Impact of 5G Technology on IoT Applications in Construction Project Management?

IoT based platforms are enhancing decision-making capabilities in many sectors. The impact of IoT in construction has not been significant because of the unstructured nature of the process and the project-based approach to construction. Further, the technology platforms available today do not support high data flow from distributed locations as required for construction. However, it is anticipated that the use of IoT in construction will increase significantly when standards such as 5G are implemented for widespread usage. The first objective of this paper is to identify the potential usage of IoT technology for various construction project processes based on the PMBOK framework for construction. Several works on the applications of IoT which have been published are reviewed, and a framework for construction domain is proposed. The second objective is to identify and discuss the barriers raised by connectivity issues within this framework and influence of 5G technology in overcoming this barrier is elaborated. A comparative quantitative analysis of sample processes is presented to show the potential advantage that 5G technology will bring over 4G with the help of an example.