We don’t know about you, but for those of us here it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that 3G Internet speeds were being revelled in as the latest and greatest. Things obviously change fast, as 3G has been in the rear view mirror for a long time now, and the reality is that the newest latest and greatest – 4G – is about to join it there.
Here at 4GoodHosting, the fact we’re a leading Canadian web host makes us as keen to learn more about what the new 5G networks have in store for us as anyone else who’s in the digital space day in and out. It appears that we’re in for quite a treat, although there are some who suggest tempering expectations. That’s to be expected anytime wholesale changes to infrastructure key to big-picture operations are forthcoming.
Nonetheless, we’re supposed to be immersed in the 5G world before the end of next year. Mobile 5G is expected to start making appearances in cities around North America this year, with much more extensive rollouts expected in 2020 so a discussion of what we can all expect from 5G is definitely in order. Let’s do it.
What is 5G, and How’s It Going to Work?
To cut right to it, 5G is the next generation of mobile broadband that will augment 4G LTE connections for now before eventually replacing them. 5G is promising to deliver exponentially faster download and upload speeds along with drastically reduced latency – the time it takes devices to communicate with each other across wireless networks. Right, that alone is worthy of some serious fanfare, but fortunately there’s even more to this.
But before getting into additional benefits expected to be seen with 5G networks, let’s have a look at what makes them different from 4G ones and how exactly these new super networks are predicted to function.
Spectrum-Specific Band Function
It’s important to start with an understanding of the fact that unlike LTE, 5G is going to operate on three different spectrum brands. The lowest one will be the sub-1GHz spectrum bands like GSMA / ITU. They are what’s known as low-band spectrums, and they’re the ones used for LTE by most carriers in North America. This spectrum is quite literally running out of steam, so it’s ready to be replaced. It does provide great area coverage and signal penetration but peak data speeds never exceed 100Mbps and often you’re not even anywhere close to that even.
Mid-band spectrums provides faster coverage and lower latency but the long-standing complaint related to them is that they fail to penetrate buildings and peak speeds top out at around 1GB
High-band spectrums (aka mmWave) are what most people think of when they think of 5G, and high-band spectrums can offer peak speeds up to 10 Gbps along with impressively low latency most of the time. The major drawback here though? It has low coverage area and building penetration is poor.
It appears that most carriers are going to start out by piggybacking 5G on top of their 4G LTE networks to start, and then nationwide 5G-exclusive networks will be built. Providers are very aware that small cells are going to required so that these suped-up 4G LTE networks don’t have their 5G appeal diminished with poor penetration rates and intermittently average download speeds.
In this regard, we all stand to benefit from the industry being cautious about not rolling out 5G on its own and then having growing pains with these networks.
Right, some people may not be familiar with small cells. They’re low-power base stations that cover small geographic areas that allow carriers using mmWave for 5G to offer better overall coverage area. Beamforming will be used to improve 5G service on the mid-band by sending a single focused signal to each and every user in the cell, while systems using it monitor each user to make sure they have a consistent signal.
Latency promises to be nearly if not entirely non-existent between the small cells and beamforming within 5-G enabled 4G LTE networks.
Examples of How 5G SHOULD Make Things Better
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Improved broadband
The reality today is that carriers are running out of LTE capacity in many major metropolitan areas. In some spots, users are already experiencing noticeable slowdowns during busy times of day. 5G will add huge amounts of spectrum in bands that have not been dedicated for commercial broadband traffic.
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Autonomous vehicles
Uber may have a devil of a time getting footed in Vancouver, but you can likely expect to see autonomous vehicles made possible with ubiquitous 5G deployment. The belief is that it will make it possible for your vehicle to communicate with other vehicles on the road, provide information to other vehicles regarding road conditions, and share performance information with both drivers and automakers.
This applications has a TON of promise, and it’s definitely one to keep an eye on.
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Public Infrastructure & Safety
It’s also predicated that 5G will allow cities and other municipalities to operate with greater efficiency. All sorts of civic maintenance process will be made more efficient by means of 5G networks.
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Remote Device Control
The remarkably low levels of latency expected with 5G make it so that remote control of heavy machinery may become possible. This means fewer actual people in hazardous environments, and it will also allow technicians with specialized skills to control machinery from any location around the globe.
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Health Care
5G and its super low latency may also be huge for health care applications. Since URLLC reduces 5G latency even further than what you’ll see with enhanced mobile broadband, we may see big improvements in telemedicine, remote recovery and physical therapy via AR, precision surgery, and even remote surgery in the very near future once 5G becomes the norm.
One of the most beneficial potential advances that may come with 5G as it concerns healthcare is that hospitals may be able to create massive sensor networks to monitor patients, allow physicians to prescribe smart pills to track compliance, and let insurers monitor subscribers to determine appropriate treatments and processes.
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IoT
Last but certainly not least is the way 5G will benefit the Internet of Things. As it is now, sensors that can communicate with each other tend to require a lot of resources and really drain LTE data capacity.
With 5G and it’s fast speeds and low latencies, the IoT will be powered by communications among sensors and smart devices. These devices will require fewer resources than ones that are currently in use, and there’s huge efficiencies to be had with connecting to a single base station.
It’s interesting to think that one day 5G will probably be as long-gone and forgotten as 3G is now, despite the fanfare we all gave it many years ago. You can’t stop progress in the digital world, and it’s fair to say that 99% of us wouldn’t want to even if we could.
