Total IoT connections will double between 2019 and 2025, reaching 24 billion worldwide – and the desire of companies and consumers alike to remotely monitor and control assets is among the key drivers of this growth. As well as saving time and boosting productivity, remote monitoring and control (RMAC) systems are helping humanity to make more efficient use of limited resources, such as fresh water, productive land and energy. Farmers for instance no longer need to visit their fields to manage irrigation systems, while householders can adjust their thermostats using an app. In the energy, chemical and wastewater industries, remote monitoring and control systems are now widely used to supervise key parameters, such as temperature, level, pressure, and flow rate – meaning fewer resources go to waste, and business moves faster and more efficiently.

With sufficient connected sensors organizations can build a ‘digital twin’ of a piece of equipment such as an engine or a wind turbine - always up-to-date, this digital twin can be used to analyze usage and performance and identify potential improvements or efficiency savings. This is a fast-growing market – forecasts show manufacturers and industrial firms will spend almost $20 billion to transform and support their industrial IoT data analytics value chains by 2026, up from just under $5 billion in 2020. And, in domestic smart applications, the market for home automation is now set to soar to an extraordinary $114 billion by 2025.

With restrictions on movement arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to remotely monitor and control assets has become even more important.

With restrictions on movement arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the ability to remotely monitor and control assets has become even more important. Indeed, the need to lock down large parts of society and the economy has underlined the importance of connectivity to keep key facilities, such as power plants and distribution hubs, running during times of crisis. The public sector is now therefore making far greater use worldwide of IoT technology to monitor infrastructure and assets to improve citizens’ safety and living environments. Forecasts now show that governments’ spending on endpoint electronics and communications will rise 22% in 2022, to $21 billion globally. More than half that spending will be on outdoor camera systems, comprising devices that harness advanced image recognition and video analytics techniques, as well as the speed and responsiveness of 5G networks.

At the same time, many organizations are using the falling cost of LPWA connectivity to bring vast numbers of battery-powered sensors and actuators online. This technology offers an increasingly cost-effective and power-efficient means of monitoring and controlling a very wide range of assets – LPWA networks are being used to check things as various as whether a parking space is occupied, a bin is full, or a refrigeration unit is about to defrost. As 4G and 5G networks expand over the next decade, billions more devices and machines will come online and the real-time information generated will give both consumers and companies much greater control of their destinies.

Quectel’s wide portfolio of cellular, GNSS and Wi-Fi modules supports innovators to deliver all manner of RMAC applications: from smart modules for those building highly advanced camera systems, to LPWA for those with the lowest demands on power and data, for instance to check that a gate has been kept shut. And a purchase marks only the beginning of your business relationship with us, not the conclusion – throughout the planning phase and rollout of your solution, we are here to ensure you get the most out of our hardware. Through our Testing Service we can assist you in a wide range of debugging needs, audio and power consumption tests, environmental reliability checks and more. Please visit our Product Selector to find the right model for you, and feel free to Contact us if you need any assistance.