5G for the smart world

It is widely believed that the real revolution of the Internet of Things will be caused only by the popularization of the fifth generation mobile Internet network. This network will still be created, but business is not looking at it now with the introduction of IoT infrastructure.

Experts expect 5G to be not an evolution, but a complete transformation of mobile technology. This should transform the entire industry associated with this type of communication. In February 2017, during a presentation at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, ​​a representative of Deutsche Telekom even stated that due to smartphones will cease to exist. When it becomes popular, we will always be online, with almost everything that surrounds us. And depending on which market segment will use this technology (telemedicine, voice calls, gaming platforms, web browsing), the network will behave differently.

5G network speed compared to previous solutions

During the same MWC, the first commercial applications of the 5G network were shown - although this wording raises some doubts, because it is still unknown what it will actually be. The assumptions are completely inconsistent. Some sources claim that 5G is expected to provide transmission speeds of tens of thousands of megabits per second to thousands of users simultaneously. The preliminary specification for 5G, announced a few months ago by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), suggests that delays will not exceed 4 ms. Data must be downloaded at 20 Gbps and uploaded at 10 Gbps. We know that ITU wants to announce the final version of the new network this fall. Everyone agrees on one thing - the 5G network must provide simultaneous wireless connection of hundreds of thousands of sensors, which is key for the Internet of things and ubiquitous services.

Leading companies such as AT&T, NTT DOCOMO, SK Telecom, Vodafone, LG Electronic, Sprint, Huawei, ZTE, Qualcomm, Intel and many more are clearly voicing their support for accelerating the 5G standardization timeline. All stakeholders want to start commercializing this concept as early as 2019. On the other hand, the European Union announced the 5G PPP plan () to determine the direction of development of next generation networks. By 2020, the EU countries must release the 700 MHz frequency reserved for this standard.

5G network is a gift of new technologies

Single things don't need 5G

According to Ericsson, at the end of last year, 5,6 billion devices were in operation in (, IoT). Of these, only about 400 million worked with mobile networks, and the rest with short-range networks such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or ZigBee.

The real development of the Internet of Things is very often associated with 5G networks. The first applications of new technologies, initially in the business sector, may appear in two to three years. However, we can expect access to next-generation networks for individual customers no earlier than 2025. The advantage of 5G technology is, among other things, the ability to handle a million devices assembled on an area of ​​​​a square kilometer. It would seem a huge number, but if you take into account what the IoT vision says about smart citiesin which, in addition to urban infrastructure, vehicles (including autonomous cars) and household (smart homes) and office devices are connected, as well as, for example, stores and goods stored in them, this million per square kilometer ceases to seem so big. Especially in the city center or areas with a high concentration of offices.

Be aware, however, that many devices connected to the network and the sensors placed on them do not require very high speeds, because they transmit small portions of data. Ultra-fast Internet is not needed by an ATM or payment terminal. It is not necessary to have a smoke and temperature sensor in the protection system, informing, for example, an ice cream manufacturer about the conditions in refrigerators in stores. High speeds and low latency are not needed for monitoring and controlling street lighting, for transmitting data from electricity and water meters, for remote control using a smartphone of IoT-connected home devices, or in logistics.

Today, although we have LTE technology, which allows us to send several tens or even hundreds of megabits of data per second over mobile networks, a significant part of devices operating in the Internet of things still use 2G networks, i.e. has been on sale since 1991. GSM standard.

To overcome the price barrier that discourages many companies from using IoT in their current activities and thus slows down its development, technologies have been developed to build networks designed to support devices that transmit small data packets. These networks use both the frequencies used by mobile operators and the unlicensed band. Technologies such as LTE-M and NB-IoT (also called NB-LTE) operate in the band used by LTE networks, while EC-GSM-IoT (also called EC-EGPRS) uses the band used by 2G networks. In the unlicensed range, you can choose from solutions like LoRa, Sigfox, and RPMA.

All of the above options offer a wide range and are designed in such a way that the end devices are as cheap as possible and consume as little energy as possible, and thus work without changing the battery even for several years. Hence their collective name - (low power consumption, long range). LPWA networks operating in the ranges available to mobile operators need only a software update. The development of commercial LPWA networks is considered by research companies Gartner and Ovum as one of the most important events in the development of IoT.

Operators use different technologies. Dutch KPN, which launched its nationwide network last year, has chosen LoRa and is interested in LTE-M. The Vodafone group has chosen NB-IoT - this year it started building a network in Spain, and it has plans to build such a network in Germany, Ireland and Spain. Deutsche Telekom has chosen NB-IoT and announces that its network will be launched in eight countries, including Poland. Spanish Telefonica chose Sigfox and NB-IoT. Orange in France started building a LoRa network and then announced that it would start rolling out LTE-M networks from Spain and Belgium in the countries it operates in, and thus probably in Poland as well.

The construction of the LPWA network may mean that the development of a specific IoT ecosystem will begin faster than 5G networks. The expansion of one does not exclude the other, because both technologies are essential for the smart grid of the future.

5G wireless connections likely to need a lot anyway energy. In addition to the aforementioned ranges, a way to save energy at the level of individual devices should be launched last year. Bluetooth web platform. It will be used by a network of smart bulbs, locks, sensors, etc. The technology allows you to connect to IoT devices directly from a web browser or website without the use of special applications.

Visualization of Web Bluetooth technology

5G before

It is worth knowing that some companies have been pursuing 5G technology for years. For example, Samsung has been working on its 5G network solutions since 2011. During this time, it was possible to achieve a transmission of 1,2 Gb / s in a vehicle moving at a speed of 110 km / h. and 7,5 Gbps for a standing receiver.

Moreover, experimental 5G networks already exist and have been created in collaboration with various companies. However, at the moment it is still too early to talk about the imminent and truly global standardization of the new network. Ericsson is testing it in Sweden and Japan, but small consumer devices that will work with the new standard are still a long way off. In 2018, in cooperation with the Swedish operator TeliaSonera, the company will launch the first commercial 5G networks in Stockholm and Tallinn. Initially it will city ​​networks, and we will have to wait until 5 for “full-size” 2020G. Ericsson even has first 5G phone. Perhaps the word "telephone" is the wrong word after all. The device weighs 150 kg and you have to travel with it in a large bus armed with measuring equipment.

Last October, news of the debut of the 5G network came from distant Australia. However, these types of reports should be approached with a distance - how do you know, without a 5G standard and specification, that a fifth generation service has been launched? This should change after the standard is agreed. If all goes according to plan, pre-standardized 5G networks will make their first appearance at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Millimeter waves and tiny cells

The operation of the 5G network depends on several important technologies.

Base station manufactured by Samsung

First millimeter wave connections. More and more devices are connecting to each other or to the Internet using the same radio frequencies. This causes speed loss and connection stability issues. The solution may be to switch to millimeter waves, i.e. in the frequency range of 30-300 GHz. They are currently used in particular in satellite communications and radio astronomy, but their main limitation has been their short range. A new type of antenna solves this problem, and the development of this technology is still ongoing.

Technology is the second pillar of the fifth generation. Scientists boast that they are already able to transmit data using millimeter waves over a distance of more than 200 m. And literally every 200-250 m in large cities there may be, i.e., small base stations with very low power consumption. However, in less populated areas, "small cells" do not work well.

This should help with the above issue MIMO technology new generation. MIMO is a solution also used in the 4G standard that can increase the capacity of a wireless network. The secret is in multi-antenna transmission on the transmitting and receiving sides. Next generation stations can handle eight times as many ports as today to send and receive data at the same time. Thus, network throughput increases by 22%.

Another important technique for 5G is that "beamforming“. It is a signal processing method so that the data is delivered to the user along the optimal route. helps millimeter waves reach the device in a concentrated beam rather than through an omnidirectional transmission. Thus, signal strength is increased and interference is reduced.

The fifth element of the fifth generation should be the so-called full duplex. Duplex is a two-way transmission, i.e. one in which the transmission and reception of information is possible in both directions. Full duplex means that data is transmitted without transmission interruption. This solution is constantly being improved to achieve the best parameters.

 

Sixth generation?

However, the labs are already working on something even faster than 5G - although again, we don't know exactly what the fifth generation is. Japanese scientists are creating a future wireless data transmission, as it were, the next, sixth version. It consists in using frequencies from 300 GHz and higher, and the speeds achieved will be 105 Gb / s on each channel. Research and development of new technologies have been going on for several years. Last November, 500 Gb/s was achieved using the 34 GHz terahertz band, and then 160 Gb/s using a transmitter in the 300-500 GHz band (eight channels modulated at 25 GHz intervals). ) - that is, results many times greater than the expected capabilities of the 5G network. The latest success is the work of a group of scientists from the University of Hiroshima and Panasonic employees at the same time. Information about the technology was posted on the university website, the assumptions and mechanism of the terahertz network were presented in February 2017 at the ISSCC conference in San Francisco.

As you know, an increase in the frequency of operation not only enables faster data transfer, but also significantly reduces the possible range of the signal, and also increases its susceptibility to all kinds of interference. This means that it is necessary to build a fairly complex and densely distributed infrastructure.

It's also worth noting that revolutions - such as the 2020G network planned for 5 and then the hypothetical even faster terahertz network - mean the need to replace millions of devices with versions adapted to new standards. This is likely to significantly... slow down the rate of change and cause the intended revolution to actually become an evolution.

To be continued Topic number in the latest issue of the monthly.