Making the Connection Between 5G and IoT-Enabled Devices

It’s only natural with the expansion of 5G that an expected domino effect is following in its wake. All successful 5G deployments will need to interface with a growing array of IoT devices. And, to do that, 5G and IoT networks will need the right supporting technology to maximize data flow and operations.

Dan Gorsage, Director of Sales and New Business Development for Amphenol’s Mobile Consumer Products Group, shared his insights on how connector and antenna solutions will support the future of 5G-enabled IoT.

Gorsage said that in the first wave of 5G, mobile, phone and fix-based wireless networks seem to be the primary focus, but IoT will gain more traction soon. And, with IoT, there are additional considerations.

“When I think of IoT, I think of the hardware piece of this,” Gorsage said. “You have sensors, you have an antenna and you have connectors. The segment that this passes through would be from some device, whether it’s wearable or out in the field somewhere, passing through some gateway or hub and finally ending up in a data center where it will be analyzed. All the algorithms come through, pass back through, and give some intelligence to that, whether it’s artificial or direct intelligence. So, the intersecting of this 5G and IoT, I look at them side by side a little bit, but there’s certainly going to be that integration.”

And for Amphenol’s part, sensors, connectors, and antennas are their jam. And in the back-hall data systems, Amphenol makes cable connectors and fiber optics for all those use cases.

And while the promise of 5G is exciting, Gorsage said some limitations require addressing to unlock its full potential.

“Because it’s short-range and such a high frequency, it’s a line of sight,” Gorsage said. So, thinking about an antenna for those applications, you’re going to need, maybe 1,000x to cover a certain area, because you need the line of sight and because of the distance that it can only travel.”

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