Connecting the IoT World Testing with Anritsu

Recently, IoT services are spreading into many fields, such as industry and agriculture, as a result of the improved productivity from use of AI speakers, smart watches, smart meters, security cameras, various types of sensor, etc., and there is no doubt that the convenience of IoT will become an essential part of our future lives.
Moreover, with the appearance of the next-generation 5G communications featuring high-speed and large capacity, low latency, and multi-connectivity, we can expect 5G-based IoT services and applications to spread into many fields, such as automotive, remote monitoring of heavy machinery, ultra-high-definition video streaming, tele-presence at sports events, etc.

Anritsu supports its customers with solutions for the IoT market with:

Leading-edge measurement technologies leveraging the power of mobile and wireless communications
A wide and complete product line covering wireless to wired connectivity
Wireless to wired measurement technologies for next-generation 5G markets

With the 5G rollout,

Anritsu is leveraging its cutting-edge 5G test and measurement (T&M) technologies as a world-leading company offering tailored flexible measurement solutions targeting IoT market growth.
Anritsu focuses both on providing solutions for the IoT world and for various wireless communications technologies, as well as on solutions for the future.

Introduction

These pages outline the IoT market for customers examining or already participating in this new business field and explain some key points in developing and manufacturing IoT devices and equipment. Please use the following table to identify your customers’ objectives.

Customer Objectives				Contents
Examining New Purchase	Testing and Selecting Radio Signal	Improving Product Quality	Understanding Anritsu	Contents
✓				Growing IoT Market
✓				Features of IoT Wireless Communications
✓	✓			Chipsets and Wireless (Radio) Modules
✓	✓	✓		National Radio Legislation and Wireless Communications Standards
✓	✓	✓	✓	Strong Anritsu Lead in 5G T&M Market
				Anritsu IoT Test Solutions
				Anritsu IoT Product Line
			✓	Related Video Materials
				Contacts
				About Anritsu

IoT Market Growth

IoT is expected to see widespread adoption in many fields, starting with automotive and spreading into smart homes, smart buildings, manufacturing and industrial plants, medicine and healthcare, safety and security, insurance, transport, energy, distribution, agriculture HEMS, smart meters (water, electricity, gas), etc. Recent services using IoT devices and products include AI speakers, smart watches, smart meters, security cameras, and more.
In addition, the appearance of next-generation 5G communications, featuring fast and large capacity, low latency, and multi-connectivity is expected to drive even more explosive growth of IoT.
In the IoT market, connection of many “things” (IoT devices and products) to the Internet will use wireless communications to collect data from either standalone or built-in sensors which will then be sent via the Internet to data centers for AI-based analysis with the analysis results returned via the Internet to other IoT devices and products, smartphones, tablets, etc..
Some recent applications are described below.

AI speakers connected by wireless LAN (Wi-FI、WLAN) to the Internet can stream music from the Internet to listeners. In this case, the listener’s music preference history can be saved in a database for analysis by AI to recommend other music matching the listener’s taste.
Smart watches connected via Bluetooth® to the wearer’s smartphone using a 4G LTE connection can connect to the Internet to send information (number of steps and distance walked, cardiogram) from sensors in the smart watch to a data center, enabling people with diet and other health concerns to improve their lifestyle using these data.

IoT Market Images

Automotive

Smart home

Smart building

Industry (IIoT)

Safety and Security

The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Anritsu is under license

Features of IoT Wireless Communications

Various types of wireless communications are used by IoT, including LTE Cat-M, NB-IoT, wireless LAN (Wi-Fi, WLAN) , Bluetooth, etc. Customers developing and manufacturing IoT devices and products must choose the best wireless communications matching the features of the product under development. The key elements in choosing the wireless communications method are communications distance, power consumption, and communications speed. For example, power consumption is an important factor in a battery-powered IoT product required to operate for year-long periods without changing the battery.

Specification of IoT wireless communication Standards

Current Consumption and Distance for Radio Standards

Features and application examples of each communications standard such as Bluetooth, WLAN, NB-IoT and Cat-M are explained.

Communications Standard	Features	Application Examples
Bluetooth	Bluetooth features short-range low-speed communications with low power consumption and is commonly used for connecting to the Internet via a smartphone. The Bluetooth 5.0 standard has four times the communication range of previous Bluetooth standards and eight times the communications capacity. The Bluetooth 5.1 standard is expected to be used by various services, such as warehousing, transport, and distribution due to its support for a low positioning error of just a few centimeters. Click here of details of Bluetooth 5.0 Click here of details of Bluetooth 5.1	Smart watches Cordless earphones and headsets Healthcare (blood pressure, cardiograph), etc.
Wireless LAN (WLAN)	Wireless LAN is faster than Bluetooth but has higher power consumption. There are various WLAN standards, such as 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, with adoption of the recent 802.11ac/ax standard using MU-MIMO (Multi User MIMO) supporting simultaneous connection of multiple users. In addition to the faster speeds of 802.11ax, support for OFDMA offers more efficient use of the frequency spectrum. Click here of details of wireless LAN (WLAN).	Smartphones and PCs AI speakers Cleaners Air-conditioners IoT AI gateways, etc.
Cat-M, NB-IoT	Cat-M and NB-IoT are regulated by the 3GPP for IoT applications and use the same communications base stations as 4G LTE mobile phones for long-distance communication covering a wide area. The key difference of Cat-M and NB-IoT is the handover method (used by moving IoT products). The NB-IoT method with no handover function is used by static IoT products such as street lighting, water meters, etc. The Cat-M with handover support is used by dynamic IoT products such as smart bicycles, etc. Cat-M is also used for stationary larger-capacity communications. As a result, development of NB-IoT2 (Cat-NB2) is focusing on increasing NB-IoT communications capacity.	Street lights Smart meters (electricity, water, gas) Smart bicycles Agriculture, farming, etc.
5G	The 3GPP-defined 5G wireless standards feature high speed/large capacity, low latency, and multiple connections, with 5G services starting already in some countries. In addition to supporting conventional smartphones, tablets, etc., 5G is also expected to be adopted by the IoT market.	Click here for expected applications

Last, the next-generation 5G communications technology featuring large-capacity, ultra-high speed, and low latency is expected to be adopted in many fields, such as self-driving automobiles, 4/8K video streaming, and remote control of construction equipment.

Chipsets and Communications Modules

What is the best thing to do after a customer planning to develop and manufacture IoT devices and products has decided which wireless communications standard to adopt for those devices and products?
In this case, the customer must choose the chipset (communications chip) or wireless (radio) module matching the adopted wireless communications standard.

Chipset vendors	When purchasing a chipset with a communications chip, such as Cat-M, NB-IoT, WLAN, Bluetooth, etc., from a specialist parts vendor, the design of the peripheral circuits and the chipset control software is extremely important, requiring performance evaluations of the finished product including the chipset.
Communications module vendors	Purchase of a communications module from a vendor is a more secure assurance of performance because the module vendor has purchased the communications chip from the chipset vendor, packaged it in a module, and designed and developed the complex circuitry and software for controlling the communications chip.

As a result, customers developing and manufacturing IoT devices and products for the IoT market, tend to enter the market using the relatively safer method of purchasing communications modules for incorporation in their products.

When purchasing a communications module, is it not necessary to evaluate the performance of the finished product containing the purchased wireless (radio) module?
No—it is very important for vendors of IoT devices and products to pay attention to 「National Radio legislation and Wireless (Radio) Communications Standards] even when incorporating a communications module in a product.

Column

What is IoT Gateway?

Recent new IoT gateway models (IoT AI gateways) appearing on the market are not just communications modules but also incorporate AI chips (using high-speed buses such as PCIe).
With the future spread of IoT, these gateways will send large volumes of data from sensors for various services and applications to the Internet, imposing heavy loads on the network and Cloud-side processes and causing possible problems with slower processing speeds and longer times. To prevent these issues, there are plans to incorporate AI chips at the Edge side (Edge Computing) to perform data processing, lower the network load, and increase processing speeds.
Evaluation of high-speed IF(PAM and IF evaluation) is critical for incorporation of AI chips.

National Radio legislation and Wireless (Radio) Communications Standards

Countries worldwide have national legislation on regulating radio use. Developers and manufacturers of products (electronic parts, IoT devices and products) outputting radio waves must comply with this legislation and require permission (certification) to sell such products. In addition, the various standards related to radio waves and radio equipment must be evaluated in accordance with these standards. These evaluation tests are handled by organizations, such as test houses and certification bodies as follows.

Click here for details of radio legislation, wireless communications standards, EMC/SAR, and quality tests

Strong Anritsu Lead in 5G T&M Market

Anritsu has the following strengths for this type of IoT market background.

Wide product line covering cellular to WLAN and Bluetooth, including 3G, 4G（NB-IoT, Cat-M, etc）, etc.
Long experience and high technology levels in Signalling and Direct modes for cellular, WLAN, Bluetooth, etc., based on many years of fruitful partnerships with well-known chip makers.
Support for OTA testing in partnership with large makers of RF chambers.
Widespread adoption of Anritsu instruments as approved test products by key manufacturers, including makers of chipsets, wireless (radio) modules, and RF chambers, as well as by test houses.

In addition, as well as covering existing wireless communications technologies, Anritsu is a leading company with:

A wide line of popular instruments covering wireless to wired connectivity,
First-to-market instruments for the next-generation 5G Test & Measurement market.

Based on the above-described experience, Anritsu can quickly partner with key players in the rapidly diversifying IoT market, such as vendors of chipsets, wireless (radio) modules, electronic parts, IoT devices and products, etc., to provide the best, high-quality test solutions meeting customers’ development, manufacturing, installation and maintenance needs.

DUT Connection Test

OTA Environment

Anritsu EMC Service

Anritsu IoT Test Solutions

The IoT market usually assumes that one of the many wireless technologies, such as 5G, LTE-Advanced FDD/TDD, NB-IoT, Cat-M, wireless LAN WLAN) , Bluetooth, sub-GHz band (920 MHz), etc., will be used for Internet connections, and commercial products, such as AI speakers, smart watches, etc., using wireless communications technologies are already coming to market.
Anritsu’s test solutions (measuring instruments) support these LTE-Advanced FDD/TDD, NB-IoT, Cat-M, wireless LAN (WLAN), Bluetooth, and sub-GHz band (920 MHz) technologies.
As well as impacting M2M and IoT, the convenience of wireless communications is driving increasing use for other applications and services. On the other hand, correct operation of wireless systems can be blocked by unplanned generation of radio waves, such as wideband noise and unwanted leakage waveforms. Anritsu also has test solutions for inspecting the radio-wave environment and searching for interference.

Anritsu IoT Product Line

Anritsu offers a wide range of test solutions and products for development, manufacturing, installation and maintenance of systems supporting various wireless communications standards, including LTE-Advanced FDD/TDD, NB-IoT, Cat-M, Wireless LAN (WLAN), Bluetooth, etc.

Click here for IoT Solutions

Contacts

Anritsu has test solutions for different businesses, including the 5G, 5G-based IoT, IoT, cellular, and automotive fields. Customers planning development and manufacturing of IoT devices and products can consult us about solutions by clicking the following links.

About Anritsu

Anritsu Corporation (www.anritsu.com) has been a provider of innovative measurement solutions for securing safe and stable operation with assured quality in a wide range of business fields, including IT and communications systems, services and applications, food and pharmaceutical contaminant inspectors and checkweighers, remote surveillance systems, bandwidth control devices, etc.

Brand

120 years of Anritsu