With the Internet of Things and other networked devices demanding faster and more reliable connectivity – combined with exponential data growth, 4G technology simply isn’t enough. That’s when we turn to 5G technology. The primary differences between 4G and 5G come down to latency, download speeds, base stations, cell density, OFDM encoding and virtualization.
The most significant difference between 5G and its predecessor, 4G, is latency or the delay between commands and responses. 5G promises latency under one millisecond, while 4G latency ranges from 60 to 98 milliseconds. And with lower latency also comes faster potential download speed. 4G maxes out at one gigabyte per second, while 5G aims for up to 10 gigabytes per second, that’s ten times faster.
Another critical difference is the signal transmission. 4G, like its predecessors, transmits signals primarily from large cell towers. However, 5G uses small cell technology that, at the cost of a smaller range, delivers higher frequencies, therefore 5G transmitters must be deployed more densely than cell towers. Experts estimate that there will be 5 to 10 times more small cells than cell towers. In addition, because 5G networks will be denser, they can support more users and more types of devices, meaning faster speeds with greater connection capacity.
Both 4G and 5G use OFDM, an encoding which splits different wireless signals into separate channels, but they use different channels 4G, the 20 MHz channels in 5G, 100 MHz to 800 MHz channels. Because of 5G’s larger channels, there’s less signal interference and more capacity to boost things like download speed. Virtualization is also an opportunity with 5G. Although LTE, a standard 4G technology, offers software systems and services to support more devices, virtualization will allow operators to deploy more software-driven networks for affordability and flexibility and lead the path to network slicing.
While the change from 4G to 5G technology might not be this noticeable for us, mobile device end users, we will undoubtedly benefit from it. 5G is set to enable large-scale machine-to-machine communications, allowing for a reduction in human error and an increase in automated processes. Its high reliability and low latency services could allow for innovations in the medical sector, such as robotic aids during surgery to increase accuracy or ambulance drones to provide real-time incident coverage. The transport sector is perhaps the most widely reported to benefit from 5G. Advancements in this industry could not only make roads safer and more environmentally friendly but also make businesses’ logistics, fleet management and stock control more efficient and cost-effective. It goes without saying that the end user will ultimately benefit from cheaper goods through seamless manufacturing and quicker journeys through connected vehicles.
5G promises bold advancements and improvements over 4G, which are already being implemented. Unfortunately, due to the fact that several representatives of the Homo sapiens sapiens species lack a little in the sapiens department, the process of 5G technology implementation has been held back.
Around 50 years ago it happened to be clear that the world will never be the same place again. The internet revolution has started. Today, we are continuing that process and the pace of changes is only increasing. Overall trends show that the differences between technological domains are blurring to answer the demand of modern society. The result of that is the birth of IoT applications in various domains, both on the specialized and mass market.
This in turn gives tremendous business and career opportunities for all types of specialists from various domains, because:
There is no smart city without smart sensors.
Smart sensors need an embedded AI.
Embedded AI requires data scientists.
This short scene shows the mechanism on how different technologies (in this case AI) are intertwined with the IoT. Unfortunately, this causes a high degree of uncertainty and is making business/career decisions more complex. In order to act wisely, you need a good understanding of the roots of these technologies.
Internet of Things (IoT)
As you probably might guess the Internet of things is a concept that is a little mixed up. So, I would like to divide it into two components: the internet & the things to introduce it that way.
Internet
Firstly, we need to look at the very basics and acknowledge that the existence of our universe is possible thanks to the 4 fundamental forces of nature: Gravity, The weak force, Electromagnetism, and The strong force.
For us, the most important is Electromagnetism, which throughout the past centuries we were trying to tame and benefit from. It was pretty unsuccessful, until the 19th century when we started to process the energy in more sophisticated ways.
At that time we uncover the potential of radio frequencies and made developments like electric light, transformer, wireless communication, etc.
If you are familiar with the early history of the internet you probably recognize the name ARPANET, which was a military program developed to connect the university centers in the United States. The next step was the creation of Internet Protocol (IP), soon after that the 1G cellular system was born and the rest of the story you know.
Things
As you can see the Internet was initially created to connect specialized machines with at least a bit of computing power such as computers and in the later steps mobile devices. On the other hand, back in the ’70s, there were initial applications of machine-to-machine communication (M2M).
You might ask, how is today’s IoT different, from what it was in the past?
A great answer to this question is a quote by iotforall:
„The biggest difference between M2M and IoT is that an M2M system uses point-to-point communication. An IoT system, meanwhile, typically situates its devices within a global cloud network that allows larger-scale integration and more sophisticated applications. Scalability is another key difference between M2M and IoT. „
Let’s quickly visualize the power of IoT in practice.
Giving the example of healthcare true flawless experience might look like that: mattresses monitoring your sleep, chairs monitoring your posture, various medical devices testing your condition, microphones collecting the data about your cough to monitor lungs conditions, etc. This in turn shows that we need billions of more connections than we have today and it only is possible with the new generation of telecommunication architecture.
5G, 6G
The answer to this demand is an improved technology of the 5th generation (5G) of cellular communication protocols, rules, and methodologies issued by IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
It is mainly focused on:
The wide availability of the signal (enhanced mobile broadband)
Significantly decreased latency compared to 4th generation technology, especially useful for applications requiring critical reliability e.g. remote surgical operations
Enhanced machine to machine communication up to 1 mln devices per 1 square kilometer
Technology still faces many challenges both in engineering and societal aspects. As you can see many challenges addressed by the IoT advocates are not going to be solved with the rise of 5G architecture. Cellular of the fifth generation might soon become outdated and that is why various R&D departments are already working on the 6G.
It is projected that the next few decades are going to be a constant transition process between new generations of cellular technology. Henceforth, it is obvious that 4G, 5G, 6G will overlap it selves and it would be hard to talk about one of them individually in terms of predictions. That is why I would like to describe more in detail the future potential business opportunities as the result of these three.
It is projected that by 2030 the overall telecommunication advancements will allow:
Transfer of senses like smell
I would like to disclaim that this is going to be my private observation, that with the rise of political trends and ideas to give every person a salary from the first day of birth, this will have hundreds of results (not rating good/bad) and one of them will be the increasing boredom. The rise of all sorts of gaming apps using this feature is just a marvelous way to create new experiences and disrupt the entertainment sector.
Inch perfect localization services
Space! The answer to an unbreakable internet connection all around the world. Satellite-based internet is a huge opportunity to enter growing markets like e.g. Nigeria. Many of the services that Google wanted to provide to this country failed due to low internet connection. In the next decade, it will change for the better. It is worth to mention almost everybody in Nigeria is a smartphone user.
Another aspect is the production and management of the data gathered throughout the satellites. Geospatial analytics is a great source of knowledge e.g. ability to measure the amount of gasoline in Saudi Arabian Oil Tanks and send this data to the NYC stock exchange to see how is the relation of stock prices to the real demand.
Not to mention GPS advancements that will make navigating, targeting, etc. more efficient.
How to benefit from it?
I hope that now, you have just a bit broader sense of how it all will be in the future and that now we are just starting.
Huge problems usually are followed by huge earnings if solved. Here is the list of problems and few interdependencies that might help build your future business model/career.
Problems:
Connectivity — discovering the ways to establish a reliable wireless connection. As we already know, the connection is just a radio wave of a certain frequency, hence it can be modulated. This modulation could be „smart” in the future thanks to Deep Learning and Machine Learning.
Continuity — optimizing the battery life. How to predict long-term battery life by analyzing data from charge-discharge cycles?
Compliance — be up to date with evolving regulations. As AI is improving financial services compliance, it has a significant potential for smart management of constantly changing regulations.
Coexistence — billions of devices per km2 means billions of data that need to be processed. Smart sensors with embedded AI is a crucial element of industry 4.0
Cybersecurity — a secure connection is the most important part of IoT. Which technology will make it possible? Blockchain IoT has a projected 45% CAGR, what will be the successor of NFC (near-field-connection)? Many questions little answers = good business opportunity.
Interdependencies:
The transformation process will not happen overnight, 5G is very different from 2,3,4G because it is now when the Industrial revolution will be possible. Adding a coronavirus and the tendencies to move industry production from China back to Europe all give opportunities for businesses focusing on adapting Europe’s industry to new circumstances. All solutions connecting the old infrastructure with the new technologies are going to be crucial.
In the IoT world embedded AI will be used very often and a certain degree of independence requires applied algorithms to be reliable. To do that the algorithms will have to be certified. If you like law and science maybe such a research center is a good career choice.
As space will be a fundamental part of IoT systems and you would have an opportunity to work in a NewSpace company it is highly possible that you will benefit financially and you will have long-term stable employment.
TLTR
Motion is everything. We are entering a time when the motion of people, cars, ships, etc. will be tracked and the data produced this way will be the new oil of our century. To benefit from it, you need to solve some issues named as 5 C’s of IoT and follow the newest media coverage about Industry 4.0 and the space race.
Eventually, almost everyone faced the problem of a broken phone screen. There will be no such a problem with Ulefone Armor 11 5G even for the clumsiest person as you need to try REALLY HARD to break it.
Some days ago Ulefone presented their new model that is called Armor 11 5G (this is actually a modified version of Armor 10 5G that was presented the previous year). The phone has got 5 cameras, including the main 48-mp Sony IMX582 module and a frontal 16-mp camera. And what is more appealing, the phone has got a 20-mp night vision module.
Ulefone Armor 11 5G is based on MediaTek Dimensity 800 5G single-crystal system, having a 6,1-inch screen, 8Gb of RAM, and 256Gb memory card. As a new iPhone line, the smartphone can use 5G net, supplying it with a great performance. The 5200mAh battery is responsible for the great work duration and a wireless 10V charger. However, Armor 11 5G is working on Android 10, and for now, there is no possibility to update it to Android 11 (it is said to be possible only after the official release).
Of course, it has an NFC module and Google Pay support, face recognition, and dactyloscopy sensor. One of the aims of the device is its usage for military purposes, and for that, it has IP68/IP69K protection level and a military standard MIL-STD-810G certificate, which makes it perfect to be used in different rough conditions. The price of such a device is unknown yet.
5G is a multi-service network, that is able to adapt a whole host of devices: smartphones of course, but also enhanced 360° content and augmented reality, connected objects, fridges, driverless cars. 5G technology will change the way we live, work, and play-for good. It promises to greatly enhance the speed, Verizon’s network showed speeds surging past 1 gigabit per second.
But why everybody is talking of its great influence on modern people lives? One of the benefits is something called low latency. You’ll hear this term a lot. Latency is time between clicking on link or start streaming a video, which sending the request up to network, and delivering you the site or playing your video, when the network responds. With current network this time is about 20 milliseconds, but with 5G it reduces to 1 milliseconds. Also, the literally incredible think about new generation network is that it is designed to connect a far greater number of devices than a traditional cellular network does. 5G can multiple devices around you, whether it’s a dog collar or a refrigerator; it is also specifically built to handle equipment used by business, such as farm equipment or ATMs.
One of advantages of new network are, as i believe, that 5G can make a big profit for rural and suburban areas that have not enjoyed the same access to wireless as cities; in health industry: hospitals will not only be able to remotely diagnose a patient’s complaints, but they will also have the ability to remotely perform surgeries and other hands-on procedures using digital avatars; environment: connected devices will transform data on weather conditions, plant health, crop health, moisture, mineral and chemical levels, pest presence and more, affecting labor allocation, cost management, waste reduction and yield; smart cities:IoT sensors will monitor and collect data on everything from air quality, to energy use, to traffic patterns. 5G will be able to use artificial intelligence to analyze the massive amounts of data being collected to automate processes that are currently done manually.
Can’t I just pick up 5G with my existing smartphone?
Sorry, no. 5G technology requires a specific set of antennas to tap into specific bands. For instance, Sprint’s LG V50 is specifically tuned for its 5G network. Likewise, the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G is tuned for Verizon’s network and its millimeter wave spectrum. You can expect more 5G phones to launch later this year, with phones able to ride on different networks coming out in mass in 2020.
Samsung Galaxy S10 5G
How broadly will 5G be available in 2019?
Here’s the other concern: 5G might still be only a theoretical possibility for a lot of people.
T-mobile says it’s launching in 30 cities this year, AT&T will have 22 cities. But it’s unclear how wide the coverage will be. Globally, China, Japan and South Korea are racing to build out their 5G networks, with Europe turning on its own 5G network now. So don’t feel like you need to rush out to buy that first 5G smartphone. Chances are, service won’t be widely available until 2020 or beyond.
So, how do you feel about inevitable changes in our generation and world? Do you agree, that 5G will change it?
