Science, Technology and International Relations

Photo Source: NetworkWorld.com
   NIAS Course on Global Politics
National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)
Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore
For any further information or to subscribe to GP alerts send an email to subachandran@nias.res.in

Science, Technology and International Relations
5G: A Primer

  Lakshman Chakravarthy N

5G enables the purported Internet of Things, makes autonomous driving systems more reliable, actualizes performing surgeries remotely, revolutionizes industrial robotics and makes virtual reality a step closer to reality, among many other potential uses.

5G is the next-generation wireless communication technology, succeeding the current 4G technology. It can potentially transform our usage of the internet and offers applications that were not possible with previous-generation technologies. 5G enables the purported Internet of Things, makes autonomous driving systems more reliable, actualizes performing surgeries remotely, revolutionizes industrial robotics and makes virtual reality a step closer to reality, among many other potential uses. The promising applications that 5G can bring about can be crucial advances for tomorrow’s societies and thus should be of concern from a strategic perspective. 
 
The Why, What and How of 5G
With the exponential growth in data usage, the existing band of waves used in 4G services is getting more congested day after day. When a lot of users access a network simultaneously, this congestion leads to breakdowns in service. 5G technology is based on communication through millimetre waves, which are shorter than the waves used for current 4G and Wi-Fi networks. Millimetre waves were not previously used for any communication and are therefore far less congested compared to the longer-range waves used in 4G networks. The lack of congestion can make the data transfer run up to 10 times faster than the current internet speeds. The network’s core is redesigned to have central hubs communicating with local hubs. The popular content, e.g. video-on-demand services can be moved closer to the user on the local hubs. This reduces the time to access the content. The central and local hubs are better integrated with the internet and cloud-based services, as compared to the previous-generation networks. Such changes in the design of the network allow for very little latency in responding and thus promote very fast responses. This feature opens up a plethora of applications that need almost real-time correspondence, like vehicle collision avoidance systems. Also, coding improvements applied to the 5G network massively boosts the reliability of the communication, making the delay or loss of a message extremely rare.

The communication devices connect to antennas which relay the information back and forth between the hubs and the devices and thus are a crucial component of networks. The new 5G antennas can connect to 100 times more devices than a 4G antenna at the same time while occupying the same physical space as a 4G antenna. This allows for multiple devices to be connected at once to the network and thus to each other. This opens up a massive machine-to-machine communication, enabling the Internet of Things, letting multiple devices connect to perform operations without human involvement. Given their nature, millimeter waves can travel in a single direction like a beam, with very little dispersal in other directions. This is like a flashlight that focuses light in one direction, as compared to a light bulb that disperses light in all directions. By combining this property with technology on the antenna that can steer the beam, a specific signal can be directed to its corresponding device rather than in all directions. This reduces interference from unwanted signals and thus increases efficiency. Also, this establishes more stable connectivity for devices on the move like mobile users or autonomous driving systems.
 
What difference is 5G going to make? 
High-speed data transfer promotes high-quality streaming and enhanced mobile broadband for home internet access. It also transforms broadcast applications that currently rely upon relatively expensive satellite transmission. Virtual reality systems based on heavy data-usage can now operate on wireless systems with similar efficacy offered by fiber-optic communication. This transforms mobile virtual reality which can be more seamless than previous versions and also similar applications in augmented reality, which combines virtual reality features with real-world features (like the popular game of Pokemon Go).

The massive machine-to-machine communication revolutionizes modern industrial processes, agriculture, manufacturing, and business communication. Interconnected devices like drone swarms can be effectively employed in search and rescue operations, fire assessments and traffic monitoring apart from other applications. The high-reliable, low-latency communication offers real-time control necessary to deal with emergencies in industrial robotics, autonomous driving systems and remote healthcare procedures like surgeries as well as treatment.

5G technology allows for customized services, where the quality of service can be altered according to the need of the user. Previous-generation technologies employed a one-size-fits-all method, which is no longer a viable solution for technical and market reasons. Imagine a local hub of a 5G network parallelly serving a YouTuber and a local system managing autonomous vehicles. The YouTuber may wish to exploit the fast download and upload speeds and is less concerned about the response latency. Whereas the autonomous driving system requires real-time monitoring offered by low latency communication and is less interested in data transfer speeds. 5G systems incorporate technology to offer a 'slice' of the network for the YouTuber and another independent one for the autonomous driving system. This customization opens up multiple potential applications to make use of the network efficiently. From the market perspective, different slices can be offered to operations by different applications, services or industries, boosting revenue generation.
 
What are the challenges?
The benefits offered by tapping into using millimeter waves for communication were not already realized because of the hardware requirements to access these waves are completely different from the ones used for previous-generation technologies. The industry has shown readiness in incorporating the expensive hardware into the devices. However, complications do not end there. Added to this issue is the problem of the range of operation using millimeter waves. These waves cover only short ranges around an antenna and thus three to four times more antennas than the current 4G ones need to be deployed. The speed of the network ultimately is a function of the spectrum band used for communication and the ubiquity of the antennae that the telecom operator establishes. This raises costs exponentially for the telecom operators, who are already burdened by the billions that they pay to regulators to buy slivers of the spectrum.

Since the millimeter waves can be absorbed by any intervening object, the device has to be in the line-of-sight of an antenna. This requires small antennae to be deployed, nearly in every single room of a building, on every lamp post of a road to ensure complete coverage. A considerable fiber-optic connection has to be established linking all the small antennae. Given the huge costs, rolling out the technology for public usage becomes a lengthy process. Added to all the woes are the municipality regulations for the installation of all the devices and accounting for the health hazards that can potentially result from the installation. If these impediments are handled in a planned manner, the benefits of 5G can impact the future of individuals, corporations, and nation-states.  

Print Bookmark

PREVIOUS COMMENTS

March 2024 | CWA # 1251

NIAS Africa Team

Africa This Week
February 2024 | CWA # 1226

NIAS Africa Team

Africa This Week
December 2023 | CWA # 1189

Hoimi Mukherjee | Hoimi Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in Bankura Zilla Saradamani Mahila Mahavidyapith.

Chile in 2023: Crises of Constitutionality
December 2023 | CWA # 1187

Aprajita Kashyap | Aprajita Kashyap is a faculty of Latin American Studies, School of International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi.

Haiti in 2023: The Humanitarian Crisis
December 2023 | CWA # 1185

Binod Khanal | Binod Khanal is a Doctoral candidate at the Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi.

The Baltic: Energy, Russia, NATO and China
December 2023 | CWA # 1183

Padmashree Anandhan | Padmashree Anandhan is a Research Associate at the School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangaluru.

Germany in 2023: Defence, Economy and Energy Triangle
December 2023 | CWA # 1178

​​​​​​​Ashok Alex Luke | Ashok Alex Luke is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at CMS College, Kottayam.

China and South Asia in 2023: Advantage Beijing?
December 2023 | CWA # 1177

Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri | Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri is a postgraduate student at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at the University of Madras, Chennai.

China and East Asia
October 2023 | CWA # 1091

Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri

Issues for Europe
July 2023 | CWA # 1012

Bibhu Prasad Routray

Myanmar continues to burn
December 2022 | CWA # 879

Padmashree Anandhan

The Ukraine War
November 2022 | CWA # 838

Rishma Banerjee

Tracing Europe's droughts
March 2022 | CWA # 705

NIAS Africa Team

In Focus: Libya
December 2021 | CWA # 630

GP Team

Europe in 2021
October 2021 | CWA # 588

Abigail Miriam Fernandez

TLP is back again
August 2021 | CWA # 528

STIR Team

Space Tourism
September 2019 | CWA # 162

Lakshman Chakravarthy N

5G: A Primer
December 2018 | CWA # 71

Mahesh Bhatta | Centre for South Asian Studies, Kathmandu

Nepal
December 2018 | CWA # 70

Nasima Khatoon | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

The Maldives
December 2018 | CWA # 69

Harini Madhusudan | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

India
December 2018 | CWA # 68

Sourina Bej | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

Bangladesh
December 2018 | CWA # 67

Seetha Lakshmi Dinesh Iyer | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

Afghanistan