A few weeks back, we discovered the history of 5G technology; now that we’ve understood where this technology has originated from, we can deep dive into the subject. What are the implications and possibilities of 5G? What is it used for? What are the challenges facing this new technology?
Marc Kientzy, Innovation & Strategic Program Development at Airbus Secure Communications, is developing future networks program strategy for the French Ministry of Armies. Hear from him as he goes into more detail on the implications and challenges that come with 5G technology.
Preparing for 5G technology and its challenges
5G is definitely an important progress for data, technology and connectivity, however, there are still some debates over its benefits when compared to its costs. The cost of deployment for 5G is four times higher than it was for 4G, this is because it needs more terminals to be efficient, as well as new infrastructures. It is also dependent on other technologies to be as efficient possible.
Several questions have also emerged around the neutrality of the net, and what would be the ecological footprint of this new technology, as well as the legal interrogations regarding the protection of users.
Even with all those constraints and unanswered questions, multiple professional sectors are already upgrading their work material to be compatible with 5G, which shows how promising the technology is.
5G: The Future of data, technology and connectivity
As we move from 4G technology to 5G, we will witness a number of developmental changes. The data transfer will increase, as will the data transfer per user, lowering the waiting time by 40 times when compared with 4G. Energy consumption will also be optimized, having a positive environmental impact. 5G technology is also more advanced; the same network can deal with multiple needs, from critical to watching TV, all at the same time.
The benefits of this new technology could be huge and is estimated at 113 billion euros per year for the European economy by 2025, across the health, energy, transport and automotive sector, according to the European commission.
As we saw with the history of 5G, we have had an increase in speed every 10 years, and 5G will be no different. With 5G, we will see speed increase with an enhanced mobile broadband allowing high data rate. On top of this, 5G will bring an ultra-reliable and low latency communication, allowing lower waiting times, ideal for critical missions. It will also have a massive machine type communication and connectivity, dealing perfectly with connected objects.
The biggest change with 5G compared to all the other technologies, is that all three of these capacities are going to be managed by one network that can absorb and deliver the appropriate KPI for all needs.
5G technology, changing the interactions
During the previous evolution of technologies, from 1G to 4G, we could have human to human interactions and then human to machine interactions. We had human interactions through technology with video calls, social networking or public safety, developed with the 2G and 3G technologies. Then, we had human to machine interactions with 4G with fixed wireless, health care monitoring or remote surgery, which was already an important change.
Now with 5G, we change to machine to machine interactions. This will for example allow having autonomous vehicle to vehicle communications for smart cars, or at least vehicle to infrastructure. This will also make industrial automation stronger and video monitoring independent from human surveillance. With 5G, human intervention will be less and less necessary as the machines will become more reliable thanks to an improved connectivity.
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