1. One to 10Gbps connections to end points in the field 2. One millisecond end-to-end round trip delay 3. 1000x bandwidth per unit area 4. 10 to 100x number of connected devices 5. (Perception of) 99.999 per cent availability 6. (Perception of) 100 per cent coverage 7. 90 per cent reduction in network energy usage 8. Up to ten-year battery life for low power, machine-type devices In sum, 5G brings three new aspects to the table – greater speed (to move more data), lower latency (to be more responsive), and the ability to connect a lot more devices at once (for sensors and smart devices).
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How does it work? In their most basic form, mobile phones are basically two-way radios. When you call someone, your phone converts your voice into an electrical signal and it transmits that signal to the nearest tower using radio wave. The tower bounces the radio wave through a network of further mobile towers until it finds the phone you are calling. 5G will be assigned a higher radio frequency, sitting on the frequency band up to 6GHz, thus moving information at a much faster speed. But, although higher bands are faster, they don’t carry information as far as lower frequencies, so multiple input and output antennae (MIMOs) will be required