5G Networks and Their Applications: Ushering in a New Era

Background

By transmitting the letter “S”(. . .) over a distance of 3 km in the form of three dots of Morse code with the use of electromagnetic waves, Italian inventor G. Marconi opens the way for modern wireless communications. Following its introduction, wireless communications have grown to constitute a significant aspect of modern civilization (Wu et al., 2017). The way society functions has changed as a result of wireless communications, which have moved from satellite communication, television, and radio transmission to the ubiquitous mobile telephone. The 1G and 2G technologies uses circuit switching whereas 2.5G and 3G uses both packet and circuit switching and the next generation from 3.5G to 5G uses packet switching. Below is a summary of wireless technologies:

• 1.

  1G

  • This is basically the First Generation initiated in 1980’s with a data rate up to 2.4 Kbps. It supports voice calls only. Voice calls were more vulnerable to unauthorized third-party eavesdropping because they were recorded and played in radio towers.

• 2.

  2G

  • This is the major upgrade in the cell phone industry. As introduced in late 1990’s this took cell phone from analog to digital communications. With a data rate of up to 64kbps and was mostly utilized for voice transmission. It also offers e-mail and the Short Message Service (SMS) (Chochliouros et al., 2017). The three most important and prominent technologies were Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and IS-95.

• 3.

  2.5G and 2.75G

  • The main and prominent technologies which firstly enabled data transfer with use of GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution). Although it uses the 2G technology framework, packet switching and circuit switching are also used. With increase speed and slow data transmission possible with this. It can assist upto 144Kbps.

• 4.

  3G

  • The 3^rd Generation systems combine Internet Protocol (IP) based services with high-speed mobile connectivity. With transmission rate up to 2 Mbps the era of Video calling and mobile internet access began. The inclusion off extra features like International Roaming and enhanced voice quality makes 3G a remarkable generation. With evolving technologies such as High-Speed Uplink/Downlink Packet Access (HSUPA/HSDPA) a bridge between 3G and 4G known as 3.5G emerge with improved data rate of 5-30Mbps.

• 5.

  4G

  • It is generally referred to as the offspring of 2G and 3G standards. With Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced and Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) are being standardized by the 3GPP as the upcoming 4G standards. With inclusion of more amenities like Voice, Internet and multimedia available for the users everywhere and every time basis and at significantly higher data-rates than pervious.

• 6.

  5G

  • With user demand increasing exponentially, 4G will soon be superseded by 5G with an advanced access technology BDMA (Beam Division Multiple Access) and FBMC (Filter Bank Multi Carrier) multiple access. By examining the scenario of the base station interacting with the mobile stations, the BDMA technique's theoretical underpinnings are clarified (Le et al., 2016). Each mobile station in this communication is given an orthogonal beam, and the BDMA technique divides that antenna beam based on the positions of the mobile stations to allow for numerous accesses to the mobile stations, which accordingly boosts the system's capacity. The recently introduced IEEE 802.11ac, 802.11ad and 802.11af standards are very beneficial and serve as a foundation for 5G.