5G Technology: History, Concept, Features and Constraints:

Historical Background

History of Wireless Cellular Technology

Way back in the 1950s, the first commercial analog mobile communication system was launched in the US. It had very low market penetration for years after its launch. Formally speaking, the first generation (1G) mobile phone was launched three decades later and continued to use analog signals. With the advent of microprocessors and the dawn of the digital age, analog mobile communication was digitized and we had a second generation of mobile communication (2G) technology enter the picture. 2G was fully digital, i.e., dealing only with 1s and 0s. Besides improving the quality of voice transmission and reception, 2G also introduced SMS—a feature that millennials used with devotedly before instant messengers like WhatsApp arose and changed the social lives of “netizens”.

A couple of years later, General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) was added to 2G, which allowed users to browse the internet on mobile devices. Although the speed compared to present-day broadband/4G was extremely slow (even in general, cable internet speed was slow), GPRS gave consumers the first taste of Internet access on mobile devices. At the turn of the new millennium, third-generation (3G) tech came into existence, thus allowing users to access the Internet at a decent speed in addition to providing the standard telephone features of voice calls and messaging. Just a few years back, 4G was launched, meaning that internet communication could now happen at a super-fast rate (100Mbps, theoretically) on 4G-enabled devices. Internet penetration in the industrial/commercial segment is much deeper with sensor-based smart devices/appliances being used almost everywhere. Thus, there is a need for technology that has enough bandwidth to cater to the rising number of devices and provide uninterrupted high-speed Internet so that the waiting/processing time is negligible. Such devices include a smartphone utilizing the Internet, television, fridge other wearable electronics, and even a car.  This is what 5G is designed for.

Introduction

What is 5G?

We understand the motivation behind the need for 5G, but what exactly is it? Well, 5G is the advanced newest (fifth) generation of mobile cellular technology and is intended to vastly improve the Internet speed, coverage, and latency of wireless networks. Speed is usually the most discerning factor between the changing generations of wireless cellular technology. So how fast is 5G, you ask?

Well, it’s tough to give you a precise number, as 5G infrastructure is still a work-in-progress with standards that have yet to be finalized. However, you can roughly assume 5G to be around 10 to 100 times faster than your present-day cellular connection. In fact, it’s even faster than anything you can get with a physical fiber-optic cable. To get a better understanding, think of downloading a 4K movie in a matter of seconds. Yeah, that may seem incredible, but you would probably be able to accomplish that with a 5G system in place.

 

Mission

With any type of 5G connection, you'll see faster network speeds. Currently, the fastest 4G mobile networks offer around 45Mbps (megabits per second) speeds, although the industry is still hopeful of achieving the sought after 1Gbps (gigabit per second = 1,000Mbps). According to chipmaker Qualcomm, 5G could achieve browsing and download speeds about 10 to 20 times faster than current 4G technologies. Early adopters of 5G technology might not notice vastly higher speeds at first. The true speed you get will on early 5G networks will depend heavily on both the spectrum band the operator chooses to run their 5G technology and on and how much your carrier has invested in new masts and transmitters.

Vision

The global deployment of LTE cultivates the mobile users to be used to the mobile data in their daily life tremendously. The video service and social applications, for example, WeChat, Facebook, and Twitter have changed our life very much with the capabilities of LTE, especially high data rate and low latency. It is believed that mobile communication will penetrate into every element of future society and create an all-dimensional, user-centered information ecosystem. A fully mobile and connected society is expected in the near future, which will be characterized by a tremendous amount of growth in connectivity, traffic volume, and a much broader range of usage scenarios. Accordingly, the Mobile Broadband (MBB) service and the Internet of Things (IoT) will be the two main drivers in the future development of mobile communications, and they will provide a broad prospect for the next generation mobile communication system (5G), the overall vision of which is depicted. Mobile Broadband service disrupted the traditional business model of mobile communications, enabling unprecedented user experiences and making a profound impact on every aspect of people’s work and life. Looking ahead to the year 2020 and beyond, there will be explosive growth in mobile data traffic. It is estimated that the global mobile data traffic will grow by more than 200 times from 2010 to 2020 and by nearly 20,000 times from 2010 to 2030. In China, the growth factors are projected to be even higher, with mobile data traffic being expected to grow by more than 300 times from 2010 to 2020 and by more than 40,000 times from 2010 to 2030. For developed cities and hotspots in China, the growth of mobile data traffic will exceed the projected average growth for all of China. For example, from 2010 to 2020 in Shanghai, mobile data traffic is projected to grow by 600 times. In Beijing and during this same period, it is estimated that hotspot traffic may grow by up to 1,000 times. The IoT has extended the scope of mobile communications services from interpersonal communications to the smart interconnection between things and between people and things, allowing mobile communications technologies to penetrate into broader industries and fields. Looking ahead to the year 2020 and beyond, applications such as mobile health, Internet of Vehicles (IoV), smart home, industrial control, and environmental monitoring will drive the explosive growth of IoT applications, facilitating hundreds of billions of devices to connect to a network creating a true

 

Values

Here’s a list of top 5 valuable facts about 5G technology:

1. It helps in the development of better business communication

2. It has better signal communication across the globe

3. It is more important in IoT technology, taking things to get connected to the internet such as a car, fridge, and other electronics.

4. It helps in the deployment of virtual reality and augmented reality technologies

5. It has a wide range of fast communication.

 

Problems

1. Deployment and coverage
Despite 5G offering a significant increase in speed and bandwidth, its more limited range will require further infrastructure. Higher frequencies enable highly directional radio waves, meaning they can be targeted or aimed at — a practice called beamforming. The challenge is that 5G antennas while being able to handle more users and data, beam out over shorter distances.

2. Cost to build, cost to buy
Building a network is expensive, and carriers will raise the money to do it by increasing customer revenue. Much like LTE plans incurred a higher initial cost, 5G will probably follow a similar path. And it’s not just building a layer on top of an existing network — it’s laying the groundwork for something new altogether. According to Heavy Reading’s Mobile Operator 5G Capex, total global spending on 5G is set to reach $88 billion by 2023. Once it becomes truly viable, certain device segments will be connected in entirely new ways, particularly vehicles, appliances, robots, and city infrastructure.

3. The Radio Frequency May Become a Problem

Radios, cell towers and even satellites communicate using radio frequencies. Frequency is measured in Hz and the radio frequencies tend to operate in the GHz range. Early reports on the 5G network indicate that this network is going to transmit its data in the range of around 6 GHz. Unfortunately, this radio frequency range is already crowded by other signals, such as satellite links. With numerous types of signals operating in the range of 6 GHz, it is fair to wonder whether or not the overcrowding is going to pose a problem as people try to transmit their data signals at this frequency. Will there be issues sending and receiving signals? Time will tell as this network frequency starts to spread.

4. Health Problems – What We Know About Electromagnetic Frequency (EMF)

The rise of 5G technology will usher in even more wireless devices, not only cellphones and tablets but smart appliances and autonomous vehicles as well. Having 5G means the wireless network can accommodate more users without the speeds slowing down. This also means users are more exposed to harmful electromagnetic frequency (EMF) radiation that is emitted by these gadgets, not to mention, the 5G towers themselves. The NTP study, according to the American Cancer Society marked “a paradigm shift in our understanding of radiation and cancer risk.” It might have reopened the debate on the potentially harmful effects of cellphone radiation on people’s health.

Wireless-safety advocates reiterated that there is a need for more research before Americans can start using 5G as there are serious concerns about consumer health safety. For now, they are pushing for the use of protective products such as cases and headsets that will limit the gadget user’s exposure to radio-frequency radiation.

 

Challenges/Constraints

Challenges are the inherent part of the new development; so, like all technologies, 5G has also big challenges to deal with. As we see past i.e. development of radio technology, we find very fast growth. Starting from 1G to 5G, the journey is mere of about 40 years old (Considering 1G in 1980s and 5G in the 2020s). However, in this journey, the common challenges that we observed are lack of infrastructure, research methodology, and cost.

Technological Challenges

·        Inter-cell Interference − This is one of the major technological issues that need to be solved. There are variations in the size of traditional macrocells and concurrent small cells that will lead to interference.

·        Efficient Medium Access Control − in a situation, where 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 in cellular technology to provide high throughput. It needs to be researched properly to optimize technology.

·        Traffic Management − in comparison to the traditional human to human traffic in cellular networks, 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.

Common Challenges

·        Multiple Services − unlike other radio signal 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.

·        Infrastructure − Researchers are facing technological challenges of standardization and application of 5G services.

·        Communication, Navigation, & Sensing − these services largely depend upon the availability of radio spectrum, through which signals are transmitted. Though 5G technology has a strong computational power to process a huge volume of data coming from different and distinct sources, it needs larger infrastructure support.

·        Security and Privacy − this is one of the most important challenges that 5G needs to ensure the protection of personal data. 5G will have to define the uncertainties related to security threats including trust, privacy, cyber-security, which are growing across the globe.

·        Legislation of Cyberlaw − Cybercrime and other fraud may also, increase with the high speed and ubiquitous 5G technology. Therefore, legislation of the Cyberlaw is also an imperative issue, which largely is governmental and political (national as well as an international issue) in nature.

 

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

1. 5G is more speedy than the previous generation

2. It has a wide range of features such as future technologies

 

Weaknesses

1. Mobile phones of today are 4G-based devices, 5G-supported devices are very costly

2. It is very costly to use or build

 

Opportunities

1. International corporations have huge opportunities in the fast delivery of products

2. 5G technology has no competitor now

 

Threats

1. It has a high radiation frequency, it is dangerous to human lives

2.  It has cybersecurity challenges

 

Features

5G technology going to be a new mobile revolution in the mobile market. Through 5G technology now you can use worldwide cellular phones and this technology also strikes the china mobile market and a user being proficient to get access to Germany phone as a local phone. 5G technology has extraordinary data capabilities and has the ability to tie together unrestricted call volumes and infinite data broadcast within the latest mobile operating system. 5G technology has a bright future because it can handle the best technologies and offer priceless handsets to its customers. Maybe in the coming days, 5G technology takes over the world market. 5G Technologies have an extraordinary capability to support Software and Consultancy. The Router and switch technology used in 5G network providing high connectivity. The 5G technology distributes internet access to nodes within the building and can be deployed with the union of wired or wireless network connections. The current trend of 5G technology has a glowing future.

5G technology offer a high resolution for crazy cell phone user and bi-directional large bandwidth shaping.

·         The advanced billing interfaces of 5G technology makes it more attractive and effective.

·         5G technology also providing subscriber supervision tools for fast action.

·         The high-quality services of 5G technology based on Policy to avoid an error.

·       5G technology is providing large broadcasting of data in Gigabit which supporting almost 65,000 connections.

·         5G technology offers transporter class gateway with unparalleled consistency.

·         The traffic statistics by 5G technology makes it more accurate.

·         Through remote management offered by 5G technology a user can get better and fast solution.

·         The remote diagnostics also a great feature of 5G technology.

·         The 5G technology is providing up to 25 Mbps connectivity speed.

·         The 5G technology also support virtual private network.

·         The new 5G technology will take all delivery service out of a business prospect

·         The uploading and downloading speed of 5G technology touching the peak.

·         The 5G technology network offering enhanced and available connectivity just about the world

 

Benefits

Below are some benefits of 5G technology:

• Improved network capacity and throughput with peak data speeds up to 20 Gbps downlinks and up to 10 Gbps uplinks
• Network management of up to 1 M devices per square kilometer, improved device mobility of up to 500 kilometers per hour, over 100x energy efficiency over 4G LTE, and one millisecond network latency times allowing use cases such as cellular V2X and public safety communications
• 5G development is leading to new services and uses cases for wireless customers
• Spectrum support for many frequencies, including spectrum bands above 6 GHz, availability of TDD and FDD modes for all bands, and use of licensed and unlicensed bands

·         The fifth-generation wireless systems, known as 5G, could be up to 100 times faster than 4G and will power the “Internet of Things,” including telemedicine and autonomous vehicles.

 

Impacts

CB Insights identified the 20 industries that 5G will impact the most. Here are the top 10:

1. Manufacturing

5G is poised to help manufacturing production operations become more flexible and efficient, while also improving safety and lowering maintenance costs.

2. Energy and utilities

Critical infrastructure like energy and utilities will benefit from 5G technologies, which could create more innovative solutions in energy production, transmission, distribution, and usage, as well as the next wave of smart grid features and efficiency.

3. Agriculture

Farmers worldwide are using IoT technology to optimize agricultural processes including water management, fertigation, livestock safety, and crop monitoring, the report noted. 5G could enable real-time data collection, allowing farmers to monitor, track, and automate agricultural systems to increase profitability, efficiency, and safety.

4. Retail

More than 100 million Americans made a purchase on their smartphone in 2018, the report noted, and the move to mobile shopping is largely due to the rise of 4G/LTE. The faster speeds 5G will bring will enable new retail experiences like virtual reality (VR) dressing rooms.

5. Financial services

5G will accelerate the digitization of financial institutions, including from internal operations to customer service, the report said. Increased security and speed will allow users to increasingly make transactions instantly on their devices, and make remote tellers a possibility.

6. Media and entertainment

5G will bring about new opportunities in mobile media, mobile advertising, home broadband, and TV, as well as interactive technologies like VR and augmented reality (AR).

7. Healthcare

In the healthcare industry, 5G could increase efficiencies and revenue, helping health systems create faster, more efficient networks to keep up with the large amounts of data involved. The technology could also enable the use of remote monitoring devices to improve health outcomes.

8. Transportation

Transportation systems ranging from public buses to private logistic fleets will gain increased visibility and control thanks to 5G, the report said. 5G will allow improved vehicle-to-vehicle communications, enabling more self-driving car testing. These networks will also help cities gain access to more data around their transportation systems.

9. AR/VR

The future of AR and VR depends on reliable 5G networks, according to the report. These technologies require a less expensive, wider network with lower latency to continue developing and reaching widespread adoption, as they require massive amounts of data processing.

10. Insurance

5G will help insurance agents make more effective decisions, as they will have access to more accurate data, the report said.

 

Recommendations

The nation that leads in developing and widely deploying 5G technology will have an important first-mover advantage, with both economic and national security implications. Chinese national champion Huawei is the current global leader in 5G, and China’s ZTE is also a major player in the industry. Huawei is aggressively pursuing export of its 5G systems to install digital infrastructure around the globe. Huawei is an attractive option to many nations because it is cheaper than its competitors. The products of firms competing with Chinese companies will be more expensive because of unfair subsidies from the Chinese Communist Party, which artificially reduce prices.

Huawei is a tool of state power and a critical asset in China’s global economic and geopolitical competitions and ambitions. Huawei faces competition from Samsung USA and others as an end-to-end producer, and still other companies produce 5G components (such as antennae, chips, and base station architecture) including Ericsson, Nokia, and Qualcomm. These firms are more expensive because they are not the beneficiaries of unfair state subsidies. However, they offer other advantages, including enhanced security, more rigorous training of personnel, protection of intellectual property, and privacy. 5G should be recommended as:

·         A national campaign should be launched to inform the public about 5G and its critical importance to the economy and national security.

·         The administration needs to accelerate plans for the whole-of-government process to develop a long-term national spectrum strategy and the creation of an ongoing inter-spectrum (mid-band) for 5G that allows the US to synchronize federal, state, and local policies and procedures to facilitate the rapid and cost-efficient deployment of 5G network equipment.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, we’ve learned that 5G technology is not mere fiction; it has existed. We’ve learned that much about it such as its benefits, challenges, problems, threats, and we will conclude that 5G technology is an advanced technology that no civilized country would want to dump. It has a wide range of features, it supports our future technologies such as IoT, AR/VR, and many others. So, 5G technology is an essential advanced technology the world would need and be fully developed worldwide in this New Year, 2020, the year of 5G network development.

 

References

[1]     Science ABC, “What Is 5G Technology? How Will It Change The Way You Use The Internet?”, https://www....com

[2]     TutorialsPoint.com, “5G – Challenges”, https://www.tutorialspoint.com/5g/5g_challenges.htm

[3]     RPC Senate, “The Importance of 5G”, https://www.rpc.senate.gov/policy-papers/the-importance-of-5g

[4]     FreeWimaxInfo.com, “What is 5G Technology and Features”, http://freewimaxinfo.com/5g-technology.html

[5]     Futurithmic.com, “Five of the biggest challenges facing 5G”, https://www.futurithmic.com/category/thetechnology/

[6]     WhatsAg.com, “The Advantages and Disadvantages of a 5G Network”, https://whatsag.com/5g/5g_advantages_and_disadvantages.php

[7]     Vesttech.com, “Does 5G Internet Cause More Health Problems?”, https://www.vesttech.com/can-5g-internet-cause-more-health-problems/

[8]     G. Liu and D. Jiang (2016), “5G: Vision and Requirements for Mobile Communication System towards Year 2020”

[9]     CB Insights, “5G will impact these 10 industries the most”, https://www.cbinsights.com/research/5g-technology-disrupting-industries

[10]   Atlantic Council, “Recommendations on 5G and National Security”, https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/issue/security-defense/

 

Note: This research work has been carried out by Muhammad Auwal Ahmad AKA Mohiddeen Ahmad, the founder of Flowdiary.