IoT applications in connected vehicles use wireless networks to communicate with other vehicles, road and traffic infrastructure, cellular networks, the cloud, other devices, and pedestrians. Each IoT application has its unique set of network connectivity requirements and each network technology has its strengths and weaknesses.
There are two types of wireless network technologies available – long-range cellular (3G, 4G, 5G, LPWAN) and dedicated short-range such as Wi-Fi. Although Wi-Fi is quite popular, its reliability and security remain a significant challenge. Consequently, long-range cellular networks such as Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) are growing in popularity. LPWAN is ideal for low bandwidth IoT applications that do not consume large amounts of data. There are many networks available with LPWAN technology and of all options, narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) and category M1 (Cat-M1) have emerged as the preferred ones. Both these network technologies are 3GPP-standardised and supported by an established ecosystem. This means they can be deployed and scaled rapidly, and are interoperable across different network providers in the region.
NB-IoT is designed for simple IoT devices such as parking sensors that require small, intermittent data transmissions with low latency. It is less costly, consumes less power, and provides high reliability in areas with coverage challenges. Cat-M1, also known as LTE-M, on the other hand, is a complementary technology to NB-IoT and is ideal for transferring low to medium amounts of data at a longer range. It offers fast enough bandwidth to serve as a replacement for many current 2G and 3G IoT applications.
Long-range cellular network technologies such as 3G, 4G, and 5G, on the other hand, offer reliable broadband communication but come with high operational costs and power requirements. While these are not suitable for battery-operated sensor networks, they are ideal for applications such as infotainment systems, traffic routing, driver assistance systems, and fleet tracking and management systems as they rely on ubiquitous and high bandwidth cellular connectivity.
Next-generation 5G networks offer a range of bandwidth, latency, and capacity benefits that are expected to advance the development of fully autonomous vehicles. As IoT evolves, 5G’s ability to support a large number of connections simultaneously while improving speed, latency, reliability, and power consumption will be key. That said, as a much larger number of devices are connected through 5G, vulnerability to attacks will increase. Therefore, good IoT security practices are required to mitigate threats to the network.
