5th generation of communication

5G (from "5th Generation") is the latest generation of cellular mobile communications. It succeeds the 4G (LTE/WiMax), 3G (UMTS) and 2G (GSM) systems. 5G performance targets high data rate, reduced latency, energy saving, cost reduction, higher system capacity, and massive device connectivity. The first phase of 5G specifications in Release-15 will be completed by April 2019 to accommodate the early
commercial deployment. The second phase in Release-16 is due to be completed by April 2020 for submission to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate of IMT-2020 technology. 

5G Communication

The 5G New Radio (NR) specification was released by standards body 3GPP in late 2017 - and chips are already being built '5G-ready'.

And according to the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) to qualify for a 5G a connection should meet most of these eight criteria:

 1.  One to 10Gbps connections to end points in the field

2.  One millisecond end-to-end round trip delay 

3.  1000x bandwidth per unit area

4.  10 to 100x number of connected devices

5.  (Perception of) 99.999 percent availability

6.  (Perception of) 100 percent coverage

7.  90 percent reduction in network energy usage

8.  Upto to ten-year battery life for low power, machine-type devices

5G Advantages

The advantage of 5G is its significantly faster speed than the traditional 4G LTE paving the path for a fully connected world. Productivity and efficiency will be increased, with a theoretical download speed of 10,000 Mbps. It will allow more complex apps and process to be done with less hardware.

Its more effective and efficient and is more easily manageable than the previous networks. Also, it carries the technology to gather all networks in a platform and support for heterogeneous services like a private network.

Paul Gainham, senior director, SP Marketing EMEA at Juniper Networks said “Current 4G mobile standards have the potential to provide 100s of Mbps. 5G offers to take that into multi-gigabits per second, giving rise to the ‘Gigabit Smartphone’ and hopefully a slew of innovative services and applications that truly need the type of connectivity that only 5G can offer".

5G Disadvantages

Like any other network,5G has its own set of disadvantages. Greater speed will mean more power and connect everything in the network could put us at risk of overcrowding the frequency range. Also, there is a question of security when especially when your household objects are connected online.

Also, the greatest drawback is it will need new hardware, and hence it will render all old smartphones incompetent. So your old 4G smartphone isn’t going to work, and you have no other option than to buy a 5G smartphone.

Future of 5G Technology

As 5G is yet in development, it is yet not open for use by anyone. But the news is that several companies have started creating 5G products and initiated field testing them.

Notable advancements in the new technologies are from Nokia, Samsung, Qualcomm, Ericsson, and BT, with growing numbers of companies developing 5G partnerships and with a promise of investment to continue the research on 5G Technology and its application.
Qualcomm and Samsung have focused their efforts on hardware, with Qualcomm developing a 5G modem and Samsung manufacturing a 5G enabled home router.
Both Nokia and Ericcson have designed 5G platforms aimed at mobile carriers instead of consumers. Ericsson developed the first 5G platform previously this year that claims to offer the first 5G radio system. Ericsson started 5G testing in 2015.
Similarly, at the start of this year, Nokia launched “5G First”, a platform that aimed to offer end-to-end 5G support for mobile carriers.
Paul Gainham, a senior director, SP Marketing EMEA at Juniper Networks, told to reporters that though the networking industry is working towards making 4G universal, they need to future-proof the 5G Technology, which perhaps couldn’t be deployed until the years 2019 or 2 no020 at the earliest. In continuation to that, he said that the mobile vendors would need to develop the network infrastructure and the end user devices like new 5G capable handsets. To mention the biggest technological challenge ahead of the industry would be spectrum availability.

After the recent craze for 3G, and 4G now it is the . Let’s wait and watch till it comes and create several technological revolutions in the world of men.