'5년 후 : 5G는 지금 어디에 있을까?'란 주제로 마우저 일렉트로닉스(Mouser Electronics) 장 자크 들릴(JJ DeLisle)이 이야기 한다.
1.5 billion fastest mobile broadband technologies by 2023
↑ More use in technology expansion such as V2X and IoT deployment
The development of the 5G standard and cellular wireless technologies based on it have attracted significant attention as the advent of a new wireless era.
The promise of 5G is touted as a set of revolutionary new technologies and capabilities for mobile and fixed wireless communications that will rapidly and forever change the face of autonomous systems, smart device user experiences, businesses, automobiles, travel, and more.
This article looks at what’s new in 5G since its introduction in 2019.
As we look back on the first five years of 5G, we wonder whether 5G is simply another hype technology, or whether we are well on our way to the fully interconnected future it promises.
■ So what is 5G?
5G is the latest generation of cellular wireless technology that is theoretically stated to far surpass the capabilities of 2G, 3G, and 4G.
5G new radio (NR) began in late 2017 with the release of 2GPP Release 15, also known as “5G Phase 1.”
This release presents the initial specifications for 5G Non-Standalone (NSA), the underlying architecture for 5G.
The NSA means that 5G wireless systems will require existing 4G LTE networks to operate. />
Therefore, this release also includes improvements to LTE, particularly the Enhanced Packet Core (EPC), paving the way for future 5G.
2GPP Release 15 addressed three key use cases planned for 5G: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine-type communications (mMTC).
15 also included several items needed to investigate non-terrestrial wireless access (access) systems, including satellites, airborne base stations, and maritime applications (e.g., ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore).
This release also includes progress on the Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) capability for LTE, which includes enhancements to railway-centric services that began on GSM radios.
The second phase of Release 15 in June 2018 completed the first set of 5G standards and introduced 5G Standalone (SA) capabilities.
This enables deployment of 5G systems without existing LTE cores.
The launch of 3GPP Release 16 in 2020 built on Release 15 with several enhancements aimed at improving capacity, latency, power, mobility, ease of deployment, and reliability.
Key improvements include LTE-based 5G terrestrial broadcasting, NavIC navigation satellite system for LTE, downlink (DL) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) for LTE, and LTE speed performance in high-speed scenarios.
3GPP Prival Release 17 was released in 2022, bringing several important developments.
Some important areas to consider here are efforts to improve the positioning and timing capabilities of 5G and the use of satellites in the near future.The advent of non-terrestrial network (NTN) technology that will enable wireless equipment (UE) or airborne platform-UE.
Another exciting development is the potential to integrate machine learning/artificial intelligence (ML/AI) technologies with 5G UEs and base stations to enable cognitive radio capabilities.
These capabilities allow UEs and base stations to quickly adapt to environmental conditions and adjust appropriately to optimize real-time services.
■ Where is 5G today?
According to GSMA Intelligence, there will be more than 1.5 billion 5G connections by the end of 2023.
This makes 5G the fastest-growing mobile broadband technology to date.
However, most of these 5G connections are likely not the type of connections that demonstrate 5G’s potential.
Most of these connections are mid-band/FR1 (1 GHz to 7.125 GHz), formerly called sub-6 GHz.
This represents a slight advancement over 4G LTE, and in some cases actually performs much worse than existing 4G LTE deployments.
5G has had significant success in Fixed Wires Access (FWA) deployments that use both mid-band and high-band/FR2 (24.25 GHz and above to 71 GHz).
Many major markets, including the US, Germany and Australia, as well as other markets such as Austria, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have reported FWA service adoption rates reaching 5%.
Some of the success of 5G rollout may be due to many areas and some areas having outages in 2G and 3G services, which may have artificially forced some users to switch to 5G.
/> Other observed benefits of 5G service plans include cheaper data rates per gigabyte than 4G LTE, and users in certain areas where the latest 5G systems have been deployed have experienced download speeds that far exceed 4G LTE speeds.
Most new 5G deployments have occurred in high-income and urban areas within countries, raising concerns about a new digital divide.
Some of these concerns may be alleviated by NTN technology, which could make it easier to deliver 5G services to rural and sparsely populated areas where existing terrestrial 5G deployment architectures may not be feasible.
It’s important to remember that 5G is still in the early stages of deployment, which will likely continue for 15 to 20 years.
Many of the advancements in 5G, such as mMTC, URLLC, NTN, and V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communications, are so new and different from previous mobile broadband use cases that it will naturally take some time for these technologies to be developed and gain traction.
5G is also starting to attract more attention for private network applications, which previously comprised only a tiny fraction of mobile broadband deployments.
5G services are also starting to support users beyond smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches, and more connections are likely to emerge as V2X and IoT deployments and technologies become more widely available.
※ Contributor
Jean-Jacques Delil (Jean-Jacques DeLisle received his BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). While at RIT, he pursued RF/microwave research, wrote for the university magazine, and was a founding member of an improvisational comedy club. Before completing his degree, he was hired by Synaptics as an IC layout and automated test design engineer. After six years of research developing and analyzing coaxial antenna and wireless sensor technologies, he graduated from RIT, where he had published numerous technical papers and applied for U.S. patents. To further his career, he moved to New York City with his wife to work as the technical engineering editor for Microwaves & RF magazine. While at the magazine, he learned how to combine his skills and passion for RF engineering and technical writing. This experience led him to recognize the need for technically competent technical writers and objective industry experts, and he started his own company, RFEMX. In line with these goals, we have made progress, expanded the company's size and vision, and launched Information Exchange Services (IXS).