Imagine a world where car traffic and delays becomes non-existent, where movies and games can be downloaded and played instantly, where your entire home is smart for convenience! This is the ‘new gen’ type of life that 5G – and the internet of things (IOT) – promises.
So what is 5G and why you’ve been probably hearing about it via news channels or social media? Well, 5G means the 5th generation standard technology for telecommunication systems. Basically, the comparison of current network speed to 5G is the same as comparing a bicycle to a Ferrari. This ludicrous speed (up to 10 Gigabits per second), means that not only you could download games and movies instantly, but also online education and conferences could become more realistic as there would less ‘lag’ and more “in tuned and involved” with Virtual reality gloves and goggles.
While parallelly, there has been a rise in “Internet of things” or in a more general sense: home automation devices like Alexa/google home/ Panasonic LED bulb, and even home security cams – All connected to your mobile phone at your finger tips, and even sometimes voice commanded. These devices can be set in multiple ways, such as – if you’re driving home on a cold rainy day, then the home’s heater activates so by the time you enter- you’ll be greeted by a warm welcome than by an icebox. Its so easy that you can set your entire breakfast routine, with daily news & weather forecast by tapping on a few options in your smartphone.
Now apart from the obvious benefit we would get from 5G and IOT, in the automobile industry, 5G can, and will, with its milli-wave technology, be used as a complement to self driving cars so the cars can communicate with each other and inform the “driver” about future obstacles, effectively eliminating traffic in the large scale, and with the involvement of Elon Musk’s Starlink project, this would further propel the self driving electric vehicles on the market as its proven to be safer and later cheaper. Apart from machinery side of this new technology, 5G will turn out to be a beneficial upgrade in the healthcare sector, ranging from clearer MRI scanners to IOT powered smart robots for surgery- which can be controlled either remotely by an authorized surgeon, or the machine itself.
However, there’s a slight downside, more of a roadblock, that because 5G uses millimetre wave technology – it wouldn’t travel much further than 4G or even radio and could get ‘lost/absorbed’ in the environment, hence the increase use of planting in more towers closer to each other, close enough to be only separated by around 2 or 3 blocks before re-bouncing the signal; this could be detrimental to future tech such as 6G’s and beyond.
Nevertheless, humanity finds a way. One such solution is to use the IOT devices themselves to bounce signals and act like minitowers, as most of these IOT’s are efficient enough to run on low power yet be connected enough to reduce the lag. further evolution in that path would lead to wireless antennas embedded within the building’s architecture itself, or in those sofas.
Another solution is to use some kind of technology we haven’t invented yet. But anyway, smartphones are barely more than a decade old and now we have foldable supercomputers in our pocket. Who knows what happens in the future!
When I’ve read about 5G in the past I had never heard of the solution you proposed to “use the IOT devices themselves to bounce signals and act like minitowers, as most of these IOT’s are efficient enough to run on low power yet be connected enough to reduce the lag.” but it sees like an incredible solution to resolve the need to build new massive infrastructure to power the 5G networks. Are there companies already working towards this project, or has it been difficult to partner between telecommunication companies and IOT technology companies? I saw that the newest iPhones will all have 5G capabilities, and while I personally don’t plan to upgrade me phone yet, I am very excited to see how much faster they can use the internet and how it reshapes the digital landscape.
It seems like there are endless possibilities of what you can do with 5G. It is super interesting and If I’m being honest I don’t totally understand. I heard one day you might even be able to surgery virtually with how little lag it has. It seems like it is going to be a great thing for the world. I also saw that the new iPhone which just got released has 5G capability.
“who knows what could happen in the future” you’re so right! Humanity always does find a way, doesn’t it. It amazes me the leaps and bounds we are making in technology but that little effort is put into technology for reducing carbon emissions and what not… but that’s a conversation for another day, lol. The only info I’ve heard about 5G is that its much faster than 4G (so much so, you could do surgery remotely) but that countries the US doesn’t have the best relations with had already released it and the US didn’t want to get involved. Apple just announced the iPhone 12 will run on 5G, which I thought was impressive. I think the idea to have IOT devices work as minitowers for 5G signal is really interesting. I wonder if that will happen in the future!