Generic 5G Infrastructure for IoT Ecosystem

Abstract

While the Internet of Things (IoT) is still gaining rapid adoption in an upward trajectory means across many smart areas in recent years, still, there is a need to develop a scalable ecosystem that is able to support future IoT implementations, given the heterogeneity and increased information flow among IoT devices. The lack of effective interoperability, availability, reliability, and performance in IoT are a few challenges that hinder the effectiveness of IoT deployment and communication, and this has acted as a stumbling block for the optimisation of IoT platforms. That notwithstanding, the advent of the Fifth Generation (5G) networks, has seen a significant shift on how the IoT-paradigm operates. This article introduces a discussion on the generic 5G infrastructure for IoT environment that can support future deployments. The article begins by conducting a technical review of the evolution of the First generation (1G) through 5G cellular networks. Thereafter, an illustration of the Fourth Generation (4G) architecture, stating its features as a precedent that shows to what extent 5G network may thrive or support IoT ecosystems, is given. Furthermore, the paper explores both the architectural requirements and futuristic vision of 5G infrastructure in the perspective of IoT applications. Most importantly, the paper has also explored the IoT market share and forecast on growth and how it affects different industrial sectors. The authors believe that the conclusions that have been made in this paper will act as a pacesetter and give a direction worth exploring once the 5G infrastructure for IoT ecosystems is implemented.