4G changed our lives; 5G will change society. With 5G, a world of interconnected things is about to become a reality. What is 5G?

It is the next generation (fifth generation) of mobile communication, offering faster upload and download speeds, wider coverage, and more stable connections.

5G is the primary direction of development for next-generation mobile communication technology and a crucial component of future next-generation information infrastructure. Compared to 4G, 5G features "ultra-high speed, ultra-low latency, and ultra-large connectivity." It will not only enhance user network experience and provide mobile devices with faster transmission speeds but also meet the application needs of the future Internet of Things, enabling the online connection of all things.

At the end of 2018, the frequency allocation for 5G by China's three major operators was finalized. China Telecom and China Unicom each received 100 MHz of the 3.5 GHz frequency band; China Mobile received a total of 260 MHz in the 2.6 GHz and 4.9 GHz frequency bands. Based on the frequency licenses obtained, the three major operators can conduct 5G trials nationwide. It is almost certain that 2019 will be China's "5G year."

Why do we need 5G?

The world is transitioning towards mobile, and we consume more data every year, especially with the increasing popularity of video and music streaming. Current frequency bands are becoming increasingly congested, leading to service interruptions, especially when many people in the same area try to access online mobile services simultaneously. From mobile phones to device sensors, from cameras to smart streetlights, 5G excels at handling a large number of devices.

What are the advantages of 5G?

Compared to 4G, 5G features "higher speed, lower latency and higher reliability, and low-power massive connectivity."

In terms of ultra-high speed, 5G can reach speeds up to 100 times that of 4G, achieving a peak rate of 10 Gb/s, allowing for smooth viewing of 4K and 8K high-definition videos and fast 360-degree panoramic VR gaming on mobile phones.

In terms of ultra-low latency, 5G's air interface latency can be as low as 1 millisecond, only one-tenth of 4G, far exceeding the human body's stress response, and can be widely used in automatic control fields.

In terms of ultra-large connectivity, 5G can have 1 million connections per square kilometer, greatly increasing user capacity compared to 4G. In addition to connecting mobile terminals, it can also be widely used in the Internet of Things.

5G Application Scenarios

In the minds of ordinary users, 5G may only mean "higher internet speeds." However, in fact, 5G application scenarios include "enhanced mobile broadband" (ultra-high speed), "low-power massive connectivity," and "low-latency high reliability."

"Enhanced mobile broadband" can be further divided into two scenarios: "wide-area continuous coverage" and "high-capacity hotspots." The former focuses on the breadth of coverage, aiming to ensure user mobility and service continuity, providing users with a high-speed service experience anytime, anywhere. The latter focuses on "quality." In large gatherings such as stadiums or concerts, it provides users with extremely high data transmission rates to meet extremely high traffic density requirements. In simple terms, it means internet access everywhere, fast, and high-fidelity.

"Low-power massive connectivity" mainly targets application scenarios such as smart cities and environmental monitoring that focus on sensing and data acquisition. It features small data packets, low power consumption, and massive connectivity. It not only supports over 100 billion connections and meets the connection density target of 1 million/square kilometer but also ensures ultra-low power consumption and ultra-low cost for terminals. It is because of this scenario that the progress of the Internet of Things will accelerate again, and the so-called "Internet of Everything" will finally become a reality. The often-mentioned phrase, "4G changes life, 5G changes society," originates from this."

"Low-latency high reliability" mainly targets the special application needs of vertical industries such as connected vehicles and industrial control. These applications have extremely high requirements for latency and reliability, requiring millisecond-level end-to-end latency and near 100% service reliability. Specifically, in this scenario, 5G can achieve latency within 10 milliseconds, which means that automatic braking is almost the same as a person's braking reaction time. In addition, 5G can perform calculations at the edge of the base station, which means that autonomous driving data can be processed on the network closest to the vehicle without uploading it to a relatively distant district data center. This will also shorten the reaction time of autonomous driving.

The 5G network design for the above three application scenarios is different. Through means such as BBU end function splitting and core network sinking, and through "slicing," network resources are split and refined to flexibly meet scenario needs. In other words, there is no all-purpose network that can simultaneously meet the needs of the three different scenarios with the same structure. In implementation, 5G logically divides the physical network into N logical networks, and different logical networks serve different scenarios, achieving a "Swiss Army knife" effect of a multi-functional network.

Long-term Outlook for Operators (C-end)

In fact, compared to the impact of 5G on the industrial sector, I personally believe that the potential for 5G on the operator side is not that great. But this is only relatively speaking; the impact on the industrial sector is so strong that the C-end seems less so. However, the chain reaction caused by 5G on the C-end will have a huge impact, even disruptive, on our lives and some industries.

Regarding the universal mobile communication services of operators, the most important concern is data charges. In the public's perception, operators are all trying their best to make money from our data. However, the consumer market for telecommunications services is already saturated, with a user penetration rate of 109%, and ARPU (average revenue per user per month) decreased by 51% in the first half of 2018, far exceeding the national target of a 50% decrease for operators for the whole year. Overall, operators are seeing business growth without increased revenue, and the gap is widening. On the other hand, in the future 5G era of interconnected things, unlike the smartphone era, operators have the ability to control the end-to-end ecosystem from the beginning, meaning they are better positioned to capture greater value in the Internet of Things. In this context, operators will focus more on the goal of "returning to the center of the ecosystem."

In recent years, major internet OTTs have been thriving, and operators have only played the role of "pipelines." With the arrival of 5G, this presents a great opportunity for operators, who will try to enhance their brand effect and improve user "stickiness" through platforms and applications. Under this long-term forecast, operators should not set excessively high thresholds for data charges, and the price per GB of 5G data is expected to drop significantly compared to 4G.

Some Personal Judgments about the Future of 5G

(1) 5G may be the warm-up for the explosion of the Internet of Everything in the 6G era

Just as people expect from 5G, it will usher in the era of the Internet of Everything. Unfortunately, 5G was not born in a future with highly developed artificial intelligence technology. It's important to remember that the core of the Internet of Things is not just the 5G network; the development of artificial intelligence technology plays a decisive role. Only when artificial intelligence technology makes a leap forward will the Internet of Everything have practical significance. Sufficiently intelligent interconnected devices can truly change our lives. The development of artificial intelligence depends on "computation" and "data." Whether it's cloud computing or edge computing, it requires the throughput and interaction of big data, and that is the significance of 5G.

From a broader perspective, although 5G has opened up the information data channels, the development of the "brain" is encountering a bottleneck. Mobile internet based on 4G networks has reached its peak, while the path to the Internet of Everything era has just begun. Perhaps the awkwardness of 5G is that it is a warm-up for 6G. The development of artificial intelligence still requires time. The next wave may directly skip 5G. An advanced artificial intelligence wave, coupled with the future 6G network, will jointly push the Internet of Everything era to its peak. According to Intel's previously proposed "Tick-Tock" strategy, 1, 3, and 5 are the pioneering generations, and 2, 4, and 6 are the soaring generations. If this pattern is applied to the generational development of communication technology, it will be found to be highly consistent. 1G and 3G are "pioneering," while 2G and 4G are "soaring." Based on this prediction, 6G+AI will be the "soaring" of the Internet of Everything.

(2) The difficulty in 5G development lies not in the technology itself, but in the optimization and integration of the industry ecosystem.

Any breakthrough in basic technology will eventually be transmitted to the commercial level. The more fundamental the technology, the greater the waves it will create. Compared with 4G, 4G is more about technological innovation and business model innovation. But 5G is about ecosystem construction. 4G is like building roads, while 5G is about building cities, building an ecosystem, and empowering various industries.

In fact, 5G has become an important part of the national strategy. Its wide-ranging involvement in various industries and its profound impact on people's lives have inevitably made it a fundamental platform for industrial upgrading and the development of the new economy. I believe that 5G will promote disruptive development in the automotive, medical, healthcare, and education industries. I personally believe that the automotive industry's autonomous driving will have significant development. On the one hand, the low latency and high reliability of 5G will perfectly solve the latency pain points of autonomous driving. On the other hand, the Internet of Everything means that the feasibility of "vehicle-road collaboration" has greatly increased. Within this technical system, in addition to vehicles connecting to the network and intelligent devices, roads, fences, traffic signs, and traffic lights can all send signals and transmit information to vehicles, ensuring the safe driving relationship between vehicles, monitoring the status and emergency needs of each vehicle at any time, and conveying road conditions from a distance to the vehicle, becoming another pair of eyes for driverless vehicles. The prospect is naturally bright, but there is an unavoidable problem: it involves several relatively independent but mutually interacting fields. Smart cities, car manufacturing, sensing hardware, and network transmission each have their own industrial problems and industry experience. The complexity of this perfectly represents the challenges that 5G will face when it is rolled out in other industries. The application of 5G technology and the industrial potential stimulated by the vision of the Internet of Everything will upgrade the entire ecosystem. During the upgrade process, the surface is industrial technological innovation, but the underlying logic is that the entire ecosystem is calling for the power of "integration".

As for who will undertake this "integration" responsibility, it may be enterprises with ecological and technological advantages, or underlying standard setters and platform providers, or government agencies. No one knows. History values that such a role will exist; who this role is, however, is a matter of chance.

Based on the Internet of Things, "optimization" and "integration" will bring the first wave, and then, in the upgraded industrial environment, new applications and new industries will emerge. In addition, manufacturing, medical, smart cities, smart sports, new media, and other industries will be upgraded by technology and will give rise to new applications and even new business models.