What’s Next for 5G

Theme of important congresses in the world of telecom, the launches of 5G are in full steam, whether via commercial networks, or via a trial. By 2020 we will have a lot of news. Let’s talk about this in the second part of this article, but it’s worth asking how the “connected future” will be with 5G in action in much of the world. More connected? I believe so.

How will the “Connected Future” with 5G?

We have become accustomed over time to see technologies evolving in the case of Telecom infrastructure. It was no different since we started in the first generation until now, where we are, in the fourth. However, there is a huge demand for volume and speed at this point in the world for wireless communications. 5G is a very strong proposal to improve these items. In fact, 5G will allow other technologies now very popular to be a reality in the future connected. IoT, robotics, connected cars, smart homes, smart cities … all these technologies will benefit from a 5G based infrastructure.

All this infrastructure needs to be planned and built, and is the target of strong investment by all carriers worldwide. Although we have some launches and tests already taking place, the first standard for commercial launch of the 5G network will be complete only in March 2019 (ITU IMT-2020 standard Release 15 to 5G). There are several new technologies involving a 5G network. It is a very interesting career option for those who now enter the world of Telecom and certainly these innovations will be part of telecommunication engineering for a long time.

Let’s look at some examples of these new technologies?

For example, “Millimeter Waves” is a feature of RF transmission for 5G. This translates to the following, we have used a certain region of spectrum so far, and with the new demand for more volume, we will need to use an expanded region of the spectrum to accommodate all kinds of new communications with much greater volume capacity and performance.

Another feature is the infrastructure with “Small Cells“. This infrastructure differs from current networks because it is based on a much higher density of antennas and according to that characteristic of the frequency used in the new spectrum mentioned. They will be necessary, because so far we have used antennas that can transmit over long distances, which will not be the case, using the new spectrum. This is why a larger number of smaller antennas will cover an area in a more fragmented and more efficient manner, however requiring a larger investment.

Another important 5G feature is the “Massive MIMO“. MIMO stands for “multiple inputs, multiple outputs”. This innovation is reflected in a substantial increase of ports that will exist the new antennas. In a traditional situation, this would lead to a congestion of frequencies, but this will be counterbalanced by another important characteristic discussed below.

This other characteristic is what is called “Beamforming.” The idea behind the beamforming is precisely to allow optimization of the transmission of each port in the antennas. Initially that antenna does not know exactly where the mobile demanding a communication is located, but after promoting a triangulation effect, it is able to direct beams to the correct devices, that is, in the right direction, reducing the congestion that would exist without the “beamforming”. This gives a great optimization in the use of the network.

Another important factor in optimization is 5G “Full Duplex” technology. Traditional networks use a time division or a division of frequency to coordinate transmissions, one direction or another. This is radically modified in 5G through a high-performance transistorized micro-router distributed over the network. Then “full duplex” communication is allowed. This involves two features: the electrical insulation that is common in wired networks, but gains a similar process for radio frequency communication, and also a self-interference cancellation process introduced, thus allowing greater communication efficiency in 5G.

How are the developments in 5G worldwide?

In almost every country, there is a great deal of attention for the development of 5G. Already in 2018, in June, the operator Elisa launched in Finland and Estonia, the world’s first commercial networks in 5G. There have also been further launches in Lesotho, Spain and South Korea for the Winter Olympics. All of these launches, although commercial ones, did not cover a significant part of the country, but only cities, which is not without significance, of course.

What we will certainly see from now until the end of 2020 are major infrastructure launches in China, United States, Japan, Turkey, and other developed countries. Deloitte predicts that in the United States by 2025, almost 50% of mobile devices operating in 5G, and a closer number in Japan.

There are some features of the development of 5G networks that depend more on the telecoms and the region they operate than on the government or technology at a given moment. For example the United States has more difficulty in overcoming some regulatory issues when compared to China, for example.

It is very likely that all those pioneering countries (plus some others) will launch commercial networks in 2019, but there will be a long journey to the consolidation of an infrastructure at the National level, as this requires great investment from all places.

In one way or another, it is where we will be going and it is very encouraging to think that it is in fact the infrastructure that will enable the expansion of all other innovative technologies, already properly incubated and ready to grow commercially and benefit from this development.

5G is an essential foundation to have really a connected future coming soon.

Main imagem at pixabay.com from “geralt”