5G - It's Coming: The Network of All Intelligent Connected "Things";
The towers are going up, the whispers have begun, and net neutrality is being dismantled. Wait...what? Well...
5G is coming for better or for worse and it will help to usher in the new era of the technology-human interface that we have all been anticipating. Every 10 years or so, the mobile networks receive an upgrade, and the latest 4G LTE is now prime for revamping. Some companies have been prematurely bragging about 5G coverage while actually only providing advanced 4G coverage. The first phase of this new true 5G network is expected to arrive in 2019 and the preparations are happening now, so it can eventually support all of the tech aspirations of the future. The parameters of 5G coverage can't be fully described at the moment, since it is still under development, yet some key features have already been defined. China and large corporations (i.e. Nokia) have already begun efforts to commercialize and capitalize on it. The 5G network will debut in beta at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, courtesy of Intel. Mobile network standards are designed and developed by the 3GPP (The Third Generation Partnership Project), an international group comprised of corporations and government entities which plan together, in a series of conferences, to roll out the next level platform of wireless interaction. How this new mobile network will affect our world will be determined by the features which govern it - it has the potential to be exponentially transformative. Let's take a look...
What is In the Blueprint for 5G?
The most touted aspect of 5G coverage, which of course is to be expected, is improved speed and capacity. If 4G is fast, 5G will be fast on steroids. Imagine downloading entire video series in seconds. It will be able to separate signal from the noise as it can power its way through mobile saturated crowds. The way this improved speed will occur is through more precise channeling. This precise channeling will be achieved number of ways: #1 The broadband spectrum of frequencies over which signaling will occur will expand, including the novel use of super-high frequency millimeter waves. In this way, more devices can communicate over the already saturated radio frequencies. #2 More mobile towers will be available, allowing more signals to be reflected. Network providers are building their infrastructure and inserting towers as fast as possible to be ready for the imminent new network. #3 Beamforming technology will be used; this will allow radio-frequency waves to be concentrated into a linear signal which can be directed towards the device in a direct path, free from obstacles. #4 Small cells will provide additional relay stations to help propagate millimeter wave signals in various locations, including using drones #5. Channels will be built with numerous antennae allowing for massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) to multiply the amount of information which can be simultaneously received and transmitted #6. Backward compatibility, networks will switch to 4G channels and WiFi, in a seamless fashion, if there is obstruction to the 5G signal as a device moves through service areas, to avoid interruption. #7 Network slicing with quality of service management will allow the network to chop and prioritize certain signals over others. While this may be crucial in certain situations, it could also lead to some concerning issues for consumers. We'll come back to this concept in the next section.
Another important aspect of 5G coverage is increased efficiency. As the connections become more intelligent, only sending data when needed, much less energy will be needed to send information. This will reflect into longer battery life despite greater use of data. This will allow for data intensive operations, such as immersive group VR or AR, without automatically draining power and making battery life the limiting factor. This would also translate to lower cost, as more data can be sent for less.
There will be decreased latency as the aforementioned technologies decrease the transmission interferences while increasing the speed. This will become important for other applications, such as self-driving cars or other so-called "Mission Critical" operations such as medical device transmissions, emergency communications and smart city infrastructure communications.
This 5G capability will be available in mobile devices via Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X50 NR modem microchip in 2019.
So what does this mean to society?
5G emergence will mean many technologies will exist and be supported which could not exist before. Self-driving cars, smart devices with sensors in the internet of things, advanced robotics, medical device transmissions, etc., will communicate over a super-fast and super capable network. However the caveat is that much more intelligence and processing will occur on the network which could influence the signals that your devices actually receive. Consistent with the idea of network slicing and prioritization of signals, is the ability of carriers to determine how fast or how slow your data will be transmitted using their own algorithms. Although this already occurs to some extent, it will permeate greater aspects of your experience with 5G coverage, as it can be exquisitely fine-tuned, and not simply used to maintain data limits. The prototypical, positive use case for this would be ensuring that "Mission Critical" operations receive data priority over entertainment, social media type data use, which of course makes sense. However, with the attempted dismantling of laws which promote net neutrality, it would also allow data to be effectively controlled by corporations, altering access to data transmission in a way which could prove economically beneficial for corporations but problematic for consumers. Ironically, 5G would be fast enough to compete with in ground fiberoptic cable to provide home internet service. It could give consumers more choice in who provides their home internet service, and possibly at a lower cost. Truly unlimited data plans could be conceived of. Yet this consumer benefit would be lessened by the ability of mobile carriers to throttle or prioritize traffic, the same as traditional ISP's would under the proposition by FCC chair Ajit Pai (unless the courts deem it illegal). The increased volume and ubiquity of data communication in regards to each individual lead to increased concerns over privacy and security. No doubt some aspects of privacy will be compromised with an artificially intelligent network which will communicate with you wherever you are, "adapting to your every move". However, some measure of security may be gained with increased use of on-device processing as opposed to in the cloud, to allow the least amount of interference and hackability, as Qualcomm explains.
Other issues related to 5G Networks
Some have raised concerns over the health effects of 5G as people will be exposed to a greater amount and different spectrum of radio-frequency radiation under the 5G network. It is not clear what effect this will have on health, but preliminary studies have shown an increase in tumor rates in male rats with prolonged exposure to electromagnetic radiation from cell phones. Many questions remain, such as whether this extrapolates to humans, and why the increased risk was seen only in male rats. An open letter to the EC was forged to encourage societies to take more steps to protect people, especially pregnant women and children. The FDA has been tasked with continuing to determine whether 5G is safe, and have funded a $20+ million study. Other studies are ongoing, including one in New Zealand, to determine the effects of cell-phone radio wave exposure. However one thing is certain, there is no evidence that plans for 5G adoption are slowing down. Unfortunately, we may only determine its true risk after implementation.
Conclusions
Like many new technologies today, 5G is arriving, whether we like it or not. It holds the promise for many great achievements in technology, yet only time will tell whether 5G serves as a great benefit to mankind by providing safe, intelligent networks with improved data transmission at higher speeds and lower costs, or fails to provide either safety, privacy, improved speed or cost savings at the very expense of consumers. Thanks for reading, please leave your comments on the website. Feel free to check out our other blog posts, and collection of videos from the web to illustrate these and other concepts.