It is no secret that 5G brings the next revolution in wireless connectivity. 5G is expected to have a transformative effect on digital connectivity and essential power for the rise of the internet of things (IoT), autonomous vehicles (AVs), and consumer tech for the demanding future. 5G speed assures as much as 10 times more connectivity than wireless speeds, which would create seamless connectivity and reduce latency. Several market players have been working relentlessly for the progress of 5G with new spectrum allocation and its infrastructure development. Although 4G is still in the game and has driven the major transformation from connected to digital consumers, 5G infrastructure is anticipated to be one step further and would play the role of augmented consumer in the future.
According to a report from Allied Market Research, the global 5G infrastructure market is projected to garner $58.17 billion by 2025, registering a colossal CAGR of 95.8% during the period 2018–2025. Proliferation of machine to machine and IoT and rise in demand for mobile broadband services coupled with increase in government initiatives for building smart cities in Asia-Pacific would be the major drivers of the market growth.
As the demand for handsets and traffic shifts out of legacy 3G and 2G, operators can expand the spectrum from the bands 4G and 5G. Operators could face new challenges in the future when the new spectrum is facilitated over the large-scale adoption of unlicensed access. Operators are handling the traffic in the rural and suburban areas including the roadways, by managing the network density across the existing networks and macro sites. They can shift the network priority more towards the urban areas where the population is more and the network usage and requirement are greater than as compared to the rural areas.
Several elements of the 5G infrastructure are built on the 4G networks which will simplify the operations of mobile operators. Operators can easily upgrade the capacity of the 4G macro network by tweaking and modifying a small portion of their 2G and 3G spectrum or by advancing an additional spectrum. They can delay their investments for the 5G infrastructure by following these protocols and upgrading the devices to LTE and LTE-Pro features, including massive MIMO (multiple input multiple output technology) or 4×4. This is an evolutionary path that will help the operators by reducing their investments and increasing the revenue potential. Once the traffic increases and the existing network would no longer suffice, operators will have to develop new small cells or macro sites.
Impact of 5G technology
In late 2018 and 2019, the world was swept off its feet due to the advent of 5G, the fifth-generation standard for wireless communication. This new standard provides unprecedented network-management capabilities through network slicing that helps multiple virtual networks within a single physical 5G network. In addition, the IT departments and providers can now support their business needs and data-intensive processes with these multiple virtual networks.
As several technologies work in concert, multiple ranges of processes and services would develop, which all will rely on 5G and edge computing. For instance, the procedure of remote surgery would no longer be a theoretical concept. With the blessing hand of 5G infrastructure, a doctor could control a surgical robot from a distance with real-time interaction and haptic feedback. Apart from this, autonomous vehicles would sense speed bumps and wind pressure and pilot the vehicle accordingly. Now, the major e-commerce company, Amazon has decided to deliver packages using highly sophisticated drones. Increased adoption of IoT enabled by 5G would improve detection systems and weather forecast devices enormously. In addition, healthcare professionals could monitor their patients 24×7 and student could attend their classes virtually. Such technologies would become more controllable in the future with 5G infrastructure in hand.
Edge computing and small-scale infrastructure
The advent of edge computing could not be more fortunate. If–somewhere in the future–5G introduces unforeseen threats in IoT, the edge computing would offer solutions. Edge gateways are the most effective way of handling increasing traffic. By developing points of entry into networks, edge gateways offer additional security onto IoT devices. Thus, even if the device is hacked or attacked, the criminal could not go further than the gateway. In addition, edge analytics offers an artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) analytical tools that can detect as well as predict their cyberattacks. As anomalies in the infrastructure performance can help derive patterns and AI could watch out for possible attack points, making the security much easier than ever.
It is true that 5G would revolutionize most of the industries across the world. However, it would also increase operational cost. Thus, to reduce such expenses, operators would allow 5G for smaller transmitters that consume lesser power and cover small service area than the traditional 4G towers. In fact, a carrier would need more towers to cover more landscape. Thus, 5G small cell would become a norm in urban areas. If you are one of the landowners that a wireless carrier approached, contact the legal experts at Terabonne to learn more about cell tower lease and what you can get from it.
5G infrastructure use cases
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Driverless automobiles:
To deal with the dearth of skilled drivers and increasing labor cost, driverless automobile is a perfect solution. To support this adoption of driverless cars, 5G infrastructure is a must-have. To develop the most effective autonomous vehicles, the need for modern wireless infrastructure cannot be ignored. The infrastructure needs to connect people in motion with computers with zero-latency to avoid accidents.
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Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR):
This is the era of AR and VR. For these technologies to work seamlessly to a wireless user, the connection between the server and its users needs as fast as possible speed. Thus, 5G infrastructure would become an irreplaceable part of AR and VR technologies. Moreover, the high speed of 5G would be perfect for the compute-intensive nature of AR workload.
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Healthcare
With the availability of 5G infrastructure, patients in small towns would no longer have to spend their lives and related to urban areas just to receive proper medical care. With 5G’s low latency connectivity, rural areas would revolutionize critical care treatment for patients. According to recent trials in Mississippi, the connectivity at 5G levels allows healthcare professionals in rural and remote areas to offer real-time instructions and support from the finest doctors, surgeons across the globe regardless of their location.
