The Future of 5g Networking

The next generation of wireless is in process and is causing a lot of excitement; 5G networking, also known as fifth generation of cellular networking, is expected to provide higher bandwidth and data rates, with fewer transmission delays. Currently the technology is in the planning stages but is expected to debut in 2020. Many say that 5G will be revolutionary; as all industries will feel the effects of the shift to the new technology and are expected to bring about dramatic transformations in our daily lives. The 5G will inspire new growth, accelerate innovation, and generate new revenue. At the moment, it is still unclear which technologies will do the most for 5G. The front-runners include millimeter waves, small cells, massive MIMO, full duplex, and beamforming.

Researchers are experimenting with broadcasting on shorter millimeter waves that fall between 30 and 300 gigahertz. This section of spectrum has never been used before for mobile devices and opening it up means more bandwidth for users. This technology promises higher data capacity than we currently have now. An advantage to the shorter wavelengths found in millimeter wave technology is that antennas used to transmit and receive the signals can be made comparably smaller. The catch is that millimeter waves cannot travel well through buildings or other obstacles and they tend to get absorbed by rain or plants. With higher frequencies comes shorter transmission ranges, and shorter wavelengths tend to experience greater issues when there is no direct line of sight. Technological issues like these that the early 5G tests will be looking to explore and solve.

Small cell networks could be the foundation toward building a 5G future. A small cell is basically a miniature base station that breaks up a cell site into much smaller pieces. Small cells will help by providing increased data capacity. It will also help service providers eliminate expensive rooftop systems and installation or rental costs, which reduces the overall cost. In addition, it will improve the performance of mobile handsets. If the phone is closer to a small cell base station, it transmits at lower power levels, which effectively lowers the power out of the cell phone and substantially increases its battery life. Small cells will also be critical at these millimeter wave frequencies because the signals cannot penetrate walls or buildings and the cell sizes will have a coverage radius of less than 500 meters.

Massive MIMO known as multiple input multiple output is a multi-user MIMO system that serves multiple users through spatial multiplexing and is used in many wireless technologies to achieve more capacity without using more spectrum. It is the only technology that can offer quality of service in dense urban, suburban, and rural macro cells. Today’s 4G base stations have about a dozen ports for antennas that handle all cellular traffic but massive MIMO base stations can support about a hundred ports. This could increase the capacity of today’s networks by a factor of 22 or more. Massive MIMO comes with its own complications. Cellular antennas today broadcast information in every direction at once and all those crossing signals could cause serious interference.

The technology known as full duplex, which allows a transceiver to be able to transmit and receive data at the same time, on the same frequency. This could double the capacity of wireless networks at their most fundamental physical layer. To achieve this on a personal device, researchers must design a circuit that can route incoming and outgoing signals so they do not collide while an antenna is transmitting and receiving data at the same time. This is difficult because of a principle known as reciprocity, the tendency of radio waves to travel both forward and backward on the same frequency. A drawback to full duplex is that it also creates more signal interference through pesky echo. Engineers hope to build the wireless network that future smartphone users, VR gamers, and autonomous cars will rely on every day.

Beamforming is like a traffic signaling system for cellular signals. Is one of the many technologies that has been fingered as a part of the solution to the 5G deployment problem. Instead of broadcasting in every direction, it would allow a base station to send a focused stream of data to a specific user. This precision prevents interference and it is way more efficient. That means stations could handle more incoming outgoing data streams at once. Data is sent and received using multiple antennas to increase throughput and range. Beamforming can improve massive MIMO arrays create more efficient use of the spectrum around them. The initial challenge for massive MIMO is to lessen interference while transmitting more information from many more antennas at once.

With these and other 5G technologies, researchers and engineers aim to build the wireless network that other users will rely on every day. High expectations are set for the up in coming technology, hopeful for ultralow latency and record-breaking data speeds for consumers. In conclusion, if researchers could find a way to make all of these systems work together, 5G will be available to consumers in the next five years.