4G has not been built yet. Why do we need 5G?

Start from a live broadcast

July 8, 2018, Moscow Luzhniki Stadium, Russia World Cup finals.

You are not on the scene. You are on a business trip and holding a tablet to watch live online.

However, you do not seem to be watching live broadcasts. It is a bit like playing PS live football games. You use your finger to swipe on the screen, and the live picture changes as your finger moves.

This is called a personalized experience of live sports events. You can enjoy watching the game from any angle by just touching your fingertips.

The traditional live picture depends on a single broadcast camera angle, and the audience on the screen is very passive. If your favorite star is not in good shape during the game, you rarely see him. If you suddenly score, you can only see the heroes of the goal, but you can't see the frustrated expression of the defending players.

With this personalized service, how to watch the game is entirely up to you.

This is because a large number of high-definition cameras are installed around the stadium. These cameras are all connected to the 5G network. Massive video signals are transmitted from the distant Moscow to your tablet through the 5G network. The perfect 360-degree game without dead ends is the perfect experience.

This is by no means an unrealistic fantasy. In fact, I believe that 5G will definitely break out at an international major event. It is like a young star who became famous in the World Cup and became famous. This flashpoint may be 2020. The Tokyo Olympics may also be advanced in advance, such as the 2018 Moscow World Cup...

What is 5G?

You may have this question, is not to install more than a few cameras to connect to the network? Can 4G not be realized? Why do you want 5G?

To answer this question, let's take a look at how communication giants design 5G networks. The following two charts clearly list the 5G definition and goals.




You do not engage in communications, and you may not understand it.

Simply put, 3G and 4G are designed to connect humans, while 5G is designed to connect all things. 4G network will care about your online video is not clear? Flow is not smooth? However, 5G does not care about how to use mobile phones to control smart home door handles, smart refrigerators, etc., and 5G is very concerned.

In order to connect everything, the network must be redesigned and optimized from three perspectives: capacity, speed, and latency.


According to an authoritative forecast, by 2020, 5G networks will need to accommodate 200 billion class-level devices or machines, and smart cities, intelligent transportation, and industrial automation alone will need to connect nearly 30 billion devices. With so many devices influx, the network capacity must be infinitely large, and the rate must be high enough. Only in this way can the network's high reliability be guaranteed. Connecting people and connecting machines is not the same, people can always be patient, the speed is slow, I wait patiently, etc. The signal is not good. I'm looking for a hilltop call. The machine can't have such a good patience. I can't always use red packets for Spring Festival. Too many, traffic surges have caused the entire city's intelligent traffic to collapse!

To ensure high reliability of the network, the network delay has to be optimized. The 4G network is a 10ms level network delay, while the 5G network is a 1ms level end-to-end network delay. 10ms and 1ms, this difference can not be felt when you are on the Internet, but the machine is different. We said that traffic accidents occur between one idea. If your driverless car responds at 10ms, how many traffic accidents can be imagined?

What is driving 5G?

Smartphones have promoted the rapid development of 3G and 4G networks. Then, who will be the biggest promoter behind 5G? Just as no one expected the smart phone to be such a big driver, the biggest promoter behind 5G is hard to predict.

However, it is certain that 5G networks will extend their smartphones (or tablets) indefinitely to more complex and broader applications. For example, smart phones connect smart homes, drones, robots, or drones, and these applications will surely be realized within five years.

The 5G network truly realizes the extensibility, versatility and high efficiency of the network. Although we cannot predict who will be the biggest promoter of 5G networks, we can imagine what 5G will promote?

Take the popular wearable device as an example, the device volume is too small, which limits its computing and processing capabilities. If you rely on a high-speed, low-latency 5G network, wearable devices connect to the cloud service system through 5G networks, and the computing and processing functions are sent back to the wearable device after being processed in the cloud. This provides great end products. Product design space and application design space. Maybe, a smart watch only needs one screen!

With the advancement of information technology, such imagination will be further expanded.

Moore's Law tells us that when the price does not change, the number of components that can be accommodated on integrated circuits will double every 18-24 months, and the performance will also double.

Benefiting from Moore's Law, the 5G era will realize unprecedented integration of communications and computing technologies.

Give another example. In wireless communication theory, the more antennas, the higher the spectral efficiency and transmission reliability. Massive MIMO technology (multi-antenna technology) is recognized as one of the key technologies of 5G. In fact, 4G also uses multi-antenna technology. However, multi-antenna technology is limited by the size and cost of mobile terminals. However, with more and more components that can be accommodated on the integrated circuit, the price is getting cheaper and cheaper, and it becomes easier and easier to implement. Looking at the picture below, 16 antennas can already be integrated within 5mm.

In short, 5G will be a new wireless era, bringing infinite imagination to human digital life. It will even add a new dimension to the entire world!