5G is the upcoming mobile technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way people use the internet. In today’s fast-paced world, wireless industries are investing heavily in this technology to cater to the needs of rising mobile data consumption and faster connectivity.
It offers considerably improved download speed on smartphones and other devices than ever before with an average to be of the order of a few Gbps.
To understand why this “race to 5G” even a question when 4G is offering plethora of satisfactory features already, let’s look at the history to realize how technology has evolved from using a 1G phone as a basic way to talk wirelessly to a 5G smartphone that can stream 4K, or even 8K videos without buffering.
HISTORY OF WIRELESS MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
The first generation wireless mobile technology was introduced in the early 1980s and a new mobile telecommunications technology is released roughly every 10 years. They have different speeds and features that improve on the previous generation. The next generation is 5G, which is scheduled to launch in 2020.
1G: Only Voice
Remember those sinusoidal and other trigonometric waves we studied in high school? That’s what analog signals are made of and these cellular phones used them. 1G supported voice-only calls. 1G phones using it had poor battery life and voice quality, little security and were prone to dropped calls. The maximum speed of 1G technology was 2.4 KBps.
2G: SMS and MMS
The 2G telephone technology introduced call and text encryption, along with data services such as SMS, picture messages and MMS. The maximum speed of 2G with General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) was 50 KBps. The speed was 1 MBps with Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE).
2.5G and 2.75G: Data
Before making the major leap from 2G to 3G wireless networks, the lesser-known 2.5G and 2.75G were interim standards that bridged the gap to make data transmission possible. 2.5G introduced a new packet switching technique that was more efficient than 2G technology. This led to 2.75G, which provided three times more speed.
3G: More Data
The introduction of the 3G network resulted in faster data transmission speeds so as to use the cell phone in a more efficient way such as for video calling and mobile internet access. The term “mobile broadband” was first applied to 3G cellular technology. Like 2G, 3G evolved into the much faster 3.5G and 3.75G as more features were introduced to bring about 4G. The maximum speed of 3G is around 2 MBps for non-moving devices and 384 KBps in moving vehicles.
4G: The Current Standard
The fourth generation of networking released in 2008 is 4G. It supports mobile web access like 3G does and also gaming services, HD mobile TV, video conferencing, 3D TV and other features that require high speeds. The maximum speed of a 4G network when the device is moving is 100 MBps and 1 Gbps when the person is at rest.
5G: Yet to Come
5G will definitely be an improvement on 4G. It promises significantly faster data rates, higher connection density, much lower latency, and energy savings. The predicted speed of 5G connections is up to 20 Gbps.
To understand how 5G will differ from 4G in terms of technologies it will use, refer to https://spectrum.ieee.org/video/telecom/wireless/everything-you-need-to-know-about-5g
FEATURES OF 5G TECHNOLOGY
1. High Speed
5G speeds will vary between locations, countries, carriers, and devices, but on the whole, the average internet speed can be expected to be much greater than what’s currently offered on 4G. While a 4G network is capable of offering speeds of up to a maximum of 50 MBps, in 5G, we are talking about internet speed crossing the 10GBps mark on an average.
Imagine a scenario where you have to download a 4GB movie. While on 3G it would take a few weeks, you would manage to download that movie within a day on a 4G network and on 5G it would be done in just about a few minutes.
2. Capacity
People are often faced with poor internet speed despite high cellular density, it’s not because of lack of internet or data bandwidth, but due to a critical flaw with the delivery mechanism of the 4G network. The new 5G network will come with more than 100 times more device handling capacity. It means more people or devices would be able to connect to a given network without degrading its performance for the rest of the users.
3. Low Latency
The thing that people hate the most while surfing the internet is excessive loading time. The current 4G networks can only offer latency as low as 50ms which makes it unsuitable for critical applications. 5G, on the other hand, offers an ultra-low latency of 1ms which means an instant response from the network and devices using that network, meaning that even 4K streaming of videos would be virtually lag-free.
4. Improved Battery Life
5G is not just one technology, it is actually a combination of several technologies in one. The system, however, is smart and knows when to make use of which technology for maximum efficiency. Thereby, this constant monitoring allows the network to offer the best possible connection to the devices and thereby reducing a major load off of them to keep searching for a better network and thereby increasing the battery life of devices such as phones.
REAL LIFE USE CASES OF 5G
Each new generation wireless network came with all new set of new usages. 5G will make no exception and will be focused on IoT and critical communications applications. In terms of agenda, 5G will have the following use cases:
- Fixed wireless access
- Enhanced mobile broadband with 4G fall-back
- Massive M2M (Machine-to-machine)/IoT (2021)
- Ultra low-latency IoT critical communications (2024).
CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING 5G TECHNOLOGY
Starting from 1G to 5G, the journey is merely of about 40 years old. However, in this journey, the common challenges that can be observed are lack of infrastructure, research methodology, and cost.
The challenges of 5G are categorized into the following:
1. Technical Challenges
- Traffic Management: A great number of Machine to Machine (M2M) devices in a cell may cause serious system challenges i.e. radio access network (RAN) challenges, which will cause overload and congestion.
- Medium Access Control: In a situation where the dense deployment of access points and user terminals are required, the user throughput will be low, latency will be high and hotspots will not be competent to cellular technology to provide high throughput.
- Inter-cell Interference: There is variations in the size of traditional macro cells and concurrent small cells that will lead to interference.
2. Recurrent Challenges
- Security and Privacy: 5G will have to define the uncertainties related to security threats including trust, privacy, cybersecurity, which are growing across the globe.
- Communication and Navigation: Though 5G technology has a strong computational power to process the huge volume of data coming from different and distinct sources, it needs larger infrastructure support.
- Multiple Services: 5G would have a huge task to offer services to heterogeneous networks, technologies, and devices operating in different geographic regions. So, the challenge is of standardization to provide dynamic, universal, user-centric, and data-rich wireless services to fulfill the high expectation of people.
The projected adoption rate for 5G differs drastically from all previous generation networks while previous technology was driven by mobile internet usage, 5G is expected to be mainly driven by new IoT usages, such as connected and self-driving cars.
The perception of speed, instantaneous response time and performance for IoT will become a reality. The well-expected success of self-driving cars will only be possible when 5G networks are available. 5G for consumers means not just faster mobile internet, but mainly internet connectivity in many more objects than what we see today.
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Thank you for viewing the blog. I’m glad I could include everything worth knowing in the article in a brief manner. Keep visiting for more such stuff.
Very informative blog. Though read about this technology earlier also but this article is beyond comparison. Keep writing
Thank you. I only to try to include what’s absolutely necessary so as to provide people with appropriate content.
Very informative blog. Though read about this technology earlier also but this article is beyond comparison. Keep writing…………..
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