5G cellular networks are reshaping the communication landscape of the Internet of Things. Their ultra-low latency (theoretically minimum 1 millisecond) and high reliability (99.999% availability) are bringing about a revolution in industrial automation. For instance, after Siemens’ Amberg factory in Germany adopted 5G to replace traditional Wi-Fi, the collaboration delay of robotic arms was reduced from 100 milliseconds to 10 milliseconds, the downtime due to faults was decreased by 40%, and each production line saved $230,000 in maintenance costs annually. Relying on the uRLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication) technology defined by the 3GPP R16 standard, 5G cellular networks have increased the predictive maintenance accuracy to 98% and extended the equipment lifespan by approximately 15%, far exceeding the 85% accuracy rate in the 4G era.
At the connection density level, the 5G cellular network’s capacity to accommodate millions of devices per square kilometer (ten times that of 4G) empowers new scenarios in smart cities. After the deployment of the 5G NB-IoT street lamp system in the Qianhai area of Shenzhen, a single base station can manage 5,000 terminals, energy consumption is reduced by 35% (the annual power consumption of a single lamp is reduced from 230 KWH to 150 KWH), and the municipal lighting budget is reduced by 28%. According to ABI Research, the global price of 5G Internet of Things modules has dropped to $15 in 2023 (a 60% decrease compared to 2020), driving the penetration rate of consumer-level applications such as smart locks for shared bikes to exceed 40%, and reducing the positioning accuracy error from 10 meters to 1 meter.
5G network slicing technology has created customized virtual private networks and achieved breakthrough applications in the medical field. The cardiac monitoring system of Ruijin Hospital in Shanghai, relying on 5G cellular network slicing, has increased the real-time electrocardiogram transmission rate of patients to 50Mbps (five times that of 4G), and compressed the diagnostic response time to 200 milliseconds. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, this system expanded the coverage of remote monitoring by 300% and reduced the misdiagnosis rate to 0.7%. Meanwhile, the battery life of medical equipment has been extended to 5 years (power consumption <1W), and the annual operation and maintenance cost of a single monitoring terminal has been saved by 1,200 yuan.
Innovations in spectrum resources have significantly enhanced transmission efficiency. After the US operator Verzion deployed the millimeter-wave frequency band (26GHz/28GHz), the control command transmission rate of factory AGVs reached 4Gbps (8 times faster than the Sub-6GHz frequency band), generating an additional annual output value of 4 million US dollars for every 100 AGVs. However, it is necessary to pay attention to the challenges pointed out in the “2023 Global 5G Internet of Things White Paper” : The coverage radius of millimeter-wave base stations is only 150 meters (1/5 of Sub-6GHz), and a 60% increase in base station density is required, which leads to a 35% increase in the initial construction cost of projects such as smart farms.
Safety and compliance have become key considerations. The EU ENISA report shows that the virtualization architecture introduced by 5G cellular networks has expanded the attack surface by 40%. However, the quantum key distribution technology jointly developed by Huawei and Vodafone successfully defended against 99.6% of targeted attacks in the 2023 London Smart Grid project, reducing the risk of data leakage to 0.03%. With the strengthening of UE identity authentication by the 3GPP R17 standard, the efficiency of device network access authorization has increased by 80%, and the end-to-end encryption delay of V2X communication in the Internet of Vehicles has stabilized within 5 milliseconds.
Looking at the overall situation, 5G cellular networks are driving the upgrade of Industry 4.0 through revolutionary parameter improvements (latency <10ms, rate >100Mbps, connection density >10⁶/km²). The application at BMW’s Leipzig plant shows that 5G private networks have reduced the model change time of flexible production lines by 70% and lowered the product defect rate to 0.15%. Despite the challenges of spectrum allocation (only 40% of countries worldwide release mid-frequency resources) and energy efficiency (the power consumption of a single base station is three times higher than that of 4G), Nokia predicts that the number of 5G iot connections will reach 1.9 billion by 2025 (with a compound annual growth rate of 67%), verifying its inevitability as the cornerstone of iot communication.