Do frog croaks hold the key to creating the perfect IoT network?

Studying how tree frogs regulate their communications, so each amphibian in the colony can hear everything, could provide ideal data traffic routings, scientists say.

Internet of Things (IoT) research firm Berg Insight recently released figures indicating the installed base of wireless IoT devices in industrial automation reached 21.3 million in 2018. That number could be 50.3 million connections by 2023, the company says. It's a lot of new industrial wireless nodes coming, and potentially a lot of data packet collisions if the new networks aren't thought out for handling a snowballing scale.

Copying frogs is the answer, say researchers at Osaka University in Japan. They say they've discovered that the calling patterns of male Japanese tree frogs don't overlap, and thus replicate how one would ideally like to see a network function -- no packets crashing. The leaping amphibians collectively orchestrate their croaking and ...