How 5G Will Change Entire World?

How 5G Will Change Entire World?

5G is the latest generation of mobile networks and it’s a huge step up from what we have available to us today. The jump from 3G to 4G was pretty huge. 4G to 5G is many times greater and is almost difficult to comprehend. 5g is an entirely new kind of network designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together be it smart devices vehicles even industrial machineries. 5G will coexist with existing 4G networks until coverage is expanded significantly but it will eventually evolve into a standalone network that operates independently. The appeal of 5G mostly boils down to speed and insanely fast response times referred to as latency. Latency is the time it takes for devices to respond to each other over any other wireless network. 3G networks have response time around 100 milliseconds 4G hovers around 30 milliseconds while 5G networks predict latency figures as low as 1 millisecond. This virtually instantaneous communication will open up a new world of possibilities for anything with an established network connection. As well as benefitting our internet experiences the progression of emerging technologies will depend heavily on 5G living up to its expectations. Interactive technologies such as augmented reality and self driving cars requires extremely low latency to work effectively pushing 5G networks to not only hit their goal of 1 millisecond latency but to surpass it. So how 5G does works?

How does 5G works?

5G signals operate over previously untouched radio frequencies, part of the networks in a band known as sub 6 which is the spectrum between 600 Mega Hertz and 6 Giga-Hertz which is a spectrum that 4G LTE also shares however only 5G can go above and beyond these frequencies into higher bandwidths which is what makes it so much better. 5G can and will utilize a higher band of radio frequencies from 24 GHz to 56GHz resulting in far higher data rates and performance but with the trade-off of reduced range. These new 5G radio waves can carry way more data to and from devices they just can’t carry the increased load quite as far this means that the providers have to install a large number of cellular towers in close proximity to each other to actually deliver the network. These towers hold cell sites that are about the same size as a pizza box, they can be easily fixed to building roofs or lights poles but each one has to be physically installed which is why the rollout of widespread 5G is going to take quite some time. When these cell sites are in place they’ll be able to beam signals to specific locations where they are needed most and this is far better than how conventional radio towers delivers signal which is to spread it anywhere and anywhere regardless of site-specific demand. 5G operates on three different spectrum bands between 600 MHz and 86 GHz while these numbers might just sound like useless statistics they’ll end up having a noticeable effect on your everyday use especially in early days of 5G. The three spectrum bands that your 5G network will operate on are: 

1. Low band network

It is the most common band used by carriers in the USA for 4G LTE. Low band spectrum offers the widest coverage and best wall penetration but it doesn’t offer any great shakes in the speed departments. 5G running on the low band network will only run around 20% faster than current 4G with peak data speeds topping out at around 100 megabits/s.

2. High band spectrum

This spectrum offers the highest performance for 5G however it’s not without its drawback either high band spectrum can offer peak speeds of up to 10 gigabits/s and has almost nonexistent latency but its coverage area is narrow and penetration is poor so to utilize this network to its full potential users will have to access plenty of  cells that are all relatively close by and then slotting in somewhere between the two is mid-band spectrum.

3. Mid band spectrum

This spectrum offers a balance of both speed and coverage. Mid band provides faster speeds and lowers latency than low band with peaks speeds up to 1 gigabits/s. On paper this doesn’t compete with high band powers but in real world use and for most applications it will be more than enough. The coverage and penetration of mid band will also make it a very reliable and consistent connection. As I’m sure you’ve already grasped the most prominent advantage of 5G over previous networks is the speed. The predicted 5G speeds of 10 gigabits/s mean a 100 times increase in performance compared to existing 4G networks. Users of 5G will be able to do things like download movies in under 10 seconds as opposed to several minutes and seamlessly watch 8k 3D streams whilst out and about, examples such as these are great for visualizing the power of 5G but it’s important to remember that the speed will also unlock the full capabilities of other emerging technologies including self-driving cars, drone, virtual reality, augmented reality and of course internet of things. 

Internet of things is also known as massive machine-to-machine communications – is the collective connection of billion of devices without any human intervention. This widespread connectivity has the potential to revolutionize how we do pretty much everything. The internet of things exists right now consisting of around 25 billion devices but this is said to triple by the year 2025 and then continuing growing thereafter. 

Another speed advantage of 5G is latency improvements. 5G latency will be around or less than one milliseconds which is quicker than human visual processing. This makes it possible to control devices remotely in near real time while communications manufacturing and logistics will all reap the rewards of lower latency.

Gamers will also benefit greatly from the 5G rollout. The combination of high speed connections and minimal lag is the perfect recipe for virtual reality and augmented reality applications. Industries that use these technologies are due to explode in popularity as connectivity improvements make the experiences more seamless and immersive. The connections speed that 5G brings to the table is incredibly exciting but a huge aspect of 5G that is barely spoken about is capacity. 5G will deliver up to 1000 times more capacity than 4G which basically means more room for connected devices and users. This combination of capacity and speed will greatly improve bandwidth which is maximum data transfer rate of a network.

5G can transmit amounts of data that would be inconceivable on 4G LTE allowing for perfect connectivity speeds even on crowded networks. People have always struggled with connectivity in busy place such as stadiums and festivals but 5G will handle the demand no problem. Businesses also struggle with huge amounts of data that can flood in from customers and suppliers forcing them to turn away potentially useful information. 5G will facilitates a large influx of data at any given time giving businesses the opportunity to turn previously untapped volumes of data into actionable market knowledge. There are a ton of good things to say about 5G making it even more stranger that it’s being discussed frequently for reasons that you wouldn’t expect. There are many groups of people who believe that 5G is a toxic technology due to its microwave spectrum radiation and that it’s going to slowly kill us all without realizing. 

Concerns surrounding cellular radiation are by no means new and truth be told nobody knows for sure how safe any cellular technology is let alone 5G. 5G does emit microwave radiation but so does anything that uses 4G Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, the reason why there’s so much concern surrounding 5G is because of higher frequencies that it operates at bumping 5G radio waves further up the spectrum toward UV rays, x-rays and gamma rays that we know to be harmful. Despite countless people being incredibly difficult to convince scientific evidence shows that even the highest 5G frequencies sit way and I mean way below the types of harmful radiations that are considered unsafe for continuous exposure. So only the real downsides of 5G appear to be increased battery drain due to network improving technology quicker than battery technology however this issue is sure to be addressed and rectified within the next generation or so of smart phones.

Currently 5G coverage is only available in defined areas of specific cities but the expansion will start to gain momentum again as we move beyond the restrictions of 2020 pandemic. The bottom line of 5G is that it’s safe fast and undoubtedly going to change the connected world as we know.