5G to improve the Infrastructure and enable new applications.

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Last Updated31/05/2022

With increased capacity, lower latency, and energy efficiency, 5G is expected to significantly improve the state of art and enable new applications.
To reduce cost, the Department of Telecom (DoT) may use infrastructure owned by the power sector distributors for deployment of 5G small cells (small 5G towers).

5G represents the allocation of new spectrum to increase capacity.
Since most of the spectrum at lower frequencies is already being utilised — much of this new spectrum is being allocated at higher frequencies.
5G infrastructure is being built from ground up, there is a chance to redesign the technology
- To make it more suitable for the evolving communication needs of the future, like 6G.

Over the next several years the volume of data is expected to exponentially increase
- 5G places a lot of importance on energy efficiency to avoid exponential rise in energy consumption..
Radio electronics refers to a broad range of technologies that can transmit, receive and process wireless signals.
While these technologies can utilize electromagnetic spectrum that goes all the way up to 300GHz, the lower frequencies of this spectrum are particularly attractive.
- Lower frequency signals can travel longer distances and penetrate obstacles with lesser attenuation.
- Electronic components (amplifiers, transmitters, receivers) operating at lower frequencies are also easier to design and manufacture.
- The bandwidth in the lower frequencies has already been allocated for several applications (mobile communications currently use the spectrum from 800MHz to 2.5 GHz).

With the increasing demand for mobile services, the currently allocated spectrum is proving inadequate.
At the simplest level, 5G represents the allocation of new spectrum to increase capacity.
This new spectrum is being allocated at higher frequencies.
- The first deployments in India will be around 3GHz, but will expand to 25 GHz and beyond.
- As 5G services evolve to occupy higher frequencies, it will significantly increase the bandwidth available for mobile services.
The design of the transmitting and receiving higher frequency equipment becomes more complex. Signal attenuation also increases.
The coverage area of each cell tower will decrease which will require the towers to be more closely spaced.
At higher frequencies it becomes easier to direct a signal in a specific direction. So, signals transmitted from a cell tower can be more precisely directed at a specific user and provide higher capacity.
- Rather than spreading out in various directions which is just a waste of energy.

Since much of the 5G infrastructure is being built from ground up
- There is a chance to redesign the technology to make it more suitable for the evolving communication needs of the future.
- 5G places special emphasis on low latency, energy efficiency and standardization.
Today, the components that make up wireless telecom interact with each other using proprietary protocols that are vendor specific.
To enable the rapid deployment of 5G infrastructure there is an industry-wide effort to standardize interaction between components.
Greater standardization would enable service providers to build their infrastructure, ‘mixing and matching’ components from multiple vendors.
- Switching vendors would also be easier which would foster competition and lower costs.
Existing wireless communication infrastructure is primarily designed around the needs of mobile phones.
Several emerging applications in factory automation, gaming and remote healthcare have more stringent latency requirements.
- Self-driving cars are an illustrative example.
- Low delays between transmission and reception of messages are extremely critical when these cars have to cooperate with each other to avoid accidents.

There is a lot of research in both industry and academia centered around 5G.
An interesting topic is the convergence of positioning, sensing and communication.
- Traditionally, positioning, sensing and communication have been seen as separate technologies (for e.g GPS is used for positioning, and radar for sensing).
All three technologies involve transmission and reception of radio signals
- Possibility for positioning and sensing to piggyback on 5G infrastructure that is primarily meant for communication.
- The key features of 5G (such as increased bandwidth availability and antenna directionality)
- Will improve the accuracy of positioning and sensing.
There is also a lot of research around cost and energy efficient electronic devices that can transmit and receive high frequency signals.
Engineers are already busy prototyping a 6G system which would utilize the large amounts of available spectrum at frequencies above 100 GHz.