A non-techies guide to '5G'

What is 5G?

If you have been living on planet earth for the last year, it is highly likely that you’ve heard the term '5G' - so what exactly is it? The answer: a cellular technology. So, what is cellular technology? 

Cellular technology makes use of radio waves (part of the electromagnetic spectrum) to send and receive data. Us non-techies know this type of technology better as 3G, 4G, and now, 5G. This is the technology that allows us to access the Internet and send data from our mobile phones when we are not connected to Wi-Fi. Note that Wi-Fi is also part of the radio wave technology family but let’s focus solely on 5G in this article. 

Before we jump into the juicy parts of 5G, the next section will look at how cellular technologies have evolved over the years.

The evolution of cellular technology - 1G, 2G, 3G & 4G!

1G and 2G were both launched before I was born! 1G gave us the power to make analogue phone calls (analogue is the process of turning audio or video signals into electronic pulses)

2G improved upon this by digitally encoding our voice calls. This is when voice data is encoded into binary (0s and 1s) and transported using radio waves over the cellular network. It also introduced the ability to send texts and picture messages.

3G was released in 1998 and was a huge leap forward for cellular technology - some compare it to the jump from dial-up Internet to broadband. It gave us the ability to use the Internet directly from our mobile phones, make video calls, and to download data at much faster speeds! This was revolutionary in regards to expanding the different services we could access via our mobile phones.

The next big jump was 4G, which is the current cellular technology of choice. Its main benefit was speed - it is roughly 4 times faster than 3G and has a much lower latency (less latency just means shorter delays). Essentially, 4G can be seen as an upgrade to the Internet services that 3G introduced. Naturally, this greatly improved the user experience when it came to using the Internet via our phones. In turn, 4G has played a vital role in turning our mobiles phones into the mini-computers by which many of us manage our most important daily business.

There you have it, a brief history of cellular technology. Let's dive into 5G and look at why it’s such a big thing! But first, look at the comparison of performance between 1G to 5G in the picture below.

The 5G Revolution

5G is touted as a revolutionary technology. By this, I mean it is set to change the way that we all live our lives and how we interact with technology and everyday items - this is true for both consumers and companies. Let's look at these changes and benefits.

The benefits 

5G has 3 main technological benefit: Faster speeds; shorter delays (less latency); and increased connectivity (capacity). 

Let’s start with speed. Currently, the fastest 4G mobile networks offer 45Mbps (megabits per second); compare this with 5G which will be capable of reaching 1Gbps-10Gbps (gigabits per second - very fast) once the networks are fully refined. To put that into an every day context, you will be able to download a film from Netflix 10-20 times faster than what you can do now by using 4G - Wow!! Naturally, cellular networks do not always run at optimum speeds and EE have said they expect 5G download speeds to run between 130-240 Mbps, which is still very fast! 

The next big revelation is 5Gs lower latency. In normal language this just means shorter delays. The way that they measure this is the time it takes for the data to get to its destination and back again. Latency within current 4G networks is around 40-50 milliseconds. 5G promises to lower this to 1ms! We will discuss why this is a big benefit later on.

The final benefit of 5G is its increased connectivity (capacity). Essentially, this means 5G networks will be able to handle much more devices and their traffic. The key value here is that we will be able to connect almost anything to the Internet - even our fridges and cars!

Importantly, all 3 of these benefits of 5G work together to enable IoT (Internet of everything) - this is where the real value is going to come from! Let’s discuss this next.

The 5G-IoT relationship 

The Internet of Everything refers to connecting everyday objects to the Internet. The last few years have seen an explosion of Internet-connected innovations springing up, including self-driving cars; wearables technology such as smart watches; drones; sensors; and even connected animals (okay, so the story behind this is that farmers connected their cows to the Internet via sensors, which allowed them to monitor the health of their herd - follow the link to read more https://5g.co.uk/news/connected-cow-app/4782/)

So, the IoT trend is huge and it is only going to get bigger, much bigger - it is predicted that there will be over 40 Billion IoT devices by 2025. Ericcson have predicted that at least 3.5 billion of these will run on cellular networks. This shows the importance that 5G will play in the IoT landscape. Some experts say the real value of 5G is its ability to unlock the potential of IoT in a way that 4G currently cannot. 

Let’s explore some real life examples that 5G can actually make possible.

Truly connected smart cities

The smart city concept involves the infrastructure of a city being fitted with sensors in order to relay important data back to a central control centre. This would include connecting parking, garbage services, street lighting, CCTV cameras, water systems, public transport, cars, and much more. This will allow local governments and businesses to collect and share huge amounts of data from which they can create insight and value. As discussed previously, the increased capacity of 5G will be able to handle the large number of connected devices needed to create a true smart city.

Self-driving cars

Self-driving cars are all over the news, but the current 4G cellular network is simply not fast enough to fully support autonomous vehicles. The issue is that 4Gs latency is still too high, which means data collected through the car’s sensors may be too slow in getting to the computer, which can result in delayed decision-making, potentially leading to fatal errors. As discussed, 5G has a much lower latency (around 1 millisecond), which could support the type of real-time data communication that self-driving cars need to operate safely. 

Smart factories

Building out a smart factory will be key for manufacturers looking to drive their efficiency and profitability in the modern day. To do this, they will need to make use of automation, robots, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to build smart and connected factories. Like smart cities, by connecting the machines and devices within factories and collecting their data, companies will be able to gain insight into their own operations.

A better customer experience

As a consumer 5G will bring a whole host of benefits such as super-fast download speeds for movies and music, widespread uses of virtual and augmented reality, and a wider choice of new 5g-inspired IoT products. Overall, the introduction of 5G is set to change our current relationship with technology and how we interact with it.

In a nutshell, the high-speed, high-capacity, and low latency of 5G is set to help the world, humans, and technology become even more interconnected. Get ready for it! 

Great, we now know what 5G is and what its benefits are! Let's finish by covering how 5G networks actually work (don't worry this will be very high-level).

A brief explanation of how 5G works

5G networks will consist of small cell sites (cellular network antennas) which will exchange data with devices via radio waves.

This is similar to how 4G currently works; however, 5G will use higher frequencies within the electromagnetic spectrum. The aim is to run 5G on two difference frequencies: a low-band frequency and a high-band frequency. The low-band frequencies will run over already-installed 4G cell sites. On the other hand, the high-band frequencies on the millimetre spectrum (anything over above 24 or 34 GHZ) are actually what gives 5G its high performance. But, the high-band frequencies have a downside: they are susceptible to interference. This means they can be blocked by buildings or trees. To get around this 5G providers plan on building lots of small cell sites in and around towns and cities. These small cell sites will connect back to larger macro cell sites which finally connect to a core network which integrates with the Internet.

Outro 

Congratulations! You now have a base knowledge of cellular technology and 5G! Next time you hear someone talking about how amazing 5G download speeds are, you can join in on the conversation! 

By Zane Powell