The term “Internet of Things” can be used to describe a huge range of different technologies, from sensors to gateways to back-end systems that organize data and keep machine-to-machine networks secure. Lots of attention is rightly paid to the way IoT systems gather data and how it moves from place to place. However, for some parts of the IoT, the issue of how to keep sensors powered may be just as important.Particularly in the case of IoT systems that feature small sensors and sensors that might be far away from each other or from the rest of the system, energy usage is a critical concern, because traditional wired power may simply not be an option.To read this article in full, please click here
The Federal Communicatins Commission’s auction of priority access licenses (PAL) on Citizen’s Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum came to an end this week, raising more than $4.58 billion from bandwidth that could be used to support 5G wireless.
5G resources
What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones
How 5G frequency affects range and speed
Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t
Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling
5G can make for cost-effective private backhaul
CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises
The 271 qualified bidders chased 22,631 individual licenses – seven for each county in the U.S., each license representing a 10MHz-wide piece of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band.To read this article in full, please click here
The Federal Communicatins Commission’s auction of priority access licenses (PAL) on Citizen’s Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum came to an end this week, raising more than $4.58 billion from bandwidth that could be used to support 5G wireless.
5G resources
What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones
How 5G frequency affects range and speed
Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t
Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling
5G can make for cost-effective private backhaul
CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises
The 271 qualified bidders chased 22,631 individual licenses – seven for each county in the U.S., each license representing a 10MHz-wide piece of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band.To read this article in full, please click here
Equipment vendors and carriers have talked a great game about 5G's promise. Its ability to handle the high-density wireless environments created by IoT deployments and provide gigabit speeds to smartphones has been trumpeted from the rooftops.
5G resources
What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones
How 5G frequency affects range and speed
Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t
Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling
CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises
But it's important to realize that the most eye-catching capabilities of 5G technology aren't here yet, as many of them depend on the 5G New Radio (NR) technology operating at high, millimeter-wave frequencies, which isn't yet widely available. Nor are the vast majority of endpoints currently on the market able to communicate on those sorts of networks.To read this article in full, please click here
The FCC's Auction 105 continues into its third week Monday, having sold off more than $2.4 billion worth of priority access to the Citizen's Broadband Radio Service since kicking off on July 23.
5G resources
What is 5G? Fast wireless technology for enterprises and phones
How 5G frequency affects range and speed
Private 5G can solve some problems that Wi-Fi can’t
Private 5G keeps Whirlpool driverless vehicles rolling
5G can make for cost-effective private backhaul
CBRS can bring private 5G to enterprises
CBRS is a hot topic in the wireless world for several reasons, not least of which is its unique three-tiered access system that carries with it the potential for an almost endless array of new services. Enterprises can use the spectrum – which sits between 3550MHz and 3700MHz – to roll their own IoT networks, MSPs can offer various services like smart buildings, and the carriers can fold it into their networks.To read this article in full, please click here
Experts differ on whether older connected medical devices or newer ones are more to blame for making healthcare networks more vulnerable to cyberattack.The classic narrative of insecure IoT centers on the integration of older devices into the network. In some industries, those devices pre-date the internet, sometimes by a considerable length of time, so it’s hardly surprising that businesses face a lot of challenges in securing them against remote compromise.To read this article in full, please click here
A set of serious network security vulnerabilities collectively known as Ripple20 roiled the IoT landscape when they came to light last week, and the problems they pose for IoT-equipped businesses could be both dangerous and difficult to solve.Ripple20 was originally discovered by Israel-based security company JSOF in September 2019. It affects a lightweight, proprietary TCP/IP library created by a small company in Ohio called Treck, which has issued a patch for the vulnerabilities. Several of those vulnerabilities would allow for remote-code execution, allowing for data theft, malicious takeovers and more, said the security vendor.That, however, isn’t the end of the problem. The TCP/IP library that contains the vulnerabilities has been used in a huge range of connected devices, from medical devices to industrial control systems to printers, and actually delivering and applying the patch is a vast undertaking. JSOF said that “hundreds of millions” of devices could be affected. Many devices don’t have the capacity to receive remote patches, and Terry Dunlap, co-founder of security vendor ReFirm Labs, said that there are numerous hurdles to getting patches onto older equipment in particular.To read this article in full, please click here
Microsoft has announced it will purchase the industrially focused network security vendor CyberX for an undisclosed sum in an effort to bolster the security capabilities of its Azure IoT platform.The acquisition strikes at the heart of two key IIoT security pain points. While it’s comparatively easy to build new IoT devices that have all the necessary features for seamless security management, older devices running a wildly diverse range of different protocols, which may lack important features like the ability to be patched remotely, are a bigger challenge.To read this article in full, please click here
As many part of the U.S. are at least partially lifting lockdown sanctions prompted by the COVID pandemic, questions about the safety of those moves remain. IoT technology, however, might help alleviate some of those concerns.The degree to which it’s safe to reopen certain workspaces hinges in large part on how strictly social distancing practices are followed, and IoT technology may have a role to play. Companies like Genetec, a building management and security firm, are rolling out products designed to help businesses manage their facilities during the pandemic.To read this article in full, please click here
The mere fact of the COVID pandemic’s existence has pushed the American healthcare system to capacity, but another threat to that system has reared its ugly head – cyberattacks, particularly those based on ransomware, have become more common as the disease spread, targeting medical IoT devices and healthcare networks.According to Forrester Research analyst Chris Sherman, two U.S. hospitals have already been attacked via virtual care systems, after a hacker targeted a vulnerability in a medical IoT device (specifically, a remote patient-monitoring sensor) and gained access to the hospitals’ patient databases. And in another type of attack, the Fresenius Group, a medical device maker and the largest private hospital operator in Europe, has been hit by ransomware.To read this article in full, please click here
Federated Wireless is launching a turnkey 4G/5G service through a partnership with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure that runs over Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), which the Federal Communications Commission opened up to public use in January.The idea is pretty simple: Federated’s new connectivity-as-a-service offering can be purchased directly through both the AWS Marketplace and Azure for a monthly fee. The company’s consultants and engineers do a walkthrough or site survey, ship CBRS equipment, install it on the customer’s network and monitor and manage the system afterwards.To read this article in full, please click here
The ease with which internet of things devices can be compromised, coupled with the potentially extreme consequences of breaches, have prompted action from legislatures and regulators, but what group is best to decide?Both the makers of IoT devices and governments are aware of the security issues, but so far they haven’t come up with standardized ways to address them.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
“The challenge of this market is that it’s moving so fast that no regulation is going to be able to keep pace with the devices that are being connected,” said Forrester vice president and research director Merritt Maxim. “Regulations that are definitive are easy to enforce and helpful, but they’ll quickly become outdated.”To read this article in full, please click here
The ease with which internet of things devices can be compromised, coupled with the potentially extreme consequences of breaches, have prompted action from legislatures and regulators, but what group is best to decide?Both the makers of IoT devices and governments are aware of the security issues, but so far they haven’t come up with standardized ways to address them.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
“The challenge of this market is that it’s moving so fast that no regulation is going to be able to keep pace with the devices that are being connected,” said Forrester vice president and research director Merritt Maxim. “Regulations that are definitive are easy to enforce and helpful, but they’ll quickly become outdated.”To read this article in full, please click here
The ease with which internet of things devices can be compromised, coupled with the potentially extreme consequences of breaches, have prompted action from legislatures and regulators, but what group is best to decide?Both the makers of IoT devices and governments are aware of the security issues, but so far they haven’t come up with standardized ways to address them.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
“The challenge of this market is that it’s moving so fast that no regulation is going to be able to keep pace with the devices that are being connected,” said Forrester vice president and research director Merritt Maxim. “Regulations that are definitive are easy to enforce and helpful, but they’ll quickly become outdated.”To read this article in full, please click here
Predictive maintenance is, arguably, the most hyped application of IoT technology currently available to the enterprise user, and it’s easy to understand why: Getting greater insight into industrial machinery, fleets of vehicles or anything else that can be digitally instrumented seems to offer a fairly direct path to savings through lower maintenance costs and less downtime.But it’s not as simple as just grafting sensors onto existing equipment, according to experts, and reaping the benefits of predictive maintenance isn’t an automatic win for the asset-heavy businesses that can profit most from this IoT implementation.To read this article in full, please click here
A Congressional committee is weighing in on a spat between the FCC and parts of the automotive industry over a plan to appropriate a piece of wireless spectrum set aside for connected-cars and instead designate it for Wi-Fi.The dispute centers on Dedicated Short Range Communications or DSRC, a point-to-point communication standard designated to let vehicles close to each other on roadways share information to improve safety. The go-to example is using it to warn a driver near-instantly if the car ahead suddenly slams on its brakes.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
DSR and its 75MHz of spectrum in the 5.9GHz band has been a relatively obscure technology until late last year when the FCC started considering that 45MHz of that spectrum should be made available for unlicensed wireless use such as Wi-FiTo read this article in full, please click here
A Congressional committee is weighing in on a spat between the FCC and parts of the automotive industry over a plan to appropriate a piece of wireless spectrum set aside for connected cars and instead designate it for Wi-Fi.The dispute centers on Dedicated Short Range Communications or DSRC, a point-to-point communication standard designated to let vehicles close to each other on roadways share information to improve safety. The go-to example is using it to warn a driver near-instantly if the car ahead suddenly slams on its brakes.[Get regularly scheduled insights by signing up for Network World newsletters.]
DSR and its 75MHz of spectrum in the 5.9GHz band has been a relatively obscure technology until late last year when the FCC started considering that 45MHz of that spectrum should be made available for unlicensed wireless use such as Wi-FiTo read this article in full, please click here
Jon Gold