Digitalization / Technology

5G and Industrial Internet of Things (IoT)

3 December 2019

As the original texts are written in Turkish, English translation is provided for non-Turkish readers. The author apologizes in advance for any and all possible changes and losses in meaning due to translation.

The fifth generation of mobile communication (5G) will certainly trigger a remarkable change in our lives. What first comes to mind is faster mobile communication, but this is only a minor aspect of 5G. Companies will be able to establish much more perfect and uninterrupted connection between machines, while also making production facilities and internal logistics a lot more efficient, autonomous and flexible.

Before discussing what 5G is or how it will affect our daily lives, I would like to indicate the concept of wideband or high-speed networks. The humankind has always attached priority and importance on building roads, constructing bridges even at the first stages of our common civilization in order to bring geographies and cultures closer. This was how we could ensure communication, improve trade, converge and connect people, incidents and ideas. I believe it is important to use the same perspective to evaluate the popular high-speed and network connectivity issues related to 5G.

It would be appropriate imagining 5G as a global wireless network designed to connect all public / private domains and manufacturing sites – from government offices to residences, plazas and municipalities, from automated shelf systems to robots, etc. Today, many of the machinery and tools in production facilities are still connected via cables. However, with the new 5G communication standard to become operational in 2020, this will definitely change soon. At first, the data rate will be 1 to 5 gigabits per second and eventually increase up to 20 gigabits per second. This is a huge leap to increase the data rate by 10 to 20 times compared to the previous LTE.

While offering us opportunities for faster communication, greater business development and trade, 5G also brings along a security risk, in a very similar way as the roads and bridges do. That is exactly the point where cybersecurity emerges. We need to put new approaches forward to be able to keep the economic traffic secure. Cybersecurity is no longer a matter of hardware and software. Given the recent recent publicly reported global cyberattacks, it is vital to adopt a human-focused approach and to reflect this approach in our corporate culture if we want to prevent any potential risks.

I am one of those who believe that the internet is a great structure for free flow of information. However, we shouldn’t ignore the value of data as we focus on the value of the content. Yes, we sometimes do exactly that. According to BARC independent research company, as the revenues of corporations using Big Data increase by 8 to 10 percent, total costs fall 10 percent as well. Even if we put aside the extra employment to be created by data-focused jobs, time savings alone will result in focusing more on core functions of the business world and producing more creative results. Thus, 5G offers very valuable

No matter our focus is, our true goal is always to seek the new and to search for innovations. 5G will contribute greatly to the quest and support the emergence of the “new”. Therefore, we need to be ready for this development and to take action in terms of finding out how to benefit from the opportunities of 5G and how to adapt to the new world.

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