Advantages And Basic Foundation Of 5G Technology

Every generation of wireless networks has bought about a revolution to the world, like 1G in 1980’s bought the very first generation smart phones. 2G in 1990’s allowed us to send text messages for the first time while 3G in 2000’s bought the online concepts to the world and 4G in 2010 giving the world the speed they need to enjoy there surf over the internet. Since the internet is expanding every day, the users require to consume more and more data on their smart phones which the 4G network /LTE is finding it quite difficult to handle and hence comes the 5G network which can handle a thousand times more traffic than the current 4G LTE networks. 5G will be the foundation for driver less automobiles, enhances VR experience and Internet of things.

The fifth generation wireless network use ultra high broadcast frequencies which allows to transfer huge amounts of data very fast. Initially the broadcast range was limited and was overcome by the Beam forming technology and MU-MIMO technology which allows streaming across multiple mobile phones at the same time. Beam forming allows the signals to be sent where the data traffic is more unlike LTE which is omnidirectional regardless of the traffic. The 5G network is set to provide a massive speed of 20 gigabytes per second theoretically.

Combining Beam Forming with MIMO(Multiple input Multiple output) which allows massive users to use the same connections at the same time, this allows to have a faster throughput and reduce bottleneck situations. 5G networks aim at a million devices per square kilometer which resolve any issues of speed at a music concert or any other gathering involving a lot of people. 5G is set to come to the markets in early 2019 and will widespread by 2025, since 5G uses shorter wavelength it is prone to signal degradation so the providers are taking time to build infrastructures around the globe which include signal booster.

Advantages of 5G:

• 5G aims to provide a unified global standard which will facilitate mobility meaning the end users can subscribe to different services using the same mobile phone.
• Better the speed more the battery is drained, 3G used one battery while 4G is using two batteries, so speed is directly proportional to the battery consumptions and 5G networks are aiming to provide more efficient use of battery which means more speed and less battery drained.
• 5G is aiming at virtually 0 latency which might not possible yet there will be really low latency which enhances gaming, and VR experiences.

Basic Foundation of 5G technology

1. Millimeter Waves: Mobiles phones and other electronic gadgets use a very specific frequencies on the radio spectrum which are basically under 6GHZ, since the number of users have increased significantly, these radio waves are getting crowded and the carriers are not able to squeeze all the data which means as more devices come online slower the data speed, and the solution is to broadcast the signals in shorter millimeter waves which fall between 30-300 giga hertz. Problem with millimeter waves is that they cannot travel well and might lead to signal degradation and to overcome these problems they use small cell networks.
2. Small Cell Network: Nowadays the wireless networks use high powered cell towers to broadcast their signals but since millimeter waves don’t travel well the small cell base stations can be used as a solution. Multiple low powered base stations can be setup which are much closer than the network cells forming a relaying team which means if the user is moving, his smart phone will automatically switch to the closest base station and hence enhancing the connection reliability.
3. Massive MIMO: 4G base station have about 12 ports for antennas to handle all the network traffic, but a Massive MIMO base station would have about a hundred ports. Since a lot of signals are sent a time by different ports, there will massive interferences which can be solved by Beamforming technology.
4. Beamforming: Instead of sending signals in every direction, the base station uses a focused beam of data to the individual cells which is precise and efficient. Massive MIMO base stations receive all the signals and understand where it coming from and use different signaling algorithms to reroute to the intended user making it more efficient.
5. Full duplex: They are using a silicon transistor to build high speed switches which allows to momentarily reroute the data packets travelling in the same frequency to get past each other with less delay.

Threats and Weakness of 5G

• Since 5G can revolutionize the network industry, it will increase the security measures to be taken, 5G will enable bringing about automatic driver less cars, but this in reality needs a lot of security protocols to overcome any cyberattacks which can lead to fatal disasters.
• The main idea behind 5G is to provide high speed data while consuming less battery with very less latency and to achieve this the providers will have a common infrastructure and hence the security to be provided must be significantly increased to secure the critical infrastructure.
• All the security providers will have a common critical infrastructure which means failure of any single operator will result in failure of the entire network if not carefully guided.
• There can be a masquerade attach from a third party showing as an legitimate user resulting in theft of services and critical information.
• Attacks such as spooling can result in misdirected communication and frauds relating to the banks details.
• Since 5G uses millimeter waves to transmit signals and they need a lot base stations than already present, which means the base stations will be on every other pole in the neighbor hood which will potentially increase the radio frequency radiations, which changes DNA cells, leads to cancer, varying metabolism and tons of health issues which is major distress to the public.
• 5G is a treat to the planet which disturbs the ecosystem, these radiations affect birds and bee health and low intensity micro wave radiations can cause disturbance in the plantation of wheat crop.
• 5G is promised to high speed, which is an open door invitation for cyber threats, as a result will inevitably increase the distributed denial of service attacks since 5G provides more speed at a higher bandwidth.
• 5G increases the number of IOT devices which means which increase in medical identity, data analytics and smart wearables, but the network must be very secure to protect these critical data such as medical and ECG reports, so the network must be reliable and very secure just as the equipment.
• 5G networks need to launch some satellites up the orbit initially cover up, these release hydrogen gases enough to have an impact the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which causes a distress to the atmosphere.