5G TECHNOLOGY: REVOLUTION AND CHALLENGES

INTRODUCTION

Mobile technology is growing at a persistent pace from two decades. It has shown a great development from 2G to 4G and now, it is about to move to the next level i.e. 5G (Mitra et. al, 2015). 5G is aimed to be in operation by the 2020 although its first phase will be released in the mid of 2019 to be checked on few cities of America (Don Clark, 2018). If one wants to live in the world of the Internet of Things (IoT), then there must the great internet speed to fulfill the requirements, so that every task can be accomplished in less time. Though 4G is in operation this time, still there is a need for more speed, so that the demands with the emerging technologies can be accomplished.

5G TECHNOLOGY

5G technology simply means the fifth-generation mobile wireless technology which is very fast and reliable. As these days, everything has access from the single IP or internet, then there is the strict need that the speed of the internet must be very high and there should be no latency. Though the 4G networks are providing the great internet speed, but still with the rise in the number of users of mobile, i.e. 6 billion users of mobiles in the current scenario, the demand of the internet speed is also increasing, especially in large population areas like Asia. 5G technology is much more energy efficient that can meet the future network needs of the people (Thompson J. et al., 2014).

EVOLUTION FROM 1G to 5G

There is an evolution in the mobile technology due to the 1G to 5G because of the growth in number of users of mobile technology. 1G consists of the analog system and basically used in the cell phones in the 1980s and has the frequency of the 150MHz. In the late 1980s, the 2G network system changed to the digital systems and have digital signals for the voice transmission and used the bandwidth range between the 30 to 200KHz.

After that, it has changed to 2.5G which uses the packet switched and circuit switched domain. Then the 3G comes which uses the wireless technology. The packet switching technology is used in this. It operates at the range of 2100MHz and had a bandwidth of 15-20MHz. Then 4G comes, which has the same features as that of the 3G, but with the greater speed 100Mbps. It is considered as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and by 2020, the technology is moving to the next step i.e. 5G, which will have great internet speed and can fulfill today’s internet demands (Kachhavay et. al, 2014).

HOW 5G DIFFERS FROM 4G?

The 5G is still in research phase while the 4G is in the rapid deployment phase. The 4G is providing the raw bandwidth availability, while the 5G is providing the fast and reliable network to the internet users. The 5G is designed specifically for fulfilling the IoT needs while 4G is made to incorporate all this for the IoT implementation. The 4G is the monolithic, while the 5G will be the combination of the 2g to all the technologies till now. There will be special architecture for the 5G like cloud RAN or Virtual RAN (Gopal et. al, 2015).

APPLICATIONS AND CHALLENGES FOR 5G

The 5G has various applications for the future world. It will make all the fiction stories a reality. With the help of 5G, the devices automatically monitor the patient condition and assist them in medications. The completely automated driving dream can be achieved with the help of 5G technology (Gopal et. al, 2015). Along with the benefits, there are many challenges as well. The major challenge for the 5G network will be to provide the network greater than the 10Gbps speed. Also, the integration of the emerging monitoring and control units with 5G technology and making latency rate less than 1ms are the big challenges (Thompson J. et al., 2014).

The new technologies are emerging day by day. When the mobile phones have come into existence, no one has ever thought that it can change to the smart things without which the life is not possible. All these things have made the 5G technology a reality which will be in existence by 2020. Though there are many challenges along with the applications in which one of the important is to reduce the net latency by 1ms, still it provides the hope that the future is going to be gold.

REFERENCES

Gopal, B. G., & Kuppusamy, P. G. (2015). A Comparative Study on 4G and 5G Technology for Wireless Applications. IOSR Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering, 10(6), 67-72. doi:10.9790/2834-10636772

Thompson, J. et al. (2014). 5G wireless communication systems: prospects and challenges [Guest Editorial]. IEEE Communications Magazine, 52(2), 62-64. doi:10.1109/mcom.2014.6736744

Don Clark (2018). What Is 5G? Here’s What You Need to Know About the New Network. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/31/technology/personaltech/5g-what-you-need-to-know.html