5G innovation is about to add an edge in digital transformation. It is now a raising question of 5g going to be a disruptive technology or emerging technology? This speculation comes from two aspects – the technical and business model of the mobile sector. 5G technology, the revolutionary evolution of mobile network technology will provide increased capability to the customers and the business. 5g vs. 4g speed, which is almost 100 times faster, is not the single factor behind it. Instead, 5G specifications spur leaps in other factors, too, like latency, capacity, coverage, etc.

However, despite many advantages, 5G has many associated challenges: technology, business model, and operational challenges. Thus, the introduction of the 5G network is expected to some disruptions related to these areas. Let’s have some insights on both sides.

Related post – How Mobile Edge computing is contributing to the 5G network?

How is 5G disruptive technically?

Technological disruption aspects:

We will look into the impact of new technologies in 5G, based on the Henderson-Clark model. As per IEEE analysis, for high data rates and lower latency, 5G network design needs some significant modifications, which can be considered disruptions. For example –

1. Introduction of a new waveform which is no doubt a disruptive change.

2. Introduction of new types of nodes which is architectural disruptions.

3. Change in node and architectural level which is a radical change.

Additionally, IEEE suggests that five technologies will lead to the above changes, which are basically playing disruptive technologies in the 5G revolution.

1. Device-centric architectures

If we perform a 5G vs. 4G comparison, then in 5G opportunities, there won’t be any base-station-centric architecture of cellular systems. Instead, it will be device-centric architecture where concepts of uplink, downlink, control, and data channels must be considered for better information routing between the 5G network nodes.

2. Millimetre Wave (mmWave) communication

One of the purposes of 5G is to use a massive range of frequency bands for the flexibility of use cases and open up the scope for wide bandwidth. Furthermore, 5G targets from low to the very high-frequency range –

1 .Low Band (Sub 1 GHz) – Low-frequency cells for coverage layer.

2. High Bands (1 GHz to 6 GHz) – High-frequency cells or capacity layer for smart cities, vehicle monitoring, transport management

3. Very High Bands (Above 6 GHz and mmWave) – High throughput Hotspots For example, for large a scale events where thousands of users need to be covered, vehicle communication, etc.

Though spectrum is scarce for microwave frequency, mmWave, an enormous spectrum is possible due to its high-frequency range, which is almost from 3- 300 GHz.

Now there are few challenges associated with mmWave-

Hardware challenge due to the high power consumption of mmWave. As conventional microwave theory does not hold good for antenna without further advancement of semiconductor technology.

Propagation is another concerning area when dealing with mmWave. Sensitivity to the blockage between microwave and mmWave differs significantly and thus for density.

Antenna array has a significant role for mmWave. In this case, adaptive array processing algorithms are required for noise-free and blockage free communication.

Thus to overcome the challenges mentioned above, some radical changes in the existing architecture are required, and so mmWave is a disruptive technology for 5G.

3. Massive-MIMO

Massive-MIMO, or large scale antenna systems, proposes a large number of antennas at base stations, which is indeed scope for scalability, unlike 4G. However, it demands major architectural, deployment, and design changes, which is a real challenge from the development and implementation point of view. Hence, although massive MIMO adoption could be a major leap for the 5G, it needs many experiments, studies, and overcoming challenges.

4. Smarter devices

Earlier generations of cellular networks had complete control over infrastructure based on design. However, this approach will change in the case of 5G, and it will stress more on smarter devices. Mainly three different types of design philosophy will be incorporated into more intelligent devices –

1. Device-to-Device (D2D)

2 .Local caching

3. Advanced interference rejection

The implementations mentioned above mainly require node level changes, but it has also change requirements at the architectural level.

5. Native support for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication

Indigenous support inclusion of M2M communication in 5G needs to satisfy three fundamentally different classes of low-data-rate services support:

1 .A massive number of low-rate devices

2. Sustainment of a minimum data rate in virtually all circumstances

3 . Very-low-latency data transfer

Addressing the above requirements in 5G requires new ideas and methods at both the component and architectural level.

How disruptive is 5G for mobile business models?

It is expected that the footsteps of 5G will significantly change the horizontal and vertical business model in the mobile sector. There will be radical changes and advancements for both consumers and suppliers from the supply and demand perspective. First, if we consider the supply end, there will be fast and robust network connectivity in the form of a 5G network; besides, it will facilitate a single network with various facilities. Second, from demand perspectives, there will be a complete digital transformation for diverse communication functions.

There will be higher competition from the mobile operator and supplier end, and communications products will become more commoditized. For technical facilitation, more regulatory changes are expected to be implemented mainly for radio access networks (RAN).

Operational disruptions related to 5G

According to the survey, the primary operational challenge related to 5G is the lack of 5G-enabled devices. Though companies have already started producing 5G-capable phones, the main struggle here is to identify the network mapping to install 5G equipment. Additionally, the expense of making such devices and the lack of back-end infrastructure for supporting the radio network is another largest obstacle.

5G has many evolutionary potential too

The 5th generation of network or 5G is a combination of technologies and methods expected to meet the extreme performance and capacity of a mobile network. From a user perspective, one can expect ‘no latency, gigabit experience’ as per the theoretical claim. In a nutshell, 5g network features are expected to provide:

-Faster download and upload speeds up to 20 Gbps

-Terminal localization within 1 meter

-Smoother streaming of online content with less than 1ms latency

-Higher-quality voice and video calls

-More reliable mobile connections where mobility is expected as fast as at 500 km/hour

-More than a trillion of connected IoT devices or M2M (Machine to machine) connectivity

-Connectivity of 20 million of user devices

-Expansion of advanced technologies – including self-driving cars and smart cities

Hence, 5G will connect more devices to the 5G network, and the network will perform everything better than 4G. Also, 5G devices are expected to support five times better battery life than 4G.

To conclude, we can say whether 5G is disruptive or an evolution that will be unveiled eventually. However, the required architectural changes proposed for 5G seem disruptive; technologically, those can be considered evolution. So, let’s watch out next few years and uncloud the mysteries!

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