3 ms·

Spectral efficiency is super important. Especially with IoT, because there are going to be so many devices. Trying to do that with old pager network bandwidth

Spectral efficiency is super important. Especially with IoT, because there are going to be so many devices. Trying to do that with old pager network bandwidth would quickly overload the network.

Retric 7y ago
IoT is really several different kinds of devices. Many of which are extremely low bandwidth. When you’re talking a few per hour, spectrum bandwidth is simply a non issue.
- icebraining 7y ago
  A single device may be low bandwidth, but what about when you have thousands of such devices in a single apartment building?
  - Retric 7y ago
    100 bits per hour * 10,000 devices = 278 bits per second. That’s significantly less than the equivalent of a single cellphone per apartment building.
    - magduf 7y ago
      You're assuming they all spread out their communications evenly. What if they all want to send out a status update message on the hour?
      - Retric 7y ago
        That one of the reasons for the random delays are for in most network protocols. However, 10,000 devices sending 100 bits over say 10 seconds is still only 100kbps.
jake_morrison 7y ago
I am not talking about using the pager network for that, I am talking about the 2G network. I am not opposed to using more efficient network protocols, more that we are endlessly replacing old technologies with completely new systems. The selling point of 3G/4G/5G has been that they will have more bandwidth, so people can watch videos or use self driving cars. What is more interesting to me is embedding cheap low-bandwidth smarts in more devices. The costs of the new and immature hardware gets in the way of that.
- icebraining 7y ago
  Handling a large number of IoT devices has definitively been one of the major selling points of 5G.
- Foivos 7y ago
  One of the goals of 4G/5G is to allow for the coexistence of high bandwidth devices with IoT. I agree that at this point the cost of cellular IoT is higher than it should and the technology is immature. In the long term though, it would be a better choice than keeping a 2G network.
- zamadatix 7y ago
  > The selling point of 3G/4G/5G has been that they will have more bandwidth, so people can watch videos or use self driving cars. In the cellphone commercial sure but in technical reality it's about device density. There is only one set of airspace and only certain chunks are useful for where we want to communicate; getting the most devices able to communicate has been the leading driver of RF planning and design for quite some time now. Bandwidth usually materializes out of a combination of more "slots" to talk and simply not using restrictions needed for 20 year old consumer hardware.

Spectral efficiency is super important. Especially with IoT, because there are going to be so many devices. Trying to do that with old pager network bandwidth would quickly overload the network.

Retric 7y ago

IoT is really several different kinds of devices. Many of which are extremely low bandwidth. When you’re talking a few per hour, spectrum bandwidth is simply a non issue.

icebraining 7y ago
A single device may be low bandwidth, but what about when you have thousands of such devices in a single apartment building?
- Retric 7y ago
  100 bits per hour * 10,000 devices = 278 bits per second. That’s significantly less than the equivalent of a single cellphone per apartment building.
  - magduf 7y ago
    You're assuming they all spread out their communications evenly. What if they all want to send out a status update message on the hour?
    - Retric 7y ago
      That one of the reasons for the random delays are for in most network protocols. However, 10,000 devices sending 100 bits over say 10 seconds is still only 100kbps.

jake_morrison 7y ago

I am not talking about using the pager network for that, I am talking about the 2G network. I am not opposed to using more efficient network protocols, more that we are endlessly replacing old technologies with completely new systems. The selling point of 3G/4G/5G has been that they will have more bandwidth, so people can watch videos or use self driving cars. What is more interesting to me is embedding cheap low-bandwidth smarts in more devices. The costs of the new and immature hardware gets in the way of that.

icebraining 7y ago
Handling a large number of IoT devices has definitively been one of the major selling points of 5G.
Foivos 7y ago
One of the goals of 4G/5G is to allow for the coexistence of high bandwidth devices with IoT. I agree that at this point the cost of cellular IoT is higher than it should and the technology is immature. In the long term though, it would be a better choice than keeping a 2G network.
zamadatix 7y ago
> The selling point of 3G/4G/5G has been that they will have more bandwidth, so people can watch videos or use self driving cars. In the cellphone commercial sure but in technical reality it's about device density. There is only one set of airspace and only certain chunks are useful for where we want to communicate; getting the most devices able to communicate has been the leading driver of RF planning and design for quite some time now. Bandwidth usually materializes out of a combination of more "slots" to talk and simply not using restrictions needed for 20 year old consumer hardware.