to think of the longevity of the adopted represents a relevant sector for the firm in opened up a great B2C use case we are
solution in order to limit potentially high terms of revenue generation. “They benefit currently exploiting with Roole, the big-
maintenance costs and added that the from cellular – because it is an easy instal- gest automobile club in France. They offer
connectivity choice, and the cellular net- lation, which does not require setup with a Abeeway trackers as part of their Wetrak
work operator, must be carefully assessed. home router, or Wi-Fi network. The module antitheft service,” said Zaitsau of Actility.
with the SIM connects straight to the net- German company Bosch has highlighted
Security work, and, unlike Wi-Fi and fiber, is resilient the case of a manufacturer of basic food
IoT-based smart security systems com- to power outages on the grounds they typ- ingredients that ships deliveries of goods
bine sophisticated technology to protect ically come with a backup battery – so the in containers from production sites in Lat-
residents and critical assets. These systems alarm panel can still send its alarm,” he said. in-America to customers in global markets.
include connected devices, sensors, vid- “Alarm panels, which just need to send “A problem of such supply chains is that
eo technology, artificial intelligence, ad- an alarm in the event of an intrusion, can these are desired targets for thefts and
vanced software and analytics, networks use LPWA technologies. LTE-M is very pop- smuggler[s]: They open containers and
and IoT-based alarm systems. The deploy- ular in North America. In Europe it tends either steal the content[s] or hide drugs in-
ment of IoT-based smart surveillance sys- to be LTE-M with 2G fallback, to guarantee side. This result[s] in … huge material and
tems enable companies and people to use coverage. If the panel needs to establish immaterial damage, like a reduction of rep-
live video surveillance to see who enters an emergency voice call to a call center, utation or trust in people, companies or a
and leaves a premise and then store and
analyze the data for asset tracking and
detection. These systems also enable orga-
nizations to monitor conditions remotely
with Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity, ensuring
that facilities are secure — without on-site
personnel and to deliver security alerts to
mobile devices, enabling action based on
real-time information.
With real-time remote monitoring and
control, facility managers can know and
adjust the facility’s condition and they
also could determine if an alarm has been
triggered by an accident or threat without
law enforcement or an in-person inspec-
tion. Real-time alerts and comprehensive
visibility help business owners and facility

7
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

whole supply chain,” the German firm said. sensors can use advanced technology to telematics boxes attach to the vehicle
As a result of the customer’s needs, Bosch detect the occurrence of the event (while battery, so they are not necessarily LPWA
designed a complete IoT-based security filtering out false alarms, e.g. fireworks), – because you don’t have problems with
system that monitors the transportation the exact location of the incident, the type power. But they don’t send much data –
of goods worldwide. To guarantee a high of gun used and a video recording of the usually just small alert messages – so you
security level, Bosch used complex sensors event for police records. Most importantly, don’t need high speed cellular, either.
for monitoring doors, lights, vibrations, tilt gunshot detection sensors can immediate- Which means LPWA works, less because of
angles, accelerations, as well as tempera- ly dispatch police to the area for potential- the power profile, and more because you
ture and humidity values. Determined data ly life-saving intervention,” Evans said. need cost optimized hardware, and you
will be evaluated in a highly resilient con- don’t really need such high speeds.”
trol center network featuring redundant Telematics / fleet management Stracuzzi also noted that the after-mar-
security measures. “There are many use cases around ket telematics segment includes many
“With the combination of sensors, soft- telematics. Stolen vehicle tracking and different applications, including stolen ve-
ware and services, we created a high quali- recovery is a good example – so, systems hicle tracking, stolen vehicle recovery and
ty security system that secures transported to detect if a car has been stolen, to locate continuous tracking for fleet management.
goods valued at approximately 58 million the car, and even possibly to lock the car in It also covers real-time monitoring of bat-
euros annually. Our fast detection of tem- the event it has been stolen. It works very teries, which applies to scooter and bike
pering prevents far-reaching consequen- like find-my-phone apps, just for your car. sharing, but can also be applicable to elec-
tial damage, deters criminals, minimizes Which is great value, not just for private us- tric vehicles – to connect over cellular to
negative financial impacts and enhances ers, but for car dealers to protect their fleet,” monitor the charge or health of a battery.
the customer´s reputation. We prevent said Stracuzzi of Telit. “And it must be cellu- “For positioning, you normally have sat-
drug smuggling in the multi-million euro lar – because you need a technology that is ellite positioning next to the cellular data
zone each year and the customer reputa- wireless, and also mobile – which connects communication. Most of the cellular mod-
tion has been enhanced with the customs wherever the vehicle goes. Usually these ules we sell into this space embed satellite
authorities,” Bosch said.
Gosteau of Sequans noted that the secu-
rity use case has expanded lately and has
been highlighted by the recent pandemic
that has increased the urge of people to
live more safely. “The progress in machine
learning algorithms that enable, for ex-
ample, face detection, has contributed to
making indoor and outdoor security cam-
eras a trusted source of information,” Gos-
teau said.
“Today, smart city applications include
those that can literally save lives. For ex-
ample, in Annapolis, Maryland, local law
enforcement worked with the regional util-
ity to install gunshot detection sensors in
areas with high criminal activity. By oper-
ating on the intelligent utility network, the

8
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

communication through a wireless net- data,” said Markku Moilanen, IoT product
work. The device collects GPS data as well marketing director at Ericsson.
as an array of other vehicle-specific data Moilanen added that Ericsson is seeing
and transmits it via GPRS (General Packet cellular IoT connections growing dou-
Radio Service), 4G mobile data and cellu- ble-digit annually across industries. “This
lar network or satellite communication to growth is driven by demand for connectivi-
a centralized server. The server interprets ty management of vehicles, telematics and
the data and enables it to be displayed for software updates in automotive, real-time
end users via secure websites and apps op- monitoring and tracking as well as optimi-
timized for smartphones and tablets. zation of connected fleets in transport and
The telematics data captured can include logistics,” he said.
location, speed, idling time, harsh acceler-
ation or braking, fuel consumption, vehicle Tracking / Supply chain
“Access to real-time data and faults, and more. When analyzed for partic- Jeff Eltringham, head of marketing at
onboard connectivity is helping ular events and patterns, this information SmartSense by Digi, believes that IoT and
enterprises boost profits while can provide in-depth insights across an the supply chain today go hand in hand,
unlocking new levels of effi- entire fleet, according to Verizon. adding that logistics tracking is one of the
“This use case allows to precisely know most prevalent IoT sectors. According to
ciency, sustainability, and safety
the vehicle and equipment location in order the executive, IoT supply chain technology
in online fleet management. As
to reduce their search time and save money can help managers from manufacturing to
we shift the industry into a new on all operations. It also determines usage transport and delivery to monitor logistics
gear, this use case serves as a rates and facilitates the analysis of unavail- and ultimately prevent bottlenecks in criti-
key indicator of the benefits of
123RF

ability and retention rates. Fleet tracking cal supply chain networks.
leveraging real-time data.” solutions improve ROI through reduced “Using IoT in supply chain management
inventory loss, improved productivity, en- allows logistics partners to collect and use
Markku Moilanen, IoT Product Marketing Director,
Ericsson hanced safety and theft recovery. Better data for better inventory management,
utilization of vehicles can optimize fleet transportation and incident response.
positioning in the same single module. size, saving on maintenance, operating and These capabilities set the stage for using
Cellular and GPS are always there; there are replacement costs,” said Zaitsau of Actility. machine learning models to create ad-
a few cases where you may also have Wi- “Access to real-time data and onboard vanced, responsive supply management
Fi – for example to allow some in-vehicle connectivity is helping enterprises boost solutions that predict bottlenecks, save
services, for a connection to other Wi-Fi de- profits while unlocking new levels of effi- time and money and speed incident re-
vices inside the vehicle, where the modem ciency, sustainability, and safety in online sponse,” Eltringham said in a blog post.
operates as a gateway to the internet. But fleet management. We collaborated with “Deploying IoT devices across different
it is not the most popular,” Stracuzzi added. Orange Belgium and ZF to look at their as- parts of the supply chain — from manu-
According to Verizon, a telematics sys- set tracking and operational management facturing plant floors to transportation
tem includes a vehicle tracking device in- improvements, to create more efficient and distribution center inventory systems
stalled in a vehicle that allows the sending, and cost-effective processes and safer, — offers visibility and data collection. Con-
receiving and storing of telemetry data. eco-friendly driving behaviors internation- necting these devices to IoT device man-
It connects via the vehicle’s own onboard ally. As we shift the industry into a new agement platforms centralizes that visibil-
diagnostics (ODBII) or CAN-BUS port with a gear, this use case serves as a key indica- ity and delivers real-time insights where
SIM card, and an onboard modem enables tor of the benefits of leveraging real-time they’re needed most,” Eltringham added.

9
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

“There is no other technology that can

guarantee you global tracking of ship-
ments like cellular – because the vaccine
will be in trucks, airports, ports, ships. You
can’t track with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, for ex-
ample,” said Telit’s Stracuzzi. “You have to
always sell connectivity independently
of the country where the asset is moving
around. So with LTE-M you may find plac-
es where you don’t have LTE-M coverage
yet; the same with NB-IoT. In these cases
you have two options – fallback to legacy
technologies like 2G, or future-proofed
technology like Cat-1, available wherever
you have an LTE network. NB-IoT and LTE-M
are specific technologies that must be de-
ployed by each operator in each country,” maintenance can certainly unlock new and “These are functions that can be applied
Stracuzzi added. critical capabilities enabled by IoT. This in- to other use cases across industries such as
“Everything from the COVID-19 pandemic cludes real-time data tracking and remote manufacturing, maritime and ports, utili-
to global instability has taught companies monitoring to predictive maintenance. ties and more,” he said.
the hard way that supply chains are vulner-
able to disruption from a number of factors.
More visibility, along with more transpar- IoT devices for cold chain tracking to reach
ency, security and redundancies, are all top
of mind. Leveraging IoT, we’ve seen that 9.2 million by 2026
supply chains can be more efficient and re-
The number of active IoT devices for cold chain by refrigerated intermodal containers and
silient,” said Moilanen, of Ericsson.
tracking reached 4.1 million worldwide in 2021, trailers. Tracking solutions for refrigerated rail
Moilanen noted that a clear example of
according to Swedish consultancy firm Berg freight wagons and air cargo containers are
this use case is Ericsson’s recent collabora- Insight. The calculation measures refrigerated “considerably smaller”, it notes.
tion with cold-chain management compa- cargo and cargo carrying units, including trail-
ny DeltaTrak and Deutsche Telekom, where ers, intermodal containers, rail freight wagons, Martin Backman, senior analyst at Berg In-
the Swedish vendor provided global track- air cargo containers, cargo boxes and pallets. sight, commented: “The logistics industry is
ing and monitoring for perishable food The figure will rise at a compound annual rate of currently undergoing a major transforma-
and biopharmaceutical products. “We’ve 17.4%, to reach 9.2 million by 2026, it said. tion. Accelerated by the supply chain disrup-
supported by eliminating blind spots and tions following the Covid-19 pandemic, the
allowing goods to be monitored from or- The total market value for cold chain tracking industry is now investing heavily in digital
igin to destination. This in turn will also solutions reached 720 million euros in 2021, reck- solutions that will increase visibility and se-
ons Berg. It will reach 1.2 billion euros in 2026, curity in the supply chain. Cold chain track-
help the environment,” he said.
it forecasts, with CAGR pegged at 11.4% in the ing solutions provide significant value for
The Ericsson executive also noted that
period. The report says tracking devices for gen- shippers and logistics providers by providing
IoT is continuously growing and expanding
eral refrigerated cargo applications is the largest real-time data on the location and condition
to encompass new industry verticals and market for cold-chain solutions today, followed of temperature-sensitive cargo in-transit.”
application areas. Asset tracking and smart

10
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

“Asset tracking, while well-understood, Farms can use IoT technology to track the United States, South Africa, Australia and
is a business case that still has significant status of their crops. Sensors can monitor New Zealand. Vodafone explained that
room for improvement. We were expecting soil, collecting data about its temperature, the MyFarmWeb cloud-based platform
years ago to see an exponential growth in moisture and fertility. These sensors can allows farmers to store, visualize and view
the adoption of cellular technology in this also detect weed growth, water levels and information gathered via agricultural IoT
sub-segment, but this has yet to take place. pest invasion, among other relevant infor- sensors and other data sources in the field.
An explanation for this delay can be found mation. Additionally, farms can gain a bet- The platform collects farm data to support
in the lack of business case maturity where ter understanding of their crops’ growth decision making for better soil and crop
certain key questions remain unanswered. and monitor potential threats. Through the health, effective water use, and precision
For example, how can one monetize the deployment of weather sensors, enabled fertilizer and pesticide application. This
benefits of tracking assets, and who is pay- by IoT technology, farms can eliminate cli- helps improve farm productivity and opti-
ing for what in the value chain,” Sequan’s mate surprises and plan accordingly. mizes farming practices and as a result can
Gosteau said. “A recent increase in the loss Also, autonomous farm technology can reduce greenhouse gasses, Vodafone said.
of inventory witnessed by various large have a major effect on human manpower “Another [use case] is smart agricul-
brands is expected to accelerate the adop- requirements for farms. Machines such as ture. Connecting sensors and also heavy
tion of better monitoring and tracking sys- self-driving tractors, robot seed planters equipment for agriculture, like tractors and
tems for goods,” he added. and agricultural drones can save countless connecting them with cellular to increase
hours of labor for individual farmers and the automation of everything that is relat-
Smart agriculture eliminate human error. ed to agriculture. It is another ambition.
Smart agriculture uses IoT sensors to con- Earlier this year, Vodafone Business an- This is another sector that is predicted for
nect everything from irrigation systems to nounced that it was piloting a new service growth,” said Telit’s Stracuzzi.
soil and animal production. This use case with the aim of achieving the digitization “Smart agriculture is the great unknown
seeks to maximize food production by pro- of farming across Europe by providing and the one that offers the greatest mar-
viding farmers with all the necessary data to farmers with a mobile app linked to agri- gin for competitive improvement with the
adopt good business decisions. Connected cultural IoT sensors. application of the IoT. It is a still very tradi-
ag-tech solutions help farms to reduce the Five European pilot farms in Germany, tional sector that needs to clearly see the
consumption of water, fertilizer and pesti- Ireland, Italy and Spain are currently testing return on investment before embarking
cides, to minimize soil erosion as well as add the service, dubbed MyFarmWeb, which is on digitizing and optimizing its processes.
efficiency into overall operations. already being used by 7,200 farmers in the And it is something that, as a planet, also

11
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

“Smart agriculture is the great

unknown and the one that
offers the greatest margin for Smart buildings and digital services demand. The executive
competitive improvement with In the commercial real estate market, the noted that the property sector faces seri-
the application of the IoT. It is a deployment of IoT devices can enable the ous challenges around energy usage and
still very traditional sector that measurement of different parameters like management. He highlighted that 36% of
needs to clearly see the return temperature, humidity, indoor air quality, CO2 emissions come from buildings, which
on investment before embark- occupancy, pathogens and lighting on a account for 40% of energy use, and 75%
continuous basis and transmit that infor- of all buildings are wasting much of that
ing on digitizing and optimiz-
mation to a central core to make decisions energy due to several factors. “With the
ing its processes.” enabling comfort, productivity, conve- help of IoT, energy optimization is rapidly
Alicia Asin, CEO of Libelium nience to its occupants and also financial becoming one of the most efficient ways to
savings to the landlords. IoT can help with reduce energy use, and as a result, increase
urges us. Nearly half of the world’s farm- predictive maintenance avoiding the need property value and reduce CO2 emissions,”
land is used to produce animal feed. And for unplanned downtime for its occupants Moilanen said.
that’s without counting the increase in ara- due to maintenance issues. The implemen- He added that a recent study carried out
ble land dedicated to biofuel. It is estimat- tation of IoT technology can also help in by Ericsson showed that the implemen-
ed that 4% of the world’s agricultural land reducing energy usage in the building by tation of IoT in smart buildings had the
is used for the production of biofuels. It is monitoring ambient light, temperature, potential to decrease annual energy costs
urgent to be more efficient with the arable and occupancy and autonomously adjust- by 10% and CO2 emissions by 9%, while
land that we have for food production, and ing lighting and temperature. increasing property value. “Cellular IoT
we can only achieve this through technol- According to Moilanen of Ericsson, smart connectivity can be seen as a foundational
ogy that allows us to know the use and re- buildings can help address major challeng- technology to empower smart buildings
turn of each inch of land,” said Alicia Asin, es impacting the property sector, driven and energy optimization, providing secure,
CEO of Spanish IoT firm Libelium. by urbanization, environmental concerns ubiquitous coverage for transmitting data

12
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

to and from sensors throughout indoor sensor technologies offer the opportu- and repair, or detecting a leak and auto-
and outdoor environments. And as the use nity to gather and analyze building user matically notifying an engineer,” Kinkaid
case analysis demonstrates, the financial and building systems utilization data at a had said.
benefits can be substantial,” he added. more granular level in real-time or near re- To understand how IoT sensors can im-
According to Owen Kell, senior re- al-time. The degree of sophistication of IoT prove efficiencies in buildings, we can
searcher at smart building consultancy solutions in the sector is varied, with most mention the case of Beyond Eyes, a brand
firm Memoori Research, IoT technology is organizations still at the early stages of initiated by Heijmans, a major Dutch con-
already making a significant positive con- their IoT adoption journey, focused primar- struction-services business. The firm has al-
tribution to the efficiency, safety, comfort ily on applications centered on operational ready deployed over 20,000 LoRaWAN-con-
and health outcomes of properties. “IoT cost savings, while more forward-thinking nected IoT sensors for Heijmans’ clients
organizations are going further, and using in the Netherlands, as part of their smart
the IoT to develop services that optimize building concept. Beyond Eyes uses wire-
their operations and provide new means less sensors to collect anonymous data on
for market differentiation,” Kell said.
“Over the next few years we will see a big
push in smart building technologies that
will support sustainability reporting. As
sustainability regulation starts to become
more common, property owners and oper-
ators will be required to report on building
emissions for their tenants at the same time
reducing operating expenses for the prop-
erty. 40% of global emissions are caused
by buildings and real estate. The reporting
requirements cannot be delivered without
IoT solutions,” said Corlis of KPMG.
“IoT sensor technologies offer According to Kevin Kinkaid, technology
the opportunity to gather and director at Grosvenor Group, IoT technolo-
analyze building user and build- gies provide the ability for building opera-
ing systems utilization data at a tors not only to get an insight for how their
“IoT can integrate with build-
buildings are used, but also to respond in
more granular level in real-time ings’ systems and automatically
real or near real-time. “For example, IoT
or near real-time. The degree of optimize lighting and air con-
can integrate with buildings’ systems and
sophistication of IoT solutions automatically optimize lighting and air ditioning based on occupancy
in the sector is varied, with conditioning based on occupancy data in data in particular parts of the
most organizations still at the particular parts of the building, not only building, not only providing a
early stages of their IoT adop- providing a healthier environment but also healthier environment but also
tion journey, focused primarily reducing operational costs and reducing
reducing operational costs and
carbon emissions. The continuous moni-
on applications centered on reducing carbon emissions.”
toring of IoT sensors allows data to be con-
operational cost savings.”
stantly collected, which in turn allows pre- Kevin Kinkaid, Technology Director, Grosvenor
Owen Kell, Senior Researcher, Memoori Research dictive analytics to preempt maintenance Group

13
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

IoT in smart buildings

to reach $93 billion
by 2027
The Internet of Things in Smart Buildings
(BIoT) market recovery through 2021 was
healthy, growing 21% to rise above the 2019
market total, at just over $47 billion, accord-
ing to a report by smart buildings consultan-
cy firm Memoori.

“We forecast that the market will continue

to grow at a healthy 12% CAGR, rising from
$47.07 billion in 2021 to a forecasted $92.88
billion by 2027. Our latest forecast sees the
number of connected IoT devices installed
in commercial smart buildings grow at a
healthy 11.1% CAGR for the forecast peri-
od, rising from an estimated 1.264 billion in network. The collected anonymous data whatever,” said Stracuzzi of Telit. “LPWA
2021 to over 2.5 billion by 2027,” according is then sent to the cloud where it can be technologies like Cat-M are good. 2G fall-
to Memoori. analyzed and visualized via an online plat- back is always nice to have because you
form. The firm also noted that the sensors are not sure you have LPWA technologies
“The competitive landscape for BIoT remains constantly measure activities and circum- available everywhere yet. For advertising,
incredibly complex and varied. The level of stances important for office locations, such NB-IoT works for this type of real-time in-
fragmentation we continue to observe in the
as space occupation, air quality, tempera- teraction; LTE-M works as well. Otherwise it
market can act as a source of confusion and
ture, CO2 levels, light intensity, humidity has to be Cat-1,” he said.
frustration for buyers, with many vendors of
and noise level. Stracuzzi also noted that EV charging and
point solutions and platforms vying for at-
tention. Leading platform solution providers industrial automation are also examples of
are beginning to emerge, however, and the Emerging use cases in the IoT field an IoT use case that needs to develop fur-
user base seems likely to coalesce around a The analysts and executives interviewed ther. “Some verticals are promising, even
more limited number of platform providers, for this report also described some emerg- if they haven’t taken off yet. Industry 4.0,
with those unable to maintain a sustainable ing IoT use cases that still need to define or smart manufacturing, is an example of
user base being forced to merge or withdraw specific business models with clear ROI that – which is about using wireless cellu-
from the market,” Memoori said. schemes in order to gain market traction lar technologies, mostly in private network
in the future. One of these emerging use environments, to replace wires. Today, fac-
a building’s utilization, occupation, usage cases is vending/retail. “Most vending ma- tories are all connected with wires – all the
and indoor environment. Each of these chines are connected with cellular for dif- machines in the production line are wired.
sensors, which can be mounted under ferent requirements – to ensure payments, And it is very complex to make any change,
desks, walls, and ceilings, have a unique to push advertisements on the big screens because everything is wired. The ambition
ID number and are wirelessly connected to drive sales, to monitor the status of the with a smart factory says all the machines
to a software system, using a LoRaWAN machine to know when to refill snacks or on the production line, plus some robots

14
 F E AT U R E R E P O R T

and AGVs, are all wirelessly connected. emerging use cases in the IoT space. surveillance and supply chain monitoring,
Private 5G is getting a lot of interest, even Zaitsau of Actility highlighted that there have developed considerably and are be-
if it is not something that is well deployed are “infinite” tracking-based use cases for ing increasingly adopted by companies,
today. It is more of a growth segment,” the all kind of assets, stating that even electri- especially after the challenges presented
Telit executive added. cal-pole monitoring is on the rise. by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Payment—with ATM[s], but mostly with Meanwhile, smart buildings and smart
[point of sale devices]—is an evolving mar- Conclusion agriculture have a certain degree of devel-
ket, with new players bringing additional It is clear that IoT use cases such as smart opment, although an increasing deploy-
services to the vendor and the end cus- metering and smart street lighting are ment of sensors and connectivity in these
tomer. Using cellular technology, these sys- two of the main use cases in the IoT space, two fields is yet to be seen and will affect
tems usually facilitate quicker transactions, with proven business models and a clear the full potential of these two use cases.
a centralized payment system for smooth- ROI framework for cities and utilities. An On the other hand, technology and con-
er revenue monitoring, paperless billing, additional advantage of certain use cases, nectivity providers are constantly evalu-
and more ubiquitous usage. Also, the such as smart lighting systems, is that they ating and developing new IoT-based use
eHealth and well-being market is quickly can function as platforms for the addition cases that will impact the market in the
expanding to optimize the cost of health- of new sensors and connectivity that al- coming years. The increasing availability
care by improving prevention through re- low new use cases, facilitating the devel- of sensors, new technologies, added to a
mote patient monitoring, or by facilitating opment of new applications without the clear visibility of the ROI of these cases, will
remote diagnostics and medical interven- need for large investments. bring futuristic applications to life in a wide
tions, saving lives,” said Gosteau, about the Other use cases, such as smart range of verticals.

F E AT U R E D C O M PA N I E S

About Telit: Telit is a global leader in IoT enablement with an extensive portfolio
of wireless modules, platforms, connectivity and professional services, empowering
hundreds of millions of connected ‘things’ to date.

15
 U P CO M I N G 2 0 2 3
E D I TO R I A L P R O G R A M S I N C LU D E :

JANUARY 2022

5G—is it making (enough) money yet?

The move to CI/CD requires the move to CT-continuous

testing

Need guaranteed leads? What will the wireless workforce look like in 2030?

Thought leadership?  Public cloud vs. private cloud—key operator considerations

Incremental content  APRIL 2022

marketing opportunities? The evolution of T&M in the move to disaggregated, cloud-
native networks
Sponsor an RCR Wireless / Enterprise IoT Insights multi-platform, editorial
program and receive the following benefits: When will small cell densification happen at scale?

EDITORIAL WEBINAR – sponsorship includes 250 guaranteed leads, partic-

ipation as sponsored guest, and recognition as sponsor in all promotional
materials. Sponsors will receive webinar registration and attendee list,
responses to pre / post surveys, responses to polls gathered during webinar.

EDITORIAL REPORT – in addition to recognition as sponsor in program pro-

motion, sponsorship includes 250 guaranteed leads, distinct from webinar
leads, one-page ad spread or advertorial in feature report, and responses to
lead capture survey questions.

25% discount when you sponsor two or more programs.

For information contact: [email protected]

Fast facts about RCR Wireless:

382,000 monthly page views
170,000 unique monthly visitors to websites
81,000+ opt in newsletter subscribers
220,526 monthly video minutes
45,000 leads generated annually
Industry leading demand generation programs and results

DIGITAL INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS: SMART LIGHTING DIGITAL FACTORY SOLUTIONS: AUGMENTED REALITY DIGITAL INDUSTRY SOLUTIONS: SHORT + LONG RANGE IOT

Better together -
SMART
MARCH 2020 JULY 2020

LIGHTING SHORT
as a
INDUSTRIAL AR & ONG
APRIL 2020

PLATFORM
– for smart buildings and smart cities,
- and the rise of the workers
How augmented reality is transforming
RANGE
– the sudden clamour for hybrid IoT
IOT
and how use cases, strategies production, and raising the influence systems and why short and long
and solutions compare of workers in the robot age range IoT make a tailored fit
by James Blackman by James Blackman
by James Blackman, editor, Enterprise IoT Insights Editor, Enterprise IoT Insights
Editor, Enterprise IoT Insights

Each program is limited to three (3) sponsors

www.rcrwireless.com/category/free-reports