Dawn of the 5G

5G has arrived – but you won’t be able to access it until 2020. Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK have received £540,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to develop the technology.

With uses across a number of industries, 5G should provide quicker and stronger internet access and allow users to transfer large amounts of data. It will be used with 4G systems, which are currently used in mobile phones and devices.

The EPSRC grant has bought two pieces of equipment called radio channel emulators which will be used to test out the effectiveness of the 5G technology.

Professor Andrew Nix, dean of engineering and head of the communication systems and networks group at the university, said: “These emulators are vital. They allow us to replicate, in our laboratory, the radio channel between a city base station and a mobile device – this allows us to test the quality of your internet connection before any 5G base stations and mobile devices even exist.”

Unlike 4G and Wi-Fi, 5G will make use of much higher frequencies to transmit data. Currently, 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi use frequencies below 6GHz – while 5G will make use of millimetre wave frequencies between 40 and 70GHz.

As they are not in use, the millimetre waves have lots of space to transmit large amounts of data, making 5G around 50 times faster than current 4G systems. 5G will also be 100 times quicker than current connections.

The time it takes for a device to respond to an action will decrease from 100th of a millisecond to 1,000th of a millisecond. One of the problems engineers are trying to solve is how to adequately design the 5G signals.

Professor Nix said: “The higher the radio frequency, the weaker the received signal. To overcome this we are working on beam steering technology. 4G networks transmit radio signals everywhere, but with beam steering we focus the 5G radio signals directly on your phone or device. Think of it like focusing a beam of light from a torch at an object – this is the plan for 5G.”

A device or mobile phone will use a combination of 5G, 4G Wi-Fi and cellular connections simultaneously, which will get rid of the dreaded ‘black spot’ for good.

Professor Nix said: “It will have massive implications for people across the world. You might have an elderly person living with 5G-enabled sensors and cameras in their home. These can call the emergency services if they detect an accident or medical problem.”

5G will bring the internet to machines as well as people, a popular example is a fridge that can re-order milk automatically when you are running low. Professor Nix added: “At the university we’re also working on driverless cars, where 5G will enable vehicles to talk to each other, to pedestrians and cyclists, and with city infrastructure such as traffic lights. Safety will be dramatically improved along with reduced congestion and pollution. 5G networks are set to revolutionise how we live.”

The professor believes that 5G technologies will hit Asian markets by 2020.