Here's why 5G is the next step in the telecom evolution cycle

With significant advancements being announced at the Mobile World Congress 2016 around 5G research and development, we took a moment to mull on how we even got here in the first place. Typically, in telecom parlance, the ‘G’ stands for generation of mobile technology. Essentially, cellular networks began with 1G that addressed basic analog phone calls. Soon, 2G came in with digital phone calls and messaging but could not meet the demand for internet and email access from the phone. 3G (as we witnessed a couple of years ago in India) came in with the promise of a better internet experience but failed to live up to its hype. Enter 3.5G with its mission to enable broadband internet on mobile phones. But that again is tied to legacy and mobile specific architectures and protocols that has drawbacks of its own. IP-based 4G (often used interchangeably with LTE) swooped in with faster broadband internet and lower latency. However, 5G is essentially what would follow 4G, there are significant transformations underway in the manner in which the networks are designed and optimised. A significant amount of money has been poured into developing and verifying ‘Massive MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output), a multiple antenna technology that dramatically increases base station capacity for both transmission and reception of data. SK Telecom and Intel are working on Massive MIMO. The two companies are also working on Anchor-Booster Cell, one of the core 5G technologies that enables seamless transmission of massive amounts of data via a combination of an LTE network and next-generation wireless LAN called WiGig. WiGig (Wireless Gigabit Alliance), also implemented in IEEE 802.11ad, enables multi-gigabit speed wireless communications over the unlicensed 60 GHz frequency band. The WiGig specification not only allows devices to communicate at multi-gigabit speeds, but also consumes much less power to prolong battery life. WiGig is expected to support about 10 times faster speeds than Wi-Fi, allowing users to download a full HD movie (4-10GB) in just one to two seconds. Tech majors including Verizon, Nokia, Samsung and Qualcomm are also collectively working on driving the ecosystem towards commercialisation of 5G and have carried out a series of field tests. Network giant Cisco has collaborated with Ericsson and Intel to develop and trial what is expected to be the industry’s first 5G router. With industry standards pegging the requirements of 5G technology at less than a millisecond of latency i.e the end-to-end round trip delay of the signal and upto a 10Gbps connection to end points in the field, 5G will redefine high-speed internet. As this report says , early prototypes of 5G phones being demoed at MWC are operating at a mind-boggling 3.77 gigabits a second. That’s over 300% faster than Google Fiber’s 1G networks, and a magnitude faster than today’s top-speed LTE (aka 4G) connection, which hit download speeds of 5 and 12 Mb ps. 5G surely means good news for smartphone junkies who will be able to download HD movies in seconds, it has potential to enable a much broader spectrum of use cases that essentially thrive on high bandwidths and low latency. 5G will be the wind beneath the Internet of Things era’s wings. As homes and businesses increasingly rely on connected devices, and the number only set to grow exceptionally, 5G will soon present a very strong case for Machine-to-Machine connectivity, autonomous driving/connected cars or connected home systems. 5G can play a critical role in entertainment, virtual reality, augmented reality and immersive or tactile internet. To quote an example, LG Electronics collaborated with Intel to develop and pilot 5G-based telematics technology for cars. 5G telematics delivers data more than 33 times faster than 4G LTE with latency expected to drop to about one tenth of current speeds. Software can be updated at high speeds through OTA (Over The Air) networks while videos and other multimedia content will see faster downloads through the car’s infotainment systems. 5G’s dramatically reduced latency is possible even when cars are travelling at high speeds. Communication from vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure or vehicle to pedestrian through 5G can help prevent accidents for a safer driving experience.

The timelines as to when we can get our hands on 5G remain unclear. Ericsson said it expects 150 million users to be on next-generation 5G networks five years from now, steering clear of an industry debate over whether network upgrades could start far earlier. By contrast, rival mobile equipment maker Nokia said the shift to “5G-ready” wireless networks could begin to ramp up as early as 2017, well ahead of any final agreement on formal 5G standards. “5G will happen faster than expected. This may surprise some of you,” Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri told an audience ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The differing time frames seen by Ericsson and Nokia in part reflect a semantic debate over what exactly 5G means and whether a lot of equipment necessary to operate new networks will be needed well ahead of standards being formalised. Yet the comments are significant because Nokia is taking an aggressive line on when next big growth cycle will begin, while Ericsson may be taking a more conservative approach. The remarks also come as many analysts cast doubt on whether operators are prepared to commit to massive capital spending until a stronger business justification exists for 5G. “5G will have no impact whatsoever for consumers in the next five years,” said Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson. “The history of 3G and 4G networks tells us it will take years before we reach any critical mass after commercial launches at the end of this decade." Explaining further, Husson adds, “3G was introduced by NTT DoCoMo in Japan in 2001 and then in Europe in 2003/2004 and only improved majority of consumers’ lives several years later. Same for 4G, introduced first in Sweden in 2009 to be then aggressively rolled out in the US, South Korea and Japan. Reality is that about 1 billion people have 4G experiences today - and that’s seven years later! So even if telcos and vendors battle to be the first to pilot and then launch a commercial 5G network in the next 2 years, reality is that full commercial roll-outs won’t happen before the end of the decade, meaning the technology will only reach critical mass among consumers between 2020 and 2025, especially in India.” Talking about the hype around 5G from the MWC in Barcelona, Dan Bieler, Principal Analyst, Digital Business, Innovation and Collaboration Strategies at Forrester Research notes, “5G is undoubtedly one of the defining themes of MWC 16. However, there is also a noticeable difference between vendors what 5G actually means, indicating that 5G standardisation is still ongoing. Forrester expects that in reality 5G will be much more of an evolution over the years ahead rather than a sudden revolution at a set date. In emerging markets, like India, legacy technologies like 2G are even still seeing data growth, thus adding to the intricacies of introducing 5G.” With inputs from Reuters