Feature
Enterprise & Innovation
5G: A testbed for the future
By Mohammad Patwary (pictured), Professor of Telecommunication Networks and Digital Productivity, at Birmingham City University.
industries are turning to digital solutions in order to increase productivity and revenue. At the heart of these technologies are wireless
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networks, allowing users to connect more efficiently, as well as receive and make use of massive amounts of data. With 5G now live in Birmingham, users and businesses will experience a dramatic shift in the capabilities of their networks.
5G infrastructure: problems and solutions For the user, 5G networks promise super-fast, ultra- reliable internet which will dramatically reduce download speeds and eliminate signal drop-out. Businesses will be able to minimise their expenditure
by utilising superfast connectivity to become part of the data economy; gathering data faster and more accurately to improve their productivity and/or services. However, before 5G can be properly utilised by SMEs,
the service needs to be made robust and affordable, and with that aim comes certain challenges based on the nature of 5G frequencies. 5G radio frequencies are much higher than their
current 4G counterparts, meaning they're less cluttered and carry information much faster, but these millimetre waves are fragile and dissipate over much shorter distances than robust lower frequencies. In order to remedy this, a 5G infrastructure needs a higher number of base stations to make up for the short range coverage. This presents certain challenges:
• Site planning becomes an issue as the West Midlands needs an estimated 15,000 new base stations to support 5G.
• Cost needs to be taken into account as each base station could cost between £50,000 and £150,000. This cost to the network provider is likely to impact the consumer in the form of service costs.
• One of the high capacity 5G frequency band can’t penetrate most physical blockages; a leaf is enough to block high-frequency waves.
One of the bigger challenges that lie ahead is to define and develop how intelligently connectivity can be utilised to create wealth in our economy and enhance the quality of our lives. This is an important phase of digital transformation in our society with innovative uses of wireless connectivity.
Business and the public sector The future applications of 5G are numerous and the technology is likely to evolve in unprecedented ways. Generally, businesses will be using connectivity to serve user demands in three different contexts:
• Enhanced mobile broadband – supporting faster content delivery, more reliable data streaming and even fully immersive AR and VR in real time.
64 CHAMBERLINK October 2019
he world is becoming increasingly digital. Nearly every daily process is governed, assisted or regulated by technology, and previously manual
• Massive machine type communication – millions of sensors connected to serve smart cities or automated manufacturing.
• Ultra-reliable low latency communication – eliminating lag, for instance between human input and machine output, allowing for a greater digitisation of the construction industry or medical care in hazardous environments.
Predicting the future One of the biggest impacts we can see 5G having on the future is the disruption of traditional business models and the opportunities that will bring. It’s likely that creative digital development will generate revenue quicker than before – hence a faster growth in creative, ideas-based SMEs. Ownership of mobile networks will potentially move
away from traditional operators and fall more into the hands of small service operators and social networks - imagine a social network that owns mobile network infrastructure that will provide the internet for free to its members, or a search engine that has to share any profits made by analysing the search behaviour of its users. Put simply, we may well have free internet or the possibility to earn money with our searches or by sharing an idea with others.
‘One of the bigger challenges that lie ahead is to define and develop how intelligently connectivity can be utilised to create wealth in our economy and enhance the quality of our lives’
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