5G Classes and Seminars: The major carriers are busting it to bring consumers the next generation of mobile broadband known as 5G.
And little wonder considering what 5G technology can do. At the top of the immediate list is improved broadband. 5G adds huge amounts of spectrum in bands that have not been used for commercial broadband traffic. This is important because many carriers are running out of LTE capacity in metropolitan areas.
Unlike LTE, 5G operates on three different spectrum bands: low-band, mid-band and high-band.
Low-band spectrum is often described as sub 1GHz spectrum. It is primarily the spectrum band used by carriers in the U.S. for LTE, and is quickly becoming depleted. While low-band spectrum offers great coverage area and penetration, peak data speeds will top out around 100Mbps.
Mid-band spectrum provides faster coverage and lower latency than on low-band. It does, however, fail to penetrate buildings as well as low-band spectrum. Consumers can anticipate peak speeds up to 1Gbps on mid-band spectrum.
High-band spectrum is what most people think of when they think of 5G. It is often referred to as mmWave. High-band spectrum can offer peak speeds up to 10 Gbps and has very low latency. The major drawback of high-band is that it has low coverage area and building penetration is poor.
The Autonomous Vehicles Are Coming
The new 5G technology is essential for the advancement of self-driving vehicles. That’s because it takes a type of broadband with low latency and super speed for vehicles to communicate with one another as well as provide performance information to drivers and car manufacturers. Without the human factor, self-driving cars are expected to be safer and capable of saving many more lives on the road.
Can 5G Make Cities Smarter?
Municipalities will soon be able to implement public health, safety and welfare programs not possible with the earlier broadband technologies. 5G will serve as the foundation for small-cell networks that will power the next generation of wireless network infrastructure in a city. The connectivity and computing capacity that 5G enables will make smart cities more of a reality.
Expect sensors that notify public works departments when drains flood or street lights go out, systems that alert drivers to parking spaces (reducing CO2 emissions), and smart grids that determine the necessary amount of electricity depending on the demand.
IoT and 5G
Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity advancements are dependent on 5G. While there are sensors currently that can communicate with each other, they tend to require a lot of resources and are quickly depleting LTE data capacity. A new generation of mMTC smart devices will require fewer resources making them much more efficient.
There’s a lot more to know about 5G. Tonex offers 20 cutting-edge 5G Wireless courses to keep you and your organization up to date and in the 5G broadband loop.
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