Telecoms World 5G
definitions: one, a service-led view which sees 5G as a consolidation of 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi for greater coverage and always-on reliability; and two, a view driven by a step change in data speed and order of magnitude reduction in end-to-end latency,” says Paul Black, Director of Telecoms and Media at IDC META. Pan En, VP of Middle East, Huawei, agrees: “5G is still at the research and innovation stage. As such, clearly defining 5G is of utmost importance, as are calls for wider discussions on the definition of 5G.” Today we see 5G wireless networks as a blend of pre-existing technologies covering 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi and others to allow higher coverage and availability, as well as higher network density in terms of cells and devices. The key differentiator is greater connectivity as an enabler for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services and the Internet of Things (IoT). 5G networks are further anticipated to have 1,000 times more capacity than current mobile broadband networks along with a 10GB/s individual user experience, he adds. But despite all the hints at the shape of the technology to come, and broad agreement about what, exactly, 5G ought to be able to do, the question as to why there is a need for 5G still remains. “5G is needed to address a range of new service capabilities that don’t appear to be easily supported via direct evolution of LTE. The most notable issue is the need to introduce new radio waveforms to exploit the proposed new spectrum band somewhere above 20 GHz to be used for small cells that is due to be identified at the ITU-R WRC2019
“There is no acceptable definition of 5G yet as the concept itself is still only maturing. According to the GSMA there are two different definitions: one, a service-led view which sees 5G as a consolidation of 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi for greater coverage and always-on reliability; and two, a view driven by a step change in data speed and order of magnitude reduction in end-to-end latency.” Paul Black, Director of Telecoms and Media at IDC META
“5G is still at the research and innovation stage. As such, clearly defining 5G is of utmost importance, as are calls for wider discussions on the definition of 5G.” Pan En, VP, Huawei Middle East
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conference with licensing likely in the years to follow. In parallel we see an advantage to introduce a new radio solution in existing cellular bands that would complement LTE access and offer improved support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and background traffic on smartphones,” says Alain Biston, President, Wireless EMEA, Alcatel-Lucent. Saleem AlBlooshi, Executive VP- Network Development & Operations, Du, says 5G is a must with everything in future expected to be connected by wireless to enable monitoring and collection of information and control of devices. “Wireless services will become more extensive and enriched through richer content being delivered in real-time and with safety and security of the communications being ensured. Examples of such emerging services (which may use new and evolved types of mobile devices) include high resolution video streaming (4K), media rich social network services, augmented reality, and road safety.” Glen Ogden, Regional Sales Director – Middle East, A10 Networks, says that the rapid adoption of BYOD concept and proliferation of cloud services is another reason why we need 5G. “That is driving on the business side of things a higher demand for bandwidth, a higher demand for response time and a higher demand for coverage. For all this kind of www.cnmeonline.com