Toward Zero: Power consumption trends in low data rate wireless connectivity

The low power IoT market began in earnest in 1999 with the launch of the first commercial Bluetooth device. In 2021, IoT Analytics Research, a market research firm, predicted [1] a yearly 22% growth rate in the global IoT market over the next three years. By 2025, the installed base of active IoT gateways is expected to be 27 billion, not including laptops, tablets, and cellphones. In this projection, gateways are counted, not every sensor. Therefore, the number of connected radios in 2025 is going to be higher than the forecast of 27 billion, perhaps much higher. The IoT market is likely to continue growing past 2025, but this growth rate is unsustainable with today’s technology. This article discusses three limitations to IoT market growth: power, cost, and performance. Examples of innovations needed to enable the predicted market growth will be presented in each area. At the end, a prediction for IoT wireless nodes in the coming decade is presented.