IoT growth in 2022

Steven Hegenderfer, senior director of developer ecosystems at Semtech Corporation, a global supplier of high-performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms shares his 2022 predictions.

Biden Infrastructure Plan for Smart Cities will Elevate Need for IoT Technology

"With President Biden’s infrastructure plan, we are sure to see a major investment in smart cities and smart municipalities. In conjunction with that, there will be a massive surge in the expansion of the Internet of Things. When it comes to infrastructure, many think of roads and bridges, but it’s much more holistic. There are utilities, electricity, and gas to consider, all of which have come to rely on IoT technologies. We anticipate massive growth in many of these technologies, not just LoRaWAN. In fact, this surge has already begun. For example, the city of San Jose, California, has partnered with a blockchain-based provider to extend the city’s broadband access. In exchange, the city is now hosting and expanding its peer-to-peer IoT network infrastructure. That said I do think that this transition will take time because public and private partnerships are going to be required to make it happen. Regardless, given the advantages of deploying a LoRaWAN network, we expect to see an increasing number of developers looking at these types of solutions for smart cities. (What are those advantages, you might ask. Key among them is that once deployed, it can be used for any number of applications.) The challenge for developers will be in ramping up on the technologies needed to put this plan into action. For instance, foundational to LoRa is it's long-range. This means that significantly fewer repeaters and gateways are needed to cover a city that is required with traditional technologies. Additionally, LoRa is very robust in how it responds to interference, and LoRaWAN sensors use less energy than other sensors, making them more efficient. With the direction of Biden’s [high-tech] infrastructure plans in the United States, and the advantages of LPWAN (and LoRaWAN in particular), I expect a lot of great things for this year.

Brownfield Industries will continue to see the most IoT growth in 2022

"2022 will see advancements in ‘brownfield’ industries. These are industries with legacy, stand-alone machines, and processes, such as in the manufacturing and utility sectors, that weren’t created with connectivity in mind. Players in brownfield industries already have large install bases of machines that have no way of reporting status or other pertinent data. These industries have long been looking at developing IoT solutions, and most are prototyping now. The goal is to get data to flow between large manufacturing machines that have been operating for decades to improve the manufacturing processes. However, these manufacturers aren’t going to replace well-running equipment. That being the case, they need to find a way to work with the equipment they already have. Manufacturers also want to keep their data on-premise, which is why I envision LoRa and LoRaWAN technologies being used for brownfield opportunities. LoRaWAN solutions allow manufacturers to add LoRa-enabled sensors, stand up their own networks, and keep their data on-premise. LoRa-enabled sensors are durable, don’t require much maintenance, and have low battery footprints. These characteristics make them ideal for manufacturing purposes. I can also see these technologies being used in brownfield industries because, in most of these environments, equipment often needs to be retrofitted. In the new year, we will continue to see more pilot deployments go into production to help these industries gather the data they need to improve their processes and in return, their bottom lines.”