A Brief Introduction into 5G Mobile Network

In this post, I will try to introduce you a little bit better into the upcoming 5G network. In general, the new generation of mobile networks is called 5G and it has a certain improvement in comparison with previous mobile networks. This mobile network is already tested in the real environment scenarios, apart from the laboratory tests, by several companies like Huawei, Samsung, and Vodafone.

The main goals of the 5G that it should satisfy as a technology can be listed into three groups:

• Increased Data Rate – simply it means that upload and download data speeds will be higher, currently, on average this value is up to 50 Mbps for download, while for 4G network it was 15 Mbps on average. The targeting data download speed of 5G mobile network is of several Gbps.
• Reduced Latency – it is a total round trip latency of packets, which mostly influence timely sensitive applications like vehicular communications; the current average latency is 10ms for the 5G networks, while in 4G it is five times higher latency (50ms). The definite goal of 5G is to reach 1ms latency.
• Increased Number of Connected Devices – this is very important as the densification of devices connected to the mobile network is increasing drastically, mainly because of the higher interests for the usage of Internet of Things, which are introduced through the concepts such as Smart Cities. It is envisioned that the number of IoT devices, connected via mobile networks to the Internet, will raise up to 10 times more in the next 10 years and 5G mobile networks need to satisfy such a request.

To cope with all of these requests the 5G technology is introducing a set of changes in the mobile network from the radio to its core part. The first main difference is that the new radio interface is introduced in the 5G, which is using a higher frequency spectrum, well known as centimeter and millimeter waves. With this introduction, much higher data rates can be achieved, and a lot of new applications can be supported by mobile networks such as Virtual/Augmented Reality. On the other side, it is planned that the deployment of base stations will be much denser, which will enable users to higher data rates, lower latencies and higher reliability of service. Apart from these changes which are somehow close to the users, there are changes in the background of a 5G network, which are related to the core network of a network operator. This certain architectural shift in the 5G network is supporting a much higher number of connections, while from the other side the concept of “virtualizing everything” is followed, which directly influences the operator’s costs and maintenance of the networks.

Also, it is important to say that the deployment of the 5G network needs to be followed by the development of the 5G devices, which will be able to use such a network and already there are a several 5G smartphones on the market which will be able to use first versions of 5G networks.

All in all, for sure the 5G is bringing a lot of improvements in comparison with the previous mobile networks, but will it be able and will it be enough to support all the envisioned goals, it is yet to be seen in the next 10 years.