TELECOM EXPERTS PLOT A PATH TO 5G

TELECOM EXPERTS

PLOT A PATH TO 5G

The ITU is sorting through likely approaches to

the next-generation mobile standard

Even before the 4G technology

your smartphone

uses was rolled out in earnest,

telecommunications

experts were dreaming of the next generation:

5G. But what 5G will do and how it

will do it have remained pretty nebulous.

“5G is a plethora of technologies that people

are trying to bring together. What

technology should be prioritized in what

way?” says Thyagarajan Nandagopal, the

director of the Networking Technologies

and Systems program at the U.S. National

Science Foundation.

But pressure to answer that question is

mounting: Within five years, mobile service

providers will need the new networks

to power the Internet of Things, where

just about everything, including smart

cars, homes, thermometers, and portable

sonar fish detectors, will be online.

In October, the International Telecommunication

Union (ITU) will try to give 5G

a definition. The ITU’s IMT-2020 Focus

Group reviewed more than 60 research

proposals and will pitch the first 5G network

blueprint. The draft lays out major

gaps in the 5G wire-line network infrastructure,

such as software and high-level

network architecture, according to Peter

Ashwood-Smith, chairman of the focus

group. It will suggest potential technology

improvements and a timeline for when

each component of 5G needs to be ready

before deployment, he says.

In June, the working group released

goals for 5G such as support for data rates

up to 20 gigabits per second, the ability to

allow massive armies of devices to connect

in a small area, and reduced energy consumption.

With all the combined network

upgrades, surfing the Web on 5G may be

even faster than using your laptop’s Wi-Fi.

Theodore Rappaport, director of the NYU

Wireless research center, in New York City,

says 5G will be like “fiber optics in the air.”

“As wireless devices become more plentiful,

we’re going to need more data and

more spectrum,” Rappaport says. Mobile

data traffic across the globe grew 69 percent

between 2013 and 2014, reaching

2.5 exabytes (over a billion billion bytes)

per month, according to Cisco. And analysts

expect data consumption to climb to

24.3 exabytes per month by 2019. 4G LTE,

today’s technology, “can never accommodate

this new demand,” says Rappaport.

Ashwood-Smith expects that the group

will produce an even clearer picture of

the wire-line broadband requirements

by December 2015. “5G is going to affect

us all,”