5G technology impacts everyone, not just engineers.
The concept for 5G is both an evolution of wireless networks to meet future demands for data, and a revolution in architecture to enable a flexible and cost efficient network that can be efficiently scaled.
These are the network operator operational demands on the network and technology, but they are driven by the demands for the type user experience which should be offered.
For the non-engineer, it’s important to grasp basic concepts such as the differences among 4G, 5G and standalone (SA) 5G. Many believe the major difference between 5G and its predecessor 4G is speed.
And it’s true, 5G is already 10 times faster than 4G in some places thanks to millimeter waves (mmWaves). These high frequency waves stretch from 24 GHz to 100 GHz for 5G purposes, giving 5G technology its signature speed. 4G technology, on the other hand, taps into a slower frequency band, which accounts for its slower speeds.
But the differences between 5G and 4G are more involved than just the speed factor. Bandwidth is a major defining aspect. Because 5G operates in the much less crowded millimeter band, it has significantly more capacity which amounts to much more sufficient use of available spectrum.
4G is stuffed into a narrow slice of the available spectrum from 600 MHz to 2.5 GHz, which impacts efficiency due to overcrowding in this spectrum. This also limits use cases for consumers, businesses and industries.
Millimeter waves also give 5G the advantage in latency. The delay between the sending and receiving of information is about 200 milliseconds for 4G, but only 1millisecond with 5G. The near zero latency of 5G technology eliminates buffering and allows new applications and technologies such as remote surgery to function smoothly.
In the initial rollout of 5G, carriers had to combine characteristics of both 5G and 4G as 5G infrastructures were still being built out.
However, consumers are now able to get just the 5G architecture known as standalone 5G. Only in this configuration are the full benefits of 5G technology realized.
Want to learn more? Tonex offers 5G Wireless Training for Non Engineers, a 2-day course that is a combination of theoretical lectures and practical insight that helps participants gain in-depth knowledge about current and future state of 5G mobile technology.
Additionally, Tonex offers 20 more cutting edge 5G Wireless courses with titles like:
5G for Sales and Tech Sales/Support Training (2 days)
5G Cybersecurity Bootcamp (4 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.