5G Technology is best understood with regard to its predecessors — 2G, 3G, and 4G. In the early ’90s, cordless phone technology expanded from a voice-based technology. That was 2G which at least supported text texting. 3G carried data along with text messages and telephone calls. 4G LTE (Long-term Evolution) enhanced those capabilities with greater rates and greater dependability.
5G is a new wireless network system. It has much higher speeds and capacity and lower latency than existing cellular systems. The technologies to be used in 5G still need to be defined, but there are many details on which everyone agrees. 5G will replace home Wi-Fi networks in many cases. It will offer better network coverage and faster speed; about ten times faster than current 4G LTE.
5G networks will use existing 4G LTE as a standard and technology as its foundation. But with new air interface at a higher frequency, even greater than 5 GHz. The 5G air interface will be designed for much lower latency as about five times less than 4G LTE and with much greater flexibility. 5G may also be used to transmit data over the unlicensed frequencies currently used for Wi-Fi, without interfering with existing Wi-Fi networks.
Difference between 5G technology and 4G technology:
LTE-A is the foundation of the 5G wireless networks. Technology wise 5G will be more advanced than existing 4G LTE-A networks by using massive MIMO, millimetre waves, small cells, full duplex, and beamforming. 5G will increase download speed up to 10Gbps that means an estimated download time for an eight gigabyte HD full movie will take just six seconds, compared with seven to eight minutes over 4G and an hour or more with 3G. 5G will provide wireless broadband connectivity and will support billion more devices and connections per cell than current networks.
Existing 4G LTE has about a dozen antennas on their base station, eight of them are used for transmitter and four as receivers to handle all cellular traffic. Upcoming 5G technology will use Massive MIMO concept to extend the antenna matrix from 16×16 to 256×256. This way, base stations support will increase up to hundred or more ports of antennas to fit on a single array to send and receive a signal from many more users at once hence, increasing the capacity of mobile networks.
5 things that you should know about 5G Technology:
Here are the five things that you should know about upcoming 5G technology:
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5G to Support wider ecosystem and more use cases:
It is a new technology: Unlike today, where networks deliver the same capabilities and performance to everybody everywhere. 5G is a community that is multi-service and will deliver tailored capabilities and performance for a need that is specific. To ensure better quality, each service will get its own slice of the network.
The launch of 5G will also empower transformational use cases and business models. This will bring new opportunities in all the sectors of human life.
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5G has the potential for revolutionary applications:
As 5G will be built on the foundation of 4G, much of the capabilities promised will already be delivered via 4G technology tough they would have lower latency. 5G features much higher and has the ability to connect machines / IoT devices.
5G services will be provided in phases to the industries i.e. starting from LTE to full 5G capabilities. Enablers like telco cloud and Mobile Edge Computing for supporting latency delicate usage instances etc. will pave the way towards the full ecosystem that is 5G.
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5G will enable the Internet of Things
Smart connected devices and IoT have is in talks for some time now. With the launch of 5G technology, billions of connected devices will deliver the promise.
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5G will connect more than technology
Different businesses will incorporate 5G technology for building new industry solutions and improve customer experience. For this, they will need harmonization of skills and technology.
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5G may come soon- Probably by the end of 2018
The difficulties and challenges to the commercial launch of 5G networks are humongous but the rising consumer and business demands are forcing telecom industries to accelerate their previous 2020 timeline much sooner. According to by Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, the first 5G smartphones with downloading speed of more than 10 Gbps will be available in Asian and US markets by the end of 2018 or in 2019, a year ahead of its predictions.
Also Read: It’s time for Telco Revolution and digital transformation
