Navigating the path to creation: 5G needs to steer clear of 3G's errors
The European Union's research project METIS, under the auspices of the 5GPP, is driving the region towards the forefront of global standard setting for the next generation of mobile networks. The goal is to create a flexible, intelligent, and unified network for the next decade with 5G.
As the world becomes increasingly connected, networks need to cope with growing volumes of machine chatter, video, and other data. Access capacity and massive densification are key objectives for 5G networks. However, mission-critical services that involve safety and security require levels of reliability and traffic prioritisation that do not exist today with 5G.
5G is more than just an air-interface; it means thinking beyond connectivity to create a platform for innovation. The annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona has highlighted 5G as a top priority, and the industry is gearing up to meet the challenge.
The essential goals for implementing 5G networks, as outlined by the Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) alliance, include enabling energy-efficient, sustainable operation through effective energy management and integrating advanced technologies to meet new performance demands.
Energy management and sustainability are crucial aspects of 5G deployment. The aim is to reduce emissions and costs while enabling mobile networks to act as virtual power plants via local renewable generation and storage at cell sites.
Security readiness is another critical concern. The integration of quantum-safe cryptography is essential to secure next-generation networks, ensuring robustness against emerging threats like quantum computing.
Performance and coverage are also key challenges. Overcoming technical barriers in RF, thermal, and computational domains is necessary to provide robust 5G connectivity, including challenging scenarios like indoor coverage and satellite integration.
Operators around the world are still rolling out LTE and are cautious about investing in more hardware for 5G. The R&D investment required for 5G solutions seems to preclude new entrants, suggesting a potential two- or three-horse race between Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia Networks.
Asia is setting the pace in the race to be first to deploy 5G, with local operators preparing to showcase their capabilities at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan. The potential funding gap for 5G could signal an opportunity for vertical industries to contribute in return for more direct influence.
5G is expected to support extreme low-latency use cases such as autonomous road vehicles, virtual and augmented reality, context-aware devices, and the 'tactile internet'. It has emerged as the industry's collective response to the '1,000x' data challenge.
The European Commission launched a €700 million 5G Public-Private Partnership (5GPP) fund in 2014 to research 5G, which was initially considered a vague concept. Huawei and Russia's Megafon have pledged to run trials during the 2018 football World Cup in Russia.
Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, cautioned for the need to time investment with the growth of IoT, describing 4G as a 'tremendous success' in contrast to the 'industrial project' of 5G transformation. 5G investments need to fit with the carriers' roadmaps for introducing network functions virtualisation (NFV).
In conclusion, the implementation of 5G networks is guided by the goals of energy efficiency, security, and performance. Operators and vendors are working towards achieving efficient, secure, and environmentally responsible 5G deployments aligned with industry and regulatory expectations.
Artificial intelligence can play a significant role in managing the growing volumes of data in 5G networks, helping to prioritize and process mission-critical services more efficiently.
The integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence within 5G networks is essential to meet new performance demands, contributing to the transformation of the industry and setting the region apart in global standard setting for the next generation of mobile networks.
