As originally published on RCR Wireless, by Dan Meyer

Diameter signaling platforms are expected to see an influx of work tied to the growing “Internet of Things” space. Vendors have been very vocal in predicting tens of billions of “things” will soon be clamoring for access to the Internet, with many of those striving for a mobile connection.

While models are still being worked out, what has been seen so far in the connected car space is enough to concern Diameter platform deployments. Gartner predicts there will be a quarter-billion connected vehicles on the road by 2020, with new vehicles dramatically increasing the proportions of connected cars. Those vehicles will require networks to handle a multitude of potential chores through a single LTE connection, some of which will require near-zero latency.

Broader IoT models will likely not require as much signaling per device as a connected vehicle, but are expected to make up some of that difference in the sheer mass of those connections.

“IoT will expand the number of devices and will increase the number of transactions, but it will depend on what the devices are that are attaching to the network,” said Greg Collins, founder and principal analyst at Exact Ventures. “Meters, for instance, won’t generate a lot of traffic, but the connected car will.”

Joerg Ewert, technical product manager for Ericsson’s BU Cloud and IP division, concurred, noting these IoT connections are set to fuel the market. Ericsson recently announced a partnership with AT&T and chipmaker Altair to showcase battery technology designed to power an IoT device for up to 10 years, highlighting the long tail nature of the IoT market.

“IoT definitely needs to be factored into the conversation in terms of Diameter signaling,” said Robin Kent, director of European operations at Adax. “Will it be a device that just connects to the network once per day, or is it live and constantly being polled. The impact of the application will have a huge impact on how carriers manage their Diameter platforms.”

Check out more insight into the Diameter signaling market by downloading RCR Wireless News’ latest feature report: “Diameter to be tested by data, VoLTE demand; evolve in a NFV, SDN, cloud world.”