5 Things Worth Knowing About 5G

Fifth-generation technology, mostly known as 5G, is already stumping up millions of dollars in research even though the standards framework for next-generation communication networks is to be set within the time corridor 2017 - 2019 and first commercial solutions expected to go live during 2020. Equipment vendors and component manufacturers want a part of the action when this happens because the prize is too big to ignore: being part of the 5G standard opens up a treasure chest of future licensing and royalty revenues that will handsomely pay off the investment in creating an arsenal of technology patents. Industry leaders are therefore leveraging their know-how and hammering out initial pre-standard 5G solutions in the hope of influencing standards bodies, regulators and operators. 5G now implies an extremely bold and overly ambitious vision on how future communication networks encompassing both fixed and mobile infrastructure will combine computing smarts to deliver never-seen before services in industry verticals. Currently it’s a panacea for everything that everyone ever wanted in terms of connecting people and things, and as such, a moving target. So let’s review five basic things worth knowing about 5G.

Why 5G?

First- and second-generation technology (1G / 2G) in the nineties allowed us to phone each other or send SMS messages on the go. 3G networks extended the mobility concept to data exhange for emails and Internet browsing using standards such as UMTS and HSPA. 4G brings the LTE standard into play, enabling mobile broadband applications such as video, gaming, social media and a fluid Internet experience. 5G takes this concept severals steps further with many experts claiming it to be revolutionary instead of evolutionary. The basic idea is to further improve the coverage, capacity, speed and energy efficiency of broadband communications, and also connect appliances, security sensors, health gadgets, door locks - the Internet of Things - and even cars with each other. Ultimately 25 billion networked devices are envisioned and most of these require a very low bandwidth yet long battery life.

What exactly is 5G?

Trying to pin down exactly what a standard might look like 4 years from now is a bit of a murky business based on the smattering of alternatives emanating from companies, alliances and research bodies from different regions and countries across the world. Experts largely agree that the specs for 5G should achieve:

• an increase in capacity by factor 1000 to allow 10 000 times more traffic, necessary for connecting so many endpoints with each other
• peak data rates of 10 Gbps with at least a reliable 100 Mbps available wherever needed, so that full movies can be downloaded in seconds
• a decrease in latency by a factor of 100 into the low millisecond range, to guarantee that mission-critical control decisions in cars, robots and manufacturing tools be taken in time
• a dramatic decrease energy consumption such that low-bandwidth battery-powered devices can operate for at least 10 years

Next to these 10x - 100x - 1000x hard fact improvements, 5G is expected to include other measures of strategic importance to the network

• the integration and optimisation of fixed networks (fibre) into a heterogenous 5G specification to support wireless access. New network concepts are needed to ensure the target specs for an integrated fixed/mobile hybrid infrastructure are met
• multi-tiered network architectures will need to take data centers, cloud computing and other measures into consideration with the aim of bringing self-contained computing and communication capabilities closer to endpoints where they are needed, avoiding backhaul where possible
• the integration of public-private spectrum sharing (read cellular vs. WiFi) into the radio access network (RAN) to overcome the spectrum scarcity in order to achieve capacity and data speed demands

5G’s most crucial challenges

Amongst the many issues 5G needs to address, two particularly thorny obstacles lie ahead:

• Harmonization: 5G’s success and universal acceptance ultimately requires a single and unique worldwide standard. With the number of countries, players and interest groups involved, this will be no easy feat to achieve taking the scope of the undertaking and the time left for finding and committing to best-in-class technology ingredients from the many rivalling parties. It’s all about bringing the diverse viewpoints into one universally acknowledged specification in order to avoid fragmentation
• Spectrum scarcity: achieving 5G’s high capacity, high speed and low latency target benchmarks requires freeing up or dynamically re-using scarce spectrum resources. A previous blog post addresses some of the current issues involved with the spectrum crunch. 5G further exacerbates the situation because it needs to straddle both broadband traffic at blistering speeds (in higher frequency bands) as well as low data rate IoT devices across a wide coverage area (in lower frequency bands). 5G will most likely support public safety communications as used by police, fire brigades… too and they have their own specific security and reliability demands. Add to that the differing spectrum allocation charts by country, and you end up with a herculean task. In short, to achieve 5G’s agenda will require as many chunks of spectrum from 300 MHz - 30 GHz (centimeter wave radio) and 30 GHz - 300 GHz (millimeter wave radio) as possible.

The 5G standardization process

At the heart of 5G standardization is the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) who will define the constituent parts of the new specification called IMT–2020 based on ratification of candidate technologies submitted. The ITU is organised into three divisions (ITU-T, ITU-R, ITU-D), two of which will be deeply involved with IMT–2020. ITU-T will cover the standardisation process whereas ITU-R will manage international spectrum and radio frequency recommendations and regulations. Owing to the scope of 5G, many more organizations (eg. 3GPP, IEEE, IETF…) and companies will contribute candidate technology proposals than was the case for 4G which led to the LTE and WiMAX standards. ITU-R holds so called World Radio Conferences (WRC) every three to four years where international treaties governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum and geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits are reviewed, recommended and revised. The next WRC–15 is set for November 2015 and besides agreeing on freeing up further spectrum below 6 GHz for 4G, the conference will look at spectrum topics to be addressed in terms of 5G in the forthcoming WRC–19 slated for 2019. If all goes well, the IMT–2020 standard will be set in stone on time. Karri Ranta-Aho at Nokia Networks reveals an insightful standardization timeline in a recent blog.

Pre-standard 5G research projects

In the current exploration & pre-standardization phase, the field is beginning to heat up as companies, research projects and alliances hope to leverage their candidate technologies for IMT–2020 integration. National telecom initiatives, international associations, infrastructure equipment vendors and mobile network operators are teaming with academia across the world to make the 5G vision come true. They are working furiously on network and air interface prototypes in the hope of IMT–2020 adopting their solutions. Major infrastructure vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, ZTE and others are investing considerable research resources outside of their home markets to ensure that they can pull the standardization strings to their advantage.
5G will be a heterogeneous solution encompassing networking, computing and storage in one programmable and unified infrastructure. It will utilize multiple spectrum and radio technologies and support three different kinds of profiles:

1. superfast broadband for video and augmented/virtual reality
2. low energy/low data rate for IoT devices
3. low latency for time-critical industrial, automotive and enterprise applications.

Getting anywhere close to this vision by 2020 will be quite a feat. But as they say “reach for the stars”. In the meantime, 4G’s LTE and its future derivatives still have plenty of mileage in reserve to bridge that gap.