The next stage of evolution for the IoT, the Ambient IoT refers to a new class of innovative form-factor designs and low-maintenance or maintenance-free devices primarily powered by harvesting energy from any viable ambient source. Ambient energy sources can include radio waves, light, motion, and heat, among others.
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), in collaboration with ABI Research – a global leader in analyzing, tracking, and forecasting the transformation of the smart device and IoT markets – recently established guidelines for understanding the Ambient IoT and its use cases. This article highlights some of the research and market opportunities outlined in that report.
Ambient IoT devices carry out many of the same functions as IoT devices and target many of the same use cases but require additional design choices to meet solution demands. By relying on energy harvested from ambient sources, the Ambient IoT makes it possible to develop lower-cost, smaller, and maintenance-free devices, allowing the IoT to become more scalable in existing use cases and use cases still to be developed.
New Market Opportunities
The Ambient IoT addresses the needs of technology adopters by expanding the IoT in directions that are impossible to achieve with traditional devices. Key ways in which the Ambient IoT will contribute to the expansion of the IoT include:
• Maintenance-Free Devices: Maintaining IoT installations in the field can be a time-consuming and costly exercise, adding a layer of complexity to operations that the IoT is designed to make more efficient. Ambient IoT devices can be deployed in autonomous settings without maintaining a continuous power supply or replacing batteries. Low-maintenance or maintenance-free devices can change paradigms for return-on-investment (ROI) calculations by guaranteeing the longevity of deployments.
• Low Complexity and Cost: The Ambient IoT continues the trend toward lower cost and simpler devices. By relying primarily on ambient energy sources, the Ambient IoT will encourage the design of devices that communicate less frequently and are designed to fulfill specific functions, driving an evolution away from highly configurable devices streaming real-time data.
• Sustainable Devices: Replacing batteries, or throwing away battery-powered devices, is a challenge to the sustainable growth of the IoT. Harvesting energy from ambient sources can create longer-lasting and self-sustaining Ambient IoT devices, whether by extending the life of battery- or capacitor-powered devices indefinitely or by removing batteries from devices entirely.
Key Characteristics of Ambient IoT Applications
Use cases for the Ambient IoT can be applied to any existing or new IoT application or vertical market. However, the Ambient IoT is expected to see the highest volumes in applications with the following characteristics.
• Low Functionality: Applications requiring devices designed for one specific function with low configurability.
• Low Cost: Applications in which scalability is essential and the cost of traditional IoT devices is prohibitive. Some Ambient IoT use cases rely on disposable tags, requiring a low cost point.
• Fully Autonomous: Applications requiring full maintenance-free device autonomy for the device’s lifecycle, be it two months or 20 years.
• Supported by Assisting Devices: While any network topology can be used for the Ambient IoT, in practice, early Ambient IoT applications will require assisting devices such as gateways, control units, or smartphones to support the limited range of energy-harvesting devices.
• Controlled Energy Environment: Applications where an ambient energy source is predictable, including the potential use of energizing devices.
As technologies supporting the Ambient IoT devices mature, and support ambient energy harvesting, use cases outside of goods tracking and monitoring will multiply to span many vertical markets.
In industrial markets, potential use cases involve sensor-based monitoring of machine conditions, equipment status, environmental conditions, or electronic labeling. In commercial markets, use cases include building automation and control, air quality monitoring, and electronic shelf labels (ESLs) in retail markets. In consumer markets, use cases include personal tracking or various home automation systems.
As these use cases demonstrate, the Ambient IoT will initially serve existing IoT applications with a new device class. As the market expands, it will help create entirely new application areas.
Capitalizing on the Ambient IoT Opportunity
The Ambient IoT is still in its early development phase, and progress in this field will mainly be driven by the broader IoT community. To capitalize on the opportunity for the Ambient IoT, the following areas need to develop in tandem.
Market Education on the Ambient IoT Opportunity: Among those developing solutions based on ambient energy harvesting, only a few identify themselves as part of the Ambient IoT landscape. This can largely be attributed to the absence of well-defined parameters delineating the realm of the Ambient IoT. There is a pressing need to propel the Ambient IoT out of its current stage characterized by discussions on attributes and terminology and to drive it toward cultivating an ecosystem that is not only actively engaged but also fully cognizant of the vast opportunities presented by this emerging category of IoT devices.
Energy-Harvesting Standards: Currently, many IoT solutions leveraging ambient energy harvesting that have reached scale are based on proprietary energy-harvesting technologies from the solution provider rather than on standard off-the-shelf components from third parties. For the Ambient IoT to reach its full potential, however, more work is needed to make these technologies available to an extensive range of vendors. In addition to more mature energy harvesting technologies, lower-power wireless ICs will help meet the requirements of the Ambient IoT by supporting the small amounts of energy that can be harvested from ambient sources. A two-pronged approach from energy-harvesting vendors and IC designers will precipitate the development of Ambient IoT use cases.
Simpler Sensor Deployment and Management: IoT deployments can be cumbersome to scale from an installation and provisioning perspective, and managing large fleets of devices once deployed also brings a series of challenges in device management. Suitable physical and cloud infrastructure is necessary to make Ambient IoT deployments practical at the anticipated massive volumes. This could relate to physical labeling machines that automatically apply and activate smart labels in a supply chain or retail context, cloud infrastructure for device provisioning and de-provisioning, or data management.
The Promise of the Ambient IoT
The Ambient IoT addresses the pressing need for maintenance-free operation, low complexity and easily deployed devices, and sustainable growth of the IoT. Use cases for the Ambient IoT are diverse and expected to grow. While the initial focus revolves around supply chain tracking and monitoring, driven by the demand for product and asset-level visibility, the Ambient IoT promises to enhance existing applications and pave the way for entirely new use cases, reshaping how enterprises and consumers interact with their environment.
Chuck Sabin is Senior Director, Market Development, Bluetooth SIG.