What is 5G Technology
This article is a brief explainer about the technology that has the potential to revolutionize the world fifth-generation mobile network or 5g it was designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including objects and devices with its ability to deliver high multi-apps peak data speeds, very low latency and a massive network capacity of 5g can make IoT or the internet of things a possibility before I get into the details of 5g, let us understand the evolution of mobile networks.
Evolution of mobile networks
The first generation is the mobile network developed in the 1980s delivered analog voice due to which people could talk from anywhere with just a mobile device that took wireless however, the noise was an issue; this issue would later get resolved with the development of the second generation of mobile networks that developed during the 1990s. It introduced us to a digital voice, which not only made our voice clearer but it also allowed us to send text messages then came to the 3g during the 2000s which introduced us to mobile data it allowed us to browse the internet make video calls and download from the internet later in The 2010s 4g evolved.
This enabled faster speeds than 3g crystal clear voice and low latency the decade of 2020s is going to see 5g develop, which has faster speeds than 4g and much lower latency than the 4G.
The term latency refers to a time lag or delay in response 4g is known to have low latency, but 5G is going to have negligible latency the latency of 3G was 80 milliseconds, during the latency of 4G was 40 milliseconds which enabled us to play online games and stream live videos now with 5G with the latency being just 21 to 26 milliseconds.
it's going to facilitate machine-to-machine interaction or IoT or also called the internet of things 5G is going to be better than 4g network not only because of the negligible response delay that I have already talked about but also because 5G is going to be 100 times faster than 4G to download a movie using 4G.
It takes 45 to 50 minutes at least, but it can download the same movie within 9 minutes using a 5g network while 4G can support up to 4000 devices per square kilometer 5g can support up to 1 million devices for the same area, you would have noticed times when your 4g network was quite slow.
This problem was solved using a concept called a millimeter-wave spectrum, which is a band of radio frequencies having extremely high frequency say about 30 to 300 gigahertz at present. we use only five gigahertz in our mobile phones since frequencies are inversely proportional to wavelength extremely high-frequency results in very low wavelengths, essentially 1 millimeter to 10 millimeters also known as millimeter waves.
Radio waves used in our smartphone are in centimeters which is much larger than millimeter waves so far, the concept of millimeter waves was used only in radar systems and satellites with 5g coming into existence, there can be various applications that have the potential to revolutionize this virtual world reality refers to a computer generated simulation in which a person can interact within an artificial three-dimensional environment using electronic devices such as special goggles with a screen or gloves fitted with sensors while augmented reality is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world is enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensors that include visual elements, sound, and another sensory stimulus.
With the evolution of 5g, virtual and augmented reality can be accessible to more and more people further artificial intelligence, which refers to the simulation of human intelligence and machines or in simple words, robots can be enhanced using 5g technology, another major work in progress is the internet of things where many physical devices around the world can now be connected by using the internet enables the machine to machine interaction even without human interference let me give you an example of what the internet of things can do, say; for instance, your garden sprinklers integrate with sensors that connect to the internet; now, these sensors can work in such a way they get information related to weather reports and other important information that enables the garden sprinklers to switch on if the weather report reads that it's going to be a rainy day.
The garden sprinklers may not switch on on that day or may switch on just for what amount of water the plants require, but if it's going to be a hot, dry day, the garden sprinklers might be on for much more time than usual this has two benefits firstly it enables us to conserve water by not letting us waste too much water on a rainy day, and second, it does not allow our gardens dry out due to lack of water by automatically readjusting the amount of water according to the day's weather. Above is just a small example of what the internet of things can do if developed further.
We can integrate our entire house with such sensors connected to the internet in such a way that every device or machine inside the house interacts with each other making our lives easy all this can be made possible with faster networks such as 5g other applications include driverless cars enhancement of robotic or many complex surgeries in medical field and improvement of online education especially in uncertain times such as pandemic and the list can go on and on if I have to talk about the applications of 5g, but there are certain disadvantages of 5g. One major drawback is that the millimeter-wave concept cannot penetrate structures and other obstacles; even rain can absorb these signals. Any interruptions by physical structures such as walls and buildings can either block or disrupt the 5g networks as high-frequency signals can absorb by these structures.
The rollout cost of 5g infrastructure can be high as it requires the construction of new infrastructure and the maintenance of such high-speed connectivity, so the customers might have to bear the brunt of these hefty price tags.
Furthermore, this might lead to a digital divide as rural areas might have lesser access to 5g networks 5g network can quickly drain your batteries and also, make your phones increasingly hot, and finally, the uploading speed may not match the download speed. It may be faster than 4g, but it is not as fast as the 5g downloading speed which It probably is for the 6th generation evolution to handle finally, to conclude this video, I would like to say that with enhanced technology, improved speeds, and increased capacities.
5G has the potential to strengthen the global and the world economy hence 5g or the 5th generation is the way forward that's all for this article.