Planning a cellular IoT deployment in a modern organization requires choosing the right hardware, device, and provider. However, it also calls for an accurate cost estimation based on resource consumption, which should heavily factor into the projections of the business for its ROI.
Since many IoT devices rely on persistent or scheduled connectivity for transmitting, processing, and sharing information, businesses with new or expanded IoT device deployment must pay for cellular data usage depending on their needs. These expenses can be considerable, and since they are ongoing, they can jeopardize the business’s ROI if they are not properly anticipated.
Despite the importance of measuring data consumption, many organizations struggle to quantify or react to inefficiencies in their data workflows. This article describes how technology leaders, IT managers, and anyone responsible for the ROI of an organization’s IoT deployment can calculate data usage more accurately using modern tools and forecasting techniques.
The Basics Of IoT Data Consumption
Cellular IoT data consumption is determined by the size of data transmissions as well as the frequency of data exchanges. While human-driven internet traffic often sends data in bulk, IoT devices, such as on-site sensors, send regular updates, readings, and commands in smaller packets.
Though these packets add up to huge amounts of data across thousands of devices, this difference changes how organizations should think of their data consumption. Most IoT devices don’t stream large videos or download files; instead, they send bursts of small data consistently, based on a pre-determined schedule of collection and transmission. However, certain IoT applications, like video surveillance or medical imaging, can generate large data streams.
Types Of IoT Data Traffic
Recognizing and estimating cellular data usage requires knowing the types of data that IoT devices can send, such as:
- Telemetry includes sensor readings such as humidity or temperature.
- Command Messages instruct devices based on management protocols.
- Heartbeat Messages keep a constant signal open between devices.
- Firmware is a larger single transmission to update a device.
Each type of IoT data has its own frequency and bandwidth needs. To manage the overall data footprint of a business, it’s important to understand how and when devices transmit information and ensure the network matches those patterns. While most data packets are small and sent regularly, occasional firmware updates can be much larger even if they happen less frequently.
Common Data Usage Patterns
Examples of cellular IoT transmissions include anything from a simple temperature sensor that sends 50-100 bytes of data every 15 minutes to a security camera system that may transmit gigabytes of video feed data every day. Businesses must consider how the device type impacts their data traffic. Common IoT devices include:
- Basic sensors
- Wearables and trackers
- Imaging devices
- Video recording devices
- Medical devices
Regardless of the industry, IoT device transmission can include telemetry, updates, or full data packages. Businesses need to know how their device workflows operate to estimate their data usage accurately.
Calculating Base Data Requirements
Estimating device usage per device should take these four factors into account:
- Message Size: Consider both the protocol and the payload when estimating transmission size. The protocol defines the message structure and metadata while the payload contains the actual sensor or system data. Encryption and security layers are applied on top of this structure, which further increases transmission size.
- Transmission Frequency: Devices that send data more frequently will accelerate overall data usage.
- Protocol Overhead: Headers have different sizes, and they add up when calculating data usage. CoAP, HTTP, and MQTT add a different amount of data to each transmission.
- Network Overhead: Cellular IoT networks add security layers and headers to messages, which can increase transmission size by as much as 50%.
While data usage is a major factor, organizations should also consider hardware costs, maintenance, and business impact when calculating ROI.
Factors Affecting Data Usage
Base data requirements are difficult to change since many are required for the system to operate optimally. However, these other factors can be strategized by IT leaders to reduce data consumption:
- Device Configuration: Data overhead can be reduced by aggregating multiple readings across devices to send fewer transmissions.
- Network Protocols: Protocols can be made more efficient to reduce data overhead.
- Update Frequency: Fewer firmware updates can decrease consumption.
- Security Overhead: Encryption adds data overhead and can be changed in some circumstances, though many industries like healthcare require minimum protocols.
A careful balance of the configuration and protocols of cellular IoT devices can help business leaders manage the aspects of data consumption they can control while preparing for those they can’t.
Planning For Peak Usage & Growth
Though companies hope to establish a baseline for estimating cellular data usage, real-world device usage constantly changes. System updates, seasonal changes, business expansion or shrinkage, and new hardware features can all impact data consumption. For example, healthcare wearables could send more data during flu season, causing a temporary surge in usage.
Scaling cellular IoT deployment and estimating data costs should include a buffer that accounts for these hidden costs of seasonality, infrastructure growth, and technology changes.
Tools & Methods For Usage Estimation
When estimating data usage, organizations should have tools at their disposal that can help them calculate, test, and monitor their cellular IoT solutions. IoT cloud platforms like Azure can be used to track data usage, while platforms like SIMETRY can provide real-time and historical usage insights, helping businesses refine their estimates based on actual device behavior.
An experienced cellular IoT provider connects businesses with the tools they need to accurately track and strategize data usage regardless of the device type or network conditions.
Plan Your IoT Data Strategy Today
At Allpoint Wireless, we help organizations in all industries deploy IoT device networks and optimize cellular data usage to cover a spectrum from tiny sensors to high-data applications. Configuration factors, network protocols, security, and more can be difficult to track without expert installation, deployment, and maintenance.
Contact our team today to learn how to accurately estimate cellular data usage for any IoT project.