The Internet of Things (IoT), or “industry 4.0” as it’s starting to be known, is expected to account for billions upon billions of additional devices connected to the Internet and to each other. Various economies are starting to gear up to capture the opportunity, as is evidenced by Chinese infrastructure giants Huawei Technologies and NXP Semiconductors teaming up to work on the sector with a dedicated initiative.

The two have agreed to jointly explore the Chinese and global Industry 4.0 market, through technical cooperation and joint innovation. They have pledged to create an “open, robust and secure Industry 4.0 information and communication technology platform.”

Research firm IHS predicts that by 2025, Industry 4.0 will connect over 80 billion devices to the Internet. China plans to invest nearly $1.2 trillion over the next three years in modernizing and transforming the country’s industrial base to account for this, with the stated aim of shifting from simply being big to being big and powerful, with an undisputed IoT market dominance.

Looking to help that goal come to fruition, Huawei and NXP will collaborate in a range of areas, including the physical layer, network layer and cybersecurity. The partnership will fully integrate Huawei's ICT infrastructure and NXP's secure connectivity solutions, and support a range of applications, such as factory automation, logistics 4.0, wireless secure connections, and sensor networks.

Huawei already offers a wide range of ICT products and solutions for industrial IoT connectivity, including LTE-M technology and an industrial Ethernet gateway, which includes IoT connections, security, and device management and operations. And, it provides applications such as automated production, energy utilization optimization, parts management, real-time fault diagnosis and on-demand production.

“The ability to create value depends on the underlying chipsets, modules and Lite OS,” said Patrick Zhang, the president of Huawei Marketing & Solutions. “NXP, as Huawei's partner in chipset and secure connectivity solutions, will help both sides expand their industry 4.0 business in the Chinese and global markets.”