5G Technology: A Beginner's Guide To The New-Age Wireless Network
5G Technology

5G Technology: A Beginner’s Guide To The New-Age Wireless Network

Imagine a world where all devices are connected over wireless networks, a world where data transfer speeds are 20 times faster than what your current mobile network provides. Yes, we’re talking about the much anticipated 5G technology.

It’s funny how autonomous cars, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet of Things have become a reality, but an ultrafast mobile data network was missing from the scene.

5G Technology has the capacity to make possible our dream of lightning fast download speeds across wireless networks, and more.

What is 5G Technology?

According to TechTarget:

5G Technology - Definition

5G Technology is the next generation of mobile networks beyond LTE mobile networks or 4G networks as we know them.

With major mobile network carriers in the US such as AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint planning to introduce their mobile 5G networks within the year, and several others claiming to lead 5G research, 5G service is expected to break the markets soon.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has released several reports on 5G standard, also known as the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) – 2020 radio interface(s).

As per ITU guidelines, 5G mobile network speeds should have downlink peak data rate or download speeds of 20 Gb/s and uplink peak data rate or upload speeds of 10 Gb/s, which essentially makes 5G service 20 times faster than the existing 4G networks.

5G evolution is not simply over 4G networks, but through imagining specific uses and applications of existing and predicted requirements.

5G evolution can be credited to the need for connecting everything over wireless networks, lightning fast download speeds, and supporting the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

 

How Does 5G Technology Work?

To understand how 5G Technology works, we need to understand a number of smaller technologies that are crucial to the 5G evolution:

  • Millimeter Wave:

5G Technology uses a variety of spectrum bands, including millimeter wave (mm-Wave) radio spectrum that can carry large amounts of data over short distances.

Limitation of higher frequency bands such as millimeter wave is that they are easily obstructed by things like walls of buildings and have a low coverage area.

While 5G standard offers great benefits over higher frequency such as the millimeter wave, it will also work at a lower frequency such as the one Wi-Fi currently uses, without creating conflicts with existing Wi-Fi or existing 4G networks.

The 5G connection will, therefore, use small cells to complement traditional cellular towers.

  • Small cells:

Small cells are low-powered portable base stations covering smaller areas. As 5G technology spreads farther, users can expect small cell networks set up even in their own homes.

  • Beamforming:

Beamforming is a 5G technology that takes the most efficient route for delivering data to users, with higher frequency antennas navigating narrower transmission beams.

Small cells, combined with beamforming, enable faster coverage with low latency.

Standardization of 5G Technology

Currently, 5G mobile systems are still in development stages.

Several mobile network companies are looking to become part of the 5G wireless network. Also, there is intense research being conducted in learning from the use cases of 5G.

Many of the technologies being used for 5G service are being inculcated in the systems being used for existing 4G networks, which will then be incorporated into the 5G connection as it begins to gain solid ground.

The 5G standard has been set such that it serves across a wide variation in terms of requirement, right from superfast download speed for seamless streaming of high definition large format videos to small data pockets needed for IoT or virtual reality and the scope for transferring a large amount of data at high speeds.

A layered approach is therefore likely to be adopted for 5G mobile networks such that it caters to both high and low rates of data services.

 

Benefits of 5G Technology

There is no doubt about the fact that 5G wireless technology is bound to impact and be beneficial to almost all sectors and people, be it professionals, students, or common people.

  • The amount of data being transferred today is only expected to grow, especially with video-streaming, video-conferencing and virtual reality becoming a norm.
  • 5G wireless networks will help make bi-directional high-resolution data sharing several times faster than WiFi can currently provide.
  • With IoT gaining ground and the need for connecting all devices on a single platform, 5G phone, and 5G wireless networks are designed to meet the demand for uniform, uninterrupted and consistent connection all over the world.
  • 5G technology is easily manageable and compatible with the previous generations of technology.
  • Additionally, 5G networks are designed such that they can be energy efficient by analyzing the traffic passing through a modem and minimizing the power used accordingly.

5G Technology: Expectations

5G technology is slated to change the way we interact with our physical world.

Multiple services will be able to run parallel on a 5G phone, without hampering the quality of output.

Connectivity on remote locations will improve by leaps and bounds, thus helping in reaching out to communities in the farthest corner of the world.

Things like medical treatment, enhanced surveillance, and monitoring will lead to efficient health services, reduced crimes, and faster detection of possible natural calamities, etc.

Industries’ expectations from 5G technology are not only restricted to the reach and high speed that it offers, but they are hopeful that 5G technology will help improve issues around data security, connectivity, and process automation.

Right from energy & utilities, manufacturing, healthcare, automobiles, retail, financial services to agriculture and public safety – the scope for and expectations from 5G technology are immense.

Gaps that exist in the current technology and shortcomings that current devices have, 5G technology is expected to fulfill them and do much more.

A world where everything and everyone is connected in real time is a possibility because of the technology and vision being used to develop 5G,.

It won’t be long before 5G phones and networks hit the market and are readily available. Are you ready for the future of connectivity?

Starting a tech business? Build it on a .tech domain!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

HTML Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com