Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu announced the official release of the first 5G standard after decades of global collaboration, during a Plenary Meeting.
He indicated that 5G is set to bring mobile broadband(MBB) services to a whole new level.
Over the past 40 years, the mobile communications sector has fostered two major basic services: mobile voice and mobile Internet (especially mobile video).
It has taken 30 years from 1G to 2G and finally to 3G for mobile voice to deliver an enjoyable experience, allowing users to use the service whenever they want.
The mobile Internet, especially mobile video, appeared in the 3G era and has been growing rapidly in the 4G era, but it has not reached a level as high as that of mobile voice.
Huawei says it hopes that 5G will bring the mobile Internet especially mobile video to a level comparable to mobile voice service today.
This will eventually allow users to enjoy mobile broadband services wherever and whenever they want.
The company also hopes that 5G will nurture new basic services such as mobile AR and VR.
Users wanting more speed
The first 5G standard focuses on enhanced mobile broadband, which aligns well with the urgent demand of users.
This can also be seen in the latest developments of global markets.
China Unicom has seen the data traffic per 4G user per month (DOU) rise to 9 gigabytes.
The DOU of China Mobile is nearly 5 gigabytes and the number is expected to grow three-fold in the next year.
The DOU of China Telecom is almost 7 gigabytes. In Kuwait, the DOU has reached 70 gigabytes.
In Saudi Arabia, the number is 35 gigabytes and in Finland, it grew by 43% in a single year to 20 gigabytes.
4G networks are hard-pressed to meet current user demand.
In other words, users want to consume more, but experience and speeds are falling short of expectations.
However, 5G can deliver a peak speed of 10 Gbps at 100 MHz bandwidth, and 20 Gbps at 200 MHz bandwidth.
Its technologies, including the LDPC and Polar Codes, result from decades of effort by several generations of basic research scientists.
5G standards wouldn’t have been possible without decades of global collaboration.
5G builds on 4G and expands its potential
5G according to him, supports faster speeds, lower latency, and more connections than 4G.
But looking at the architecture and protocol stacks, it’s clear that 5G actually builds on 4G and expands its potential.
5G and 4G use the same architecture. Their baseband units and remote radio units are the same. Their protocols are largely the same.
Mobile Internet services remain the bulk of the data traffic flowing in both 4G and 5G networks. Enhanced encryption algorithms and privacy and authentication mechanisms will make 5G more secure. That means 5G will provide better security than 4G.
As well as support 100 billion connected cellular devices, a number much larger than what a 2G, 3G, or 4G network can support.
By: StephanieHorsu/techvoiceafrica.com
