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HardNetSoft Blog
5G (5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems) is a name used in some research papers and projects to denote the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the upcoming 4G standards (expected to be finalized between approximately 2011 and 2013). Currently, 5G is not a term officially used for any particular specification or in any official document yet made public by telecommunication companies or standardization bodies such as 3GPP, WiMAX Forum or ITU-R. New standard releases beyond 4G are in progress by standardization bodies, but at this time are not considered as new mobile generations since implementation and rollout of systems compliant with 4G is still under way; the goals of a 5G-based telecommunications network would ideally answer the challenges that a 4G model would present once it has entered widespread use.
The implementation of standards under a 5G umbrella would likely be around the year of 2020 according to some sources. A new mobile generation has appeared every 10th year since the first 1G system (NMT) was introduced in 1981, including the 2G (GSM) system that started to roll out in 1992, and 3G (W-CDMA/FOMA), which appeared in 2001. The development of the 2G (GSM) and 3G (IMT-2000 and UMTS) standards took about 10 years from the official start of the R&D projects, and development of 4G systems started in 2001 or 2002.
It is expected that in terms of data streams, a 5G standard would have peak download and upload speeds of more than the 1 Gbps to be offered by ITU-R's definition of 4G systems. The development of the bit rates offered by cellular systems is however hard to predict, since the historical bit rate development has shown very little resemblance with a simple exponential function of time (as opposed to for example Moore's law for computing capacity). The data rate increased by a factor 8 from 1G (NMT 1.2 kbps) to 2G (GSM 9.6 kbps). The peak bit rate increased by a factor 40 from 2G to 3G for mobile users (384 kbps), and by a factor of 200 from 2G to 3G for stationary users (2 Mbps). The peak bit rates are expected to increase by a factor 260 from 3G to 4G for mobile users (100 Mbps) and by a factor 500 from 3G to 4G for stationary users (1 Gbps).
Key concepts suggested in research papers discussing 5G and beyond 4G wireless communications are:
- Pervasive networks providing ubiquitous computing: The user can simultaneously be connected to several wireless access technologies and seamlessly move between them (See Media independent handover or vertical handover, IEEE 802.21, also expected to be provided by future 4G releases). These access technologies can be 2.5G, 3G, 4G, or 5G mobile networks, Wi-Fi, WPAN, or any other future access technology. In 5G, the concept may be further developed into multiple concurrent data transfer paths.[5]
- Cognitive radio technology, also known as smart-radio: allowing different radio technologies to share the same spectrum efficiently by adaptively finding unused spectrum and adapting the transmission scheme to the requirements of the technologies currently sharing the spectrum. This dynamic radio resource management is achieved in a distributed fashion, and relies on software defined radio.[6] See also the IEEE 802.22 standard for Wireless Regional Area Networks.
- Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6), where a visiting care-of mobile IP address is assigned according to location and connected network.[5]
- High altitude stratospheric platform station (HAPS) systems.[7]
- Real wireless world with no more limitation with access and zone issues.[5]
- Wearable devices with AI capabilities.[2]
- One unified global standard.[2]
