By Mohammad Hanief
Technology is at its greatest when it can connect not only humans but also machines and sensors. 5G is among the most advanced technologies that would transform communication between humans, machines, and sensors to realize a connected, smarter, and a safer world.
The rapid evolution of technology has transformed our lives by enabling instant communication and interaction, easy access to information, and enabling a better quality of life. The transition to 5G redefines services by implementing SBA (services-based architecture), AI/ML, and software-defined networks, which would enable economic growth through use cases like Virtual/Augmented reality, machine communications, telemedicine, smart manufacturing, smart utilities, and smart cities.
The impact of 4G vs 5G will be felt in all industries that use the internet, especially in healthcare, agriculture and logistics, which were underserved due to the low speeds of the previous generations of cellular connections and expand the range of use cases of 5G.
Over the past four years, telecommunications companies have gained a much stronger grasp on 5G technology and the logistical challenges it presents. Their 5G expertise has grown, and there is a better understanding of 5G’s value proposition within the telecommunications market.
Now, the challenges shift from understanding and developing the technology to deploying it and communicating that value to customers. Emergent technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial intelligence (AI), Computer vision, drone/anti-drone technology, robotics, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality, parallel reality, and quantum computing are revolutionizing different industries.
The arrival of 5G unlocked the positive impact of these technologies, thereby facilitating remote surveillance in homeland security & defense, remote healthcare, precision agriculture, safer transportation, and digitized logistics.
In the past few decades, mobile communication has witnessed remarkable advancements, transforming the way we connect, communicate, and access information. From the early days of brick-sized mobile phones with limited capabilities to today’s sleek smartphones with lightning-fast data speeds, the journey of mobile networks has been nothing short of astonishing.
1G – first generation technology was introduced in the 1980s and was the standard used for analogue telecommunication. 2G – second generation was successor to the 1G technology, it introduced digital telecommunication in the 1990s over cellular networks. 3G – third generation was introduced in 2000, marked the advent of the internet on mobile devices as it offered improved data speeds.
4G – fourth generation saw the rise of even faster mobile data communication with 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE). The next decade saw the rise of even faster mobile data communication with 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE).
The arrival of a new technology, 5G – the latest in a line of cellular network technologies. Each generation shift has ushered in a significant change in the nature of service, technology, transfer speeds and usage. With the evolution to 5G, this trend continues by providing much more reliable and faster connectivity, offering customers and businesses a superior user experience.
Communication networks have come a long way since the introduction of first-generation mobile networks in the 1980s. Since then, additional services and higher throughputs have constantly been driving newer generations of mobile networks through GPRS/EDGE, HSPA/HSPA+, LTE/LTE-A Pro, and now the fifth generation network that is commonly referred to as 5G or New Radio (NR). It is essential to note that intelligent devices – smartphones, wearables, and sensors – complement this evolution in order to realize the full potential of the given services.
5G, in particular, is seen to catalyze the shift from trivial voice and data services towards advanced time-sensitive and mission-critical services like V2X, IIoT, IoMT, robotics, gaming, and AR/VR. This sets an ideal platform for 6G technology and beyond to enable AI native and futuristic use-cases that will evolve in the current decade.
5G, i.e., fifth-generation mobility networking architecture has the potential to revolutionise how we live, what we do, how we communicate, and how society & the industry operates. In 5G, an ecosystem is being built that will connect virtually everyone and everything, including machines, objects, and devices.
5G bridges the digital barrier by providing not only high-speed connectivity but also higher reliability, higher network capacity, and low latency. Technology has always been a solution to the industry’s problem and is hence influential in the growth of the industries.
The foundations for today’s modern mobile networks were laid as early as the 1940s with early car phone services, but it would take some time for the technology itself to develop for personal use. We can consider the 1980s as the first real milestone in the development of the mobile networks in use today.
These early mobile networks that we would now refer to as 1G, used analogue technology and examples included AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone System) in the United States and the NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephone) System in Europe.
1990s witnessed the emergence of 2G mobile networks, which marked a significant leap forward from the limitations of their 1G predecessors. 2G networks adopted digital transmission methods, bringing about a host of improvements that revolutionised the mobile telecommunications industry. The use of digital signals made 2G networks much more efficient allowing for a greater number of concurrent calls and users on the network. This improved capacity as well as developments in reducing the physical size and cost of mobile phones were crucial in the explosion of demand for mobile services.
The evolution of wireless technology has made it possible to move beyond traditional voice-only calls to sending text and multimedia messages, streaming music and video, and accessing the internet at increasingly faster speeds. This evolution has made wireless technology a fundamental part of our lives. As we move forward, we can expect to see even more advances in wireless technology that will continue to change the way we communicate and interact online.
Rapid evolution of Technology is impacting the lives of people by enabling faster communication, interaction, easy access to information, thus improving the quality of life. Additional services and higher throughputs have constantly been driving newer generations of mobility networks.
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