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Brave New World 5G

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Ukraine has recently held a tender for 3G frequencies and the largest mobile operators started upgrading their networks. Meanwhile, the international community has been preparing to introduce the 5G communication format. The specification of that standard has not been ratified yet, but test connections have already started.

Advent of Smartphone

Four billion people in the world are not connected to the Internet. These are mainly residents of developing countries. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), when they get an opportunity of going on the Internet, these people will be likely to use a smartphone, rather than a personal computer. This is due to the fact that the mobile Internet becomes more accessible than the wired connections, often remaining the only possible access technology.

According to the research of the Ericsson, smartphones will be used by 6.1 billion people worldwide in 2020, and 150 million people will subscribe to 5G networks by 2021. As forecasted by the UNO, the Earth will account for around 7.7 billion people in 2020. Monthly traffic will reach near 14 thousand terabytes of data, and now this figure is about fifteen hundred terabytes.

Manufacturers and operators have a huge market at their disposal, which they have just started exploring in fact. The competition will only increase, speeding up the emergence of new products, being more powerful and “advanced”. There will be required new capabilities for networks, which need to serve such a great number of subscribers and traffic, and even more, there will appear a need for network of the fifth generation.

What is a fifth-generation network?

The telecom community faces an assignment to design a  new mobile internet access technology. It should have a very high-speed access to transmit 4K videos online; an extremely low delay to allow carrying out remote remedies. High hopes are also put on it in the area of developing Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine communication (M2M). Experts of the consulting unit at the Cisco IBSG believe that the number of connected devices will exceed 40 billion units in 2020. The Internet of Things will become a segment of the Internet of Everything (IoE), to be connected by people, processes and data. IoE suggests that the manageability, controllability and scalability of the network with a large number of connections will be ensured by intelligent network features.

This is just a part of the capabilities of the 5G networks to appear. The full description of the fifth-generation network vision is regularly updated and completed. One can see it in the so called “5G White Paper”, which contains integrated requirements for standardizing and developing fifth-generation networks. This is carried out by the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN), an alliance of mobile operators, suppliers, manufacturers and research institutes within the telecom industry.

G walking the planet

The standard for the fifth-generation communication has not been approved yet, but there appears some information that different countries of the world start test or experimental connections to 5G networks. It is noteworthy that many projects involve the Swedish telecom company Ericsson, not far behind it there are the Chinese ZTE Corporation and Huawei. Three powerful “clusters” were identified in the world, with a priority of developing next-generation networks. These are Europe, North America and Asia, i.e. its South-East region, Japan and China. In addition, there is a reference of introducing 5G in other countries like Australia, Brazil and Russia.

Furthermore, in February 2016, Spain held the exhibition Mobile World Congress, where many manufacturers raised the issue of 5G technology and shared their news on new developments, as well as told about their plans for introducing that advanced standard.

* The undermentioned division by regions is conventional, as the projects are implemented by transnational corporations.

Europe

Late August 2015, it became known that the village of Loppersum, to the north of the Netherlands, would run tests of the fifth-generation data transmission technology. The project involved the leading telecom companies of Holland and the world like Ericsson, Huawei, TNO and KPN. It is noteworthy that the residents of that settlement will not be able to make use of new technology as yet. The Economic Provincial Council of Groningen, where the village is situated, decided to invite investors to the region and make the earthquake-prone area more attractive.

The Swedish-Finnish mobile operator TeliaSonera plans to deploy fifth-generation networks in Stockholm and Tallinn as early as in 2018. The launch will also involve the Ericsson. According to experts, due to an absolutely new ecosystem of the Internet of things, the main benefit form 5G technology will be gained by industrial enterprises applying high-tech solutions.

The Hutchison Drei Austria, a major mobile operator in Austria, invited the ZTE Corporation to construct in Europe the first location for testing the fifth-generation communication technology in 4G networks, so-called Pre5G. This project will allow understanding how to deal with the storm of traffic in the networks of operators. As part of this cooperation it will be used a base station by the ZTE Corporation under the name Pre5G Massive MIMO, which has already passed performance tests and starts its commercial operation this year.

The Finnish Nokia expects to begin production of own telecom equipment as early as in 2017. Then, the full-scale operation of fifth-generation networks will be possible in 2020, when the demand for equipment significantly increases. The company’s management took as a basis the analysis of developing 4G networks, which started generating profit as far back as in mid-2015, although the announcement of transiting to the fourth generation was made long before.

The developers of hardware platforms do not stand aside as well. The British corporation ARM has recently presented to IT-community a promising processor Cortex-R8, which can be used for creating real-time systems in 5G networks. This new 28-nm processor works at a frequency of over 1.5 GHz, having an energy efficiency of 46 DMIPS at 1 mW and extremely low delays. This set of characteristics makes it indispensable for the development of new smartphones, tablets, IoT-devices, as well as in the network equipment and high-speed data storage, especially when manufacturing SSD drives by applying 3-D NAND technology.

North America

The operator Verizon starts testing fifth-generation communication along with the companies Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung, as it became known at the exhibition Mobile World Congress. As told by Ed Chan, Vice President at the Verizon, the new technology is ready for commercialization. At this point it is forthcoming an approval phase and the market can see 5G next year 2017.

Another major North American mobile operator AT&T also announced its intention to make the 5G technology available to an average consumer. It was announced that in the second quarter of 2016 the company will run laboratory tests in close cooperation with Ericsson and Intel, and in summer it will start testing it in the open air in Austin, Travis County, Texas.

The Google Corporation is also involved in creating 5G network. It runs tests of unmanned aerial vehicles to provide a high-speed internet access from the sky. The research project titled SkyBender has been implemented at the spaceport “America”, and it involves solar-powered drones and the air vehicle Centaur. The drones are constructed by the Google’s subsidiary Titan, a former startup Titan Aerospace, acquired by the IT-giant in 2014. The ongoing 5G tests use a 28 GHz frequency range capable of transmitting data 40 times faster than the available 4G technology. This project has been implemented simultaneously with the Loon project, i.e. a wireless internet access from the stratosphere by means of specially equipped aerostats.

The companies Bell Labs and NXP designed a universal “omnivorous” modem that can operate with the wired broadband Internet, supports xDSL technology, and is capable of transmitting data via LTE and within the fifth-generation networks. The device uses a multicore processor, having XG-FAST 10G DSL technology implemented by the Bell Labs Company. According to designers, this modem will reduce capital costs of service providers and will simplify the deployment of networks, significantly reducing infrastructure deployment time.

Asia

The South Korea, which once was the flagship for introducing the 4G standard, is planning to launch a 5G test network in the time mode. This is scheduled for the eve of the Winter Olympics Games 2018 to be held in Pyeongchang, and the project implementation will be committed to the Samsung Company. In general, the development of a new communication technology in the South Korea is a priority of national importance. As far back as in 2014, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that it would invest some 1.5 billion dollars in the development of 5G.

In late 2015, the NTT DoCoMo, the largest mobile operator in Japan, announced its plans about starting tests of the fifth-generation technology in the field. For this purpose, the DoCoMo will use the 5G Ratio Prototypes designed by the Ericsson’s engineers. It allows for the field research experience proceeding from closed laboratory tests on the 5G Radio Test Bed by Ericsson. The first phase of this work is scheduled for 2016.

In China, one of the leaders in developing and promoting that new standard is the ZTE Corporation. It has at its disposal ten research centers dealing with 5G, which are located in China, the United States and Europe. The ZTE Corporation has been regularly investing lots of money in research and development. In 2014 the amount of investment was USD 200 million, and another USD 400 million was planned for 2015. The company also doubled the staff of engineers engaged only in fifth-generation communication activities. During the exhibition Mobile World Congress the engineers of the ZTE Corporation and the China Mobile presented their vision of 5G architecture, illustrated through the available high-frequency system prototype, and demonstrated data transmission at a speed of over 10 Gbit/s. The technology is based on the radiation concentration principle, or as it is also called beamforming. This principle allows significantly improving quality of communication and reducing signal interference.

Another Chinese developer rapidly developing 5G technology is the Huawei Company. Its portfolio includes a lot of large-scale international projects in cooperation with such telecom operators as Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Etisalat, NTT DoCoMo and other partners in America, Europe and Asia. At the exhibition Mobile World Congress the Huawei together with the Deutsche Telekom presented a 5G technology of transmitting data at a speed of 70 Gb/s with continuous network segmentation. With the support of the China Mobile it was presented a full-duplex technology of the fifth generation. As part of the exhibition, the Huawei along with the Rohde&Schwarz presented a new signal forming technology for 5G networks. Another field of research is the Machine-to-Machine communication in fifth-generation networks, applied in motor vehicles with artificial intelligence and robots under control via cloud technology.

In Australia, another achievement of the Ericsson Company is that it plans to launch in cooperation with the local operator Telstra the fifth-generation network in the course of the Commonwealth Games 2018 to be held in Gold Coast City. Initially, engineers of the Australian operator will work in the Ericsson’s research laboratories for six months, where they will collect data and build mathematical models to make the use of frequencies optimal. Then 5G network tests are scheduled to run in Australia in-situ.

The EU and Brazil, which have been cooperating in information and communication technologies since 2008, signed an agreement providing for the development of a fifth-generation network. As stated by Günther Oettinger, the EU Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, the cooperation initiative with Brazil is another important step towards 5G, as neither Europe nor Brazil can afford to lag behind in the digital age.

Battle of technologies

Meanwhile the fifth-generation communication standard is not adopted; the largest telecom market players have been developing their technologies.

The Samsung Electronics has been exploring several frequencies for the 5G development. There is some information that at a frequency of 28 GHz the Koreans managed to achieve a data transmission rate of 7.5 Gbit/s using a fixed receiver. This figure decreased up to 1.2 Gbit/s when the receiver was in a car moving at a speed of 150 km/h. Furthermore, at the recent exhibition Mobile World Congress the Samsung Electronics’ professionals presented a new frequency in the range of around 6 GHz. Their stand showed a gigabit bandwidth with delay of under a millisecond and the capability of transmitting Ultra HD-video over the air. It was also held another presentation like operation of a millimeter-range radio system and a set of antenna modules integrated into smartphones.

The ZTE Corporation in its 5G prototype uses a carrier frequency of 15 GHz with a bandwidth of 500 MB, which allows transmitting data at a speed of up to 10 Gbit/s.

The Swedish Ericsson Corporation has been promoting solutions operating at a frequency of 15 GHz for future networks. So, to implement a seamless transition between LTE and 5G networks in a simultaneous connection mode, it was designed the 5G-LTE Dual Connectivity technology. This will allow making the simultaneous operation of two communication standards more efficient. It is clear that the fifth-generation network will not be able to boast a full coverage, as the size of cells in 5G transmitters is small, so this seamless transition will be over demand. The second technology is 5G Multipoint Connectivity. It allows connecting user’s device simultaneously to two 5G base stations, receiving data from multiple flows with a stable reception and high quality communication. This solution can ensure supporting a multistaged network of macrolevel and small cells.

By the way, the Ericsson’s engineers have designed an ultramodern 5G phone for the new technology’s field tests. It is truly packed with experimental components. A small detail is that the device is powered by a huge battery and weighs 150 kg. It is transported by a large bus while testing connection in the near vicinity of Stockholm, and earlier in Japan and other countries. The matter is that no one has dealt with miniaturizing phone components, so it resulted so massive and consuming a lot of energy.

So, when?

The general opinion of experts states that the fifth-generation communication technology will be operational in the next decade, after 2020. First, there will emerge advanced “islands” subject to a gradual expansion.

The communication standards 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G had a gap of near ten years before becoming available for commercial use. However, the previous technology is not totally pushed out by the new one, remaining in-demand for a long time. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that after the advent of the 5G format, other formats will go on available and functioning. The replacement will be gradual as the price for the new standard reduces, because it is important not only to deploy the network, but also to create conditions for using this network. And these are new user devices, new units for the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine communication. In any case the fifth-generation communication technology will give a significant push to the development both of the telecom industry, and other areas like security, medicine, science, culture, economy.

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