To meet various needs, based on 5G, smartphones, specialized IoT devices and new battery-free environmental IoT devices have been developed.
The evolution of 5G devices includes a dynamic shift in connectivity that will transform industries and empower people.
Chris Pearson, president of 5G America, highlighted the diversity of 5G devices.
Based on data from the document: „The evolution of devices to adopt 5G”, Pearson pointed out that smartphones are now everywhere, with reduced capacity and environmental IoT devices without batteries leading the way.
The device ecosystem is growing rapidly:
- AR glasses (augmented reality);
- Voice activated devices and specialized IoT technologies.
These advances are transforming industries, improving communication and enabling remote healthcare.
As 5G reshapes the world’s communications, device functionality will be critical.
Aspects such as mobility, bandwidth, size, accessibility, cost, security, coverage, battery life and radio access technology affect the design and operation of 5G devices for various applications.
Reduced capacity devices
Initially, 5G new radio technology focused on optimized mobile broadband (eMBB) applications. Later, 3GPP introduced specifications for reduced capacity (abbreviated as redcap) in Release 17 to address low transmission rate, cost, and energy efficiency use cases.
These devices offer a balanced solution for data rate, latency and battery life.
Environmental IoT devices run exclusively on energy extracted from their environment, thus eliminating the need for batteries.
Characterized by small size, low cost and very low power consumption, they are used in various fields such as inventory management and environmental sensors.
Brian Daly, AT&T’s assistant vice president and co-leader of the briefing paper, explained that he classified devices based on several factors, emphasizing optimization for IoT applications based on complexity, efficiency and effectiveness.
„Overall, the emerging landscape of 5G devices offers exciting opportunities for IoT, RE and beyond,” he commented.