Almost 80 per cent of Australian businesses are set to adopt 5G services within the next three years, with the new network promising greater network availability, device capability and connection speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G.
Optus recently launched its 5G network following Telstra’s rollout late last year.
But while there’s been plenty of buzz surrounding 5G, there have also been a number of concerns, from endangering our health to threatening our safety and security and harming the environment. Not to mention the fact that it may not work indoors.
So, is 5G feasible within the current Australian telecommunications environment? According to Professor Branka Vucetic, Director of the Centre for IoT and Telecommunications within the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at The University of Sydney, the move towards 5G networks is inevitable.
“Every 10 years the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) committee, which is an international standards organisation that develops protocols for mobile communication networks, in cooperation with telecommunications vendors, operators and research communities, comes up with a new generation of cellular networks,” Vucetic told create.
“This is the 5th generation since we established mobiles. It’s inevitable progress to meet the demand.”
But Vucetic noted the progression was not solely for data rates. With more mobile phones in the world now than people, the next step is connecting things and machines.
“5G will have three kinds of services,” she said.
“One is enhanced mobile broadband, which will improve data rates for smart phones and internet access and introduce some new services like virtual and augmented reality. This is business-as-usual of increasing data rates and network capacity … [but] there are also two new services for the Internet of Things (IoT).”
Massive and mission-critical
The first, massive IoT, refers to applications that require a large volume of low-cost, low-energy consumption devices on a network with large area coverage.
“It will be used for environmental monitoring, logistics in transportation, electricity and water metering … situations that require a large number of sensors for monitoring,” Vucetic said.
The second, mission-critical IoT, involves critical functions in healthcare, manufacturing and energy grids, as well as applications like telerobotic surgery.
“It’s called ‘mission-critical’ because these applications are not allowed to fail. These services have completely different requirements from smart phones,” Vucetic said.
More of the same?
And what about the ongoing frustrations surrounding the NBN? Are we likely to experience more of the same in transitioning to 5G?
For one thing, the deployment itself is likely to be a much simpler process. While the NBN is more expensive to install because it requires a lot of digging and cabling, Vucetic said wireless is much easier to deploy because telecommunications vendors provide the equipment and operators buy the spectrum.
Nonetheless, engineers will be critical in ensuring a smooth transition to 5G.
“It’s mainly an engineering task to ensure reliability and high speeds,” Vucetic said.
“Engineers are critical for designing the network and implementing, deploying and maintaining the network.”