5G-More than a Cellular Network

Most of us have already heard about this buzz word 5G, it is the latest evolution of networking cellular technology. In order to really understand how 5G will help us in the future it's important to really go back and see how cellular technology has changed our life in the past. 

The cellular network evolution goes as follows:

a. 1G: The first generation cellular network brought phone calls to people, most of us might think that even before cellphone we were able to make calls through radio-telephones but it is not true. What we were able to do with this radio-telephone was that to call at a particular place or location. Suppose you had to make a call to your friend through  radio-telephone then to do so you will have to be at your house and call your friend at his house and suppose he/she was not there then you will have to wait them to come back to their house and call to your house. 1G solved this problem as it enabled us to call a person no matter where they are.

b. 2G: The second generation cellular network brought upon texting in our life, like individual texting and group texting which is prevalent in the society especially in the younger generations. It also came up with digitally encrypted phone conversations which enhanced our digital security. It revolutionized the way we communicated.

c. 3G: The third generation cellular networks brought us applications, and also provided with a fast data transfer rate. It provided a minimum  data rate of 2 Mbit/s for stationary and walking users and 348 Kbit/s in a moving vehicle.  3G networks also offered a greater security than its 2G predecessors  by allowing the user's equipment to authenticate the network it is attaching to. Think about all the applications that you use on a daily basis that changed your life, the social media platform has really benefitted from the applications on smartphones. 

d. 4G: The fourth generation cellular network came up with video streaming, and more than this it offered video chats.It increased the mobile data speed by ten folds. Now a person living in any part of the world can look and talk to any person through video calls.The 4G provides gaming services, high definition mobile TV, Video conferencing and 3D television.  

e. 5G: Now here comes the 5G, the fifth generation cellular networks. The major aspects of 5G are its speed, lower latency and connection density.

Let us look at these in brief: 

Speed: The current average home internet speed is about 30 Mbit/s but 5G provides the average speed of 10 Gbit/s. According to the International Telecommunication Union 5G can reach at a peak speed of 20 Gbit/s. So if it takes 10 minutes for you to download a movie at home then with 5G it would take just a few seconds.

Low Latency: Latency is the delay in a network, the lower latency the better and more real time a network is. The latency right now for a video chat on 4G is around 10.5 milliseconds but with 5G the latency is just 1 millisecond. 

Connection Density: Connection density is essentially how many devices can connect to a network without its crashing or slowing down. The current connection density for a 4G network is around 4000 devices per square mile but the connection density for a 5G network is around 2 million devices per square mile, that means we will get rid of any low network problems in highly populated places.

5G is having a major impact in the real world, it will historically impact the new emerging tech sectors. Let us look at some of these:

Internet of Things:

 5G is way more faster than the current LTE networks, this speed inflation will allow IOT devices to communicate and share data faster than ever. 5G will enable us to control more devices remotely in applications where real time network performance is critical. Not only the smart home devices but all the IOT devices will be benefitted with this high speed and lower latency.

Self Driving Cars:

  Another area of hyper growth is the self driving cars in which companies like Uber and Google are investing heavily. 5G network connections will make these autonomous cars more faster, safer and smarter. Let us have a look at what exactly a self driving car needs for its functioning: It needs a light detection and radar system to scan the area and make 3D mapping of surroundings. Antennas to revive the GPS coordinates of the car in a specific moment. A position estimator to determine the position of the car itself and other nearby cars and objects. A video camera to take note of as and when the traffic  light changes, and a central computer to take up all this data, process it as well as control the driving speed. This a crazy amount of information that the computer needs to process, and at roads where one second delay can lead to fatality or a minor accident. 5G can help the computer to process the data faster, potentially saving the lives of passengers or pedestrians.

 

Remote Surgeries:

Another area where 5G can bring revolution is the remote surgeries. 5G almost have zero latency due to which it can actually allow a doctor or a surgeon to perform an operation from thousand of miles away using the VR (Virtual Reality) techniques to recreate the scenes and a special robot arm to control various tasks. Recently in China a surgeon completed his first remote operation on an animal using 5G. This remote surgeries can bring revolutionary changes at places especially where there are less numbers of doctors. We can save thousands of lives around the entire world where healthcare is understaffed and underfunded 

5G is the future of our world and it continues to change our lives, so be ready for this revolutionary change. It is where we are heading towards.