Our industry has an increasingly important role to play in creating the foundation for new business in a broad range of industry sectors in countries all around the world. As Ericsson’s new Chief Technology Officer, it’s my job to keep track of technological advancements on the horizon and leverage them to create new value streams for society, consumers and industries. The challenge is timing, and to see new things in the context of the present without losing sight of history. I have selected the five trends presented here based on my understanding of the ongoing transformation of the industry, including rapid digitalization, mobilization and continuous technology evolution, and how they affect the future development of network platforms – one of the essential components of the emergent digital economy. At Ericsson, our role is to keep these top trends in sight to guide our innovation, test our limits and ultimately create a thriving market for the next generation of technology.

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STANDARDIZING NARROWBAND ✱TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S ✱✱ TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S
technology
trends driving
innovation
Our industry has an increasingly important role to play in creating the foundation for new
business in a broad range of industry sectors in countries all around the world. As Ericsson’s
new Chief Technology Officer, it’s my job to keep track of technological advancements on
the horizon and leverage them to create new value streams for society, consumers and
industries. The challenge is timing, and to see new things in the context of the present
without losing sight of history.
I have selected the five trends presented here based on my understanding of the ongoing
transformation of the industry, including rapid digitalization, mobilization and continuous
technology evolution, and how they affect the future development of network platforms –
one of the essential components of the emergent digital economy. At Ericsson, our role is to
keep these top trends in sight to guide our innovation, test our limits and ultimately create a
thriving market for the next generation of technology.
→
#1
AN ADAPTABLE TECHNOLOGY
BASE
Blending technologies in new
ways to unleash next generation
computational networks
#2
THE DAWN OF TRUE MACHINE
INTELLIGENCE (MI)
Moving from cognitive MI toward
augmented human intelligence
#3
END-TO-END SECURITY AND
IDENTITY FOR THE INTERNET
OF THINGS (IOT)
A holistic approach to trust in all
dimensions
#4
AN EXTENDED DISTRIBUTED
IOT PLATFORM
Acceleration toward a distributed
and connected IoT platform
#5
OVERLAYING REALITY WITH
KNOWLEDGE
Immersive communication
that ties user experience to the
physical world
21
by erik ekudden, cto
– five to watch

2. 3
✱ TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S ✱
4#02, 2017 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEWERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #02, 2017
T O R E L E A S E the full potential of
the digital economy, the underlying
technology components will rely on
a symbiotic evolution in the software
and hardware dimension. It is in the
lowest layers of the technology stack –
at the intersection between software
and hardware – where more powerful
and flexible solutions will become
available, enabled by virtualization
technologies and horizontal
architectures.
ARCHITECTURALADJUSTMENTS
AHEAD
Geometricalscalinghaslongbeenthe
mainpathforthetransistortechnology
evolutionbutextensiveresearchis
currentlyunderwaytofindalternative
methodstoincreasetransistor
performance.Significanteffortsare
beingputintobuildingmoreadvanced
architecturalstructures,suchasvarious
typesofnon-monolithicintegration
technologies,toincreaseintegration
andtherebymaintaintheperformance
evolutiontrack.
Inthecomputingdomain,the
dominatingCPU architecture
trendismassivemulticoretomeet
parallelprocessingdemands.With
moreprocessorsonachip,memory
architecturesanddatatransferwill
becomekeytechnologiesinhardware.
Non-volatilememoryandintegrated
siliconphotonicswillreachmaturity
andchangetheentirememory/storage
hierarchy.Thenewtechnologiesare
expectedtohavesignificantlyhigher
performanceaswellaslowerlatencyand
energyconsumption.
Tofurtherenhancecomputational
powerandperformanceindatacenters,
specializedresourcessuchassmart
networkinterfacecontrollers,general
purposegraphicsprocessorsandfield
programmablegatearrayswillbemade
availableforvirtualapplicationsthrough
abstractions.Asimilarco-processing
architecturalapproachcanbeexpected
forquantumcomputing.
Therapidadvancesofbasecomponents
willmeanthatthefirstexascalesystemswith
computingpoweratdoublethecapacityof
today’stop500computerscombinedcanbe
expectedwithinfiveyears.
Incombinationwithspecifictypes
ofalgorithmsandapplications,these
technologyshiftscouldprovetobe
disruptive.
SPURRINGINNOVATIONTHROUGH
ALGORITHMEVOLUTION
Massivedatacollectionfrom,forexample,
IoTsensorswilldrivetheneedfornew
predictivesoftwarealgorithmsthat
alsotakeadvantageoftheincreasingly
parallelcomputationalpower.Algorithm
developmentwillplayanevenmore
significantroleinsoftwaredesign.One
exampleisdeeplearning,abranchof
machinelearningthatusesalayered
algorithmstructuretolearnhierarchical
concepts.
Theamountofcodeneededtoreach
ahigherlevelofcomplexityisverysmall,
areductionbyafactorof10ormore,
comparedwithtraditionalsoftware
systemapproaches.Thistypeofsystem
learnsfromexamples:itutilizesageneric
algorithmthatusestheexamplestoset
parametersinthealgorithmtofitthe
particulartaskathand.
Reinforcementlearningisatechnology
todevelopself-learningsoftwareagents,
whichcanlearnandoptimizeonan
observedstateoftheenvironmentanda
rewardsystem.Thisenablesdevelopment
ofself-learningsystemsthatrequire
neitherhumaninterventionnorhand-
engineered,threshold-basedpolicies.
ENABLINGTHEFUTURE
COMMUNICATIONSYSTEM
Fromaconnectivityperspective,one
interestingareaisbeamforminginfuture
5Gnetworks,wheresymbiosisofsoftware
andhardwareplaysanimportantrole.
Atmm-wavefrequencies,hundredsof
antennasandtransceiverchainswork
togetherwithadvancedcontrolalgorithms
togenerate,formandsteerradiowaves
inrealtimetoaccomplishmultiuser
MIMO(multiple-input,multiple-output).
Eachdeviceisaccessedbyasingleuser
dedicatedbeamtooptimizenetworkand
usercapacity,efficiencyandquality.
AtEricsson,wearecurrentlyinvesting
inavarietyofcollaborativeeffortswith
academiaandthetechnologyindustry
tofosteranopenenvironmentinwhich
toshareideasandvisionsthatwillenable
themostsuccessfulfuturenetworkfrom
bothasocietalandindividualhuman
perspective.
an adaptable
technology
base
#1

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TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S ✱✱ TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S
the dawn of
true machine
intelligence
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)
first emerged in the early 1950s
when symbolic logic and rule-based
systems were used to generate logical
conclusions. Another important step
included artificial neural networks,
capable of performing pattern
recognition by learning from data
through iterative optimization.
The advancements in these
computational-intense algorithms
have progressed in performance
and cost through the evolution of
computing power, data availability and
connectivity.
Machineintelligence(MI)combines
machinelearningandAImethodsto
createdata-drivenintelligent,non-fragile
systemsforautomation,augmentation
andamplifications.MIisabouttheabilityto
augmenthumanintelligence.Humanswill
beempoweredbyanecosystemofsharing
dataandinsights,withsupportfromdigital
assistantsguidingandaugmentinghuman
awareness.MIwillcreateanewtype
ofautonomouscoachingenvironment
wherehumansandmachinescantrain
andmentoreachother.Thissituationis
comparabletoateacherinaclassroom
guiding,mentoring,discussingwithand
learningfromthestudents.
MIwillhelpusunderstandand
accomplishthingsweneverwouldhave
discoveredbyourselves.Itestablishesa
wholenewfoundationandpotentialfor
innovation,withtheabilitytobemuch
moreinfluentialthanindustrialization.
Human-machinecommunicationwill
furtherevolvetowardamultifaceted
communicationplatformthatincludes
capabilitiessuchassituationandsocial
awareness.Adeeperdialoguebetween
humansandmachineswillemerge,moving
beyondcognitiveintelligencetoward
augmentedhumanintelligence.
SIMPLICITYTHROUGHANALYTICS
ANDAUTOMATION
AmongthemanytoolsintheMItoolbox
isanalytics–coveringeverythingfrom
straightforwardanalyticsovermultiple
nodesandpetabytesofdata,tocomplex
multidimensionalanalyticsonparallel
processorsystems.Today,analyticsis
oftenahuman-involvedprocessthat
requirestheconsiderationofseveral
aspects,includinghowtohandledata
volumes,dataspeedandthemultitudeof
datatypes.
Anexampleofcomplexeventprocess
handlingwithamassiveamountofreal-
timedataiselectronictrading.Thistype
oftooliscapableofhandling,analyzing
anddrawingconclusionsbasedupon
millionsofmessagespersecond.Froma
networkperspective,wewillseethese
typesofusecasesfurthersubstantiated
bytheevolutionoftheIoT.Connectedcars
andothertypesofconnecteddeviceswill
comeonline,providingmoreusecases
thatrequirereal-timemessagingfroma
varietyofdecentralizeddatasources.
Jettisonandmetadataareessentialto
handlethehugevarietyindatastructuring.
Automatingthesetasksisofgreat
importancetoanyenterprisewithdigital
aspirationsbecausehuman-intense
interventionsarenotscalable.
Automationisbestdescribedasa
closed-loopsystem.Theautomation
closedlooprefinessystemintervention
dependingonrecordedimpact,with
minimallatency.Theinterventionis
updatedbasedonfeedbackonthesystem
performance.Theclosedloopintroduces
thenecessarychangeswithouthuman
intervention,basedonperformancegoals
definedbyhumans.
Weareenteringtheeraofearly
enablementofsentientMIthatcanbeused
tocreatedigitalattention,agilememory
andgoalmanagement.
NETWORKEVOLUTIONBRINGS
MUCHMORETHANRAWDATA
Overthenextdecade,industryandsociety
willestablishafoundationofinsight-driven
systemsleveragingMItechnologies.New
serviceengagementswillemerge,driven
bypredictivemodellingandautomated
operations.Furthermore,avarietyof
deploymentmodelsservingdifferent
usecaseswillemerge,suchaspure
cloud-nativeapplications,on-premises
datacenteroperations,anddistributed
deploymentsacrossmultiplesites.All
ofthiswillbebeneficialtomanydigital
businessesandindustries.
Analytics,MIandautomation
capabilitieswillbeanintegralpartof
futurenetworks,substantiatinginnovation
fromnetworkoperationtonewbusiness
opportunitieswithintheIoT,forinstance.
#2

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✱ TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S TECHNOLOGY T R E N D S ✱
Thiscomprehensiveapproachincludes
end-to-endmanagementofsecurityand
privacythatprovidespredictivesecurity
insightsand,inmanycases,automated
adjustmentsbasedonpolicies.Security
andprivacyarenotthingsthatcanbe
addedon;theymustbefullyintegrated
intodomainsandcomponents,processes,
storageandcommunication.
ASYSTEMBUILTANDENABLEDBY
TRUSTCOMPONENTS
Thecomprehensiveapproachtosecurity
andprivacywillbebasedonanindustry-
wideagreementonhowtosecuretrustin
development,deploymentandoperations.
Itwillincludesecurityandprivacyenabling
developmenttools,alongwithtoolsfor
automatedandsecuredeployment.Itwill
alsoincludeoperationsthatprovidedirect
feedbacktodevelopment,continuous
compliancemonitoring,andinmanycases,
automated,policy-basedsecurityand
privacyorchestrationthatconsidersthe
constantlychangingthreat,vulnerability
andtrustlandscapes.
Inthecomingyears,identity
managementtechnologieswill
continuetobeinthespotlight–along
withtechnologiesthatenabletrustin
business-criticaldataandprivacy-related
personaldata.Blockchainisanemerging
technologythathaspotentialinthis
regard. Securityanalyticsandmachine
learningtechnologieswillprovidesecurity
insightsaboutthreats,vulnerabilitiesand
securitystatus.Systemintegritywillbe
basedonroot-of-trusttechnologiesthat
enabletrustworthyhardwareandsoftware
components.
Thetrust-enablingsecurityandprivacy
technologiesimplementedindevices
shouldbecost-effectiveandhighly
scalable.Mission-criticalindustriesin
particularwillrequirehightrustinsecurity
andprivacy,aswellastheabilitytomeet
tighttimeconstraints.
ACOLLABORATIVEINDUSTRY
EFFORT
Asapartofthecomprehensivesecurity
andprivacyapproach,collaborationin
threat,vulnerabilityandtrustexchange
willincrease.Differentindustryplayerscan
contributetothecollaborationwithintheir
areaofexpertise.
Greatertransparencywillboosttrust,
whichwillinturnboostIoTadoptionand
acceleratedigitizationinmission-critical
industries.Thecomprehensiveapproach
tosecurityandprivacytogetherwith
industry-widecollaboration,jointtrusted
developmentandstandardizationwillbe
essentialtrustenablers.Sincenetwork
serviceprovidersarerankedamongthe
mosttrustedindustryplayers(accordingto
sourcessuchasthe2015AccentureDigital
ConsumerSurvey),Ericssoniscommitted
tohelpingthemplaythiskey,trust-building
roleacrossmultipleindustries.
end-to-end
security and
identity for
the iot
#3
WHILE THE IoT is undoubtedly full of promise, there are still concerns about
the proper handling of security and privacy, especially within mission-
critical industries. Cybersecurity threats are emerging rapidly at the same
time as the volume of the connected devices and software is increasing. It
is more essential than ever to take a comprehensive approach to security
and privacy that ranges from devices and gateways with connectivity to the
cloud, IoT platforms and applications; chips to services; and development
to operations. The need for industry-wide and cross-industry collaboration
must also be taken into account.

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Afullpaletteofnewflexibilityisbrought
intothemarketaspay-as-you-go/use/
growenablesSMEstoofferfarbetter
servicesthantheydotoday.These
servicesincludeproactiveandpredictive
maintenance,wheretheserviceimproves
overtimeasaresultoftheabilitytolearn
fromdata.
Ericsson’sIoT-relatedengagements
rangeendtoend.Forexample,weare
examininghowaccesstechnologies
canbeoptimizedforvarioustypesofIoT
usecasessuchasNB-IoT(NarrowBand
IoT)toreducepowerconsumptionand
cost.Ericssonisalsoinvestingheavilyin
theevolutionofLTEandtheenablement
of5Gnetworkstoextendtherange
ofaddressableIoTusecasesand
applications.Additionally,weareworking
tocreatecross-industryengagements
suchas5GAAtoconnecttheautomotive
andtelecomindustries(includingdevices)
todevelopend-to-endsolutionsforfuture
mobilityandtransportservices.Itisvital
forahealthy,evolvingmarkettohave
industry-widestandardsthatreduce
fragmentation,whichwouldotherwise
hamperIoTmarketadoption.
an extended
distributed
iot platform
T H E T E C H N O L O G Y shifts
that the IoT brings will transform the
technology industry in unprecedented
ways. Networks will facilitate
transactions, operations, logistics and
the like, and simultaneously collect
and analyze data, enabled by a cloud-
based network infrastructure that
connects machines, vehicles and
devices. The race is on to develop and
expand the capabilities of an industry-
wide IoT platform. New business
opportunities will be born through
cross industry-society engagements.
Anindustry-wideIoTplatformwillbemade
upofdecentralizeddevicesrangingfrom
simplepassivestoautonomousdevices
thatareconnectedandcommunicating
throughadistributedcloudwitha
horizontalapplicationandmanagement
platform.Itisadistributedsystem,where
insightsareaggregatedfromtheedge
towardthecenterandregulatedbypolicy
andsecuritysettingsthatarespecificfor
eachapplicationandusecase.Thisisa
multi-cloudbasedinfrastructure,where
acombinationofpublicandon-premise
solutionsconnectandserveanytypeof
IoT-relatedservicefromnear-productto
software-as-a-service.
TheIndustrialIoT(IIoT),abranchofthe
IoTthatisoptimizedforindustry-specific
usecaseswithenterpriseconnectivity,
isalsoemerging.Productionflexibilityis
enabledbysystemfunctionalitiesthat
havebothspecificnomadicandmobility
capabilities.Everythingcentersaround
differentaspectsoflogistics–notonly
fromaphysicalperspectivebutalso
aroundinformationflowanddatastreams.
Bysettingpolicyroles,networkslices
arecreated,definingwhatisallowedfor
eachspecificusecase.Securehandlingof
informationisessential,sothatdatacan
neitherleakinoroutofthesystem.
SEMANTICINTEROPERABILITYTO
SECUREFUNCTIONALITYGROWTH
Devicescomewithdifferentmonitoring,
managementandsecurityfunctions.
Robotsinwarehouses,forinstance,
requirepositiontrackingandcoordination
anddeliveryfunctions.Simplehome
automationsolutionsusecloud-based
applicationsthatarecentrallyconnected
tootherinformationflows,suchas
weatherforecasts,trafficcamerasand
soon.Aconnectedvehiclecloudincludes
functionssuchasinfotainment,over
theairupgrades,telematics,remote
control,vehiclesafetyandsecurity,fleet
managementandemergencyservices.
Pre-provisioneddevicesareoneof
thebuildingblocksthatenableanIoT
platformthatcangrowinfunctionalityas
newdevicetypesconnecttothenetwork.
Thefirsttimethesedevices“wakeup”and
connect,theyinformthesystemwhothey
are,whattheycanbeusedforandwhat
theyarecapableof.Thesystemisfurther
enhancedbyzerotouchprovisioning,
includingfullyautomateddevicecycle
management.
Devicesbecomeanintegralpartof
thefuturenetworkandincorporate
connectivityamongclustersofdevices
throughacombinationofwirelessand
wiredaccesstechnologies.Thewireless
connectionsarebasedonbothwidearea
andshortrangetechnologies.
SEMANTICAPPLICATIONSAND
SERVICESOLUTIONS
TheextendeddistributedIoTplatform
bringsmajoropportunitiestothebusiness
landscapewhenenablingawiderange
ofnewdigitalservices.It’salsoamodel
thatmovesfromtraditionalheavycapital
investmentstowardanoperational-
expenses-centricmodel.Thisismanifested
throughanadoptionandevolutionofvarious
typesof“asaservice”models.
#4

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overlaying reality
with knowledge
#5
IN THE LAST couple of years,
many devices capable of rendering
immersive experiences have reached
the consumer market. The virtual
reality (VR) market has mainly been
driven by the gaming industry but the
technology has now been picked up
by studios and other content creators.
Augmented reality (AR), which offers
a user experience that connects to
the physical location, is also becoming
popular. Real-time information is
overlaid on whatever the user looks at,
which enables the user to understand
reality in greater depth.
AUGMENTEDKNOWLEDGE
VIRTUALLYEVERYWHERE
OneexampleofARisatask-baseddigital
assistantthatsimplifiescomplextasks
withreal-timeguidance.Thistypeof
systemisabletoprovidefeedbackassoon
asamistakeismadebyanoperatororfield
serviceengineer.Thefeedbackhelpsthe
practitionerbecomemoreknowledgeable
andtakeimmediateactiontofixthe
mistake.
Anotherpromisingusecasecombines
VRandARservices.Inthisscenario,a
userisassistedbyaremotetechnicianto
solveadifficultproblem.Theusershares
areal-timevideoofthesurroundingswith
theremotetechnician.Thetechnician
analyzesthevideoandinstructstheuser
onhowtosolvetheproblembysending
audioandoverlaidgraphicstotheuser’s
ARglasses.
WithintheareaofAR,awiderange
ofusecasesemergebesidesremote
mentoring.Manypracticalapplications
arealsorecognizedindigitalindustrial
workplaces,whicharesensor-rich
environmentswithnetworkedmachine
andcomputationalpoweravailablefor
analyticsofsensorandmachinedata.
Objectsthatarecurrentlyofflinecan
easilybeconnectedandaugmented
throughcomputervisiontechnologies.
Thisisanextensionofimmersive
applicationsinatypicalIIoTscenariothat
providesincreasedproductivitythrough
improveduptime,qualityandsafety.
AdditionalsupporttoolswithinIIoTinclude
visualizationofdata,documentnavigation
andemployeetraining.
PUSHINGTOWARDREALITYPARITY
Thetechnologyevolutionforimmersive
solutionsrequiresawiderangeoftools
andinfrastructure.Thesetoolsinclude
displaytechnology,real-timeeyetracking,
volumetriccapture,perceptualcomputing
forlocationsandsurroundingpositions,
bodymovementandmore.High-resolution
cameras,microphones,GPS,gyros,
connectivity,battery,voiceandgesture
controlarealsoexamplesofcomponents
includedintheconcept.Compared
withtoday’ssmartphones,theobvious
differenceiswithintheman-machine
interaction.
Overthenextdecade,computervision
willgetbetterthrough3Dmapping,
improvedfieldofview,full-colordepth
andholographictechnologies.With
improvedcomputecapabilitiescomes
reduceddisturbancesfromlatencyand
rendering.VRisexpectedtoreachparity
withrealityandtherebyenabletrue3D
communication.
VRandARarecompellingusecases
for5Gbecausetheyrequirehighdata
ratesandlowlatency.Changeofviewport
whenturningtheheadrequireslow
latencyortheuserwillsuffervertigo.
Motiontophotondelayshouldbeless
than20ms.End-to-enddelayandlatency
requirementsarekeytoprovidinga
pleasantuserexperience.Bandwidth
maybecomehigh(fortheuplinkvideo)
dependingontheusecase.
Unfortunately,thecurrentVR/AR
marketisfragmentedwithmanyverticals
fordifferentcameras,workflowsand
headsets.Toaddressthisissue,Ericsson
becameafoundingmemberoftheVR
IndustryForum,whichcreatesguidelines
andinteroperabilityalongtheentireend-
to-endchain.Thescopeistofurtherthe
widespreadavailabilityofhigh-quality
audiovisualVRandARexperiencesforthe
benefitofconsumers.