5G Technology: Life Saving?

Even though 4G still seems relatively new, 5G is on the horizon already, and it could be a matter of life and death…

Although our headline may sound dramatic, it is true. It’s fascinating that each decade seems to herald the arrival of exponentially faster mobile communications technology. Scandinavia’s Nordic Mobile Telephony system was launched in 1981 as the first generation of high-frequency cellular communications, with 2G following ten years later. Mobile communications became mainstream with 2001’s 3G launch, and 4G is continuing to expand its market share after a highly publicised launch earlier this decade.
With less than ten per cent of the UK population taking up 4G technology to date, it seems bizarre to consider that it too could soon be ‘old’, as 5G is on the horizon in just a couple of years.
Each new mobile generation has traditionally introduced far faster data transmission speeds, and 5G is no different. Ofcom reports that average download speeds are around 15 Mbit/s across the UK; in theory, 5G should be up to a thousand times faster. It’s been calculated that this could allow someone using a mobile phone to download high definition movies in less than a second, although clearly this is dependent on optimal conditions being in place. Ericsson has reported that a potentially achievable latency period (the gap between a request and a response) of one millisecond will enable us to access information or send commands instantly.
Before the YouTube fanatics think this development is for them, a study of the early reports on 5G testing shows that the recurring focus on cutting latency indicates that companies want 5G to underpin the Internet of Things, where billions of devices will share information and communicate online. As well as established technology like central heating that can be controlled from smartphones, the Internet of Things will herald driverless cars and keyhole surgery performed using robots that are controlled by offsite doctors, so there needs to be capacity for billions of devices to share information in real-time. A delay of even half a second could literally be a matter of life and death, whereas a one millisecond latency period is effectively irrelevant.
The next generation of mobile networks will require far more capacity than is currently the case, which is why a number of different connection methods are currently being debated by bodies like the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance. This is an open forum of 60 phone companies, manufacturers and research centres. Infinite capacity may be overly ambitious, but sufficient capacity is the NGMN Alliance’s long-term achievable goal. A central plank of 5G’s appeal will be its ‘always-on’ status – self-driving trains can’t afford to have signal drop-outs, for instance. The infrastructure required to achieve complete signal availability is far more advanced than today’s triangulated masts can provide, and a recent test by Samsung used 64 antenna elements across a two kilometre path. This is known as a Massive Dense Network, with the sheer number of nodes helping to prevent signal loss.
It looks as though 5G will be globally available at the start of the next decade, with high-profile localised trials already scheduled for flagship events like the 2018 World Cup in Moscow. Although there is currently no standardised template for 5G connectivity, companies and institutions around the world are rushing to get this superfast connection platform developed.
As with 3G and 4G, urban areas will be the first to adopt radio spectrum bandwidths which are anticipated to be above 6GHz. The UK has already established a pioneering Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey to resolve challenges like radio spectrum conflicts. Companies like China’s Huawei and South Korea’s Samsung are also pouring billions of dollars into research and development, alongside studies by impartial organisations like the NGMN Alliance.
One thing we can be sure of is that 5G will change our world (and internet habits) as much as 4G has done – and 3G before that.