EMC challenges for the internet of things

The technical development towards the full vision of the Internet of Things (IoT) will affect the area of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) in a number of ways. IoT may even be the most challenging issue for the EMC area since it was born about 100 years ago. In this paper, some of these new challenges are highlighted and discussed. The methodology in achieving EMC has to be further developed in order to handle the challenges that emerges as a result of the mass increase of wirelessly consumer devices, dense co-located and in scenarios characterized by being highly dynamic, flexible and non-predictable. Another overall challenge is that IoT products will be operating at considerably higher frequencies than standard EMC testing is done for today. This will directly affect the methodology and equipment for both emission and immunity testing. Results of interference consequences of the increased density of co-located devices are shown and the conclusion is that the expected density levels may cause severe interference problems in some cases.