Growth in cellular connections, evolution of cellular complexity, evolution of key indicators, and cellular testing are some of the key considerations that a cellular provider should keep in mind when making the business case for deploying 5G related devices, products, and services.
1.1B more people and things will be connected thanks to 5G. Out of the total 5.8 Billion connections, 1G-4G added 4.7 Billion connections. Due to 5G, 25% (of the 5.8 Billion) more connections are a possibility. [1]
IoT devices, connected cars, remote healthcare, smart cities, logistics and AR and VR systems all need hyper low latency, hyper scale and hyper mobility to thrive as they create extreme environments. Let’s understand what has changed in each of the cellular generations to find out why 5G is ready to support these extreme environments and how you can be ready for the future 5G ecosystem.
Due to advancement in the technology, it became easier over time to support newer services over cellular connections. User experience has improved dramatically over the generations due to low latency. Availability of mobile networks, affordability, cost-effective service plans, and densification of cellular towers across the globe has attracted consumers to opt for mobile connections, replacing land lines. The three key indicators that led to the growth of mobile connections are
Hyper Mobility
Hyper Low Latency
Hyperscale
From 1G to 5G (In the future!), the time spent on mobile devices has grown, quality of experience has improved, and the number of subscribers has grown significantly.
Cellular Testing Makes all the Difference
As 5G standards evolve, it is important to perform continuous testing for standards conformance to accelerate innovation. Testing 5G devices, equipment, and networks with complete confidence requires careful planning, well thought out test plans, performance benchmarking strategy, test automation and reporting. This will eliminate any surprises when accelerating the deployment of 5G related products and services.
5G-NR:
5G New Radio (NR) is the new technology specification for a new OFDM-based physical air interface. 5G NR is not an evolution of 4G (LTE) – It is required to achieve the extreme bandwidth, low latency, and massive scalability requirements of 5G. 5G NR is expected to make wireless broadband performance same as wired – “Wireless Fiber” to deliver lower cost/bit.
5G speeds and feeds:
Innovations such as carrier aggregation (CA), massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO), and quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), among others, enables carriers to “fatten” the data pipe.
5G and Wi-Fi co-existence:
By default, 5G can operate in the unlicensed bands (LTE-U, LAA, eLAA, and MulteFire) unlike previous generations. Organizations supporting multi-mode devices in these unlicensed bands need to characterize and measure the operation of these devices in a diverse Wi-Fi and cellular ecosystem from a customer point of view. Historically, end user and networking wireless devices were tested separately in either a Wi-Fi or a cellular environment.
Massive IoT:
IoT developments include NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT), LTE for Machines (LTE-M or LTE Category M1), and Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) specifications such as Long-Range WAN (LoRaWAN) and Sigfox. These developments enable wireless communication with a diverse array of billions of IoT devices.
5G SDN/NFV:
SDN/NFV offers scalability and elasticity required to implement innovations like network slicing, Nex-Gen packet core (NGC/5G Core), cloud radio access network (C-RAN), and mobile edge computing (MEC)
5G complexities are numerous but resolving them should not be a daunting task. The secret is knowing the 5 keys to 5G – Learn more.
Source: Path To 5G/Ixia
[1] «ITU towards «IMT for 2020 and beyond» – IMT-2020 standards for 5G«.
