5G is commonly associated with ultra-fast speeds, but in reality 5G is important as a foundational tech.
What that means is when carriers switch to standalone (SA) 5G later this year or next, this advanced network architecture will lay the foundation for exciting new technologies such as self-driving cars, virtual and augmented reality and telemedicine services such as remote surgery.
It will also supercharge the Internet of Things (IoT) and connect everything from your smartphone and coffee maker to security video and agricultural equipment.
While having networking speeds 10 to 100 times faster than a common cellular connection will be nice, the key to 5G unlocking the tech door to other venues is something called latency – standalone 5G will have practically none.
Latency is the response time between when you click on a link or start streaming a video on your phone, which sends the request up to the network, and when the network responds, delivering you the website or playing your video.
That lag time can last around 20 milliseconds with current networks. It doesn’t seem like much, but with 5G, that latency gets reduced to as little as 1 millisecond, or about the time it takes for a flash on a normal camera.
That level of responsiveness is necessary for a surgeon on the East Coast to be in full control of robotic arms performing a delicate life or death surgery on the West Coast. With this sort of procedure, you don’t buffering, so near zero latency is critical.
Of course most people aren’t going to be performing remote surgeries. But many people will benefit from near zero latency while on a Zoom call. That’s because lag time will practically disappear, even on calls between people on different sides of the planet.
There’s also gear designed for 5G use that will kick in once 5G breaks away from its incipient co-dependence on 4G. For example, some products like sensors for farming equipment don’t need a constant connection. Those kinds of low-power scanners are intended to work on the same battery for 10 years and still be able to periodically send data.
Want to know more about 5G and what it can do for you and your organization? Tonex offers nearly two dozen cutting edge 5G Wireless courses, such as:
5G Wireless Networks Training | The Fundamentals (2 days)
5G for Sales and Tech Sales/Support Training (2 days)
5G Wireless Training for Non Engineers (2 days)
5G Wi-Fi Offload Training (2 days)
5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training (3 days)
LTE Advanced Pro Training (3 days)
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.