Industrial IoT: Key Building Blocks Driving Industry 4.0

Building a new era of industrial capability requires fresh building blocks. The Industrial Revolutions of the past illustrate this well: steam power and mechanization sparked the first, electricity and automation fueled the second, and today, digital technologies are reshaping the economy once again.

Industry 4.0 envisions a Fourth Industrial Revolution powered by a suite of emerging technologies. At its core is industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which converts physical processes into digital data through sensors, meters, and monitoring devices. This data can be analyzed, modeled, and used to create digital twins that allow enterprises to test and optimize virtual scenarios before implementing them in the real world.

Connectivity: The Backbone of IIoT

While wired networks served well for decades, they cannot keep pace with the sheer volume and mobility of IIoT devices. A modern factory can host hundreds or thousands of sensors—tracking tools, spare parts, inventory, environmental conditions, and machine health—and increasingly, autonomous guided vehicles and digital PPE. Wiring every device would be prohibitively expensive and inflexible.

Wireless networks—specifically 4G/LTE and the new 5G standard—offer the required scalability, security, and low latency. 5G, rolled out in 2023, is designed for IIoT, delivering 99.999% reliability and the ability to support massive numbers of devices with sub‑millisecond latency. Notably, internal Nokia research shows that 85% of the applications envisioned for 5G can already run on today’s 4G/LTE networks.

Both 4G/LTE and 5G support private network deployments, from temporary first‑responder networks after a natural disaster to large‑scale installations that span up to 20,000 square kilometres and support tens of thousands of devices.

Edge Computing: Reducing Latency and Enhancing Insight

Transmitting raw sensor data to distant cloud data centres introduces latency that can be unacceptable for time‑critical industrial tasks. Multi‑access edge computing (MEC) addresses this by processing data locally—an approach that is integral to 5G’s fully virtualised, software‑defined architecture.

Edge processing can filter vast video or audio streams, sending only anomalous events to remote operators. This not only cuts bandwidth usage but also enables real‑time decision making, essential for autonomous mining vehicles, offshore wind turbines, and remote patient monitoring.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration: OT Meets IT

To fully realise IIoT’s potential, operations technology (OT) teams must move beyond isolated point solutions and partner with information technology (IT) professionals who bring a holistic, platform‑centric perspective. Executive backing is essential to align technology stacks, secure investment, and embed data‑driven insights across factories, mines, hospitals, and cities.

Houman leads Nokia’s marketing efforts for large enterprises and hyperscalers. He is passionate about all the new ways that networking, analytics, and IoT technologies can be applied to transform the way their business is done and run. He has also led marketing for Nokia’s IP routing portfolio. Previously, he was part of bringing the Nuage Networks cloud networking venture to life, a company specializing in data‑center virtualization and SDN across datacenters and branches (SD‑WAN). He has also held product management leadership positions in venture‑backed start‑ups as well as multinational firms. Houman holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.