Here's How 5G Will Connect Our Phones, PCs, & Smart Cars With 1 Gbps Network Speeds By 2019

When we think of 5G, we think of faster Internet speeds, but rarely do we think about how this is possible.

The thing is 5G is just a name to call the fifth-generation of wireless broadband technology based on the IEEE 802.11ac standard. According to the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA) a 5G a connection should meet most of these eight criteria:

1) One to 10 Gbps connections to end points in the field

2) One millisecond end-to-end round trip delay

3) 1000x bandwidth per unit area

4) 10 to 100x number of connected devices

5) (Perception of) 99.999 percent availability

6) (Perception of) 100 percent coverage

7) 90 percent reduction in network energy usage

8) Up to ten-year battery life for low power, machine-type devices

However, one important goal of 5G is to equate wireline and wireless networks in speed, in order to truly make wireless data a worthwhile expense for the average man. Particularly, 5G will provide better speeds and coverage than the current 4G, and operates with a 5Ghz signal and up to 1 Gb/s for tens of connections or tens of Mb/s for tens of thousands of connections.

So which companies are striving to bring 5G to India? Well that¡¯s a fairly easy answer to provide.

Qualcomm

With the first commercial 5G networks to go live in 2019, they¡¯ll probably be supported by Qualcomm¡¯s smartphone processors. The company¡¯s systems on chip (SoCs) were in almost every device at MWC 2018, including the new Samsung Galaxy S9.

Just last year, the company released a 5G smartphone prototype that also retained backward compatibility with older networks upto 2G. In addition, the company has been working with its parent company Softbank, as well as carriers like Verizon and Sprint, to develop 5G.

Qualcomm 5G chip

Qualcomm, in fact, is largely the reason the launch data of 5G was accelerated from 2020 to 2019.

At this year¡¯s MWC, Qualcomm also released its Snapdragon 5G Module solutions. These are products that merge the most important components of 5G into a few core modules. That way, manufacturers don¡¯t have to configure many components for their devices and can instead use just a few modules that cover areas like memory, application processor, RF, antennas and battery optimisation. Basically, Qualcomm is making it easier for manufacturers to jump into making 5G devices.

Ericsson

Even Ericsson made an appearance at MWC 2018, showing off super low latency 5G. For demos at the event. Ericsson¡¯s 5G had latency of just about 6 milliseconds. As you can see in the video below, there¡¯s no jitter, stuttering, or call drops during the chat. And that¡¯s basically the kind of video chats we¡¯re being promised will be available all the time thanks to 5G! The company did even better on a live demo in India last year, with a 5.7 Gbps throughput and just 3 millisecond latency.

The hardware needed for this sort of 5G connectivity, called a radio access network (RAN) is composed of powerful base stations sitting in towers, where smartphone will connect to them.

Ericsson and Nokia are two of the biggest market share holders for these RANs only behind China's Huawei. And both of them are throwing everything they have at 5G, as it's the key to improving their revenue after long struggle periods.

Reuters

Nokia

Nokia is actually partnering with a few networks worldwide, offering 5G-ready services on rollout. The thing is, the kickstarter for 5G will be in the mobile broadband space, obviously. That¡¯s not all it¡¯s intended for however. Eventually, industry leaders also expect it to be a major boon for the IoT sphere, and for automated factories and the like. In essence, pretty much everything in our lives will work off 5G, so carriers need to have robust, adaptable infrastructure. That¡¯s where Nokia comes in.

Aside from that, Nokia is also working with big names like T-Mobile to build 5G networks across the US and the Middle East. It¡¯s basically like the US-Soviet space race all over again, only this time China is the eastern rival and the Internet is the battleground.

Intel's 5G wireless broadband display at CES 2018 - Reuters

Intel

Intel still lags behind Qualcomm as far as 5G modems go, but it¡¯s continuing development with thousands of employees at its disposal. The company has been working with Apple to bring 5G-capable processors to its iPhones by 2019. But the larger bit of their contribution comes from Intel¡¯s Xeon servers. Intel produces about 90 percent of the world¡¯s server chips, and now they¡¯re being upgraded with not just added compute power, but also connectivity speeds.

Intel's collaborating with Dell, HP, Lenovo and Microsoft to launch the world's first 5G-enabled 2-in-1 tablet-laptop hybrid computers by early next year. It's currently working on more than 25 trials of 5G worldwide with service providers and OEMs. Intel's work on millimeter-wave radio in its 5G modem is supposedly showing promising early results as far as network throughput is concerned -- especially in a variety of environments like urban housing, dense forests, etc.

Behind the scenes, Intel¡¯s developing 1 Gbps routers with partners like Ericsson, Nokia. With these is how we¡¯ll have things like self-driving cars, smart cities, and more. And Intel¡¯s Xeon scalable processors in its servers worldwide will be the backbone of this 5G infrastructure.

Huawei

Another key player in the development and adoption of 5G services worldwide, Huawei recently collaborated with Airtel to conduct the first 5G network trial in India which took place at Airtel¡¯s Network Experience Centre in Manesar, Gurugram.

During the time this test was being run, a user throughput speed of 3Gbps was attained by the team, which according to the firm is the highest for the 3.5GHz band. The said tests were conducted within a 100MHz bandwidth and an awesome result was achieved with 1-millisecond end-to-end network latency. According to Airtel, if this comes in motion, enhanced mobile broadband services will be offered to all the users, which will also cater to coverage requirements.