If you look down the specification sheet of any modern day smartphone you will see that it supports a growing number of wireless technologies, 2G GSM, 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. The 2G, 3G and 4G technologies are about making phone calls and sending/receiving data via cell towers. Wi-Fi is primarily about data via a local access point, while Bluetooth is for very close proximity data transfer.
The progress from 2G to 3G, and from 3G to 4G LTE has been primarily about improvements to the standards related to cellular technology. However the move from 4G to 5G could be quite different.
But, there is more to 5G than just super fast cellular tech. There is an active and open discussion going on to see if 5G can in fact become the de facto for all wireless standards. No more Wi-Fi, no more Bluetooth, no more 4G LTE, just 5G, one wireless technology to rule them all. The current plan is for the 5G standard to be ready by 2020.
It sounds like a great idea and the idea is noble. However is it the right approach? At the moment if you go into certain buildings or go underground (on a subway train) then you will lose your cellular connectivity. However these places may have other wireless networks, like Wi-Fi. Wouldn’t it be great if you could receive calls to your cell number while using Wi-Fi. Well in some countries you can. EE, the UK’s largest 4G network provider, has enabled Wi-Fi calling when using London’s underground (subway) system. Simply connect your phone to the underground WiFi network and use your phone as normal.
If the 5G standard supports cellar and Wi-Fi and rolls them up into a single standard, that could have its benefits. However, there are a couple of problems. The first is that different radio frequencies require different approaches. There is a big difference (in terms of the physics) between 5GHz Wi-Fi and 800MHz cellular. Is it really possible to build a system that can handle both effectively? Or will it be a mishmash of technology held together by gaffer tape?
Even if 5G ends up being a giant standard that covers everything from low-power IoT devices to high-speed internet over cellular, my suspicion is that it will still in fact just be lots of standards all lumped under one label.
You have heard of MP3, right? Well technically its full name is MPEG-2 Audio Layer III. It was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as part of its MPEG-1 standard and later extended in the MPEG-2 standard. MPEG-2 is the basis of DVD-Video and although it is still around it has been superseded by newer standards such as H.264 and H.265/HEVC, however MP3 still lives on, and it will still live on long after we stop encoding video with MPEG-2.The reason I mention MP3 is that it is part of a bigger standard, but yet it seems to have a life of its own, outside of that standard.
If 5G actually becomes a collection of standards then we may find that bits of it live on, while other bits die. Consumers can be quite fickle and tend to completely ignore what standards committees decide. People tend to buy the products that get the job done at the right price, regardless of their technical purity. The cellular radio parts of 5G will likely succeed, however I am not too sure about the rest!
What are your thoughts on this?
Post By: Ukoh Chinedu.
The progress from 2G to 3G, and from 3G to 4G LTE has been primarily about improvements to the standards related to cellular technology. However the move from 4G to 5G could be quite different.
But, there is more to 5G than just super fast cellular tech. There is an active and open discussion going on to see if 5G can in fact become the de facto for all wireless standards. No more Wi-Fi, no more Bluetooth, no more 4G LTE, just 5G, one wireless technology to rule them all. The current plan is for the 5G standard to be ready by 2020.
It sounds like a great idea and the idea is noble. However is it the right approach? At the moment if you go into certain buildings or go underground (on a subway train) then you will lose your cellular connectivity. However these places may have other wireless networks, like Wi-Fi. Wouldn’t it be great if you could receive calls to your cell number while using Wi-Fi. Well in some countries you can. EE, the UK’s largest 4G network provider, has enabled Wi-Fi calling when using London’s underground (subway) system. Simply connect your phone to the underground WiFi network and use your phone as normal.
If the 5G standard supports cellar and Wi-Fi and rolls them up into a single standard, that could have its benefits. However, there are a couple of problems. The first is that different radio frequencies require different approaches. There is a big difference (in terms of the physics) between 5GHz Wi-Fi and 800MHz cellular. Is it really possible to build a system that can handle both effectively? Or will it be a mishmash of technology held together by gaffer tape?
Even if 5G ends up being a giant standard that covers everything from low-power IoT devices to high-speed internet over cellular, my suspicion is that it will still in fact just be lots of standards all lumped under one label.
You have heard of MP3, right? Well technically its full name is MPEG-2 Audio Layer III. It was designed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as part of its MPEG-1 standard and later extended in the MPEG-2 standard. MPEG-2 is the basis of DVD-Video and although it is still around it has been superseded by newer standards such as H.264 and H.265/HEVC, however MP3 still lives on, and it will still live on long after we stop encoding video with MPEG-2.The reason I mention MP3 is that it is part of a bigger standard, but yet it seems to have a life of its own, outside of that standard.
If 5G actually becomes a collection of standards then we may find that bits of it live on, while other bits die. Consumers can be quite fickle and tend to completely ignore what standards committees decide. People tend to buy the products that get the job done at the right price, regardless of their technical purity. The cellular radio parts of 5G will likely succeed, however I am not too sure about the rest!
What are your thoughts on this?
Post By: Ukoh Chinedu.
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