Diversity of Operator
5. MANUFACTURING
3.8.3 IoT economics
3.8.2.1 NB-IoT and LTE-M as futureproof IoT Investment into NB-IoT and LTE-M today is already an investment into 5G massive IoT
Massive IoT connectivity based on low power wide area (LPWA) networks will become a less expensive, less complex and an energy-efficient foundation for building future intelligent 5G managed services.
One of the most important enterprise considerations for any technology investment is its durability and the openness of its ecosystem. The majority of IoT business cases require a long-term deployment of connected sensors and devices that can be managed remotely and can last for many years without replacement. With the first 5G networks now being planned, some potential customers for NB-IoT and LTE-M have been hesitant to deploy the technology, believing 5G could make it obsolete.
In reality, the opposite is true: 3GPP has agreed that the LPWA use cases will continue to be addressed by incorporating LTE-M and NB-IoT as part of the 5G specifications, so confirming the long term status of both LTE-M and NB-IoT as 5G standards. Massive IoT
is expected to be backward compatible, with software upgrades that would support transition to massive IoT without disrupting the IoT business case.
3.8.2.2 IoT ‘long tail’ as a driving force
“IoT out of the box” will drive the long tail of industrial and consumer applications
The early adoption of IoT has been driven by large enterprises, but the large-scale deployment will accelerate when IoT becomes ingrained in the long tail of industrial and consumer applications and services, many of which are developed by small- and medium- size enterprises. Adoption of cellular IoT solutions in this segment will be driven by the mobile industry’s ability to support open innovation, and open source prototyping and development.
The foundation for diverse IoT applications is laid on the existing 4G networks, where LPWA NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies already support the functionality of massive IoT and private LTE networks are used by enterprise customers. The launch of SA 5G networks will enhance the LTE functionality and give extra boost to the growth of IoT applications.
3.8.3.1 Competition in the IoT ecosystem Operators will differentiate with a secure, neutral service IoT proposition
Operators will not be alone in competing for the industrial IoT market. Firstly, mobile IoT will coexist and compete with other access technologies such as Wi-Fi, LPWA networks and satellite. Secondly, the management of private 5G networks is equally attractive to systems integrators, enterprise-focussed vendors, and enterprise customers themselves.
To compete effectively, operators should plan to provide IoT connectivity solutions enhanced with additional capabilities, such as MEC, AI and security-
as-a-service that can cater to both the short-range and long-range Industrial IoT network requirements.
Operators’ unique proposition is in secure management of diverse 5G connectivity options, combined with a variety of services such as cellular grade security and analytics, moving from providing data services to control services.
Importantly, operators do not need to wait until 2020.
Their portfolios of managed enterprise IoT services can be built using 4G IoT, and later enhanced and expanded with 5G building on the established enterprise
relationships and opening new value-added revenue opportunities.
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3.8.3.2 IoT value chain
Operators will increase their role in the IoT value chain in the 5G era
New network capabilities will create more IoT opportunities for operators, in addition to the many IoT use cases that can and are being addressed using today’s existing technologies. A typical example of the value chain for an IoT service is illustrated in Figure 3.8.2
For operators, the IoT opportunity is about adding many more connections, as well as capturing value from parts of the IoT value chain beyond connectivity.
Connectivity revenues represent the main opportunity for operators in IoT today and this opportunity will continue to grow as billions of additional connections are brought on stream. By 2025, however, GSMAi
forecasts the share of connectivity revenue in the total IoT revenue will decline to 17%, while Service Enablement, including Applications and Platforms, is forecast to generate 57% of the total, and Professional Services and Business Solutions 26%.
This “Forward Integration” opportunity should see operators take on more roles in enabling IoT services, and where feasible, offering IoT business solutions.
Among these are analytics/Big Data, real time control/
telematics, and autonomous driving capabilities. The new roles are outlined in Figure 3.8.3, and analysed in detail in the GSMA report titled “Opportunities in the IoT: Evolving roles for mobile operators.”
Likewise, operators could backward integrate and take advantage of opportunities in new areas.
5G Value Creation and Capture
FIGURE 3.8.2
OPERATOR ROLE IN THE IOT VALUE CHAIN
TRANSPORT LOGISTICS HEALTH MANUFACTURING
TRANSFORM
EMPOWER
CONNECT CHIP / MODULE
> $400bn
TARGETABLE REVENUE OPPORTUNITY BY 2025
INDUSTRY VERTICALS / SECTORS
HORIZONTAL APIs & ENABLERS
5G ACCESS & CORE NETWORK
DEVICE / MACHINE CONNECTIVITY SERVICE ENABLEMENT BUSINESS SOLUTIONS Default operator role
‘Backward Integration’ opportunity
‘Forward Integration’ opportunity
IoT Prime Contrator
Big Data, Analytics & AI
Vertical Specialisation Ecosystem Orchestration
IoT Infrastructure
Network Slicing MEC AI IoT Other 5G era tools/enablers
IoT Security IoT Service Management
IoT Connectivity
Breadth of Portfolio
IoT Foundation IoT Service Enablement IoT Solutions
Operator Roles Transformation
Vision
TRANSPORT LOGISTICS HEALTH MANUFACTURING
TRANSFORM
EMPOWER
CONNECT CHIP / MODULE
> $400bn
TARGETABLE REVENUE OPPORTUNITY BY 2025
INDUSTRY VERTICALS / SECTORS
HORIZONTAL APIs & ENABLERS
5G ACCESS & CORE NETWORK
DEVICE / MACHINE CONNECTIVITY SERVICE ENABLEMENT BUSINESS SOLUTIONS Default operator role
‘Backward Integration’ opportunity
‘Forward Integration’ opportunity
IoT Prime Contrator
Big Data, Analytics & AI
Vertical Specialisation Ecosystem Orchestration
IoT Infrastructure
Network Slicing MEC AI IoT Other 5G era tools/enablers
IoT Security IoT Service Management
IoT Connectivity
Breadth of Portfolio
IoT Foundation IoT Service Enablement IoT Solutions
Operator Roles Transformation
Vision FIGURE 3.8.3
OPERATOR ROLE TRANSFORMATION
THE 5G GUIDE
139 5G Value Creation and Capture
5G Value Enablers – Resilient Networks
& Services 3.9
KEY TAKEAWAYS
• Resilience will be a major strategic and business enabler in the 5G era and will play out in different ways for different services.
• Operators will need to create value propositions to customers based on clear understanding of service availability and reliability.
• 5G networks should recognise that different use cases may require different service levels, especially during atypical operating scenarios.
• Operators need tools and processes to reassure customers that 5G will deliver on its value proposition and SLA.
• Operators need a secure way to authorise devices and to block devices en masse.
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Studies show that the cost, to society, of poor internet connection can be high and many 5G era use cases could fail to materialise if operators cannot assure network and service resilience. A 2015 UK study by Daisy Group suggests that the cost to the economy can be as high as £11billion, equating to about 31% of the total annual revenues of the UK’s fixed and mobile operators. This is the context to the importance of resilience to creating and capturing value in the 5G era.
A resilient system provides and maintains an adequate level of service in normal and abnormal operating scenarios, including in the event of a fault. In this context, resilience is an all-encompassing concept and covers other attributes such as reliability; availability;
survivability; consistency; quality management; Six Sigma, etc. It also covers the traditional approaches from systems, safety and reliability engineering.
Many operators have already embraced the Total Quality Management (TQM) methodologies that came from the manufacturing industries (e.g. operators now routinely use
Six Sigma to improve their service delivery and business processes ). While much of the focus on resilience has been at the service level, the 5G era will need a similar push at the network level to fully enable value creation and capture for operators.
Resilience will be a major strategic and business enabler in the 5G era and operators will need to create value propositions for customers based on clear understanding of service availability and reliability. For example, Table 3.9.1 illustrates the different levels of network availability and the type of use cases that can be supported.
It is important to stress that operator-run 5G networks using licensed spectrum will already be more resilient than alternative networks run on unlicensed spectrum or managed by organisations without the scale or competence to run critical infrastructure.
This section groups the considerations for network and service resilience into predictive resilience, preventive resilience and corrective resilience.