Today, society faces significant technological advances in the world, mainly in computing, science, mobile telephony, and robotics. It is precisely in telecommunications that 5G technology comes into play. But according to the advances in technology and its constant improvements: What Is 5G Technology? Is the global system ready to face 5G technology? In the short term, can we enjoy this technology?
The 5G network (fifth-generation technology) is, according to (Ericsson, 2014) cited in (Gonzalez and Salamanca, 2016, p.28), a technology that: “will provide unlimited access to information, as well as availability to share it anywhere, at any time, by anyone, for the benefit of society.” However, 5G technology will be the basis of a digital transformation. It allows more devices to connect to the network, such as cars, buildings, robots, electronic devices, and alarm systems, among others, so it has more capacity.
What Is 5G Technology? Advantages And Risks Of 5th Generation Mobile Communications
5G is the rage. But when will the 5G network be available, and what opportunities and risks are associated with it?
What Is 5G Technology Exactly?
The best data transmission is currently in the 4G (LTE) range. The future lies in the 5G standard, which has been available in some countries since July 2019 and has continuously expanded. By 2025, 99 percent of the area should be covered with 5G. 5G stands for the 5th generation of mobile communications.
The unique feature of 5G is the highly high achievable data rate of up to 10 Gbit per second and the low so-called delay time (latency). With data transmission up to 10 times higher than LTE, the new 5G mobile generation enables almost real-time transmission.
How does 5G work?
The 5G mobile communications standard is a familiar technology: 5G transmits data technologically like 3G and 4G. That is, predominantly in the same frequency ranges, i.e., at 2 GHz. In addition, 5G will also be used in a new frequency range of 3.4 to 3.7 GHz, with shorter waves. These shorter waves have a correspondingly small range. The frequency ranges of the 3G, and 4G standards are longer and thus reach further.
What are the advantages of 5G?
The 5G mobile communications standard can ensure faster and more reliable mobile Internet. 5G will thus open up countless new possibilities in private and urban areas in the future. Consumers can benefit from the higher speed and more network capacities of the 5G network in the following areas, for example:
- Faster mobile Internet for communication and multimedia applications (e.g., mobile gaming, streaming, 4K videos)
- Networked mobility offers (e.g., autonomous and networked vehicles)
- Better network stability at major events (e.g., when visiting festivals and stadiums)
- Smart metering (e.g., reading electricity, gas, and water consumption automatically) and smart home technologies
A fundamental pillar of digital transition:
Let’s see the main characteristics of 5G Technology:
- Less latency: that is to say, with 5G technology, the devices will take less time to execute an order and will have fewer intermittencies.
- Speed: 5G technology will reach speeds between 10 and 250 times the current speeds, which will allow you to download a high-definition movie in seconds, watch 8K television, as well as watching holograms or virtual reality applications.
- Simultaneous Connection: 5G technology could support about 20,000 connected devices in just an area equivalent to a football field, about 100 times the current capacity.
Communication Without Interruptions:
It will consume less energy and can accept larger devices to store more data. Likewise, a disadvantage is cyber security since this network would access a lot of information from users, companies, and governments. On the other hand, 5G Technology would be very expensive since antennas must be placed almost doubling or tripling the current ones. Likewise, as a result of these, frequency oversaturation could be created, directly affecting human health.
Reap The Benefits:
- Jobs: 5G technology is expected to create 22 million jobs globally just by building and maintaining networks.
- Education: Another facet that will see a relevant boost will be personalized education since the implementation of Big Data and Machine Learning technologies will allow the findings of the analyzes to land in specific and more comprehensive applications that require high bandwidth.
- Health: 5G technologies will allow monitoring for more effective prevention through remote diagnosis, promotion of medication intake, monitoring of treatments and levels of the person, the transmission of health data, as well as service management doctors.
- Transportation: 5G will enable a revolution based on its ability to support machine-to-machine, vehicle-to-vehicle, and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications. This will not only allow access to the Internet during a road trip or within the city, but will also allow the proliferation of autonomous vehicles that communicate with each other.
- Energy: the benefits in this sector include the possibility of having smart lighting both in homes and on the street, the development of specific sensors to address the effects of climate change and remote monitoring of critical sites for the industry. It is estimated that 5G technology will reach 1,031 million in 2023 and 1,479 million in 2024.
Crowd Coverage:
The 5G infrastructure allows more mobile devices to be connected simultaneously. It has more power, and this avoids the electromagnetic bottleneck in large crowds, especially when many people are in one place, be it a concert or music festival. 5G technology will simultaneously support over one million mobile phones per square kilometer. Although for this to be possible, according to experts, it will be necessary to place small antennas in many areas of street furniture. According to the International Telecommunication Union, the 5G infrastructure is expected to support intelligent buildings, homes, and cities; expand virtual reality and 3D videos; and allow you to work from the cloud without interruptions.
Impact On Education:
It is also expected that 5G technologies will be essential to personnel training or teaching, primarily through online courses. It is even likely that people who live in communities with little connectivity have access to this new technology and thus improve their quality of life. Another aspect that will have a relevant boost will be personalized education.
With better bandwidth, such as that proposed by 5G technology, it will be easier to take advantage of Big Data and implement Machine Learning. Through these last two technologies, it will be possible to analyze the profiles of the students better and thus create more personalized programs or teaching methods according to their needs. They are also expected to revolutionize education-related devices, from interactive whiteboards and virtual reality experiences to 3D printers. Although some of these devices already exist, with 5G technology’s functions will be much more precise and accessible to different audiences.
Economic Benefits:
5G technology will have revenues equivalent to 225 billion dollars by 2025. In addition, it is expected to impact up to 114 billion euros in various industries, such as automotive, health, transport, and energy. And just as 4G technology allowed the expansion of Facebook, YouTube, and the appearance of Uber and Didi. 5G will allow the development of a whole new generation of companies and services that will improve the user experience. When will it be a reality for everyone?
The Impact Of 5G On The Expansion Of Industries And Societies:
Experts on the subject assure it: the 5G network will radically transform industries worldwide. Given this, governments and higher education entities carry out various initiatives to bring this technology closer to people while industries work to expand it within the country. One of the most important initiatives is the establishment of the 5G Campus in universities to promote research around fifth-generation technology. In this sense, 5G Technology addresses the development of technology to monitor structural changes in underground works and thus reduce the risk of landslides and have data processing.
5G and Data Centers:
The arrival of 5G will also require new data storage and processing infrastructure.
This technology will forever revolutionize the Data Center scenario. The reason is that 5G will significantly increase bandwidth and reduce latency between devices. 5G Technology will allow projects that cannot be developed due to technical limitations to be feasible. The main implication is to generate data on a massive scale never seen before. If we use the current paradigm of centralized data centers, it will happen that we will exceed the allowed bandwidth due to the enormous amount of information produced.
Faced with this challenge, it is explained that an advance is the application of edge computing for storage in micro data centers close to the source where they are generated. According to the academic FIC, a relevant innovation that offers advantages highlight that it will allow data to be on servers in real time.
Digital Inclusion:
Another of the critical edges to address in terms of industry development is digital inclusion. This challenge is particularly significant in segments of the population such as women, low-income people, and those with lower educational levels, who are the ones who present the most significant gap in the use and access to digital services such as teleworking, online education, procedures virtual state, health, and electronic commerce. It is important to emphasize that the Smart+Sustainable formula aims to lead incredible transformations and solutions to increasingly complex and critical challenges. This, through innovative solutions, contributes to constructing a sustainable world.
Risks Of 5G: Is The Network Harmful To Health?
With the expansion of the 5G network, fears of a health hazard from mobile phone radiation are also growing. With 5G, however, there will initially be little change in radiation exposure: the portable radio frequencies used for 5G are essentially the same as for 4G and were previously used for other purposes.
The radiation power of mobile phone antennas is precisely monitored, measured, and documented by the Federal Network Agency responsible for this. The radiation values of individual antennas in a particular area can be viewed for each antenna with a power of 10 watts or more. Approach your municipality with your concerns. However, the most substantial radiation emanates from smartphones close to the body: regardless of whether they are used on the ear, in the hand, or in the trouser pocket. The following principle applies here: if you double the distance, the radiation is reduced by a quarter. You should therefore ensure that the distance between your head and your smartphone is as considerable as possible.
Correlation Of Frequency, Data Rate, And Range:
The terms frequency, data rate, and range are often used in mobile communications. No wonder because they all depend on each other: So-called frequencies or different frequency ranges are required for data transmission between mobile phone masts and your smartphone. For example, different frequency ranges transmit radio, television, mobile communications, and police radio.
The range describes the large area that a mobile phone mast supplies with the network. The following applies the lower the frequency, the higher the capacity. In addition, less data can be transmitted in low-frequency ranges than in higher-frequency fields. The higher the frequency, the higher the possible data rate.
Conclusion:
As examined, 5G technology is a revolution in telecommunications that well solves current problems in communication. It would reinvent the model of the economy. It would promote other technologies such as robotics, smart cities, and mobility. It would be a significant advance for society if it could be applied. According to the advantages and disadvantages, it has been developed in certain countries and has shown positive results. In summary, despite its current disadvantages, we would like to be part of the generation that would obtain these benefits from 5G technology. All technologies at the beginning present them, but those that are important worldwide, such as 5G, can be solved with solutions for proper implementation.
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