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Article
5G Intent
by
Samir Amberkar (of Sasken Technologies Ltd.)
(published on 17-Nov-2018)
Abstract:
The article looks at requirements behind 5G.
Putting it dramatically,
"Is 5G a predictable progression from 3G to 4G to much higher data speeds and much lower latencies
or is it an entirely different approach to wireless communication leading to connected world ?"
GSM was about standardisation of commercial wireless communication to provide
basic wireline services - "voice call and its supplementary services" - wirelessly.
Keyword was standardisation.
Further, GPRS provided packet based data service (also known as packet bearer).
EDGE/EGPRS improved that bearer with higher data speed.
We may almost say, pursuit of higher data speeds started with EDGE - tens of kbps to hundreds of kbps [1] .
3G or UMTS brought in the intent of providing different types of bearers or
bearers with varying QoS parameters [2] . Keyword was flexible radio access with
data speeds reaching to Mbps level.
Later enhancements HSDPA/HSUPA made data speed cross 1 Mbps mark and reach to 5-10 Mbps level.
LTE decided to do away with circuit switched bearers from radio access.
All was "data", be it VoIP, Internet browsing, Video download, or Video call.
QoS parameters retained, but were much more simplified.
Keywords were higher data speeds and much reduced latencies to support services
with varying requirements on data bearer [3] .
Theoretical data speeds reached to level of hundreds of Mbps [4] .
Attention was also drawn to RF resource usage parameters like spectral efficiency and
field considerations like cell edge.
LTE-Advanced - with higher bandwidth coming from carrier aggregation - targeted data speeds to cross Gbps level.
So it just seem like all is working so well on this generic "data" bearer, we have best data speeds ever,
why would we need next generation of wireless technology ?
The answer seem to lie in the trends:
already existing trend of achieving higher data speeds and lower latencies,
trend of replacing fixed (broadband) access with wireless (broadband) access,
trend to connect "all" wirelessly (machines and handsets),
trend to remain "solidly" connected from all places whether standstill or moving at high speeds.
GSM handheld devices came at about 1992/93 period,
EDGE implementations came at around 1997/98 period,
hugely popular UMTS devices like Blackberry Bold 9000 and iPhone 3G came in mid of 2008.
These devices came in 3.5" touch and touch-less screens and with 2 MP camera.
Android OS device too was launched in 2008.
In 2008, in Internet world, Yahoo, Google, Wikipedia, Skype, YouTube, Facebook and so on were already present.
On the backbone of higher speed provided by 3G and later by 4G, user devices grown in popularity by leaps and bounds.
From 2008 till date (2017-18), number of devices manufactured have increased exponentially, reaching billions in numbers.
Device screen/camera/processing capabilities have improved without cost going up in same proportion.
Having mobile application became a de facto standard for e-commerce web sites and numerous other services.
Though messaging applications like WhatsApp, WeChat, and SnapChat did not require high speeds
or high capability phones, it connected people like never before.
The trend of exponential increase in number of devices, users, and resulting traffic is expected to continue beyond 2020 [5] , [6] .
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