5G: The Things You Need to Know

The future of wireless communication is 5G. 5G wireless technology promises a rich, reliable, and hyperconnected world.

Fifth-generation wireless, or 5G, is the latest iteration of cellular technology, which promises 100 to 1,000 times the speed of 4G LTE. That means you might be able to download a full-length movie in a matter of seconds. More important, 5G will enable a new wave of ultra-efficient, Internet-connected devices, being able to greatly increase the speed and responsiveness of wireless networks.

How 5G works?

Wireless networks are composed of cell sites divided into sectors that send data through radio waves. Fourth-generation (4G) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology provides the foundation for 5G. Unlike 4G, which requires large, high-power cell towers to radiate signals over longer distances, 5G wireless signals will be transmitted via large numbers of small cell stations located in places like light poles or building roofs. The use of multiple small cells is necessary because the millimeter wave spectrum -- the band of spectrum between 30 GHz and 300 GHz that 5G relies on to generate high speeds -- can only travel over short distances and is subject to interference from weather and physical obstacles, like buildings.

What is the status of 5G deployment?

5G networks and services will be deployed in stages over the next several years to accommodate the increasing reliance on mobile and internet-enabled devices. Overall, 5G is expected to generate a variety of new applications, uses and business cases as the technology is rolled out.

Presently, wireless network operators in four countries -- the United States, Japan, South Korea and China -- are largely driving the first 5G buildouts.

With 5G wireless equipment standards almost complete and the first 5G-compliant smartphones and associated wireless devices commercially available in 2019, 5G use cases will begin to emerge between 2020 and 2025, according to Technology Business Research projections. By 2030, 5G services will become mainstream and are expected to range from the delivery of virtual reality (VR) content to autonomous vehicle navigation enabled by real-time communications (RTC) capabilities.

Recently, the Moto Z3 release date is August 16, and that's also when you're be able to buy the world's first 5G-upgradable smartphone, according to Verizon and Motorola.

Also, Samsung is to invest 25 trillion won (£17 billion) in 5G and AI, planing to become a leader in the market for 5G chipsets while also ensuring it is in position to capture demand for new applications in autonomous cars, the Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics that will be enabled by next generation networks.

Where 5G be applied?

1. Cars

Connected cars are a key growth driver. Futurists predict that the self-driving vehicles of the future will exchange cloud management info, sensor data, and multimedia content with one another over low-latency networks. According to ABI Research, 67 million automotive 5G vehicle subscriptions will be active, three million of which will be low latency connections mainly deployed in autonomous cars.

2. IoT

According to Asha Keddy, general manager of mobile standards for advance tech at Intel, 5G will be the first network designed with the Internet of Things (IoT) in mind.

“These next-generation networks and standards will need to solve a more complex challenge of combining communications and computing together,” Keddy told Quartzin an interview ahead of the 2017 Mobile World Congress. “With 5G, we’ll see computing capabilities getting fused with communications everywhere, so trillions of things like wearable devices don’t have to worry about computing power because network can do any processing needed.”

3. Virtual reality and augmented reality

5G could bring about advances in virtual reality and streaming video. Sprint recently demonstrated streaming wireless VR at the Copa America soccer tournament, and Huawei showed a demo of 360-degree video streamed live from a 5G network.

4. Cloud-powered apps

Remote storage and web apps stand to benefit from 5G. “The cloud becomes an infinite extension of your phone’s storage,” El-Kadi said. “You never have to worry about running out of photo space.”

In addition to additional phone storage, you may see a significant difference in mobile hardware design overall. With 5G many of the computing tasks completed on your device can be moved to the network. Since the devices will not require the same computing capabilities, we may see so called “dummy phones”with minimal hardware using the network to complete tasks. The transfer of power from device to network also means that your cellphone may have greater longevity as it will not necessarily require incremental hardware improvements to keep pace.

How long will we have to wait?

While most carriers were initially promising a wide-spread roll out of 5G in 2020, but we all don’t know when the fastest 5G applications coming out. Whatever, it is worthy to expect 5G’s coming.