The power of 5G

Subject – Science and Tech

Context – Speed apart, 5G will give a fillip to AI and IoT

Concept –

1G, 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G represent the five generations of mobile networks where G stands for ‘Generation’ and the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 represent the generation number.
Since the early 1980s, we see a new generation of mobile networks almost every ten years.

Evolution from First Generation to Fifth Generation

1G was launched in the 1980s and worked on analog radio signals and supported only voice calls.
2G was Launched in the 1990s which uses digital radio signals and supported both voice and data transmission with a Bandwidth of 64 Kbps.
3G was launched in the 2000s with a speed of 1 Mbps to 2 Mbps and it has the ability to transmit telephone signal including digitised voice, video calls and conferencing.
4G was launched in 2009 with a peak speed of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps and it also enables 3D virtual reality.

Features of 5G –

5G is the fifth generation cellular technology that apart from increasing the downloading and uploading speeds over the mobile network, also reduces the latency i.e. the time taken by a network to respond.
5G will provide download speed of 1 Gbps, which is at least 100 times the existing data speeds.
It also increases energy efficiency and offers more stable network connections.
5G will have a wider area in the frequency spectrum (range of frequencies) that will ensure no network congestion.
In addition, it will also ensure connectivity to a full circle i.e. everything is connected to every other thing.
The standards for the usage of 5G are defined and driven by 3rd Generation Partnership Project.
5G is based on OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing). It is a method that reduces interference by modulating a digital signal across different channels.
Mobile users do not need a new SIM for 5G. The existing 4G SIM will work, but with some limitations.
Also, 4G phones will work on a 5G network, but not at the coveted 5G speed.
The cost of using data on 5G wireless services will not be that different from what customers incur to get 4G service.
5G technology has the potential to bring data costs even lower than for the current 4G services, industry experts believe.
But 5G will require new transmission infrastructure, including thousands of cell towers and tens of thousands of antennas.