Imagine a
cocktail party, a loud cacophony of sound permeating the room, booming music
and shrieks of laughter. You are shouting at the top of your lungs to your
distant better half while she is simultaneously whispering to you. Further,
imagine that you understand her perfectly.
This
unlikely bit of magic is the equivalent of 5G full duplex radio, where your
cellphone will be transmitting and receiving on the same exact frequency at the
same exact time. Today’s cell phones can transmit and receive at the same time,
but only on different frequencies. This new technique effectively doubles the
amount of information (voice or data) that can be carried by an allotted
frequency spectrum, one of the significant promises of 5G.
5G is the
fifth generation of cellular radio technology and is currently being phased in.
It promises extremely high speed, very low latency (delay), increased data capacity,
and energy savings among other advantages.
There are a
number of new technologies required to support 5G. You will hear of New Radio
(NR), millimeter wavelength, small cells, massive MIMO, beamforming, full duplex,
M2M, and other cool stuff. But keep in mind, most of these are used to support
the major performance objectives of high data rate and low latency. Let’s focus
on them.
High 5G data rate offers an alternative to
cable
5G has an
achievable performance target of one gigabit per second. A traditional wired home
cable WiFi connection of 100 megabits per seconds is considered extremely fast.
5G is at least 10 times faster which offers a very real alternative to traditional
cable. Recent research in Australia revealed that one in three households there
were interested in subscribing to 5G services to replace cable for internet
access. Especially in new service areas, cellular radio access will be much
more economic than fiber cable runs.
High 5G data rate will enable new cellular
applications
Current 4G
cellular commonly offers 10 megabits per second download, so 5G will increase
that by a factor of 100. While such a huge performance increase is not required
for reading email or updating Facebook, an entire new panoply of applications
will be enabled. Think virtual reality and augmented reality. But then think further,
beyond a human cellphone user, and consider server-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle
communications of autonomous automobiles. This is the tip of the iceberg of new
applications enabled by 5G’s extreme high performance. It is almost impossible
to foresee the application landscape five or ten years hence.
Low 5G latency is good for gamers. Surgery,
not so much.
Data rate
describes the speed of a connection once data starts to flow. Think of a NASCAR
racer going 200 mph. Latency, on the other hand, measures how long it takes
that data to start flowing between the sender and the receiver. Think of how
long it takes that NASCAR racer to get from zero to 200 mph.
5G promises
to offer very low latency of one one-thousandth of a second (one millisecond). For
PC gamers, this is a boon. Gamers like to experience their virtual environments
as if they were unfolding in real time. Business users, similarly, want
videoconferences to unfold smoothly.
You will
hear claims that 5G low latency will aid a surgeon in New York to perform robotic
surgery in San Francisco. That is balderdash. The propagation of a signal in a fiber
backhaul network over 3,000 miles will add a minimum of 25 milliseconds to the
connection, dwarfing any advantage of low 5G latency. No, latency is subject to
the laws of physics, so to be of benefit, network nodes (servers, users,
routers, etc.) must be in relatively close proximity.
Is 5G real?
Yes, 5G is
real and is being rolled out now. Billions of dollars are being invested in
research and infrastructure. One measure of this reality is the number of 5G
patents filed, which is huge and growing.
Are there impediments?
Yes, there
are impediments, mostly political. The federal government recently decreed that
state and local authorities cannot slow-roll the approval of 5G base stations. 5G
uses very high radio frequencies and thus the area serviced by each base
station is relatively small. Therefore, there will be a large number of small
base stations. Political impediments would be very costly.
Will I need a new phone?
Yes, but when
you next upgrade to a new phone, it will most likely support 5G. Some already
do. In the meanwhile, carriers will continue to support and expand current 4G networks.
Bottom line.
5G is new,
heavily marketed, and subject to much hype. But it is real, significant, and
will lead to applications we can’t currently envision. Let’s all smile, relax,
and enjoy the ride.
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