Going offline, halting updates, and losing contact: Hidden concerns in the 20 - year development of the intelligent networking industry

Since the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) released the "ITU Internet Report 2005: Internet of Things" in 2005, systematically presenting the concept of the "Internet of Things," the Internet of Things industry has gone through a 20 - year journey.

Over the past two decades, the concept of the Internet of Things has continuously expanded and its connotation has become richer, evolving from IoT to the AI - enabled Internet of Things (AIoT). Also during these twenty years, tens of billions of connected devices have gradually spread to every corner of the globe. According to Statista's prediction, by 2030, more than 29 billion IoT devices will be deployed globally. They are continuously sending data to the cloud, building a world where the digital and the real are closely integrated.

However, suddenly one day, these devices stopped working. It wasn't because they were damaged or out of power, but due to firmware termination, protocol ineffectiveness, expired authentication, network iteration, and so on... In other words, these interconnected devices still exist physically, but they are gradually "drifting" in the digital world, becoming silent "digital islands." These abandoned infrastructures not only cause inconvenience but even turn into a new type of "e - waste."

This is a hidden concern that has emerged as the entire AIoT industry has entered a new stage of development. Therefore, recently, many experts have begun to call for attention to the long - term maintainability of AIoT infrastructures and the recycling and reuse of e - waste.

The dream of Everything Connected also has an "expiration date"

The beautiful vision of the AI - enabled Internet of Things (AIoT) is real, but its shelf life may be short.

In 2023, Sigfox, once the darling in the field of Low - Power Wide - Area Network (LPWAN) in France, entered the receivership/insolvency administration process. Customers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America were in trouble, trying to maintain a large number of "disconnected" devices. Those governments and logistics operators who bet on long - term, low - cost data links found that the hardware was still blinking, but there was nowhere to send the signals. In contrast, Semtech's LoRa - based system has developed in some parts of India and Brazil. By encouraging open standards, local integration, and flexible network design (including private networks that do not rely on remote cloud platforms), LoRa has achieved longer - lasting deployments.

In Kenya, a large number of smart water meters deployed in multiple rural counties failed. The reason was not damage or lack of demand, but that the supplier withdrew its support - the firmware update did not arrive as scheduled. Local technicians could not obtain diagnostic tools. A project originally aimed at popularizing water rights eventually became a source of generating maintenance contracts and breeding distrust.

A similar story happened during the phase - out of 2G/3G networks in previous years. Although many overseas countries have successfully shut down their 2G or 3G networks, they have also paid a high price. For example, the 2G network in the UK has to remain in service until at least the 2030s. In addition to the small number of mobile phone users' demand for the 2G network, the UK's smart meters and the EU - led eCall rescue system both rely on the 2G network. Taking smart meters as an example, the designed service life of smart meters in the UK is at least 15 years. Changing and upgrading the communication standard of smart meters during this process will incur high costs.

From a business perspective, many IoT products are still oriented towards "the end after sales." The lack of standard protocols for firmware updates, poor cross - platform compatibility, and the decentralized responsibility in the supply chain all lead to a blind spot in the post - maintenance of devices. Some platform operators even force users to upgrade by shutting down cloud services, indirectly abandoning old devices. What's more worrying is that for some devices used in critical infrastructures, manufacturers did not consider their operation and maintenance issues over 10 or 15 years when designing the business model. For example, edge devices used for irrigation, water conservancy, and power monitoring rely extremely on long - term and stable operation in an environment without manual intervention. Once the "digital island" phenomenon occurs, its impact far exceeds the inconvenience caused by a refrigerator or a camera malfunctioning.

In addition to causing trouble for the operators of IoT devices, the abandonment of AIoT devices will also bring serious "e - waste" problems in the future.

Take the booming generative AI industry in recent years as an example. As a typical resource - intensive industry, its technological development and application rely heavily on the expansion of the underlying hardware scale. Huang Renxun, the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, once said that a machine at the EFLOPS (exaflops) level consists of 600,000 parts and weighs 1.36 tons. Industry experts believe that the server clusters in computing power centers usually contain a variety of high - performance computing hardware, such as GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), memory modules, and storage devices. Their service life is generally about 3 years. After their service life ends, a large amount of electronic waste will be generated. Research results show that under the most aggressive development model, the cumulative amount of e - waste generated by generative AI from 2023 to 2030 may reach 5 million tons. The expected e - waste includes 1.5 million tons of printed circuit boards and 500,000 tons of server batteries. They may contain harmful materials such as lead and chromium. If not disposed of properly, they will cause serious environmental hazards.

Building sustainable AIoT solutions

These hidden concerns have taught profound lessons to AIoT operators. The characteristics of AIoT industry users are, on the one hand, a long lifecycle, and on the other hand, many are applied in the key production and operation scenarios of enterprises in various industries. These characteristics determine that sustainable infrastructure services are essential. Obviously, infrastructure lacking maintainability is not really infrastructure but just ticking e - waste. Sometimes, short - lifecycle deployments are not just a nuisance but a strategic mistake.

When AIoT users choose solutions, an IoT sensor that costs $10 and has no update path may seem cheaper than a device that costs $30 and has guaranteed support, APIs, and local service partners. But when the cheaper device fails after 18 months and drags down a series of assets, the originally cost - effective device becomes a loss - making one. For example, in cold - chain logistics, the failure of real - time visibility may lead to damage to the quality of an entire batch of goods, resulting in high economic losses.

Of course, this is not only about quality but also about control. Closed ecosystems often make local operators lack autonomy, especially when users use relevant solutions from overseas enterprises. Devices cannot be reprogrammed, and data cannot be rerouted. Even if there is a support hotline, it is often in another time zone. The result is a new form of digital colonialism and segregation: no technological sovereignty. Europe may be leading the way in this regard. With the increasing regulatory efforts in the right to repair, digital product passports, and secure design, the EU is expected to lead a new model: a circular, autonomous, and context - aware Internet of Things.

To solve this hidden crisis in the Internet of Things, the "sustainable IoT" strategy must be promoted at multiple levels, including but not limited to:

Embedding the lifecycle design concept into product development: When designing IoT products, enterprises should incorporate device maintainability, modular upgrades, and long - term support into basic indicators, rather than only focusing on initial performance and cost.

Open - source protocols and standardized update mechanisms: Promote the adoption of open - standard protocols and remotely extensible authentication systems to reduce isolation caused by network service shutdowns or device discontinuation.

Promoting cross - platform docking: Many providers of public platform services have started to strengthen cooperation with other IoT platforms to promote cross - platform docking, achieve true seamless switching between platforms, and enhance customer trust.

As for the devices that have become e - waste, in addition to recycling valuable secondary raw materials such as copper, gold, and iron, many researchers are also thinking about how to turn them into something useful.

In a recent experiment, Estonian engineers found that when old smartphones over a decade old were transformed into self - organizing units to work together, they could surprisingly easily handle many such tasks, including image recognition. Researchers believe that this method can reduce the cost of IoT computing and open up a new path for electronics recycling, thus helping to solve the growing global e - waste problem. Even old smartphones are equipped with powerful CPUs and fast - running memory, which enables them to easily outperform popular IoT - specific devices such as single - board computers, especially when working together. Therefore, reusing old smartphones in this way can help reduce the cost of IoT projects and at the same time solve the problem of the surging e - waste.

Conclusion

In the next twenty years as the Internet of Things evolves into the AI - enabled Internet of Things, the growth in the number of connections is no longer the only measure of success. True competitiveness will come from the sustainable management, openness, and interoperability of devices throughout their entire lifecycle. After all, the value of technology lies not in how many devices it can light up, but in how long it can still serve people stably and reliably. Only in this way can the Internet of Everything truly become a long - lasting and beneficial civilizational project, rather than a pile of scattered, once - shiny parts.

References:

The internet of forgotten things, Rcrwireless

Old Smartphones Get New Life as Tiny Data Centers, Spectrum

Science and Technology Daily

Accelerated withdrawal of 2G/3G networks. What will carry more than 1 billion existing cellular IoT terminals?, IoT Think Tank

This article is from the WeChat official account "IoT Think Tank" (ID: iot101). Author: Sophia. Published by 36Kr with authorization.