Just imagine, back in 2005 it would take hours together to download a single movie. With 5G ( i.e. the Fifth Generation) it will take seconds after all. The 5G is a catalyst in communication and wireless sector is making way for its giant leap in a revolutionary change. It is not like an ordinary or casual generation upgrade, it shall make huge changes in driving systems, real-time systems, IoT, Blockchain, ML, AL, etc.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
The 5G has not made official yet but sooner in 2020. So many cellular industries are investing billions and trillions of dollars in this project, to make 5G 1000 times faster than the previous generation 4G. The World Economic Forum had described that the era we are going to enter as being the “Fourth Industrial Revolution
The U.S Federal government has been stressing this upgrade to the national infrastructure from the very beginning, as they might have been interested to add many billions of devices to the already saturated wireless infrastructure.
Tom Wheeler, the Former Head of Federal Communication Commision
The problem arises when it is about the storage space. Exabytes are something used to measure the multiple storage networks or simply the amount of data transferred over the internet in a certain amount of time. In 2018, it was 19 exabytes per month, but after the 5G comes to the reality it may need more than 77 exabytes. For high definition video and more streaming content and application of virtual and augmented reality need lot of space.
The winter Olympics and the Super Bowl
Although the 5G phones are not coming until 2019, the demonstrations of early 5G networks had already taken place in the Olympic Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea and the Super Bowl in Minneapolis (2018). In the Winter Olympic Games, a collaboration between Intel, Samsung, and Korean telecom demonstrated the several applications of the 5G network. There was even a “5G” zone in their venues allowing spectators to analyze the video in short time slices. Even there were 100 cameras installed around the ice rink which position 360-degree view angle for the spectators to view in their special tablets.
What’s the Hype?
Ever since the 5G talks, there was always a hype going on between the relation of IoT and 5G. There is no doubt that 5G could provide superfast bandwidth and low latency (1 ms response time), many product developers and enterprises have been investing more money into 5G.
The cellular network providers had launched Cat-M1 in 2017 for their IoT applications. The Cat-M1 is an LTE (Long-Term-Evolution) network/chipset which consumes less power and improved battery life. It is an LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) that allows you to connect IoT applications and M2M devices. The extended version is NB-IoT or LTE Cat NB1. Both are designed for Low Power Wide Area interface.
Credits: https://www.u-blox.com/en/lte-cat-m1
For example, within the Smart Cities, the Cat M1 can determine waste management issues, control street lightings, monitor the road conditions, determine the environmental conditions and so on. so for these applications, there will be a small data transfer once or twice a day. The Cat M1 is compatible with the LTE network, while the NB-IoT doesn’t operate in the LTE band as it eliminates the gateway, the sensor data are directly sent to the main server.
There are a number of use case and requirements built on a specific IoT application. All we need to do is to select the better cellular IoT options available. With all the cellular options like Cat M1, NB- IoT, EC-GSM we get lower cost and low power solutions for the IoT applications. The most hyped 5G with the high-speed bandwidth, with increased data transfer, and low latency had not yet defined about implementations in connectivity of devices.
We are not sure about the effects of 5G on our applications until it arrives. The ultimate needs of an application of IoT are the price, coverage and the lower power consumption. Maybe the advancements in LTE networks which comprises the applications of IoT take over the next 10 years. The IoT application is broad, we should research good enough to figure out which connectivity option is best for the kind of application you are going to implement. It always depends on the application and the choice of connectivity.
Conclusion
As I said earlier, super fast bandwidth and ultra-low latency are not required for all the IoT application. Besides that, 5G supports the current cellular technology LTE NB-IoT, Cat- M1, etc, which remains to be low power consumption, low cost and reliable in the future. With all the factors considered that includes the 5G, the IoT deployments expand in greater scope and operate at greater efficiency. This leads to more and more advancements in future technology!
