The main change for 5G users will be increased speed & reduced delay.

5th-generation (5G) telecommunication services, which can create an economic impact of $1 trillion in India by 2035, are expected to be launched in the country by 2020.

To make 5G a success in India, a steering committee on 5G has suggested increasing quantum of spectrum with lower pricing.

The committee, headed by Stanford University Professor A. J. Paulraj, was formed in September 2017 to formulate a road map for 5G in India. “By acting early to embrace the 5G opportunity, India can accelerate the 5G dividend & potentially also become an innovator in 5G applications,” the panel said in its report submitted to the govt.

The panel has given wide-ranging recommendations entailing spectrum policy, regulatory policy, development of application standards, education, etc. The panel feels that the quantum of licensed mobile spectrum in India is much lower as compared to countries like the US & the UK.

Also, the cost of spectrum, relative to per capita gross domestic product, is much higher than most countries.

5G will have the same high level architecture as previous cellular networks, but the intricate details are very different.

In very simple terms, a cellular mobile network consists of 3 components: mobile devices, a radio access network & a core network.

The mobile device might be a smart phone, tablet or a computer with a USB dongle, but could also be a low-cost sensor with a simple transmitter.

The radio access network consists mainly of base stations (mobile phone towers) & is connected to the core network.

The base station uses radio waves to relay communications between the mobile device & the core network. The area covered by a base station is called a cell.

The core network’s main role is to set up communication with other devices & other networks, user management & record information for billing.

Each generation of cellular networking has introduced radical changes to what the network does & how it does it.

Previous generations have seen communications moving from analogue to digital, have introduced data services, have moved to a simplified architecture, have increased the data speed available to end users & increased bandwidth efficiency.

How is 5G different?

Many of the changes introduced by 5G will be in the base stations & core network. These're less apparent to end users, but very important for the network operators.

5G will make use of much higher frequencies for radio communications than has been used in cellular networks in the past.

Since higher frequencies attenuate (weaken) with distance more rapidly than lower frequencies, 5G will use much smaller cell sizes than previous generations. In urban areas cell sizes might only be a few hundred metres in diameter.

Small cell sizes make available previously unused radio frequencies - but introduce additional complexity in managing interference & handover of mobile stations from one base station to another.

5G will also support very large no. of devices per cell. One of the working parties developing 5G standards specifies a minimum of one million devices per square kilometre.

Being able to support such large numbers of devices is important for the “Internet of Things” - where household devices & machinery are also connected to the internet.

5G will make use of sophisticated signal processing techniques such as Multi Input, Multi Output (MIMO) antennae - which will improve the efficient use of bandwidth.

Because the frequency is higher, the wavelength is smaller (around 1 millimetre). Optimal antenna size is related to the wavelength. Small wavelengths mean more antennae can be used per mobile node than has been possible in the past which is the basis of MIMO.

Another significant change for 5G will be to centralize much of the processing that in the past was carried out at the base stations. Dealing with the high density of devices & doing sophisticated processing requires a great deal of computing power. Rather than having each base station doing it, the raw data will be transmitted to a central location & be processed there.

China’s Huawei has taken a leading role in the development of 5G. It has made substantial contributions to the standards development process & has been among the 1st to carry out substantial trials.

China is expected to be the largest global market for 5G with some predictions of more than 400 million connections by 2025.

Will my phone service improve?

Once it’s up & running, the main change for 5G users'll be increased speed & reduced delay.

Plans are for peak data rates of around 20 gigabits per second (Gbps) down to the receiver, & 10 Gbps up to the base station. The delay (the time taken to get a packet from the mobile device to the base station) will for most users be less than 4 milliseconds.

Fixed wireless setups are already operating in Europe that use technologies we know will be used in 5G.

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However, even though we know what technologies 5G will use, the detailed standards for mobile cellular networks are still to be formalized. Without them, companies can't produce networking equipment & handsets.

Telecommunications companies need to find sites for the base stations, install the systems & upgrade their software. Consequently, we're still a few years off widespread deployment.

Source Business Standard

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