5G Explained | All you need to know about 5G

We are going to discuss the 5G network purely theoretical and at a technical level before talking about the 5G network and it's impac...

We are going to discuss the 5G network purely theoretical and at a technical level before talking about the 5G network and it's impacts on health. Let's start by defining what is the 5G network. The new 5G network is a new network, so the 5th generation of the wireless telecommunications network for data and voice.

5G Explained | All you need to know about 5G

And this new network will be implemented in incoming years. You should know that if it is the 5G network so, that means necessarily that there have been four previous versions, therefore: 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G. This new version comes after the 4G network which is currently in place pretty much everywhere in the world.

Necessarily it's not just uniquely technical aspects that have been spawned in the past with old versions of networks. It is also a major impact on the economy and society. So let's start in the 80s with the first telecommunication network version where the first generation be the 1G which we used to transfer the voice of a device to another analogically. Then in the 90s came the second generation with the transfer of voice-only again, but, it was a voice that was digitized using protocols such as CDMA type.

So in the early 2000s, around ten years later, the third generation of the network of wireless telecommunications. This third-generation had an impact major throughout society because now we had added data to be able to transmit between different devices. We could transmit the voice, but also data, which blew up the smartphone market in the early 2000s. Many sectors have grown to provide products that would be connected on the cellular network to be able to receive data and transmit it in a way wireless.

In the early 2010s came 4G followed very closely by 4G LTE, an advanced version of the fourth generation, which allowed us to have much faster speeds than its predecessor, the 3G version, with very low latency rates and a capacity of devices on the network much larger. Now in 2020, we talk about the 5G network like the network the most efficient that has ever existed for telecommunications networks wireless. We are talking about speeds that are six to twenty times higher than his predecessor and latency three times lower. What also differentiates the 5G network, it's the frequency band used because you should know that the four previous versions of the network were using bands of frequencies below 3 GHz. That means that the scope is big however the flow will be limited for the frequency band used. So the 5G to provide higher throughput is going go to use high frequencies, so, we're targeting the range of frequencies for 5G around 1 GHz at more than 100 GHz.

These frequencies are very very very high and they have never been used fora large-scale commercial field like 5G will do and even that anticipates technological advances very major in the field of wireless radio. So the 5G network is going to be implemented in three stages to offer a very good performance and a very good range too. If for example, we are near the communication tower, we're going to have a very high transmission frequency to promote high data throughput. On the other hand, if we are very far from the wave emission tower, we're going to have a much lower frequency since the wave propagation travels much better at very low frequency.

And, on the other hand, we still have a very good speed because 5G will use the new encoding system and decoding which will increase the network performance. When we talk about 5G we think often at performances, to the technological infrastructure that has been imposed, however, we forget often designing technology and this technology, as it is now since we see frequencies higher than previous frequencies that we had on 4G networks and lower, so the new 5G network as I told you, will use the millimeter bands, so it's strips with the wavelength which is lower than 1 mm, it's very small and it creates major challenges for the design. Necessarily it's all problems that are still unknown and that will have to solve for the future this is which also makes the new network 5G want to be more efficient, but also which is going to have a major impact on the technology in general.

So as a comparison the 2G network offered speeds of 0.3 megabits per second. The 3G network subsequently arrived with speeds of 7.2 megabits per second. Then the 4G network arrived with 150 megabits per second as maximum speed and the 5G network is better and more optimistic with speeds that can go from 1 to 10 gigabits per second. So these are maximum speeds, however, for the 5G network, we aim for average speeds of 50 megabits per second which is huge whereas even Wi-Fi networks with 50 megabits per second, it's very high.

For those who have a little knowledge in radio systems frequency, we know very well that the more we increase in frequency, the wavelength is going to be reduced and in terms of the antenna the shorter the wavelength, the antenna will also be smaller. So, the more you increase a system in frequency, the smaller the wavelength, and the smaller the wavelength, given that it is proportional to the length of the antenna, the smaller it is. So it's a winning advantage.

However, given that we increase in frequency, we know that the range and will be reduced considerably. And it's an issue that 5G has to face since we know very well that in the frequencies in gigahertz, with the millimeter waves, the range is going to be very very small, about 500 m for a very high-speed system. We necessarily know we don't want to have telecommunications towers everywhere in the residential sectors, it is for this reason that 5G antennas are going to have a more extended network of small transmission terminals which will be in the form of MIMO: "Multiple Input - Multiple Output" that will use this technology network to increase coverage of 5G wireless network and to be able to reach multiple people. Necessarily there will be more terminals than the earlier networks which just had big telecommunications towers, however, this network is going to be more extensive in the small station and they will have the ability to manage data input and data output.

Despite that the 5G development targets a few sectors in particular whose virtual reality, augmented reality, video games, autonomous cars, connected objects or even precision farming, several sectors that are still unknown will be able to see the development with the new arrival of 5G network, so several sectors are going to offer products that are connected like the network for example manufacturer will be able to obtain very precise data on its production in real-time with connected objects. So now that all of that has been said, you might like to be part of new 5G network, well, unfortunately, we will have to wait till a few months, a few years especially if you live in the region or the suburbs because the 5G network will be implemented first in big cities, since the range is limited but necessarily it will also come later to spread in coming years. You should know that the 4G network is not even implemented anywhere in the world.

So before certain regions can access the new 5G network, it's going to take a few more years. Some cities in the world already have access to the new 5G network to make tests, development, create new products and validate the network operation. When the development of 5G is going to be done in major urban centers, we will see the network expand and offer greater coverage. 5G is very good technologically, it has performed very well, but how the world economy is going to benefit from it? It is estimated that there will have more than 22 million jobs created for the coming years related to the new 5G network and that there will have more than 13 trillion dollars in economic benefits. Economic benefits necessarily relate to the telecommunications, but also all sectors that will be able to have objects connected to 5G networks.

We talk about connected objects in the field manufacturer, in the field of health, in agriculture, so all the areas that are going to want to have objects connected in real-time will want to have access to the network, and that accounts for economic benefits worldwide. So the numbers I gave it is estimated by 2035 and these numbers are pessimistic estimates.It is estimated that the network 5G will be able to have a major impact on society and be able to have impacts much larger than those estimated.So now that it’s all said, now that we know everything about the 5G network and its implementation, back to our original question. Do you believe that the new 5G network can spread COVID-19?

So I think it's a false correlation that has been created between the new 5G network and the actual pandemic of COVID-19.You should know that the 5G network has no link with COVID-19 and that even this new network has been tested and implemented well before the actual pandemic.The 5G network is not very different in terms of electromagnetic wave emission that the older networks, 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G. Government standards in each country are very very very strict on the emission of electromagnetic waves and even the companies that produce adapted circuits on their 5G networks, for example, 4G, they will transmit at much lower powers than those recommended by the authorities of health.You should not worry about the new 5G network that will happen in the next few years.

So there is a false correlation like I tell you that was established by some groups around the world linking COVID-19 and 5G. However, no link has been made between both. You have to be optimistic, I believe, on a new 5G network which is going to be implemented in the next years so it will touch several sectors. Sectors that have never been touched by the technology as much as in the years to come and even it's going to develop new jobs and quite significant economic benefits.

Thanks for reading the blog.