GEORGE MALIM IoT & FIBRE
After a decade or more of over-hyped predictions mass-market IoT is now a reality. Wireless connectivity is the critical enabler of IoT use cases but these increasingly rely on fibre to connect edge devices and provide backhaul at low latency between cellular, Wi-Fi or other low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies. The vast growth in IoT communication and the need to support low latency edge intelligence and AI means the robust, mass-scale, low latency capabilities of fibre make it critical IoT infrastructure, writes George Malim . -IN SPITE OF THE MOBILE HYPE FIBRE IS THE FUNDAMENTAL ENABLER OF FUTURE IoT
R esearch firm IoT Analytics reports that the number of connected IoT devices at the end of 2024 was set to reach 18.8 billion and the firm projects this will grow to 40 billion by 2030. IoT is often thought of as exclusively reliant on wireless connectivity but the firm’s research found there were 23.4 billion wired IoT end nodes globally in 2023. IoT Analytics defines wired end nodes as devices with sensor capabilities that rely on other devices for internet connectivity via wired network connections. The firm reports that of the 16.6 billion IoT connections it identified in 2023, 0.7 billion were wired IoT aggregation nodes, such as gateways, PLCs, IPCs, I/O primaries and routers. These equal 4% of the total IoT connections and the firm reports that the average aggregation node had 33 wired end nodes in 2023. This is set to increase to 40 wired end nodes per aggregation node by 2030 because of industrial and consumer IoT growth. This will place even greater loads on fibre infrastructure for IoT. WIRED FOR FUTURE GROWTH “Fibre is the invisible infrastructure powering the visible impact of IoT,” says Steve Roberts, the senior vice president of network investment and project manager at Exa Infrastructure. “As billions of sensors and devices come online, the real challenge isn’t just device
connectivity - it’s reliably transporting high volumes of data to where it will be processed, stored and used.” How and when fibre is used is dependent on the IoT use cases it is selected to support. “The role of fibre in the deployment of IoT will depend largely on specific use cases,” confirms Dan Blackwell, the product manager for Network & Security at Pulsant. “IoT devices vary widely from basic, non- critical applications in our homes to increasingly complex systems embedded in critical infrastructure. As technology evolves, we’re seeing IoT devices being used in environments such as hospitals, manufacturing plants, and vehicles.” “This is where fibre plays a key role,” he adds. “Its ability to transmit data at the speed of light provides the most reliable and fastest means of communication. However, speed alone isn’t enough. Latency is equally important and to reduce latency, it’s crucial to minimise the distance data must travel.” FIBRE-RICH USE CASES Emerging use cases, such as AI and automation, are igniting demand for very high capacity fibre backbones, as Blackwell acknowledges: “The volume of data being generated is set to rise at an unprecedented rate, especially with the integration of AI and the automation it enables. To handle this surge in data traffic, fibre connectivity will be essential. We’re already seeing network carriers upgrading their infrastructure to support 800Gb fibre backbones, with
even greater capacity expected in the near future.” It’s easy to imagine that fibre connectivity is only utilised to support static IoT devices but the reality is that fibre is an essential enabler of low latency connectivity over distances for wireless IoT devices. “We have seen use cases for IoT deployments that require sub 5ms latency for data processing, but the applications couldn’t be located on-site and needed to be in an edge data centre,” adds Blackwell. “This led to the deployment of a dedicated fibre connection between the data centre and premises of the IoT devices. This enabled the low latency required for the real-time applications in use.” FIXED TARGETS FOR IoT Greater numbers of fixed IoT devices are being deployed, which fibre can readily serve. “While the focus in IoT is often on wireless access, much of the data ultimately needs to travel over fibre,” says Roberts. “We’re seeing fibre used increasingly to connect an array of devices, including smart grids and energy monitoring systems, rail and roadside infrastructure, and port and airport IoT systems.” In addition to static, wired IoT devices, fibre has a clear and substantial role in the mobile backhaul that supports wireless IoT connectivity. “Mobile backhaul is absolutely a part of the equation, especially as 5G drives dense, low-latency networks for industrial IoT,” he confirms. “We see fibre’s role as
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| ISSUE 41 | Q2 2025
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