What is 5G?

5G is also known as fifth-generation wireless network technology. Mainly you can say that it is an upgraded version of 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G. 5G comes with a 20 GBPS of faster internet experience that is way better than the other wireless network technologies but that is not all, Fifth Generation Networks(5G) also brings low latency and a robust bandwidth with can connect many devices right away.

The Fifth-generation technology(5G) standard is the next major step for cellular networks and also for fiber optic, operators. The 5G networks can also be called cellular networks, in 5G networks, the topographic point is split into small geographical areas which are called cells. The Fifth Generation(5G) network wireless devices in a cell are connected to the internet and telephone network by radio waves through a local antenna in a cell.

The 5G network wireless devices during a cell are connected to the web and telephone network by radio waves through an area antenna in a cell. The 5G network users will experience great network connectivity, including machines, objects, devices, and therefore the fastest internet speed. This means quicker downloads, ultra-low latency gaming, and streaming experience, and far more.

With the assistance of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, now users can enjoy near real-time experiences with high throughput, ultra-low latency, and large capacity. meaning the films are getting to be downloaded in seconds versus minutes and supporting mobile workforce applications.

When will 5G come in India?

If you are waiting for 5G to come in India then there is good news, DOT(Department of Telecommunications) has allowed many individual telecommunication companies to start the trails for 5G and by the term trails, we mean testing different types of bands as well as different types of frequencies.

DoT had in May allocated 5G trial spectrum in 700MHz and 3.3GHz-3.6GHz which is also called Sub-6 Gigahertz and 24.25GHz-28.5GHz which is also called Millimeter Wave. This is great news that India is also starting the trails of Mm Wave(Millimeter Wave), which will be an X factor for 5G networks.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have already started their testing of 5G networks in Mumbai and Gurugram. Other companies like Vi(Vodafone Idea) and BSNL are expected to begin their trials on the next generation network very soon. The 5G network connectivity is expected to come to India in the next year on August 15, 2022.

The Department of Telecommunications(DOT) has also confirmed that none of the approved telecom companies will be using equipment from Chinese gear makers like ZTE or Huawei. The government also expected local manufacturers and providers of these technologies to offer support globally.

Recently, Secretary of Mr. Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said that India has a huge talent pool and no one should not undermine that.

So, while the Department of Telecommunications(DOT) will work on 5G, MeitY(Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has got to work on devices, sensors, IoT(Internet of Things), and lots of other related devices like drones, robotics, and AR/VR. The 5G network features a very big role in IoT, they will work perfectly together.

With 4G, you’ll start, but 5G has far more potential which will really bring them to call at their full brilliance. Now there is an industry point of view that telecommunication companies also believe that enhancing the 5G infrastructure should be of national priority and the nation needs to be ready with a powerful, robust, scalable, and intelligent infrastructure that is capable of handling massive traffic growth.

What is Verizon?

Verizon is the leading important communication technology company in the world. Verizon also offers voice, data, and video services on award-winning networks. Verizon was established on June 30, 2000, and it’s the world’s best leading provider of technology, communications, information, and entertainment products and services.

History of 5G

This is well known that the new generation network(5G) will replace all the previous generations by performing faster download speeds and stream in high quality and having very low latency times. The newly launched smartphones and the upcoming smartphones are having the 5G compatibility network that gives the user a better experience in super-fast browsing and downloading speed.

For people at home who depend on well-founded connectivity for their work and education, the 5G network will help them and be able to support millions of devices at very high speeds and change the lives of people by connecting them faster and better than ever before with extended mobile high-speed internet.

These are all the mobile network Generations:

The First Generation is known as 1G:

The 1G(First Generation) was the first automated mobile network launched in Tokyo (Japan) by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and after some months it expanded and covered the whole population of Japan.

The first generation network(1G) was very expensive and also has many issues that always needed to be resolved like: poor connection, low coverage, no roaming between different operators, incompatible with other 1G networks because of the low-frequency ranges, only allowed audio calls and the general public can’t afford it because it was very expensive.

The maximum speed of 1G technology is 2.4 Kbps which is why the phones were slow, with poor battery life and voice quality, and calls are prone to be drop too. But at the same time in the 1980s 1G, was a revolutionary technology.

The Second Generation is known as 2G:

After the first generation network(1G), mobile technology got a major upgrade in 1993 by the introduction of 2G. The Second Generation(2G) was launched by the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM).

The 2G added lots of benefits and upgrades which are better than 1G. One of the best upgrades was taking the phones from analog to digital communication by supporting multi-media and not just voice it has better coverage and capacity as compared to the first generation network(1G).

The 2G network also brought an enormous change by supporting text messages, images, and even videos.2G data takes the shape of two different standards, GPRS and EDGE. The max speed of the 2G network is usually up to 114 Kbps in GPRS and thus the EDGE can speed up to 237 Kbps.

What are GPRS and EDGE?

Well, the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet-based wireless communication service in which the data is broken up into smaller blocks and transmitted over various channels. It’s a Second Generation(2G) technology network that supports a download speed of up to 114Kbps.

Now there are some limitations of GPRS that you simply may recognize from Dial-Up Internet is that it can’t be sent while a voice call is ongoing. The General Packet Radio Service(GPRS) supports CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4, and modulation-coding schemes which are GMSK (Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying) based.

The Enhanced Data GSM Evolution (EDGE) is also a 2G technology but significantly faster than GPRS with a download speed of up to 384 KBPS. Because of its speed, it’s sometimes mentioned as a 2.5G network. EDGE supports MCS1 to MCS9, in these MCS1 to MCS4 supports GMSK, and MCS5 to MCS9 supports 8-PSK. EDGE can retransmit a packet with a more robust coding scheme.

The EDGE(Enhanced Data GSM Evolution) re-segmentation is possible while in GPRS re-segmentation is not possible. In EDGE(Enhanced Data GSM Evolution) packets are addressed up to 2048 and the window size to 1024 while in the GPRS packets were numbered from 1 to 128 and the addressing window size was 64.

The Third Generation is known as 3G:

The Third Generation mobile networks(3G) were introduced in 1998 and are aimed at increasing network speed. The first standards of 3G were WCDMA(Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and UMTS(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System). 3G was first released in Japan by NTT in 1998, but it was not a commercial release, the first commercial release was in South Korea by SK Telecom in 2001.

It used CDMA(Code Division Multiple Access) technologies for multiplexing and followed a packed switching paradigm using three main frequency bands of 850/1900/2100 MHz.

The WCDMA standard was based in GSM(Global System for Mobile Communications) but UMTS(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) was a new standard by 3GP(3rd Generation Partnership Project) and was used mainly in Europe.

The maximum speed trusted the device mobility, for moving devices sort of mobile within the cars or the train it reached the utmost speed of around 384 Kilobits per second while for non-moving devices like people and foods this speed was around 2 Megabits per second.

The 3G network got a big increase in transmission speed and then the 3G network introduced Video Calling, Mobile Internet, and Streaming Services. Another big change with 3G was that people did not pay based on time to use the services it was possible to pay based on the amount of data transferred. The symbol for 3G networks is 3G. The third generation after a while introduced two other standards known as HSPA(High-Speed Packet Access) or 3.5G and HSPA+ or 3.75G.

HSPA was the enhanced version of WCDMA technology with a theoretical speed of 5.76 Mbps for uplink and 14.4 Mbps for downlink but in practice, this speed was around 200 Kilobits per second for uplink and 500 Kilobits per second for downlink.

The symbol for HSPA was H and HSPA+ was the evolved version of HSPA and used MIMO which is the acronym for Multiple Input and Multiple Output is used more than one antennas for sending in more than one antennas for receiving data. It drastically increased network speed to a theoretical value of 22 MBPS for uplink and 168 MBPS for downlink the symbol for that is H+.

The Fourth Generation is known as 4G:

The 4G(Fourth Generation) of wireless technology is also known as LTE(Long-Term Evolution). It was started in 2004 by International Telecommunication Union(ITU) and in 2005 LTE specification was released and the deployment process started in 2009 the first commercial release of 4G LTE networks was available in OSLO, Norway, and Stockholm, Sweden but 4G was not only LTE it also included another standard named WiMAX(Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) which was standardized by IEEE(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the standard was called IEEE 802.16.

The Fourth Generation network(4G) was released in June 2006 in South Korea, however, LTE was the winning 4G technology. The symbol was 4G or 4G+ which you may now see on your smartphone. The Fourth Generation network(4G) technology as mentioned before has two main standards here we focus on LTE which is the most useful one. The LTE is totally packet-switched based on IP or internet protocol.

It uses Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and MIMO(Multiple Input Multiple Output). The maximum speed of 4G technology depending on the standard varies, for download speed goes up to 100 Megabits per second and for uplink, it goes up to half of the download speed but LTE advanced can reach the maximum download speed of 1 Gigabit per second, while this value is around 500 Megabits per second for uplink.

For the WiMAX standard, the maximum doesn’t go more than 128 Megabits per second. The LTE(Long-Term Evolution) supports a very big range of frequencies from 7,8,900 to 17,18 and 1900 or even to 21 and 2600 MHz. This frequency range and the IP(Internet Protocol) packet switching have successfully made data transmission possible with low latency.

Having the features of high speed and low latency LTE also supports a big variety of use cases like IP telephone or Voice Over IP, 3D television support, online video conferencing with multiple users, fast mobile web access, HD mobile tv, Online Gaming, and even cloud computing.

At that time people thought they have what they need from mobile telecommunication networks but soon with new technology ideas come into the telecommunication industries such as IoT(Internet Of Things), Smart Cities and Massive Sensors, driverless cars(like Tesla), and even remote surgery, and operations.

The FIfth Generation is known as 5G:

After the Fourth Generation wireless technology, 5G(Fifth Generation) is believed to be the answer for all dimension targets. It uses a brand new radio standard for air interface and it’s supposed to be released in 2020.

Some test versions are being deployed all around the world but it’s not yet commercially released. It uses time division duplexing rather than FDD(Frequency Division Duplexing) and it allocates a one-time slot for uplink per each three downlink time slots.

The large changes as compared with previous technologies are beamforming and large MIMO(Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) and it uses a really wide frequency range and it’s the primary time that 5G has introduced various standards for various use cases.

Let’s understand about Principle Technology details :

5G uses beamforming to achieve special selectivity in additional conventional networks antennas used to transmit data altogether directions, and every one device during a cell would receive data for a selected device, and based on address information and packet headers each device collected its own data in beamforming antenna arrays are used and signals are sent in particular angles using background messages between antennas and devices antennas understand where each device is located at any certain time and send information related to that device only using the beam towards that device.

In this way, the data transmission experiences a higher speed and quality.5G also uses massive MIMO(Multiple-input Multiple-Output) it uses an outsized set of antennas to send and receive signals which dramatically increases throughput and reliability but having these benefits and features 5G isn’t one standard nowadays data transmission and telecommunication are utilized in different areas with different needs for a few use cases the amount of transfer data is critical why for a few others latency is that the key issue for a few scenarios a huge number of devices has got to communicate, while in some cases there are fewer devices but they have a really high data rates.

5G has divided all these use cases into three different categories:

eMBB(enhanced Mobile Broadband) – The amount of data transfer is high ex-HD videos or 4K videos and video conferencing.

mMTC(massive Machine Type Communication) – The number of devices needing network excess is high ex- Smart City or a massive number of Sensors in the field.

URLLC(Ultra-Reliable & Low Latency Communication) – Latency and reliability play an important role ex- Smart Logistics and driverless cars where microseconds matter.

For each category conditions are mapped, list of the conditions includes data rates, traffic capacity, energy efficiency, density, latency, and mobility, consistent with each category needs corresponding services and standards are becoming prepared. Finally, let’s take a look at the 5G frequency range: The whole range includes 400MHz to 1GHz frequency than the 6GHz frequency and finally 30GHz or 60GHz frequencies.

The smaller the frequency the upper coverage is out there but it gives less capacity and speed. Band size for small frequencies is around orders of 10MHz for 6Ghz band size is an order of 100MHz while for Millimeter waves it goes up to 1Ghz-2GHz bands.

Cell size is also very big in low frequencies but it decreases to millimeters or centimeters in 30GHz or 60GHz frequencies that’s why they are called millimeter waves. Lower frequencies are utilized for cases like eMBB or IoT whereas higher ones are utilized for driverless cars or smart cities.

How 5G network works?

5G uses modern radio technology innovation, the part of any wireless gadget that makes the connection. The Fifth Generation technology 5G uses some radio frequencies in a band which is known as sub-6 from 600 MHz to 6 GHz part of which is also used by the current 4G LTE but 5G will also use a higher band of radio frequencies from 24GHz to as high as 86GHz, these much higher frequencies bring with them much higher data rates now while these new 5G radio waves can carry more data with the higher performance they can’t carry it as far.

So 5G will use tons of so-called small cells these are small versions of the large cellular towers we all know. 5G will also use some tricks in these small cells like be forming to efficiently aim transmissions rather than just spray everything everywhere.

The bottom line though is you will need new phones, tablets, portable hotspots on the like with a 5G radio inside to connect to the new 5G networks your current 4G or even 3G gear can’t tap into it.

5G networks also will position more data and computing resources closer to you which will avoid blunting 5G’s low latency benefits. Most people do consider phones once we consider wireless networks but phones may very well be the smallest amount of interesting thing about 5G, they will also power autonomous cars so they have awareness of every other Car, Bike, Pedestrian, and Traffic Signal around them.

Smart cities supported 5G can make almost anything that’s electric also connected and aware, when a bridge needs to be repaired why can’t it tell someone with the assistance of 5G connected sensors it could, then there’s your home 5G will offer a replacement way to get internet there’s skewing cable or DSL and at some point maybe even obviating your Wi-Fi router altogether as devices may use 5G natively to connect on to a wireless ISP.

What is Millimeter Wave?

The Millimeter-wave spectrum operates in high frequencies and it has a shorter wavelength than bands currently used for 4G networks. The Millimeter-wave can carry a massive amount of data at very high speeds with very low latency and delay before data can be transferred on a network.

It carries a signal for much shorter distances than mid or low-band spectrum and also can have trouble penetrating buildings and other solid objects. All of the major carriers are deploying a Millimeter-wave spectrum as part of their 5G efforts in the U.S.

Important things about 5G:

5G has renewed concerns about the security of cellular radio waves, some cities have taken action to block 5G deployment because of the health questions come up around 5G’s use of microwave frequencies many them as we have seen thanks for that enormous number of small cells which will be installed around us.

Now while 5G may sound sort of a lot of microwave ovens mounted on poles running with theirs open actually microwaves are nothing new already released by your current smartphone, old cordless phones, your wireless headphones and earbuds, and almost anything with Wi-Fi also as yes microwave ovens but even 5G’s highest frequencies are considered by scientist to be non-ionizing radiation, you’ve got to move on up to X-Rays, Gamma Rays, and cosmic radiation to search out the type of emissions which will harm cells and 5G is way below that.

5G follows the inverse square law losing power rapidly at even a bit distance from the small cell. The US CDC(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says that there’s no scientific evidence to provide a certain answer to the question of cellular radio wave safety whether it’s 3G 4G or 5G.

5G will take years to roll out and a few investments on your part, but the complexity of that deployment and debugging should be well worth the wait delivering the world we’ve been promised for an extended time where everything is connected aware, and responsive, and a world during which we will stop worrying about the supply of performance of connectivity within the first place.

Advantages and Disadvantages of 5G network:

Advantages of 5G:

• You can control your PCs by handsets.
• A student from a college or a school can study sitting in any part of the world.
• A doctor can treat a patient located in a remote part of the world.
• This technology can help to reduce the crime rate by working with government organizations.
• It can help to locate and search for the missing person.
• New Technology updates will always be available on a 5G Network.
• Increased Bandwidth so the user can experience the highest speed of internet.
• More Bandwidth Means Faster Speed.
• Having Intel® 5G Technologies and Solutions.
• The data rates of about 10 Gbps or higher can be achieved. This provides a better user experience as download and upload speeds are higher.
• Low latency of less than 1 ms can be achieved in a 5G Millimeter Wave. This leads to fast connection establishment and releases with 5G network by 5G smartphones. Hence traffic load is decreased on 5G base stations.
• Due to improved 5G network architecture handoff is smooth and hence it does not have any effect on data transfer when a mobile user changes cells.
• Antenna size is smaller at higher frequencies. This leads to using of massive MIMO(Multiple-input Multiple-Output)concepts to achieve higher data rates.

Disadvantages of 5G:

• Many of the old devices would not be competent to 5G, hence, all of them need to be replaced with new one and it is an expensive deal.
• It requires skilled engineers to install and maintain a 5G network. Moreover, 5G equipment is costly. This will be very expensive for 5G deployment and maintenance phases.
• 5G smartphones are costly because of their features. Hence it’ll take a while for the commoner to make use of 5G technology.
• The coverage distance of up to 2 meters indoors and 300 meters outdoor can be achieved due to higher losses at high frequencies (such as Millimeter Waves).
• If Bandwidth is increased so that means that the Coverage will be less.
• It will take time for security and privacy issues to be resolved fully in the 5G network.

Table of all Network Generations:

5G

Network Capacity	10000 times the capacity of the current network.
Technology	MIMO, mm Waves
Peak data rates	20Gbps downlink and 10Gbps uplink.
Cell edge data rate	100Mbps.
Latency	<1ms
Bandwidth	Possible 1-2GHz.
Connection Density	1 million connected devices per square km (0.38 sq. miles).
5G mobility	500km/h high speed.
Spectral efficiency	30bits/Hz downlink and 15 bits/Hz uplink.

4G

Frequency Band	2-8 GHz
Technology	LTE, WiMAX
Bandwidth	5-20 MHz
Data rate	Up to 1Gbps
Access	MC-CDMA
Forward error correction	Concatenated coding scheme.
Switching	Packet
Mobile Top speeds	200km/h

3G

Introduced in Year	2001
Technology	WCDMA
Access System	CDMA
Switching type	Packet switching except for air interference.
Internet Service	Broadband
Bandwidth	25 MHz
Advantage	High Security, International roaming
Data Rate	Up to 2Mbps(384 kbps deployed).

2G

Introduced in Year	1993
Technology	GSM
Access System	TDMAM, CDMA
Switching type	Circuit switching for voice and packet switching for data.
Internet Service	Narrowband
Bandwidth	25 MHz
Advantage	Multimedia features (SMS, MMS), internet access, and SIM were introduced.
Data Rate	Up to 2Mbps(384 kbps deployed).

1G

Introduced in Year	1979
Technology	Analog Cellular
Bandwidth	150/900MHz
Frequency	Analog Signal(30KHz)
Data Rate	2kbps
Characteristic	First Wireless Communication.

Conclusion

In this article, we saw that how 5G will be able to perfectly satisfy the requirement of the 1000-time traffic growth. How 5G will provide users with fiber-like access data rate and very low latency user experience and how 5G will be capable of connecting 1 million devices. So it is very clear that 5G will be able to deliver a consistent experience across a variety of scenarios including the cases of ultra-high traffic volume density, ultra-high connection density, and ultra-high mobility.

5G will also be able to provide intelligent optimization based on services and users awareness and will improve energy and cost efficiency by over a hundred times, enabling us all to realize the vision of 5G, a faster way of accessing the internet and connecting to the world.

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