In addition to being faster than 4G, what other secrets are there that you don't know about 5G?

2020 has passed, and looking forward to 2021, we hope that the new normal will be a less unknown road than the past 12 months. In fact, we hope that the unknown in the future will be positive for our family and work life. For most of us, advances in mobile phones, the Internet, and technology are still positive, and generally continue to grow. Therefore, the new "buzzword" in the cellular network and Internet of Things (IoT) world in 2020 is 5G. This evolution of 4GLTE shouldn't be surprising, because since the first generation of analog mobile phone technology came out in the mid-1980s, we have been in the world of mobile phone evolution. Approximately every 10 years, there will be generations of "G" cellular technologies. People are already looking forward to it. What is unknown or expected is what the new technology will bring and what it means for the entire industry and the entire population.

Of course, many of the benefits of new technologies can only be realized when paired with new applications and use cases. Therefore, you might say that 5G connections are faster, so what? But it's far more than that; in fact, the data transmission speed of consumer mobile phones is only the tip of the iceberg. Below is an amazing set of complex network elements designed to generate unprecedented connectivity.

URLLC and mMTC

Two other breakthrough technological advancements come from 5G connectivity, which will complement the speed and provide the ability to launch applications and use cases that were not possible before. These are Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and Large Scale Machine Type Communication (mMTC). In fact, as early as May 2019, "Forbes" magazine published an article about 5G, with the headline "Why 5G is more than just 4G faster". In this article, former Forbes ConsumerTech contributor Simon Rockman (Simon Rockman) discusses the three main factors that will push 5G beyond everything we have seen. To fully grasp these concepts requires a basic understanding of what is happening in the background. This is technical; however, real-world examples are not.

Yes, the connection speed of 5G is faster. This is much faster. It is called eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband or Extreme Mobile Broadband). This is a very advanced project that revolves around three intertwined components: antenna, base station radio, and software.

MIMO

By combining a large number of grouped antennas in the device (and the corresponding base station), multiple data flow paths can be created, and then these paths can be combined to form an information highway. This is called massive MIMO (multiple in, multiple out), and it lays the foundation for very high throughput. Before MIMO technology, if a device receives multiple signals from a tower, it will be regarded as interference, which will have the opposite effect (called multipath propagation), and will severely reduce data throughput. Through the fusion of advanced antenna technology and highly calculated signal processing, what was once considered "radio noise" is now used as an accelerator to provide us with 5G speeds.

These huge MIMO antenna groups are combined with advanced radio technologies such as spectrum sharing, unlicensed Wi-Fi assistance, and specialized channel coding software to provide eMBB with the functions required by users to meet users’ demand for streaming HD/4K video, mobile virtual Reality (VR) headsets and large-capacity IoT data streams used in industry vertical markets such as telemedicine. Interestingly, the components that make up 4GLTE's potential 50-100 times the speed also have a big impact on other aspects: latency.

delay

In order to intuitively understand what delay is, we need to understand the relationship between it and speed. If we compare the speed to the speed of a car, then the delay is "0-60". It represents the time or delay required for the arrival of bits and bytes. Reducing latency (reducing latency) allows for the emergence of new applications and technologies that have never appeared before. For example, a self-driving car can perceive the surrounding environment and operate without any participation. In order for the car to drive safely on the road with other vehicles, pedestrians and traffic lights, it needs to interact with the surrounding environment. This requires them to be connected in some way, such as through a cellular network.

Before 5G connections brought extremely low latency, the latency of cellular networks was too great for these vehicles to react fast enough to create a safe environment. Any delay in this interaction can have a devastating effect. In 5G, low latency plays an important role in quickly communicating between the vehicle and everything around and safely providing appropriate responses. This is called "VehicletoEverything" (V2X) communication, and it will play a huge role not only in self-driving cars, but also in transportation trucks, railroad/ship/air transportation or any machine operating in other environments.

The University of Bristol organized a wonderful demonstration on the low-latency characteristics of 5G. The violinist Anneka Sutcliffe named "Orchestra" played in Bristol, Professor Mischa Dohler played in front of the piano in London City Hall, singer NoaDohler and violinist Rita Fernandes performed in their remote locations at DigitalCatapult in Euston, London through the 5G network. The requirements for synchronizing musicians via mobile cellular connections are very high, because human ears are very good at perceiving even the slightest delay. However, when they rehearsed this piece, the two violins sounded like one violin. The audience experience is like a musician performing in the same venue.

scale

Among the three major breakthroughs in 5G, the last (but certainly not the least important) is to focus on the large-scale connection of machines to the Internet. 5G networks can connect millions of IoT devices in a small and dedicated area. This capability is called massive machine type communication (mMTC). The 5G specification requires mMTC to require 1 million connections per square kilometer. This capability far exceeds the capacity of 4G and will allow a large number of operations, monitoring and control of many types of small sensor devices.

A good example is the automotive industry connecting assembly robots and the many sensors they contain to a central "condition monitoring" software in the factory. Condition monitoring refers to monitoring these robots and their internal working status (factory status) to prevent unplanned defects. The condition characteristics are recorded along the production process, making continuous quality control of the product possible. Hundreds of wireless sensor nodes embedded in these machines (for example, cameras, sound detection, proximity sensors, temperature sensors) are connected wirelessly through 5G networks. If there is no such wireless network, these machines will be subject to wired network connections and restrict where they can be placed on the factory floor. This means that production settings can be easily changed and units moved to maximize plant efficiency.

All in all, the most obvious and easiest advantage of a 5G connection is its incredible download speed. But when we study in depth, we will discover that this evolution has more mysteries. In fact, people in the industry using 5G wireless networks have just realized that when you combine speed, reliability, and scale to an unprecedented level, you will discover a large number of, extensive (and some yet to discover) opportunities.

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