IoT is called edge computing. Here sensors (which are tiny) are used along with computing devices at or near the point where data is generated. The idea is to take instant action.

A driverless car cannot afford the luxury of sending data to a cloud for analysis which sends instruction to the car in return. The time involved is just a few milliseconds, but these can cause an accident.

A wrist watch measuring heart rate collects reflections from blood vessels and skin, and perceives the difference to decide whether pulse occurred or not.

An edge device takes the decision on the spot. Whether a robot can create vacuum or not to move the objects to make it reliable is decided by the edge device. Volcanic eruption possibilities and tsunami predictions, can be made. Here 5G is critical to ensure alerts from sensors.

Edge computing is also important as it is too expensive to transport everything to the cloud. It also puts a heavy burden on the bandwidth. A lot of unnecessary data is generated by a camera, and only 1 TB may be valuable. The rest is waste. AI at the edge filters out the waste, and sends only what is necessary to the cloud. In home automation, large scale transfer of data to the cloud would also affect the privacy.

Edge requires diverse talents — in software, semiconductors, applications.