thesis on 5g technology

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Study and Investigation on 5G Technology: A Systematic Review

Ramraj dangi.

1 School of Computing Science and Engineering, VIT University Bhopal, Bhopal 466114, India; [email protected] (R.D.); [email protected] (P.L.)

Praveen Lalwani

Gaurav choudhary.

2 Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark; moc.liamg@7777yrahduohcvaruag

3 Department of Information Security Engineering, Soonchunhyang University, Asan-si 31538, Korea

Giovanni Pau

4 Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Kore University of Enna, 94100 Enna, Italy; [email protected]

Associated Data

Not applicable.

In wireless communication, Fifth Generation (5G) Technology is a recent generation of mobile networks. In this paper, evaluations in the field of mobile communication technology are presented. In each evolution, multiple challenges were faced that were captured with the help of next-generation mobile networks. Among all the previously existing mobile networks, 5G provides a high-speed internet facility, anytime, anywhere, for everyone. 5G is slightly different due to its novel features such as interconnecting people, controlling devices, objects, and machines. 5G mobile system will bring diverse levels of performance and capability, which will serve as new user experiences and connect new enterprises. Therefore, it is essential to know where the enterprise can utilize the benefits of 5G. In this research article, it was observed that extensive research and analysis unfolds different aspects, namely, millimeter wave (mmWave), massive multiple-input and multiple-output (Massive-MIMO), small cell, mobile edge computing (MEC), beamforming, different antenna technology, etc. This article’s main aim is to highlight some of the most recent enhancements made towards the 5G mobile system and discuss its future research objectives.

1. Introduction

Most recently, in three decades, rapid growth was marked in the field of wireless communication concerning the transition of 1G to 4G [ 1 , 2 ]. The main motto behind this research was the requirements of high bandwidth and very low latency. 5G provides a high data rate, improved quality of service (QoS), low-latency, high coverage, high reliability, and economically affordable services. 5G delivers services categorized into three categories: (1) Extreme mobile broadband (eMBB). It is a nonstandalone architecture that offers high-speed internet connectivity, greater bandwidth, moderate latency, UltraHD streaming videos, virtual reality and augmented reality (AR/VR) media, and many more. (2) Massive machine type communication (eMTC), 3GPP releases it in its 13th specification. It provides long-range and broadband machine-type communication at a very cost-effective price with less power consumption. eMTC brings a high data rate service, low power, extended coverage via less device complexity through mobile carriers for IoT applications. (3) ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) offers low-latency and ultra-high reliability, rich quality of service (QoS), which is not possible with traditional mobile network architecture. URLLC is designed for on-demand real-time interaction such as remote surgery, vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication, industry 4.0, smart grids, intelligent transport system, etc. [ 3 ].

1.1. Evolution from 1G to 5G

First generation (1G): 1G cell phone was launched between the 1970s and 80s, based on analog technology, which works just like a landline phone. It suffers in various ways, such as poor battery life, voice quality, and dropped calls. In 1G, the maximum achievable speed was 2.4 Kbps.

Second Generation (2G): In 2G, the first digital system was offered in 1991, providing improved mobile voice communication over 1G. In addition, Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for Mobile (GSM) concepts were also discussed. In 2G, the maximum achievable speed was 1 Mpbs.

Third Generation (3G): When technology ventured from 2G GSM frameworks into 3G universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) framework, users encountered higher system speed and quicker download speed making constant video calls. 3G was the first mobile broadband system that was formed to provide the voice with some multimedia. The technology behind 3G was high-speed packet access (HSPA/HSPA+). 3G used MIMO for multiplying the power of the wireless network, and it also used packet switching for fast data transmission.

Fourth Generation (4G): It is purely mobile broadband standard. In digital mobile communication, it was observed information rate that upgraded from 20 to 60 Mbps in 4G [ 4 ]. It works on LTE and WiMAX technologies, as well as provides wider bandwidth up to 100 Mhz. It was launched in 2010.

Fourth Generation LTE-A (4.5G): It is an advanced version of standard 4G LTE. LTE-A uses MIMO technology to combine multiple antennas for both transmitters as well as a receiver. Using MIMO, multiple signals and multiple antennas can work simultaneously, making LTE-A three times faster than standard 4G. LTE-A offered an improved system limit, decreased deferral in the application server, access triple traffic (Data, Voice, and Video) wirelessly at any time anywhere in the world.LTE-A delivers speeds of over 42 Mbps and up to 90 Mbps.

Fifth Generation (5G): 5G is a pillar of digital transformation; it is a real improvement on all the previous mobile generation networks. 5G brings three different services for end user like Extreme mobile broadband (eMBB). It offers high-speed internet connectivity, greater bandwidth, moderate latency, UltraHD streaming videos, virtual reality and augmented reality (AR/VR) media, and many more. Massive machine type communication (eMTC), it provides long-range and broadband machine-type communication at a very cost-effective price with less power consumption. eMTC brings a high data rate service, low power, extended coverage via less device complexity through mobile carriers for IoT applications. Ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) offers low-latency and ultra-high reliability, rich quality of service (QoS), which is not possible with traditional mobile network architecture. URLLC is designed for on-demand real-time interaction such as remote surgery, vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication, industry 4.0, smart grids, intelligent transport system, etc. 5G faster than 4G and offers remote-controlled operation over a reliable network with zero delays. It provides down-link maximum throughput of up to 20 Gbps. In addition, 5G also supports 4G WWWW (4th Generation World Wide Wireless Web) [ 5 ] and is based on Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) protocol. 5G provides unlimited internet connection at your convenience, anytime, anywhere with extremely high speed, high throughput, low-latency, higher reliability and scalability, and energy-efficient mobile communication technology [ 6 ]. 5G mainly divided in two parts 6 GHz 5G and Millimeter wave(mmWave) 5G.

6 GHz is a mid frequency band which works as a mid point between capacity and coverage to offer perfect environment for 5G connectivity. 6 GHz spectrum will provide high bandwidth with improved network performance. It offers continuous channels that will reduce the need for network densification when mid-band spectrum is not available and it makes 5G connectivity affordable at anytime, anywhere for everyone.

mmWave is an essential technology of 5G network which build high performance network. 5G mmWave offer diverse services that is why all network providers should add on this technology in their 5G deployment planning. There are lots of service providers who deployed 5G mmWave, and their simulation result shows that 5G mmwave is a far less used spectrum. It provides very high speed wireless communication and it also offers ultra-wide bandwidth for next generation mobile network.

The evolution of wireless mobile technologies are presented in Table 1 . The abbreviations used in this paper are mentioned in Table 2 .

Summary of Mobile Technology.

Table of Notations and Abbreviations.

1.2. Key Contributions

The objective of this survey is to provide a detailed guide of 5G key technologies, methods to researchers, and to help with understanding how the recent works addressed 5G problems and developed solutions to tackle the 5G challenges; i.e., what are new methods that must be applied and how can they solve problems? Highlights of the research article are as follows.

• This survey focused on the recent trends and development in the era of 5G and novel contributions by the researcher community and discussed technical details on essential aspects of the 5G advancement.
• In this paper, the evolution of the mobile network from 1G to 5G is presented. In addition, the growth of mobile communication under different attributes is also discussed.
• This paper covers the emerging applications and research groups working on 5G & different research areas in 5G wireless communication network with a descriptive taxonomy.
• This survey discusses the current vision of the 5G networks, advantages, applications, key technologies, and key features. Furthermore, machine learning prospects are also explored with the emerging requirements in the 5G era. The article also focused on technical aspects of 5G IoT Based approaches and optimization techniques for 5G.
• we provide an extensive overview and recent advancement of emerging technologies of 5G mobile network, namely, MIMO, Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), mmWave, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine Learning (ML), and optimization. Also, a technical summary is discussed by highlighting the context of current approaches and corresponding challenges.
• Security challenges and considerations while developing 5G technology are discussed.
• Finally, the paper concludes with the future directives.

The existing survey focused on architecture, key concepts, and implementation challenges and issues. In contrast, this survey covers the state-of-the-art techniques as well as corresponding recent novel developments by researchers. Various recent significant papers are discussed with the key technologies accelerating the development and production of 5G products.

2. Existing Surveys and Their Applicability

In this paper, a detailed survey on various technologies of 5G networks is presented. Various researchers have worked on different technologies of 5G networks. In this section, Table 3 gives a tabular representation of existing surveys of 5G networks. Massive MIMO, NOMA, small cell, mmWave, beamforming, and MEC are the six main pillars that helped to implement 5G networks in real life.

A comparative overview of existing surveys on different technologies of 5G networks.

2.1. Limitations of Existing Surveys

The existing survey focused on architecture, key concepts, and implementation challenges and issues. The numerous current surveys focused on various 5G technologies with different parameters, and the authors did not cover all the technologies of the 5G network in detail with challenges and recent advancements. Few authors worked on MIMO (Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access) NOMA, MEC, small cell technologies. In contrast, some others worked on beamforming, Millimeter-wave (mmWave). But the existing survey did not cover all the technologies of the 5G network from a research and advancement perspective. No detailed survey is available in the market covering all the 5G network technologies and currently published research trade-offs. So, our main aim is to give a detailed study of all the technologies working on the 5G network. In contrast, this survey covers the state-of-the-art techniques as well as corresponding recent novel developments by researchers. Various recent significant papers are discussed with the key technologies accelerating the development and production of 5G products. This survey article collected key information about 5G technology and recent advancements, and it can be a kind of a guide for the reader. This survey provides an umbrella approach to bring multiple solutions and recent improvements in a single place to accelerate the 5G research with the latest key enabling solutions and reviews. A systematic layout representation of the survey in Figure 1 . We provide a state-of-the-art comparative overview of the existing surveys on different technologies of 5G networks in Table 3 .

Systematic layout representation of survey.

2.2. Article Organization

This article is organized under the following sections. Section 2 presents existing surveys and their applicability. In Section 3 , the preliminaries of 5G technology are presented. In Section 4 , recent advances of 5G technology based on Massive MIMO, NOMA, Millimeter Wave, 5G with IoT, machine learning for 5G, and Optimization in 5G are provided. In Section 5 , a description of novel 5G features over 4G is provided. Section 6 covered all the security concerns of the 5G network. Section 7 , 5G technology based on above-stated challenges summarize in tabular form. Finally, Section 8 and Section 9 conclude the study, which paves the path for future research.

3. Preliminary Section

3.1. emerging 5g paradigms and its features.

5G provides very high speed, low latency, and highly salable connectivity between multiple devices and IoT worldwide. 5G will provide a very flexible model to develop a modern generation of applications and industry goals [ 26 , 27 ]. There are many services offered by 5G network architecture are stated below:

Massive machine to machine communications: 5G offers novel, massive machine-to-machine communications [ 28 ], also known as the IoT [ 29 ], that provide connectivity between lots of machines without any involvement of humans. This service enhances the applications of 5G and provides connectivity between agriculture, construction, and industries [ 30 ].

Ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC): This service offers real-time management of machines, high-speed vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity, industrial connectivity and security principles, and highly secure transport system, and multiple autonomous actions. Low latency communications also clear up a different area where remote medical care, procedures, and operation are all achievable [ 31 ].

Enhanced mobile broadband: Enhance mobile broadband is an important use case of 5G system, which uses massive MIMO antenna, mmWave, beamforming techniques to offer very high-speed connectivity across a wide range of areas [ 32 ].

For communities: 5G provides a very flexible internet connection between lots of machines to make smart homes, smart schools, smart laboratories, safer and smart automobiles, and good health care centers [ 33 ].

For businesses and industry: As 5G works on higher spectrum ranges from 24 to 100 GHz. This higher frequency range provides secure low latency communication and high-speed wireless connectivity between IoT devices and industry 4.0, which opens a market for end-users to enhance their business models [ 34 ].

New and Emerging technologies: As 5G came up with many new technologies like beamforming, massive MIMO, mmWave, small cell, NOMA, MEC, and network slicing, it introduced many new features to the market. Like virtual reality (VR), users can experience the physical presence of people who are millions of kilometers away from them. Many new technologies like smart homes, smart workplaces, smart schools, smart sports academy also came into the market with this 5G Mobile network model [ 35 ].

3.2. Commercial Service Providers of 5G

5G provides high-speed internet browsing, streaming, and downloading with very high reliability and low latency. 5G network will change your working style, and it will increase new business opportunities and provide innovations that we cannot imagine. This section covers top service providers of 5G network [ 36 , 37 ].

Ericsson: Ericsson is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company, investing around 25.62 billion USD in 5G network, which makes it the biggest telecommunication company. It claims that it is the only company working on all the continents to make the 5G network a global standard for the next generation wireless communication. Ericsson developed the first 5G radio prototype that enables the operators to set up the live field trials in their network, which helps operators understand how 5G reacts. It plays a vital role in the development of 5G hardware. It currently provides 5G services in over 27 countries with content providers like China Mobile, GCI, LGU+, AT&T, Rogers, and many more. It has 100 commercial agreements with different operators as of 2020.

Verizon: It is American multinational telecommunication which was founded in 1983. Verizon started offering 5G services in April 2020, and by December 2020, it has actively provided 5G services in 30 cities of the USA. They planned that by the end of 2021, they would deploy 5G in 30 more new cities. Verizon deployed a 5G network on mmWave, a very high band spectrum between 30 to 300 GHz. As it is a significantly less used spectrum, it provides very high-speed wireless communication. MmWave offers ultra-wide bandwidth for next-generation mobile networks. MmWave is a faster and high-band spectrum that has a limited range. Verizon planned to increase its number of 5G cells by 500% by 2020. Verizon also has an ultra wide-band flagship 5G service which is the best 5G service that increases the market price of Verizon.

Nokia: Nokia is a Finnish multinational telecommunications company which was founded in 1865. Nokia is one of the companies which adopted 5G technology very early. It is developing, researching, and building partnerships with various 5G renders to offer 5G communication as soon as possible. Nokia collaborated with Deutsche Telekom and Hamburg Port Authority and provided them 8000-hectare site for their 5G MoNArch project. Nokia is the only company that supplies 5G technology to all the operators of different countries like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile US and Verizon in the USA, Korea Telecom, LG U+ and SK Telecom in South Korea and NTT DOCOMO, KDDI, and SoftBank in Japan. Presently, Nokia has around 150+ agreements and 29 live networks all over the world. Nokia is continuously working hard on 5G technology to expand 5G networks all over the globe.

AT&T: AT&T is an American multinational company that was the first to deploy a 5G network in reality in 2018. They built a gigabit 5G network connection in Waco, TX, Kalamazoo, MI, and South Bend to achieve this. It is the first company that archives 1–2 gigabit per second speed in 2019. AT&T claims that it provides a 5G network connection among 225 million people worldwide by using a 6 GHz spectrum band.

T-Mobile: T-Mobile US (TMUS) is an American wireless network operator which was the first service provider that offers a real 5G nationwide network. The company knew that high-band 5G was not feasible nationwide, so they used a 600 MHz spectrum to build a significant portion of its 5G network. TMUS is planning that by 2024 they will double the total capacity and triple the full 5G capacity of T-Mobile and Sprint combined. The sprint buyout is helping T-Mobile move forward the company’s current market price to 129.98 USD.

Samsung: Samsung started their research in 5G technology in 2011. In 2013, Samsung successfully developed the world’s first adaptive array transceiver technology operating in the millimeter-wave Ka bands for cellular communications. Samsung provides several hundred times faster data transmission than standard 4G for core 5G mobile communication systems. The company achieved a lot of success in the next generation of technology, and it is considered one of the leading companies in the 5G domain.

Qualcomm: Qualcomm is an American multinational corporation in San Diego, California. It is also one of the leading company which is working on 5G chip. Qualcomm’s first 5G modem chip was announced in October 2016, and a prototype was demonstrated in October 2017. Qualcomm mainly focuses on building products while other companies talk about 5G; Qualcomm is building the technologies. According to one magazine, Qualcomm was working on three main areas of 5G networks. Firstly, radios that would use bandwidth from any network it has access to; secondly, creating more extensive ranges of spectrum by combining smaller pieces; and thirdly, a set of services for internet applications.

ZTE Corporation: ZTE Corporation was founded in 1985. It is a partially Chinese state-owned technology company that works in telecommunication. It was a leading company that worked on 4G LTE, and it is still maintaining its value and doing research and tests on 5G. It is the first company that proposed Pre5G technology with some series of solutions.

NEC Corporation: NEC Corporation is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. ZTE also started their research on 5G, and they introduced a new business concept. NEC’s main aim is to develop 5G NR for the global mobile system and create secure and intelligent technologies to realize 5G services.

Cisco: Cisco is a USA networking hardware company that also sleeves up for 5G network. Cisco’s primary focus is to support 5G in three ways: Service—enable 5G services faster so all service providers can increase their business. Infrastructure—build 5G-oriented infrastructure to implement 5G more quickly. Automation—make a more scalable, flexible, and reliable 5G network. The companies know the importance of 5G, and they want to connect more than 30 billion devices in the next couple of years. Cisco intends to work on network hardening as it is a vital part of 5G network. Cisco used AI with deep learning to develop a 5G Security Architecture, enabling Secure Network Transformation.

3.3. 5G Research Groups

Many research groups from all over the world are working on a 5G wireless mobile network [ 38 ]. These groups are continuously working on various aspects of 5G. The list of those research groups are presented as follows: 5GNOW (5th Generation Non-Orthogonal Waveform for Asynchronous Signaling), NEWCOM (Network of Excellence in Wireless Communication), 5GIC (5G Innovation Center), NYU (New York University) Wireless, 5GPPP (5G Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership), EMPHATIC (Enhanced Multi-carrier Technology for Professional Adhoc and Cell-Based Communication), ETRI(Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute), METIS (Mobile and wireless communication Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society) [ 39 ]. The various research groups along with the research area are presented in Table 4 .

Research groups working on 5G mobile networks.

3.4. 5G Applications

5G is faster than 4G and offers remote-controlled operation over a reliable network with zero delays. It provides down-link maximum throughput of up to 20 Gbps. In addition, 5G also supports 4G WWWW (4th Generation World Wide Wireless Web) [ 5 ] and is based on Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) protocol. 5G provides unlimited internet connection at your convenience, anytime, anywhere with extremely high speed, high throughput, low-latency, higher reliability, greater scalablility, and energy-efficient mobile communication technology [ 6 ].

There are lots of applications of 5G mobile network are as follows:

• High-speed mobile network: 5G is an advancement on all the previous mobile network technologies, which offers very high speed downloading speeds 0 of up to 10 to 20 Gbps. The 5G wireless network works as a fiber optic internet connection. 5G is different from all the conventional mobile transmission technologies, and it offers both voice and high-speed data connectivity efficiently. 5G offers very low latency communication of less than a millisecond, useful for autonomous driving and mission-critical applications. 5G will use millimeter waves for data transmission, providing higher bandwidth and a massive data rate than lower LTE bands. As 5 Gis a fast mobile network technology, it will enable virtual access to high processing power and secure and safe access to cloud services and enterprise applications. Small cell is one of the best features of 5G, which brings lots of advantages like high coverage, high-speed data transfer, power saving, easy and fast cloud access, etc. [ 40 ].
• Entertainment and multimedia: In one analysis in 2015, it was found that more than 50 percent of mobile internet traffic was used for video downloading. This trend will surely increase in the future, which will make video streaming more common. 5G will offer High-speed streaming of 4K videos with crystal clear audio, and it will make a high definition virtual world on your mobile. 5G will benefit the entertainment industry as it offers 120 frames per second with high resolution and higher dynamic range video streaming, and HD TV channels can also be accessed on mobile devices without any interruptions. 5G provides low latency high definition communication so augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) will be very easily implemented in the future. Virtual reality games are trendy these days, and many companies are investing in HD virtual reality games. The 5G network will offer high-speed internet connectivity with a better gaming experience [ 41 ].
• Smart homes : smart home appliances and products are in demand these days. The 5G network makes smart homes more real as it offers high-speed connectivity and monitoring of smart appliances. Smart home appliances are easily accessed and configured from remote locations using the 5G network as it offers very high-speed low latency communication.
• Smart cities: 5G wireless network also helps develop smart cities applications such as automatic traffic management, weather update, local area broadcasting, energy-saving, efficient power supply, smart lighting system, water resource management, crowd management, emergency control, etc.
• Industrial IoT: 5G wireless technology will provide lots of features for future industries such as safety, process tracking, smart packing, shipping, energy efficiency, automation of equipment, predictive maintenance, and logistics. 5G smart sensor technology also offers smarter, safer, cost-effective, and energy-saving industrial IoT operations.
• Smart Farming: 5G technology will play a crucial role in agriculture and smart farming. 5G sensors and GPS technology will help farmers track live attacks on crops and manage them quickly. These smart sensors can also be used for irrigation, pest, insect, and electricity control.
• Autonomous Driving: The 5G wireless network offers very low latency high-speed communication, significant for autonomous driving. It means self-driving cars will come to real life soon with 5G wireless networks. Using 5G autonomous cars can easily communicate with smart traffic signs, objects, and other vehicles running on the road. 5G’s low latency feature makes self-driving more real as every millisecond is essential for autonomous vehicles, decision-making is done in microseconds to avoid accidents.
• Healthcare and mission-critical applications: 5G technology will bring modernization in medicine where doctors and practitioners can perform advanced medical procedures. The 5G network will provide connectivity between all classrooms, so attending seminars and lectures will be easier. Through 5G technology, patients can connect with doctors and take their advice. Scientists are building smart medical devices which can help people with chronic medical conditions. The 5G network will boost the healthcare industry with smart devices, the internet of medical things, smart sensors, HD medical imaging technologies, and smart analytics systems. 5G will help access cloud storage, so accessing healthcare data will be very easy from any location worldwide. Doctors and medical practitioners can easily store and share large files like MRI reports within seconds using the 5G network.
• Satellite Internet: In many remote areas, ground base stations are not available, so 5G will play a crucial role in providing connectivity in such areas. The 5G network will provide connectivity using satellite systems, and the satellite system uses a constellation of multiple small satellites to provide connectivity in urban and rural areas across the world.

4. 5G Technologies

This section describes recent advances of 5G Massive MIMO, 5G NOMA, 5G millimeter wave, 5G IOT, 5G with machine learning, and 5G optimization-based approaches. In addition, the summary is also presented in each subsection that paves the researchers for the future research direction.

4.1. 5G Massive MIMO

Multiple-input-multiple-out (MIMO) is a very important technology for wireless systems. It is used for sending and receiving multiple signals simultaneously over the same radio channel. MIMO plays a very big role in WI-FI, 3G, 4G, and 4G LTE-A networks. MIMO is mainly used to achieve high spectral efficiency and energy efficiency but it was not up to the mark MIMO provides low throughput and very low reliable connectivity. To resolve this, lots of MIMO technology like single user MIMO (SU-MIMO), multiuser MIMO (MU-MIMO) and network MIMO were used. However, these new MIMO also did not still fulfill the demand of end users. Massive MIMO is an advancement of MIMO technology used in the 5G network in which hundreds and thousands of antennas are attached with base stations to increase throughput and spectral efficiency. Multiple transmit and receive antennas are used in massive MIMO to increase the transmission rate and spectral efficiency. When multiple UEs generate downlink traffic simultaneously, massive MIMO gains higher capacity. Massive MIMO uses extra antennas to move energy into smaller regions of space to increase spectral efficiency and throughput [ 43 ]. In traditional systems data collection from smart sensors is a complex task as it increases latency, reduced data rate and reduced reliability. While massive MIMO with beamforming and huge multiplexing techniques can sense data from different sensors with low latency, high data rate and higher reliability. Massive MIMO will help in transmitting the data in real-time collected from different sensors to central monitoring locations for smart sensor applications like self-driving cars, healthcare centers, smart grids, smart cities, smart highways, smart homes, and smart enterprises [ 44 ].

Highlights of 5G Massive MIMO technology are as follows:

• Data rate: Massive MIMO is advised as the one of the dominant technologies to provide wireless high speed and high data rate in the gigabits per seconds.
• The relationship between wave frequency and antenna size: Both are inversely proportional to each other. It means lower frequency signals need a bigger antenna and vise versa.

Pictorial representation of multi-input and multi-output (MIMO).

• MIMO role in 5G: Massive MIMO will play a crucial role in the deployment of future 5G mobile communication as greater spectral and energy efficiency could be enabled.

State-of-the-Art Approaches

Plenty of approaches were proposed to resolve the issues of conventional MIMO [ 7 ].

The MIMO multirate, feed-forward controller is suggested by Mae et al. [ 46 ]. In the simulation, the proposed model generates the smooth control input, unlike the conventional MIMO, which generates oscillated control inputs. It also outperformed concerning the error rate. However, a combination of multirate and single rate can be used for better results.

The performance of stand-alone MIMO, distributed MIMO with and without corporation MIMO, was investigated by Panzner et al. [ 47 ]. In addition, an idea about the integration of large scale in the 5G technology was also presented. In the experimental analysis, different MIMO configurations are considered. The variation in the ratio of overall transmit antennas to spatial is deemed step-wise from equality to ten.

The simulation of massive MIMO noncooperative and cooperative systems for down-link behavior was performed by He et al. [ 48 ]. It depends on present LTE systems, which deal with various antennas in the base station set-up. It was observed that collaboration in different BS improves the system behaviors, whereas throughput is reduced slightly in this approach. However, a new method can be developed which can enhance both system behavior and throughput.

In [ 8 ], different approaches that increased the energy efficiency benefits provided by massive MIMO were presented. They analyzed the massive MIMO technology and described the detailed design of the energy consumption model for massive MIMO systems. This article has explored several techniques to enhance massive MIMO systems’ energy efficiency (EE) gains. This paper reviews standard EE-maximization approaches for the conventional massive MIMO systems, namely, scaling number of antennas, real-time implementing low-complexity operations at the base station (BS), power amplifier losses minimization, and radio frequency (RF) chain minimization requirements. In addition, open research direction is also identified.

In [ 49 ], various existing approaches based on different antenna selection and scheduling, user selection and scheduling, and joint antenna and user scheduling methods adopted in massive MIMO systems are presented in this paper. The objective of this survey article was to make awareness about the current research and future research direction in MIMO for systems. They analyzed that complete utilization of resources and bandwidth was the most crucial factor which enhances the sum rate.

In [ 50 ], authors discussed the development of various techniques for pilot contamination. To calculate the impact of pilot contamination in time division duplex (TDD) massive MIMO system, TDD and frequency division duplexing FDD patterns in massive MIMO techniques are used. They discussed different issues in pilot contamination in TDD massive MIMO systems with all the possible future directions of research. They also classified various techniques to generate the channel information for both pilot-based and subspace-based approaches.

In [ 19 ], the authors defined the uplink and downlink services for a massive MIMO system. In addition, it maintains a performance matrix that measures the impact of pilot contamination on different performances. They also examined the various application of massive MIMO such as small cells, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) schemes, massive MIMO IEEE 802, 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) specifications, and higher frequency bands. They considered their research work crucial for cutting edge massive MIMO and covered many issues like system throughput performance and channel state acquisition at higher frequencies.

In [ 13 ], various approaches were suggested for MIMO future generation wireless communication. They made a comparative study based on performance indicators such as peak data rate, energy efficiency, latency, throughput, etc. The key findings of this survey are as follows: (1) spatial multiplexing improves the energy efficiency; (2) design of MIMO play a vital role in the enhancement of throughput; (3) enhancement of mMIMO focusing on energy & spectral performance; (4) discussed the future challenges to improve the system design.

In [ 51 ], the study of large-scale MIMO systems for an energy-efficient system sharing method was presented. For the resource allocation, circuit energy and transmit energy expenditures were taken into consideration. In addition, the optimization techniques were applied for an energy-efficient resource sharing system to enlarge the energy efficiency for individual QoS and energy constraints. The author also examined the BS configuration, which includes homogeneous and heterogeneous UEs. While simulating, they discussed that the total number of transmit antennas plays a vital role in boosting energy efficiency. They highlighted that the highest energy efficiency was obtained when the BS was set up with 100 antennas that serve 20 UEs.

This section includes various works done on 5G MIMO technology by different author’s. Table 5 shows how different author’s worked on improvement of various parameters such as throughput, latency, energy efficiency, and spectral efficiency with 5G MIMO technology.

Summary of massive MIMO-based approaches in 5G technology.

4.2. 5G Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA)

NOMA is a very important radio access technology used in next generation wireless communication. Compared to previous orthogonal multiple access techniques, NOMA offers lots of benefits like high spectrum efficiency, low latency with high reliability and high speed massive connectivity. NOMA mainly works on a baseline to serve multiple users with the same resources in terms of time, space and frequency. NOMA is mainly divided into two main categories one is code domain NOMA and another is power domain NOMA. Code-domain NOMA can improve the spectral efficiency of mMIMO, which improves the connectivity in 5G wireless communication. Code-domain NOMA was divided into some more multiple access techniques like sparse code multiple access, lattice-partition multiple access, multi-user shared access and pattern-division multiple access [ 52 ]. Power-domain NOMA is widely used in 5G wireless networks as it performs well with various wireless communication techniques such as MIMO, beamforming, space-time coding, network coding, full-duplex and cooperative communication etc. [ 53 ]. The conventional orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) used by 3GPP in 4G LTE network provides very low spectral efficiency when bandwidth resources are allocated to users with low channel state information (CSI). NOMA resolved this issue as it enables users to access all the subcarrier channels so bandwidth resources allocated to the users with low CSI can still be accessed by the users with strong CSI which increases the spectral efficiency. The 5G network will support heterogeneous architecture in which small cell and macro base stations work for spectrum sharing. NOMA is a key technology of the 5G wireless system which is very helpful for heterogeneous networks as multiple users can share their data in a small cell using the NOMA principle.The NOMA is helpful in various applications like ultra-dense networks (UDN), machine to machine (M2M) communication and massive machine type communication (mMTC). As NOMA provides lots of features it has some challenges too such as NOMA needs huge computational power for a large number of users at high data rates to run the SIC algorithms. Second, when users are moving from the networks, to manage power allocation optimization is a challenging task for NOMA [ 54 ]. Hybrid NOMA (HNOMA) is a combination of power-domain and code-domain NOMA. HNOMA uses both power differences and orthogonal resources for transmission among multiple users. As HNOMA is using both power-domain NOMA and code-domain NOMA it can achieve higher spectral efficiency than Power-domain NOMA and code-domain NOMA. In HNOMA multiple groups can simultaneously transmit signals at the same time. It uses a message passing algorithm (MPA) and successive interference cancellation (SIC)-based detection at the base station for these groups [ 55 ].

Highlights of 5G NOMA technology as follows:

Pictorial representation of orthogonal and Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA).

• NOMA provides higher data rates and resolves all the loop holes of OMA that makes 5G mobile network more scalable and reliable.
• As multiple users use same frequency band simultaneously it increases the performance of whole network.
• To setup intracell and intercell interference NOMA provides nonorthogonal transmission on the transmitter end.
• The primary fundamental of NOMA is to improve the spectrum efficiency by strengthening the ramification of receiver.

State-of-the-Art of Approaches

A plenty of approaches were developed to address the various issues in NOMA.

A novel approach to address the multiple receiving signals at the same frequency is proposed in [ 22 ]. In NOMA, multiple users use the same sub-carrier, which improves the fairness and throughput of the system. As a nonorthogonal method is used among multiple users, at the time of retrieving the user’s signal at the receiver’s end, joint processing is required. They proposed solutions to optimize the receiver and the radio resource allocation of uplink NOMA. Firstly, the authors proposed an iterative MUDD which utilizes the information produced by the channel decoder to improve the performance of the multiuser detector. After that, the author suggested a power allocation and novel subcarrier that enhances the users’ weighted sum rate for the NOMA scheme. Their proposed model showed that NOMA performed well as compared to OFDM in terms of fairness and efficiency.

In [ 53 ], the author’s reviewed a power-domain NOMA that uses superposition coding (SC) and successive interference cancellation (SIC) at the transmitter and the receiver end. Lots of analyses were held that described that NOMA effectively satisfies user data rate demands and network-level of 5G technologies. The paper presented a complete review of recent advances in the 5G NOMA system. It showed the comparative analysis regarding allocation procedures, user fairness, state-of-the-art efficiency evaluation, user pairing pattern, etc. The study also analyzes NOMA’s behavior when working with other wireless communication techniques, namely, beamforming, MIMO, cooperative connections, network, space-time coding, etc.

In [ 9 ], the authors proposed NOMA with MEC, which improves the QoS as well as reduces the latency of the 5G wireless network. This model increases the uplink NOMA by decreasing the user’s uplink energy consumption. They formulated an optimized NOMA framework that reduces the energy consumption of MEC by using computing and communication resource allocation, user clustering, and transmit powers.

In [ 10 ], the authors proposed a model which investigates outage probability under average channel state information CSI and data rate in full CSI to resolve the problem of optimal power allocation, which increase the NOMA downlink system among users. They developed simple low-complexity algorithms to provide the optimal solution. The obtained simulation results showed NOMA’s efficiency, achieving higher performance fairness compared to the TDMA configurations. It was observed from the results that NOMA, through the appropriate power amplifiers (PA), ensures the high-performance fairness requirement for the future 5G wireless communication networks.

In [ 56 ], researchers discussed that the NOMA technology and waveform modulation techniques had been used in the 5G mobile network. Therefore, this research gave a detailed survey of non-orthogonal waveform modulation techniques and NOMA schemes for next-generation mobile networks. By analyzing and comparing multiple access technologies, they considered the future evolution of these technologies for 5G mobile communication.

In [ 57 ], the authors surveyed non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) from the development phase to the recent developments. They have also compared NOMA techniques with traditional OMA techniques concerning information theory. The author discussed the NOMA schemes categorically as power and code domain, including the design principles, operating principles, and features. Comparison is based upon the system’s performance, spectral efficiency, and the receiver’s complexity. Also discussed are the future challenges, open issues, and their expectations of NOMA and how it will support the key requirements of 5G mobile communication systems with massive connectivity and low latency.

In [ 17 ], authors present the first review of an elementary NOMA model with two users, which clarify its central precepts. After that, a general design with multicarrier supports with a random number of users on each sub-carrier is analyzed. In performance evaluation with the existing approaches, resource sharing and multiple-input multiple-output NOMA are examined. Furthermore, they took the key elements of NOMA and its potential research demands. Finally, they reviewed the two-user SC-NOMA design and a multi-user MC-NOMA design to highlight NOMA’s basic approaches and conventions. They also present the research study about the performance examination, resource assignment, and MIMO in NOMA.

In this section, various works by different authors done on 5G NOMA technology is covered. Table 6 shows how other authors worked on the improvement of various parameters such as spectral efficiency, fairness, and computing capacity with 5G NOMA technology.

Summary of NOMA-based approaches in 5G technology.

4.3. 5G Millimeter Wave (mmWave)

Millimeter wave is an extremely high frequency band, which is very useful for 5G wireless networks. MmWave uses 30 GHz to 300 GHz spectrum band for transmission. The frequency band between 30 GHz to 300 GHz is known as mmWave because these waves have wavelengths between 1 to 10 mm. Till now radar systems and satellites are only using mmWave as these are very fast frequency bands which provide very high speed wireless communication. Many mobile network providers also started mmWave for transmitting data between base stations. Using two ways the speed of data transmission can be improved one is by increasing spectrum utilization and second is by increasing spectrum bandwidth. Out of these two approaches increasing bandwidth is quite easy and better. The frequency band below 5 GHz is very crowded as many technologies are using it so to boost up the data transmission rate 5G wireless network uses mmWave technology which instead of increasing spectrum utilization, increases the spectrum bandwidth [ 58 ]. To maximize the signal bandwidth in wireless communication the carrier frequency should also be increased by 5% because the signal bandwidth is directly proportional to carrier frequencies. The frequency band between 28 GHz to 60 GHz is very useful for 5G wireless communication as 28 GHz frequency band offers up to 1 GHz spectrum bandwidth and 60 GHz frequency band offers 2 GHz spectrum bandwidth. 4G LTE provides 2 GHz carrier frequency which offers only 100 MHz spectrum bandwidth. However, the use of mmWave increases the spectrum bandwidth 10 times, which leads to better transmission speeds [ 59 , 60 ].

Highlights of 5G mmWave are as follows:

Pictorial representation of millimeter wave.

• The 5G mmWave offer three advantages: (1) MmWave is very less used new Band, (2) MmWave signals carry more data than lower frequency wave, and (3) MmWave can be incorporated with MIMO antenna with the potential to offer a higher magnitude capacity compared to current communication systems.

In [ 11 ], the authors presented the survey of mmWave communications for 5G. The advantage of mmWave communications is adaptability, i.e., it supports the architectures and protocols up-gradation, which consists of integrated circuits, systems, etc. The authors over-viewed the present solutions and examined them concerning effectiveness, performance, and complexity. They also discussed the open research issues of mmWave communications in 5G concerning the software-defined network (SDN) architecture, network state information, efficient regulation techniques, and the heterogeneous system.

In [ 61 ], the authors present the recent work done by investigators in 5G; they discussed the design issues and demands of mmWave 5G antennas for cellular handsets. After that, they designed a small size and low-profile 60 GHz array of antenna units that contain 3D planer mesh-grid antenna elements. For the future prospect, a framework is designed in which antenna components are used to operate cellular handsets on mmWave 5G smartphones. In addition, they cross-checked the mesh-grid array of antennas with the polarized beam for upcoming hardware challenges.

In [ 12 ], the authors considered the suitability of the mmWave band for 5G cellular systems. They suggested a resource allocation system for concurrent D2D communications in mmWave 5G cellular systems, and it improves network efficiency and maintains network connectivity. This research article can serve as guidance for simulating D2D communications in mmWave 5G cellular systems. Massive mmWave BS may be set up to obtain a high delivery rate and aggregate efficiency. Therefore, many wireless users can hand off frequently between the mmWave base terminals, and it emerges the demand to search the neighbor having better network connectivity.

In [ 62 ], the authors provided a brief description of the cellular spectrum which ranges from 1 GHz to 3 GHz and is very crowed. In addition, they presented various noteworthy factors to set up mmWave communications in 5G, namely, channel characteristics regarding mmWave signal attenuation due to free space propagation, atmospheric gaseous, and rain. In addition, hybrid beamforming architecture in the mmWave technique is analyzed. They also suggested methods for the blockage effect in mmWave communications due to penetration damage. Finally, the authors have studied designing the mmWave transmission with small beams in nonorthogonal device-to-device communication.

This section covered various works done on 5G mmWave technology. The Table 7 shows how different author’s worked on the improvement of various parameters i.e., transmission rate, coverage, and cost, with 5G mmWave technology.

Summary of existing mmWave-based approaches in 5G technology.

4.4. 5G IoT Based Approaches

The 5G mobile network plays a big role in developing the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT will connect lots of things with the internet like appliances, sensors, devices, objects, and applications. These applications will collect lots of data from different devices and sensors. 5G will provide very high speed internet connectivity for data collection, transmission, control, and processing. 5G is a flexible network with unused spectrum availability and it offers very low cost deployment that is why it is the most efficient technology for IoT [ 63 ]. In many areas, 5G provides benefits to IoT, and below are some examples:

Smart homes: smart home appliances and products are in demand these days. The 5G network makes smart homes more real as it offers high speed connectivity and monitoring of smart appliances. Smart home appliances are easily accessed and configured from remote locations using the 5G network, as it offers very high speed low latency communication.

Smart cities: 5G wireless network also helps in developing smart cities applications such as automatic traffic management, weather update, local area broadcasting, energy saving, efficient power supply, smart lighting system, water resource management, crowd management, emergency control, etc.

Industrial IoT: 5G wireless technology will provide lots of features for future industries such as safety, process tracking, smart packing, shipping, energy efficiency, automation of equipment, predictive maintenance and logistics. 5G smart sensor technology also offers smarter, safer, cost effective, and energy-saving industrial operation for industrial IoT.

Smart Farming: 5G technology will play a crucial role for agriculture and smart farming. 5G sensors and GPS technology will help farmers to track live attacks on crops and manage them quickly. These smart sensors can also be used for irrigation control, pest control, insect control, and electricity control.

Autonomous Driving: 5G wireless network offers very low latency high speed communication which is very significant for autonomous driving. It means self-driving cars will come to real life soon with 5G wireless networks. Using 5G autonomous cars can easily communicate with smart traffic signs, objects and other vehicles running on the road. 5G’s low latency feature makes self-driving more real as every millisecond is important for autonomous vehicles, decision taking is performed in microseconds to avoid accidents [ 64 ].

Highlights of 5G IoT are as follows:

Pictorial representation of IoT with 5G.

• 5G with IoT is a new feature of next-generation mobile communication, which provides a high-speed internet connection between moderated devices. 5G IoT also offers smart homes, smart devices, sensors, smart transportation systems, smart industries, etc., for end-users to make them smarter.
• IoT deals with moderate devices which connect through the internet. The approach of the IoT has made the consideration of the research associated with the outcome of providing wearable, smart-phones, sensors, smart transportation systems, smart devices, washing machines, tablets, etc., and these diverse systems are associated to a common interface with the intelligence to connect.
• Significant IoT applications include private healthcare systems, traffic management, industrial management, and tactile internet, etc.

Plenty of approaches is devised to address the issues of IoT [ 14 , 65 , 66 ].

In [ 65 ], the paper focuses on 5G mobile systems due to the emerging trends and developing technologies, which results in the exponential traffic growth in IoT. The author surveyed the challenges and demands during deployment of the massive IoT applications with the main focus on mobile networking. The author reviewed the features of standard IoT infrastructure, along with the cellular-based, low-power wide-area technologies (LPWA) such as eMTC, extended coverage (EC)-GSM-IoT, as well as noncellular, low-power wide-area (LPWA) technologies such as SigFox, LoRa etc.

In [ 14 ], the authors presented how 5G technology copes with the various issues of IoT today. It provides a brief review of existing and forming 5G architectures. The survey indicates the role of 5G in the foundation of the IoT ecosystem. IoT and 5G can easily combine with improved wireless technologies to set up the same ecosystem that can fulfill the current requirement for IoT devices. 5G can alter nature and will help to expand the development of IoT devices. As the process of 5G unfolds, global associations will find essentials for setting up a cross-industry engagement in determining and enlarging the 5G system.

In [ 66 ], the author introduced an IoT authentication scheme in a 5G network, with more excellent reliability and dynamic. The scheme proposed a privacy-protected procedure for selecting slices; it provided an additional fog node for proper data transmission and service types of the subscribers, along with service-oriented authentication and key understanding to maintain the secrecy, precision of users, and confidentiality of service factors. Users anonymously identify the IoT servers and develop a vital channel for service accessibility and data cached on local fog nodes and remote IoT servers. The author performed a simulation to manifest the security and privacy preservation of the user over the network.

This section covered various works done on 5G IoT by multiple authors. Table 8 shows how different author’s worked on the improvement of numerous parameters, i.e., data rate, security requirement, and performance with 5G IoT.

Summary of IoT-based approaches in 5G technology.

4.5. Machine Learning Techniques for 5G

Various machine learning (ML) techniques were applied in 5G networks and mobile communication. It provides a solution to multiple complex problems, which requires a lot of hand-tuning. ML techniques can be broadly classified as supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning. Let’s discuss each learning technique separately and where it impacts the 5G network.

Supervised Learning, where user works with labeled data; some 5G network problems can be further categorized as classification and regression problems. Some regression problems such as scheduling nodes in 5G and energy availability can be predicted using Linear Regression (LR) algorithm. To accurately predict the bandwidth and frequency allocation Statistical Logistic Regression (SLR) is applied. Some supervised classifiers are applied to predict the network demand and allocate network resources based on the connectivity performance; it signifies the topology setup and bit rates. Support Vector Machine (SVM) and NN-based approximation algorithms are used for channel learning based on observable channel state information. Deep Neural Network (DNN) is also employed to extract solutions for predicting beamforming vectors at the BS’s by taking mapping functions and uplink pilot signals into considerations.

In unsupervised Learning, where the user works with unlabeled data, various clustering techniques are applied to enhance network performance and connectivity without interruptions. K-means clustering reduces the data travel by storing data centers content into clusters. It optimizes the handover estimation based on mobility pattern and selection of relay nodes in the V2V network. Hierarchical clustering reduces network failure by detecting the intrusion in the mobile wireless network; unsupervised soft clustering helps in reducing latency by clustering fog nodes. The nonparametric Bayesian unsupervised learning technique reduces traffic in the network by actively serving the user’s requests and demands. Other unsupervised learning techniques such as Adversarial Auto Encoders (AAE) and Affinity Propagation Clustering techniques detect irregular behavior in the wireless spectrum and manage resources for ultradense small cells, respectively.

In case of an uncertain environment in the 5G wireless network, reinforcement learning (RL) techniques are employed to solve some problems. Actor-critic reinforcement learning is used for user scheduling and resource allocation in the network. Markov decision process (MDP) and Partially Observable MDP (POMDP) is used for Quality of Experience (QoE)-based handover decision-making for Hetnets. Controls packet call admission in HetNets and channel access process for secondary users in a Cognitive Radio Network (CRN). Deep RL is applied to decide the communication channel and mobility and speeds up the secondary user’s learning rate using an antijamming strategy. Deep RL is employed in various 5G network application parameters such as resource allocation and security [ 67 ]. Table 9 shows the state-of-the-art ML-based solution for 5G network.

The state-of-the-art ML-based solution for 5G network.

Highlights of machine learning techniques for 5G are as follows:

Pictorial representation of machine learning (ML) in 5G.

• In ML, a model will be defined which fulfills the desired requirements through which desired results are obtained. In the later stage, it examines accuracy from obtained results.
• ML plays a vital role in 5G network analysis for threat detection, network load prediction, final arrangement, and network formation. Searching for a better balance between power, length of antennas, area, and network thickness crossed with the spontaneous use of services in the universe of individual users and types of devices.

In [ 79 ], author’s firstly describes the demands for the traditional authentication procedures and benefits of intelligent authentication. The intelligent authentication method was established to improve security practice in 5G-and-beyond wireless communication systems. Thereafter, the machine learning paradigms for intelligent authentication were organized into parametric and non-parametric research methods, as well as supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning approaches. As a outcome, machine learning techniques provide a new paradigm into authentication under diverse network conditions and unstable dynamics. In addition, prompt intelligence to the security management to obtain cost-effective, better reliable, model-free, continuous, and situation-aware authentication.

In [ 68 ], the authors proposed a machine learning-based model to predict the traffic load at a particular location. They used a mobile network traffic dataset to train a model that can calculate the total number of user requests at a time. To launch access and mobility management function (AMF) instances according to the requirement as there were no predictions of user request the performance automatically degrade as AMF does not handle these requests at a time. Earlier threshold-based techniques were used to predict the traffic load, but that approach took too much time; therefore, the authors proposed RNN algorithm-based ML to predict the traffic load, which gives efficient results.

In [ 15 ], authors discussed the issue of network slice admission, resource allocation among subscribers, and how to maximize the profit of infrastructure providers. The author proposed a network slice admission control algorithm based on SMDP (decision-making process) that guarantees the subscribers’ best acceptance policies and satisfiability (tenants). They also suggested novel N3AC, a neural network-based algorithm that optimizes performance under various configurations, significantly outperforms practical and straightforward approaches.

This section includes various works done on 5G ML by different authors. Table 10 shows the state-of-the-art work on the improvement of various parameters such as energy efficiency, Quality of Services (QoS), and latency with 5G ML.

The state-of-the-art ML-based approaches in 5G technology.

4.6. Optimization Techniques for 5G

Optimization techniques may be applied to capture NP-Complete or NP-Hard problems in 5G technology. This section briefly describes various research works suggested for 5G technology based on optimization techniques.

In [ 80 ], Massive MIMO technology is used in 5G mobile network to make it more flexible and scalable. The MIMO implementation in 5G needs a significant number of radio frequencies is required in the RF circuit that increases the cost and energy consumption of the 5G network. This paper provides a solution that increases the cost efficiency and energy efficiency with many radio frequency chains for a 5G wireless communication network. They give an optimized energy efficient technique for MIMO antenna and mmWave technologies based 5G mobile communication network. The proposed Energy Efficient Hybrid Precoding (EEHP) algorithm to increase the energy efficiency for the 5G wireless network. This algorithm minimizes the cost of an RF circuit with a large number of RF chains.

In [ 16 ], authors have discussed the growing demand for energy efficiency in the next-generation networks. In the last decade, they have figured out the things in wireless transmissions, which proved a change towards pursuing green communication for the next generation system. The importance of adopting the correct EE metric was also reviewed. Further, they worked through the different approaches that can be applied in the future for increasing the network’s energy and posed a summary of the work that was completed previously to enhance the energy productivity of the network using these capabilities. A system design for EE development using relay selection was also characterized, along with an observation of distinct algorithms applied for EE in relay-based ecosystems.

In [ 81 ], authors presented how AI-based approach is used to the setup of Self Organizing Network (SON) functionalities for radio access network (RAN) design and optimization. They used a machine learning approach to predict the results for 5G SON functionalities. Firstly, the input was taken from various sources; then, prediction and clustering-based machine learning models were applied to produce the results. Multiple AI-based devices were used to extract the knowledge analysis to execute SON functionalities smoothly. Based on results, they tested how self-optimization, self-testing, and self-designing are done for SON. The author also describes how the proposed mechanism classifies in different orders.

In [ 82 ], investigators examined the working of OFDM in various channel environments. They also figured out the changes in frame duration of the 5G TDD frame design. Subcarrier spacing is beneficial to obtain a small frame length with control overhead. They provided various techniques to reduce the growing guard period (GP) and cyclic prefix (CP) like complete utilization of multiple subcarrier spacing, management and data parts of frame at receiver end, various uses of timing advance (TA) or total control of flexible CP size.

This section includes various works that were done on 5G optimization by different authors. Table 11 shows how other authors worked on the improvement of multiple parameters such as energy efficiency, power optimization, and latency with 5G optimization.

Summary of Optimization Based Approaches in 5G Technology.

5. Description of Novel 5G Features over 4G

This section presents descriptions of various novel features of 5G, namely, the concept of small cell, beamforming, and MEC.

5.1. Small Cell

Small cells are low-powered cellular radio access nodes which work in the range of 10 meters to a few kilometers. Small cells play a very important role in implementation of the 5G wireless network. Small cells are low power base stations which cover small areas. Small cells are quite similar with all the previous cells used in various wireless networks. However, these cells have some advantages like they can work with low power and they are also capable of working with high data rates. Small cells help in rollout of 5G network with ultra high speed and low latency communication. Small cells in the 5G network use some new technologies like MIMO, beamforming, and mmWave for high speed data transmission. The design of small cells hardware is very simple so its implementation is quite easier and faster. There are three types of small cell tower available in the market. Femtocells, picocells, and microcells [ 83 ]. As shown in the Table 12 .

Types of Small cells.

MmWave is a very high band spectrum between 30 to 300 GHz. As it is a significantly less used spectrum, it provides very high-speed wireless communication. MmWave offers ultra-wide bandwidth for next-generation mobile networks. MmWave has lots of advantages, but it has some disadvantages, too, such as mmWave signals are very high-frequency signals, so they have more collision with obstacles in the air which cause the signals loses energy quickly. Buildings and trees also block MmWave signals, so these signals cover a shorter distance. To resolve these issues, multiple small cell stations are installed to cover the gap between end-user and base station [ 18 ]. Small cell covers a very shorter range, so the installation of a small cell depends on the population of a particular area. Generally, in a populated place, the distance between each small cell varies from 10 to 90 meters. In the survey [ 20 ], various authors implemented small cells with massive MIMO simultaneously. They also reviewed multiple technologies used in 5G like beamforming, small cell, massive MIMO, NOMA, device to device (D2D) communication. Various problems like interference management, spectral efficiency, resource management, energy efficiency, and backhauling are discussed. The author also gave a detailed presentation of all the issues occurring while implementing small cells with various 5G technologies. As shown in the Figure 7 , mmWave has a higher range, so it can be easily blocked by the obstacles as shown in Figure 7 a. This is one of the key concerns of millimeter-wave signal transmission. To solve this issue, the small cell can be placed at a short distance to transmit the signals easily, as shown in Figure 7 b.

Pictorial representation of communication with and without small cells.

5.2. Beamforming

Beamforming is a key technology of wireless networks which transmits the signals in a directional manner. 5G beamforming making a strong wireless connection toward a receiving end. In conventional systems when small cells are not using beamforming, moving signals to particular areas is quite difficult. Beamforming counter this issue using beamforming small cells are able to transmit the signals in particular direction towards a device like mobile phone, laptops, autonomous vehicle and IoT devices. Beamforming is improving the efficiency and saves the energy of the 5G network. Beamforming is broadly divided into three categories: Digital beamforming, analog beamforming and hybrid beamforming. Digital beamforming: multiuser MIMO is equal to digital beamforming which is mainly used in LTE Advanced Pro and in 5G NR. In digital beamforming the same frequency or time resources can be used to transmit the data to multiple users at the same time which improves the cell capacity of wireless networks. Analog Beamforming: In mmWave frequency range 5G NR analog beamforming is a very important approach which improves the coverage. In digital beamforming there are chances of high pathloss in mmWave as only one beam per set of antenna is formed. While the analog beamforming saves high pathloss in mmWave. Hybrid beamforming: hybrid beamforming is a combination of both analog beamforming and digital beamforming. In the implementation of MmWave in 5G network hybrid beamforming will be used [ 84 ].

Wireless signals in the 4G network are spreading in large areas, and nature is not Omnidirectional. Thus, energy depletes rapidly, and users who are accessing these signals also face interference problems. The beamforming technique is used in the 5G network to resolve this issue. In beamforming signals are directional. They move like a laser beam from the base station to the user, so signals seem to be traveling in an invisible cable. Beamforming helps achieve a faster data rate; as the signals are directional, it leads to less energy consumption and less interference. In [ 21 ], investigators evolve some techniques which reduce interference and increase system efficiency of the 5G mobile network. In this survey article, the authors covered various challenges faced while designing an optimized beamforming algorithm. Mainly focused on different design parameters such as performance evaluation and power consumption. In addition, they also described various issues related to beamforming like CSI, computation complexity, and antenna correlation. They also covered various research to cover how beamforming helps implement MIMO in next-generation mobile networks [ 85 ]. Figure 8 shows the pictorial representation of communication with and without using beamforming.

Pictorial Representation of communication with and without using beamforming.

5.3. Mobile Edge Computing

Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) [ 24 ]: MEC is an extended version of cloud computing that brings cloud resources closer to the end-user. When we talk about computing, the very first thing that comes to our mind is cloud computing. Cloud computing is a very famous technology that offers many services to end-user. Still, cloud computing has many drawbacks. The services available in the cloud are too far from end-users that create latency, and cloud user needs to download the complete application before use, which also increases the burden to the device [ 86 ]. MEC creates an edge between the end-user and cloud server, bringing cloud computing closer to the end-user. Now, all the services, namely, video conferencing, virtual software, etc., are offered by this edge that improves cloud computing performance. Another essential feature of MEC is that the application is split into two parts, which, first one is available at cloud server, and the second is at the user’s device. Therefore, the user need not download the complete application on his device that increases the performance of the end user’s device. Furthermore, MEC provides cloud services at very low latency and less bandwidth. In [ 23 , 87 ], the author’s investigation proved that successful deployment of MEC in 5G network increases the overall performance of 5G architecture. Graphical differentiation between cloud computing and mobile edge computing is presented in Figure 9 .

Pictorial representation of cloud computing vs. mobile edge computing.

6. 5G Security

Security is the key feature in the telecommunication network industry, which is necessary at various layers, to handle 5G network security in applications such as IoT, Digital forensics, IDS and many more [ 88 , 89 ]. The authors [ 90 ], discussed the background of 5G and its security concerns, challenges and future directions. The author also introduced the blockchain technology that can be incorporated with the IoT to overcome the challenges in IoT. The paper aims to create a security framework which can be incorporated with the LTE advanced network, and effective in terms of cost, deployment and QoS. In [ 91 ], author surveyed various form of attacks, the security challenges, security solutions with respect to the affected technology such as SDN, Network function virtualization (NFV), Mobile Clouds and MEC, and security standardizations of 5G, i.e., 3GPP, 5GPPP, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN), European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). In [ 92 ], author elaborated various technological aspects, security issues and their existing solutions and also mentioned the new emerging technological paradigms for 5G security such as blockchain, quantum cryptography, AI, SDN, CPS, MEC, D2D. The author aims to create new security frameworks for 5G for further use of this technology in development of smart cities, transportation and healthcare. In [ 93 ], author analyzed the threats and dark threat, security aspects concerned with SDN and NFV, also their Commercial & Industrial Security Corporation (CISCO) 5G vision and new security innovations with respect to the new evolving architectures of 5G [ 94 ].

AuthenticationThe identification of the user in any network is made with the help of authentication. The different mobile network generations from 1G to 5G have used multiple techniques for user authentication. 5G utilizes the 5G Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) authentication method, which shares a cryptographic key between user equipment (UE) and its home network and establishes a mutual authentication process between the both [ 95 ].

Access Control To restrict the accessibility in the network, 5G supports access control mechanisms to provide a secure and safe environment to the users and is controlled by network providers. 5G uses simple public key infrastructure (PKI) certificates for authenticating access in the 5G network. PKI put forward a secure and dynamic environment for the 5G network. The simple PKI technique provides flexibility to the 5G network; it can scale up and scale down as per the user traffic in the network [ 96 , 97 ].

Communication Security 5G deals to provide high data bandwidth, low latency, and better signal coverage. Therefore secure communication is the key concern in the 5G network. UE, mobile operators, core network, and access networks are the main focal point for the attackers in 5G communication. Some of the common attacks in communication at various segments are Botnet, message insertion, micro-cell, distributed denial of service (DDoS), and transport layer security (TLS)/secure sockets layer (SSL) attacks [ 98 , 99 ].

Encryption The confidentiality of the user and the network is done using encryption techniques. As 5G offers multiple services, end-to-end (E2E) encryption is the most suitable technique applied over various segments in the 5G network. Encryption forbids unauthorized access to the network and maintains the data privacy of the user. To encrypt the radio traffic at Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, three 128-bits keys are applied at the user plane, nonaccess stratum (NAS), and access stratum (AS) [ 100 ].

7. Summary of 5G Technology Based on Above-Stated Challenges

In this section, various issues addressed by investigators in 5G technologies are presented in Table 13 . In addition, different parameters are considered, such as throughput, latency, energy efficiency, data rate, spectral efficiency, fairness & computing capacity, transmission rate, coverage, cost, security requirement, performance, QoS, power optimization, etc., indexed from R1 to R14.

Summary of 5G Technology above stated challenges (R1:Throughput, R2:Latency, R3:Energy Efficiency, R4:Data Rate, R5:Spectral efficiency, R6:Fairness & Computing Capacity, R7:Transmission Rate, R8:Coverage, R9:Cost, R10:Security requirement, R11:Performance, R12:Quality of Services (QoS), R13:Power Optimization).

8. Conclusions

This survey article illustrates the emergence of 5G, its evolution from 1G to 5G mobile network, applications, different research groups, their work, and the key features of 5G. It is not just a mobile broadband network, different from all the previous mobile network generations; it offers services like IoT, V2X, and Industry 4.0. This paper covers a detailed survey from multiple authors on different technologies in 5G, such as massive MIMO, Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), millimeter wave, small cell, MEC (Mobile Edge Computing), beamforming, optimization, and machine learning in 5G. After each section, a tabular comparison covers all the state-of-the-research held in these technologies. This survey also shows the importance of these newly added technologies and building a flexible, scalable, and reliable 5G network.

9. Future Findings

This article covers a detailed survey on the 5G mobile network and its features. These features make 5G more reliable, scalable, efficient at affordable rates. As discussed in the above sections, numerous technical challenges originate while implementing those features or providing services over a 5G mobile network. So, for future research directions, the research community can overcome these challenges while implementing these technologies (MIMO, NOMA, small cell, mmWave, beam-forming, MEC) over a 5G network. 5G communication will bring new improvements over the existing systems. Still, the current solutions cannot fulfill the autonomous system and future intelligence engineering requirements after a decade. There is no matter of discussion that 5G will provide better QoS and new features than 4G. But there is always room for improvement as the considerable growth of centralized data and autonomous industry 5G wireless networks will not be capable of fulfilling their demands in the future. So, we need to move on new wireless network technology that is named 6G. 6G wireless network will bring new heights in mobile generations, as it includes (i) massive human-to-machine communication, (ii) ubiquitous connectivity between the local device and cloud server, (iii) creation of data fusion technology for various mixed reality experiences and multiverps maps. (iv) Focus on sensing and actuation to control the network of the entire world. The 6G mobile network will offer new services with some other technologies; these services are 3D mapping, reality devices, smart homes, smart wearable, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and sense. It is expected that 6G will provide ultra-long-range communication with a very low latency of 1 ms. The per-user bit rate in a 6G wireless network will be approximately 1 Tbps, and it will also provide wireless communication, which is 1000 times faster than 5G networks.

Acknowledgments

Author contributions.

Conceptualization: R.D., I.Y., G.C., P.L. data gathering: R.D., G.C., P.L, I.Y. funding acquisition: I.Y. investigation: I.Y., G.C., G.P. methodology: R.D., I.Y., G.C., P.L., G.P., survey: I.Y., G.C., P.L, G.P., R.D. supervision: G.C., I.Y., G.P. validation: I.Y., G.P. visualization: R.D., I.Y., G.C., P.L. writing, original draft: R.D., I.Y., G.C., P.L., G.P. writing, review, and editing: I.Y., G.C., G.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This paper was supported by Soonchunhyang University.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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The impact of 5G on the evolution of intelligent automation and industry digitization

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• Published: 21 February 2021
• Volume 14 , pages 5977–5993, ( 2023 )

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• Mohsen Attaran   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0358-4107 1  

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The mobile industry is developing and preparing to deploy the fifth-generation (5G) networks. The evolving 5G networks are becoming more readily available as a significant driver of the growth of IoT and other intelligent automation applications. 5G’s lightning-fast connection and low-latency are needed for advances in intelligent automation—the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), driverless cars, digital reality, blockchain, and future breakthroughs we haven’t even thought of yet. The advent of 5G is more than just a generational step; it opens a new world of possibilities for every tech industry. The purpose of this paper is to do a literature review and explore how 5G can enable or streamline intelligent automation in different industries. This paper reviews the evolution and development of various generations of mobile wireless technology underscores the importance of 5G revolutionary networks, reviews its key enabling technologies, examines its trends and challenges, explores its applications in different manufacturing industries, and highlights its role in shaping the age of unlimited connectivity, intelligent automation, and industry digitization.

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Purpose Claims about a supposed link between 5G and COVID-19 have been circulating the Internet, arguing that global elites were using 5G to spread the virus. It is needless to say that there’s no evidence to support the theory that 5G networks cause COVID-19 or contribute to its spread. The purpose of this research is to do a literature review and explore the practical implications of 5G revolutionary networks technology for growing industry digitization and intelligent automation.

Practical Implications 5G networks are at the very early stages of adoption. Based on the business applications presented in this paper, practitioners will learn 5G business potentials, challenges addressed by 5G, drivers for change, barriers to entry, and critical areas of concern regarding the adaptation of 5G technologies into their organizations. 

Originality/Value This paper examines the essential roles 5G plays in the success of different industries, including IoT, the auto industry and smart cars, manufacturing and smart factories, smart grids, and smart cities, and healthcare. It discusses how 5G will be critical for growing industry digitization and for addressing the numerous challenges different manufacturing industries will face in this rapidly changing landscape. Finally, this paper presents the crucial role that 5G will play in providing a competent platform to support the widespread adoption of critical communications services and driving the digitization and automation of industrial practices and processes of Industry 4.0.

Research Limitations Although the journey towards 5G networks has already begun, there have been very few reported examples of the business benefits realized by leading-edge manufacturing companies resulting from this new technology. This shortage of reporting has led to incomplete data with effects that are often anecdotal and notably, not thoroughly tested. There are only a few papers published in peer-reviewed academic journals or written as academic working papers exploring the advantages and limitations of firms implementing 5G technologies. This paper is a critical early academic contribution to a field dominated by the narratives and promises of consultants.

1 The evolution of cellular wireless networks

Cellular wireless networks have come a long way since the first 1G system was introduced in 1981, with a new mobile generation appearing approximately every 10 years (Pathak 2013 ; Mishra 2018 ). In the past 30 years, the mobile industry has transformed society through 4 or 5 generations of technology revolution and evolution, namely 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networking technologies (Fig.  1 ). 1G gave us a mass-market mobile telephony. 2G brought global interoperability and reliable mobile telephony and made SMS text messaging possible. 3G gave us high-speed data transfer capability for downloading information from the Internet. 4G provided a significant improvement in data capability and speed and made online platforms and high-speed mobile internet services available for the masses. 5G technology will be the most powerful cellular wireless networks with extraordinary data capabilities, unrestricted call volumes, and infinite data broadcast (Pathak 2013 ; GSMA 2017 ; Mishra 2018 ).

The evolution of mobile communications

The following section describes each cellular network generation in more detail.

1G -A nalog Cellular Networks The first commercially automated 1G cellular network was launched in Japan by NTT in 1979 and in the US by Bell Labs in 1984. 1G networks were based on analog protocols with the speed of only 2.4 Kbps (1 kilobit = 1000 bits) and were designed for voice only. 1G enabled the use of multiple cell sites, and the ability to transfer calls from one site to the next as the user traveled between cells during a conversation. 1G has several disadvantages, including low capacity, unreliable handoff, and weak voice links. The first phones, which were based on analog technology, were very large. Voice calls were played back in radio towers, making these calls susceptible to unwanted eavesdropping by third parties (Bhalla and Bhalla 2010 ; Mishra 2018 ).

2G - Digital Networks The second-generation (2G) wireless networks were launched in the early 1990 s and were based on digital standards instead of analog. 2G digital networks enabled rapid phone-to-network signaling and helped the advent of prepaid mobile phones. Additionally, 2G made SMS text messaging possible initially on GSM networks and eventually on all digital networks. Other advantages of 2G digital networks include reduced battery power consumption, voice clarity, and reduced noise in the line. Digital encryption provided secrecy and safety to the data and voice calls. Finally, digital signals are considered environment friendly (Bhalla and Bhalla 2010 ; Mishra 2018 ).

3G - High-Speed Data Networks The third-generation (3G) wireless networks were introduced in 1998 to provide high-speed data transfer capability for downloading information from the Internet and for sending videos with the speed of 2 Mbps (1Mbit = 1000 kbit). 3G technology uses a network of phone towers to pass signals, ensuring a stable connection over long distances. 3G systems provided a significant improvement in capability over the 2G networks by using packet switching rather than circuit switching for data transmission. The high connection speeds of 3G technology-enabled media streaming of radio and even television content to 3G handsets. The technology also provided Video-conferencing support and Web browsing at higher speeds (Pathak 2013 ; Bhalla and Bhalla 2010 ; Mishra 2018 ). According to some estimates, 3G offers a real-world maximum speed of 7.2 Mbps for downloads and 2 Mbps for uploads. In the mid-2000s, an enhanced 3G mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) family, also coined 3.5G, 3G + or turbo 3G was implemented. 3G + allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity (Mishra 2018 ).

4G — Growth of Mobile Broadband The fourth-generation (4G) wireless networks were commercially deployed in the United States by Verizon in 2011, with the promise of speed improvements up to 10-fold over existing 3G technologies. Standard 4G has download speeds of around 14 Mbps and can reach speeds as high as 150 Mbps. 4G networks are IP-based (Internet protocol). It uses IP even for voice data. It uses a standard communications protocol to send and receive data in packets. Using these standardized packets, 4G enables data to traverse all sorts of networks without being scrambled or corrupted. 4G networking technology is an extension of 3G technology with more bandwidth and services and with high-quality audio/video streaming capabilities. 4G provides a significant improvement in data capability and speed over the 3G systems with the data transfer speed of 100 Mbps. 4G systems eliminated circuit switching, and instead employed an all-IP network designed primarily for data. 4G enabled users to browse the web and stream HD videos on mobile devices. The 4G network allows users to download gigabytes of data in minutes or even seconds. The technology turned smartphones into the computers of the modern age (Pathak 2013 ; Bhalla and Bhalla 2010 ; Mishra 2018 ).

5G—Design Innovation Across Diverse Services The fifth-generation (5G) network, with the speed of 1–10 Gbps (1Gbit = 1000 Mbit), denotes the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the current 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE). 5G systems are promised to be in the market by the end of 2019. 5G technology offers extraordinary data capabilities and unlimited data broadcast within the latest mobile operating systems. Other features of 5G networks are enhanced mobile broadband, dynamic low latency, wider bandwidths, device-centric mobility, simultaneous redundant, and reliable-device-to-device links (Bhalla and Bhalla 2010 ; Mishra 2018 ).

2 Key features of 5G networks

5G networks provide lower prices, lower battery consumption, and lower latency than 4G wireless networks. It is because 5G uses Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) networks with higher band breadth at low energy levels. Band breadth is 4000 Mbps, which is four hundred times faster than 4G wireless networks. 5G communication networks can also provide hundreds of billions of connections, massive machine communication, and extreme mobile broadband. Additionally, 5G offers ultra-low latency of 1 ms, 90% more energy efficiency, 99.9% ultra-reliability, 10 Gbps peak data rate transmission speeds, and mobile data volume of 10 Tb (Barreto et al. 2016 ; Hu 2016 ; Saha et al. 2016 ; Cero et al. 2017 ).

Following sections highlight key features of 5G networks in detail.

5G networking standards

The 5G networking technology standard is divided into two key parts:

Non-Standalone (NSA) The first 5G networks are based on NSA, which is the basis of commercial launches expected by the end of 2019. The NSA standard uses existing 4G LTE infrastructure to handle the Control Plane and the signal traffic. It can be thought of as just having an extra fast data pipe attached to existing 4G LTE infrastructure. NSA acts as an initial step that will allow carriers to offer commercial service throughout 2019 until the adoption of a 5G Standalone standard.

Standalone (SA) The 5G Standalone (SA) comes with entirely new core architecture. It moved the control plane transition over to the 5G Core and made significant changes for the way that networks operate. SA will be released in 2020—it will support more flexible network slicing and subcarrier encoding. It is designed to be more efficient than 4GLTE and NSA and will lead to lower costs for the carriers and improved performance for users (Cero et al. 2017 ; Saha et al. 2016 ).

Expanding the networking spectrum

According to a 2017 Cisco study, by 2021, wireless networks will increase in usage by a compounded annual growth rate of 47%. Speeds will reach peaks of 10 Gbps and deliver 1 Gbps at 500 km/h (Cisco 2019 ). 4G wireless networks lack enough spectrum bandwidth and network capacity to meet growing market demands. 5G is an evolving standard combining more spectrums and allowing for more bandwidth and much faster speeds for consumers. Consumers can connect to the 5G network and leverage the benefits of a wide range of spectrums.

The most used 5G technology is mmWave. Carriers will also be using a new spectrum in the sub-6 GHz WiFi region, low bands below 1 GHz, and existing 4G LTE bands, as shown in Fig.  2 . At present, there is a significant amount of unused high-frequency spectrum, and the higher the frequency, the more bandwidth is available (Mathias 2019 ; Kamel et al. 2016 ). 5G networking technology also relies on different wave spectrums. Wireless networks are composed of cell sites divided into sectors that send data through radio waves. Fourth-generation (4G) Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless technology requires high-power, large cell towers to radiate signals over long distances. 5G wireless signals, on the other hand, will be transmitted via large numbers of multiple small cell stations located in places like light poles or building roofs. The use of a large number of small cells is necessary since 5G relies on millimeter wave spectrum between 30 and 300 GHz which can only travel over short distances and is subject to interference from weather and physical obstacles (Liu and Jiang 2016 ; De Matos and Gondim 2016 ; Hossain 2013 ).

New technological innovations

Source: Robert Triggs, Online https://www.androidauthority.com/what-is-5g-explained-944868

Networking spectrum bands.

5G is using some key new technological innovations to greatly increase the amount of spectrum used to send and receive data compared to today’s 4G LTE networks. These technologies allow for more bandwidth and much faster speeds for consumers. They are shown in Fig.  3 and are explained below (Bogale and Le 2015 ; Cero et al. 2017 ; Hu 2016 ; 5G Forum 2016 ; Niu et al. 2016 ; Larsson et al. 2014 ):

mmWave It offers a very high frequency between 17 and 110 GHz and high bandwidth for fast data transfer. It is a short-range technology that will be used in densely populated areas. It is also the most referenced 5G technology.

Sub-6   GHz Most of the future 5G networks will likely operate in WiFi-like mid-band frequencies between 3 and 6 GHz. It will cover the medium range spectrum, and it will be useful for small cell hubs for indoor use or more powerful outdoor base stations.

Low-band Operates at a very low frequency below 800 MHz and covers very long distances. It also provides blanket backbone coverage.

Beamforming This key technology allows the beamformer (Router) to transmit signals in the direction of the consumer devices, thus creating stronger, faster, and more reliable wireless communications. Beamforming is a key technology in overcoming the range and direction limitations of the spectrum of high-frequency waveforms.

Massive MIMO Data is sent and received using multiple antennas on base stations to serve multiple end-users. The technology makes high-frequency networks much more efficient. It can also be combined with beamforming.

Sources: Barreto et al. ( 2016 ), Hu ( 2016 ), Saha et al. ( 2016 ), Cero et al. ( 2017 )

5G networks capabilities.

Unique features of 5G networks

5G networks provide improved support of machine to machine communication, aiming at lower prices, reduced battery consumption, and lower latency than 4G instrumentation. 5G uses Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) networks with higher band breadth at low energy levels. Band breadth is of 4000 Mbps, which is four hundred times quicker than today’s 4G wireless networks (Fig.  3 ). 5G communication networks can also provide hundreds of billions of connections, massive machine communication, and extreme mobile broadband. Additionally, 5G offers ultra-low latency of 1 ms, 90% more energy efficiency, 99.9% ultra-reliability, 10 Gbps peak data rate transmission speeds, and a mobile data volume of 10 Tb (Barreto et al. 2016 ; Hu 2016 ; Saha et al. 2016 ; Cero et al. 2017 ).

Impact on download times & streaming

The download speed measured by the rate at which data (e.g., web page, photo, application, or video) can be transferred from the internet to a computer or a smartphone. They are measured in “bits per second” (bps) where a “bit” is a one or zero in binary. More commonly, however, we measure download speeds in “megabits per second” (Mbps), where 1 Megabit is equal to one million bits. A faster download speed supports higher-quality streaming and makes content from the internet load faster and with less of a wait. (Ken’s Tech Tips 2018 ).Today, more and more applications make use of streaming, including voice over IP (e.g., calling via Skype or WhatsApp), online video apps (e.g., Netflix and YouTube), and online radio (Ken’s Tech Tips 2018 ). When the content is not downloaded at a sufficient speed, we will experience pauses during playback (also known as “buffering”). The actual download speeds will depend on several factors, including location (whether you are indoors or outdoors), the distance to nearby masts, and the amount of congestion on the network. The download times for 5G networks for a webpage, an e-mail, a photograph, and a music track are near-instantaneous (Ken’s Tech Tips 2018 ).

Another great advantage of 5G networks is its reduced latency. Latency, also known as the “lag” or “ping,” is an initial delay before the server on the other end starts to respond. The download will progress only once the server has responded. It is a critical concept that affects the experience of end-users on smartphones. High latency connections cause web pages to load slowly. It affects the experience in applications that require real-time connectivity such as voice calling, video calling, and gaming applications). The major benefits of 5G are reduced latency, increased capacity, and faster download speeds. Human reaction time is 200–300 ms. 5G will reduce that to 1 ms or less. That is almost real-time. It means that we can use 5G to replace real-time interactions. The reduction in latency from 5G technology will help overall response for some of the newer embedded applications of mobile technology such as autonomous cars (Ken’s Tech Tips 2018 ).

Wi-Fi 6 vs. 5G networks

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest wireless LAN technology and has been developed parallel with 5G and is expected to hit the market around the same time as 5G. Both technologies are designed to deliver similar services and have a core mission to bring gigabit-plus throughput to end-users.

Wi-Fi 6, like all other Wi-Fi technologies, operates in unlicensed bands where permission is not required (Mathias 2019 ). In the case of licensed bands, individual companies pay a licensing fee for the right to transmit on assigned channels within that band in each geographic area. Licensing ensures that wireless operators do not interfere with each other’s transmissions. Unlicensed wireless technologies are vulnerable to interference. When using an unlicensed technology like Wi-Fi, the end-users will have to adjust to avoid interference. Additionally, the radio environment is likely to continue to change over time (Phifer 2017 ).

5G, on the other hand, is a cellular, carrier-based technology. 5G carriers obtain an exclusive license to specific blocks of spectrum across specific geographies via an auction process. They can configure their specific network to meet their particular coverage, capacity, and business objectives. Therefore, interference shouldn’t be an issue. There are numerous ways that 5G and cellular are superior to Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi6, such as authentication—intercarrier roaming is transparent. Additionally, connecting to cellular is easy; simply turn on the mobile device, whereas Wi-Fi usually requires selecting an available service set identifier and providing a security key.

There is a hope that in the future, both technologies will be used by final consumers and move these customers closer to a superior mobile network. Business-class cell phones, for example, will likely support both technologies starting in 2020 (Mathias 2019 ).

3 Intelligent automation and economic contributions of 5G networks

Manufacturing industries are moving towards digitalization for several reasons, including increasing revenue by better serving their customers, increasing demand, beating the competition, decreasing costs by increasing productivity and efficiency, and decreasing risk by increasing safety and security. A recent study identified the key challenges and requirements in digitization industries digitization (Ericsson 2017 ). These requirements range from:

Ultra-reliable, resilient, instantaneous connectivity for millions of devices.

Low-cost devices with extended battery life.

Asset tracking throughout the ever-changing supply chains.

Performing remote medical procedures.

Using AR/VR to enhance the shopping experiences.

Using AI to enhance operations in multiple areas or enterprise-wide.

5G delivers a high-speed, reliable, and secure broadband experience, and will be a major technology for growing industry digitization. It will provide the networks and platforms to drive the digitization and automation of Industry 4.0. It will support the massive rollout of intelligent IoT and the widespread adoption of critical communications services (GSMA 2017 ).

In summary, 5G networks enable service providers to build virtual networks tailored to applications requirements such as:

Mobile broadband communication, media and entertainment, and the Internet

Machine-to-Machine (Massive IoT ) Retail, shopping, manufacturing

Reliable low latency Automobile, medical, smart cities

Critical communications

Others Industry-specific services, energy, etc.

4 5G for the Internet of Things (IoT)

Internet of Things Defined

The “Internet of things” (IoT) is an extension of the Internet and other network connections to different sensors and devices—or “things”. The concept is based on a general rule that ‘Anything that can be connected will be connected (Attaran 2017b ). This includes everything from industrial equipment such as car engines, jet engines, the drill of an oil rig, washing machines, coffee makers, cellphones, wearable devices, and much more. IoT provides a higher degree of computing and analytical capabilities to even single objects. IoT is a rapidly evolving technology that more and more industries are willing to adapt to improve their efficiency. Smart terminals, mobile broadband, and cloud computing enable widespread connectivity, transforming the way we perceive the world around us people (Attaran 2017b )

IOT architecture and working principle

Figure  4 shows major architectural layers of IoT architecture. Features of each of these layers are discussed below (Opentechdiary 2015 ):

Wireless sensors actuators, and network layer—this layer has sensors, RFID tags, and connectivity network. They form the essential “things” of IoT system and collects real-time information. Sensors convert the data obtained in the outer world into data for analysis. Actuators intervene in the physical reality—they can switch off the light and adjust the temperature in a room. Sensors and actuators cover and adjust everything needed in the physical world to gain the necessary insights for further analysis.

Internet Getaways and Data Acquisition Systems This stage makes data both digitalized and aggregated. Internet getaways work through Wi-Fi, embedded OS, Signal Processors, Micro-Controllers, and the Gateway Networks including LAN (Local Area Network), WAN (Wide Area Network), etc. The responsibility of Gateways is routing the data coming from the sensor, connectivity, and network layer and pass it to the next layer. Data acquisition systems (DAS) connect to the sensor network and aggregate output. This stage processes the enormous amount of information collected on the previous stage and squeeze it to the optimal size for further analysis.

Source: Opentechdiary ( 2015 )

IoT architecture layers.

Edge IT-Management Services This layer is responsible for data mining, text mining, analysis of IoT devices, analysis of information (stream analytics, data analytics) and device management. This stage provides analytics and pre-processing and prepares data before it is transferred to the data center or cloud for further analysis. Edge IT systems are located close to the sensors and actuators, creating a wiring closet.

Datacenter and cloud The main processes of analysis, management, and storage of data happen in the data center or cloud. This stage enables in-depth processing, along with a follow-up revision for feedback

The following sections review how the 5G network can improve processes in different layers of IoT architecture.

Mainstream adoptability

The IoT is a relatively new developing technology. Over the past few years, IoT-enabled devices have become broader, deeper, and more affordable. Sensors and tags are rapidly becoming cheaper. Readers and sensors are using less power, growing more intelligent, operating faster and at longer distances, and able to handle interference. This means better systems performance, greater capability to use sensors and tags with more data, and easier integration into existing systems without reprogramming. According to several recent research, IoT adoption over the next 10 years is on the rise. According to a Cisco estimate, devices connected to the Internet were 11 billion in 2013, 15 billion in 2014, 25 billion in 2016, and will be over 50 billion by 2020—that is seven Internet-connected “things” for every person on the planet (Evans 2011 ).

DBS Group Research has identified IoT technologies to reach the mass adoption stage in Asia over the next 5–10 years (DBS Asian Insights Insights 2018 ). According to this study, the IoT achieved a mainstream global consumer adoption rate of 14% in 2017. With growing uptake, the IoT is likely to reach an adoption rate of 18–20% by the end of 2019. By 2030, the global adoption of consumer IoT technology will reach 100% (DBS Asian Insights 2018 ).

Next stage in IoT development

In the past few years, technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Industrial IoT (IIoT), edge computing, and Low Power Wide-Area (LPWA) were introduced that shape the next stages in IoT development. Over the next few years, more and more devices will become connected, increasing the application of IoT exponentially (Attaran 2017b ). Additionally, IoT technology is the driving force in our Industry 4.0 revolution. In Industry 4.0, industrial processes and the associated machines are becoming smarter and more modular. They could monitor, collect, exchange, analyze, and instantly act on information to intelligently change their behavior or their environment. Additionally, as the total cost of ownership of IoT devices and solutions decrease, the technology will be affordable for markets of asset tracking, agriculture, and environmental monitoring (ABI Research 2016 ).

The impact of 5G on IoT

A 2017 CEO survey of 5G potential applications revealed five different services that could be supported and would come to maturity when commercial 5G networks are widely deployed. They are highlighted in Fig.  5 (Obiodu and Giles 2017 ). IoT ranked second on the list, with 77% of the respondent of respondents believing that 5G provides broad enablement of IoT use cases. Gartner conducted another survey in 2018 to understand the growing demand and adoption plans for 5G. The results revealed that 65% of organizations had plans to deploy 5G networks to be mainly used for IoT and video communications by 2020. They identified operational efficiency as the key driver for their decision (Omale 2018 ).

A CEO survey of possible 5G applications

Leveraging cyber-physical systems and striving towards ever more automation and autonomous decisions in environments such as the smart factories, autonomous vehicles, smart buildings, smart cities and connected industrial applications, requires substantial resources to deal with the resulting amount of data that needs to be gathered, analyzed, and transferred. Today’s network technologies are not sufficient for the ultra-connectivity needed for the future. We often need to use a mix of fixed and wireless network technologies to realize massive IoT projects. 5G has the potential to bring the reliability, latency, scalability, mobility, and security that is required for mission-critical services in the IoT ecosystem (i-SCOOP 2018 ).

The existing IoT technology solutions are facing challenges such as a large number of connections of nodes and security issues. In order to meet widespread applications and different industry demands, IoT will require improved performance criteria in areas such as security, trustworthiness, wireless coverage, ultra-low latency, and mass connectivity. 5G can improve processes in different stages of IoT architecture (Fig.  2 ). 5G can contribute to the future of IoT through the connection of billions of smart devices to interact and share data independently. 5G is considered as a key enabling technology that will play an important role in the continued success and widespread applications of IoT. 5G will introduce new Radio Access technologies (RAT), smart antennas, and make use of higher frequencies while altering or re-architecting networks. The 5G enabled IoT will help the connection of an enormous number of these IoT devices and will also help to meet market demands for wireless services. The fifth- generation (5G) mobile network will meet the differing prerequisites of the IoT. To meet the growing requirements of IoT, the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and 5G technologies must provide new connectivity interfaces for future IoT applications. To meet the differing prerequisites of the IoT, 5G mobile networks must guarantee that massive devices and new services such as enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), massive Machine Type Communications, Critical Communications, and Network Operations are effectively upheld. 5G provides essential prerequisites and ubiquitous connectivity for end-clients, including high throughput, low latency, fast information conveyance, high versatility to empower a huge number of gadgets, productive energy utilization systems, etc. The fifth-generation (5G) mobile network will improve the range of IoT applications such as smart TVs, smart security cameras, smart dishwashers, smart thermostats, smart kitchen appliances, and so on.

The existing networks of 4G and 4G LTE cannot support the mobile telecommunications needs of IoT. 5G can also provide a solution to the issue and can provide the fastest network data rate with relatively low expectancy and better communication coverage when compared to present 4G LTE networking technologies. The fast speeds provided by 5G will bring new technological advancements. The next generation of 5G will handle hundreds of billions of connections and will provide transmission speeds of 10 Gbps and ultra-low latency of 1 ms. It also provides more reliable service in rural areas reducing the differences in service between rural and urban areas (Li et al. 2018 ). Although 5G is an extension of the 4G and 4G LTE networks, yet it comes with entirely new network architecture and functions such as virtualization, which offers more than just the impressive fast data rates. Network function virtualization offers the ability to split physical networks into multiple virtual networks where the devices can be reconfigured to create multiple networks. This feature will provide the 5G enabled IoT applications with an immediate processing ability that will allow for improved speed and coverage, and also provide the capacity to meet the demands of applications. Virtualization will also enhance the feasibility of radio access network (RAN) for next-generation voice, video, and data services.

5G networks will integrate mobile tech, big data, IoT, and cloud computing, and will generate a variety of new applications as the technology is rolled out. 5G will support smart devices, including self-driving cars, wearable, telemedicine, and Internet of Things (IoT). Autonomous cars and IoT devices are expected to be major revenue drivers for 5G networks (i-SCOOP 2018 ).

Big data, IoT, and 5G networks

Another area where 5G networking can be very helpful is “Big Data.” Data is flooding in at a rate never seen before—–doubling every 18 months (Rossi and Hirama 2015 ). The International Data Corporation report predicted that there could be an increase in digital data by 40X from 2012 to 2020 (Gantz and Reinsel 2012 ). Public customer data and new data gathered from IoT enabled devices are generating what is broadly known as “Big Data.” The amount of data that IoT devices might report back to a cloud server could easily overwhelm a relational database. Companies offering IoT enabled devices need to be prepared for storing, tracking, and analyzing the vast amounts of data that will be generated. The real value that IoT creates is at the intersection of gathering data and leveraging it. Additionally, the privacy and security of enormous data produced by millions of interconnected devices going to be challenged and private information may leak at any time (Zheng et al. 2019 ). Zheng et al. ( 2019 ). It is anticipated that IoT’s billions of connected objects will generate data volume far in excess of what can easily be processed and analyzed in the cloud, due to issues like limited bandwidth, network latency, etc. 5G has the potential to keep up with consumer and enterprise data demand while lowering carriers’ operating expenses.

IoT performance requirements for 5G networks

An important challenge for 5G networks is to support a variety of performance requirements for IoT applications in a reliable, flexible, and cost-effective way (Zhang and Fitzek 2015 ). Activity-based IoT applications pose many performance requirements, as described in several studies. Energy optimization of streaming applications in IoT has been analyzed, and energy-efficient task mapping and scheduling have been proposed (Ali et al. 2018a , b , 2019 ; Tariq et al. 2019 ). A recent study identified eight key performance indicators and requirements of activity-based IoT (5G Forum 2016 ). These performance requirements range from data rate, mobility, latency, connection density, reliability, positioning accuracy, coverage, and energy efficiency and are usually well described for specific IoT applications. A comprehensive understanding of the performance requirements of each activity based IoT application could facilitate the selection of 5G technologies needed to meet the growing demands of these applications.

Following is a more detailed description of these performance requirements:

Data Rate Data rate is an important evaluation factor for generations of wireless communication networks (Saha et al. 2016 ). 5G core network will support both peak data rate—the maximum achievable data rate by the user, and minimum guaranteed user data rate—the minimum experience data rate by the user (Oughton and Frias 2017 ). The high data rate is important in most activity-based classes of IoT applications. 5G networks support 10 Gbps for minimum peak data rate and 100 Mbps as the minimum guaranteed user data rate (5G Forum 2016 ).

Mobility IoT applications have very diverse requirements for mobility (relative velocity between the receiver and the transmitter) in 5G networks (Oughton and Frias 2017 ). Many IoT use cases require ultra-high mobility, ultrahigh traffic volume density, and ultra-high connection density. These needs may be quite challenging for 5G networks to provide on- demand mobility for all devices and services (Le et al. 2015 ).

Latency latency is perceived by the end-user and is usually expressed in terms of end-to-end (E2E) latency. 5G networks, through significant enhancements and new technology in architecture aspects, enable “zero latency” expressed by the millisecond level of E2E latency (Saha et al. 2016 ; Hu 2016 ; Ford et al. 2017 ). IoT application determines required latency levels. For example, the acceptable delay for use case mobile health and remote surgery application is in order of sub-milliseconds (Le et al. 2015 ; Blanco et al. 2017 ).

Connection Density Connection density is the number of connected and/or accessible devices per unit area, e.g., 1 million connections per square meter (Le et al. 2015 ; NGMN Alliance 2017 ). Connectivity in 5G networks is not limited to mobile devices. 5G networks can satisfy connection density and traffic density of various identified activity-based classes of IoT applications (Amaral et al. 2016 ; NGMN Alliance 2017 ).

Reliability is measured by the maximum tolerable packet loss rate at the application layer. For certain IoT uses cases such as driverless cars, 5G must bring the reliability of 99,999% or higher (Ford et al. 2017 ; Rappaport et al. 2014 ; Ge et al. 2016 ; Elayoubi et al. 2016 ). Similarly, reliability is the main characteristic of monitoring, managing, and controlling activities. Reliability will present many challenges in the future. High-speed trains are just one example of this challenge because of speed, load, and cell distance (Oughton and Frias 2017 ; Erman and Yiu 2016 ),

Position Accuracy Position accuracy is defined as the maximum positioning error tolerated by the IoT application. Accuracy positioning is very important in monitoring-based activities such as monitoring remote cameras and in controlling-based activities such as driving (Blanco et al. 2017 ). 5G networking technology should ensure accurate positioning of the outdoors device with accuracy from 10 m to less than 1 m on 80% of occasions and better than 1 m in indoor deployment (Elayoubi et al. 2016 ).

Coverage 5G core network shall be able to build the network based on the user’s need. It should provide connectivity anytime and anywhere with a minimum user experience data rate of 1 Gbps (Hossain 2013 ). Almost every activity based IoT application requires very high levels of coverage—99,999% availability (NGMN Alliance 2017 ).

Spectrum Efficiency Spectrum efficiency is defined as the aggregate data throughput of all users per unit of spectrum resource per cell or per unit area. The minimum peak spectrum efficiency is 30 bps/Hz for downlink and 15 bps/Hz for uplink (Liu and Jiang 2016 ). IoT enabled 5G networks to require 3–5 times improvement in spectrum efficiency to achieve network sustainability (Liu and Jiang 2016 ; De Matos and Gondim 2016 ; Hossain 2013 ).

Energy Efficiency Energy efficiency is the number of bits that can be transmitted per joule of energy, and it is measured in b/J (Liu and Jiang 2016 ). 5G wireless technology should aim for higher energy efficiency against increased device/network energy consumption required on wireless communications. That means the energy efficiency of the 5G network may need to be improved by a factor of 1000 (Kaur and Singh 2016 ; Akyildiz et al. 2014 ; Kamel et al. 2016 ; Bogale and Le 2015 ). Energy efficiency is a significant factor for the reduction of operating costs of telecom operators, as well as for minimizing the environmental impact of wireless technology (Bogale and Le 2015 ).

End-user willingness to Pay for 5G enabled IoT

In the summer of 2017, Gartner conducted a survey to gauge the willingness among end-user organizations to pay more for 5G networking technology (Gartner 2017 ). A vast majority of correspondents (57%) believed that 5G-capable networks would play an important role in IoT in their organizations and that their intention is to use 5G to drive IoT communication. The video was the next most popular use case, which was chosen by 53% of the respondents. The study also identified the willingness to pay for the 5G networks of surveyed organizations. 57% of surveyed organizations were willing to pay the same cost as 4G and up to 10% higher (Fig.  6 ).

Source: Gartner ( 2017 )

Willingness of Organizations to pay for 5G.

5 5G for automotive industry and smart cars

Rethinking transportation

Henry Ford introduced his first Model T car using interchangeable parts on an assembly line in 1908. This led to a more efficient manufacturing process—the price of cars dropped, and sales picked up. Nearly 7% of American families owned a car in 1918. The number of cars nearly tripled from 8 million to 23 million in the 1920s. By 1929, 80% of American families owned a car. At this time, the auto manufacturing industry was also growing quickly—by 1925, 10% of the U.S. workforce was employed by the auto industry. Cars were the most significant innovation of the twentieth century that shaped our modern lifestyle. The rise of the automobile industry disrupted almost every industry and every aspect of the economy. Affordable cars enabled people to move from cities to the suburbs, which led to economic growth in the construction industry. This new era of transportation remained in place for 100 years (Sears 1977 ). However, a revolution is arriving by way of self-driving vehicles. These autonomous cars are anticipated to disrupt critical areas of the economy and have an even bigger impact than the automobile did in the 1920s. More specifically, self-driving cars are labeled as the fastest, deepest, most consequential disruptions of transportation in history (Arbib and Seba 2017 ).

Consumer mobility behavior is one of the areas that is changing. Individuals are increasingly using multiple modes of transportation to complete their journey(s). The “state of delivery” is another area of customer concern. Consumers are showing an obvious preference for delivered goods and services. The clear result in this practice is a decline in individual shopping trips. In dense big cities like New York City or Los Angeles, car ownership is increasingly becoming more of a burden for many, and the prospect of shared mobility now presents a competitive value proposition (McKinsey & Company 2016 ). According to a 2017 study by RethinkX, an independent think tank and research company, within 10 years of government approval of autonomous vehicles, 95% of the U.S. passenger miles will be covered by fleets of autonomous electric vehicles (Arbib and Seba 2017 ). This will create a new business model called “Transport as-a-Service” (TaaS) and will have enormous implications across the transportation and oil industries, causing oil demand and prices to plummet, and creating trillions of dollars in new business opportunities and GDP growth (Arbib and Seba 2017 ). It is predicted that TaaS will reduce energy demand by 80% and tailpipe emissions by over 90%, thus bringing dramatic reductions or perhaps even the elimination of air pollution and greenhouse gases from the transport sector and improved public health. TaaS will not only dramatically lower transportation costs but increase mobility and access to jobs, education, and health care. It has the potential to create trillions of dollars in consumer surplus and contribute to a cleaner, safer, and more walkable communities (Arbib and Seba 2017 ). According to this study, by 2030, by using the TaaS model, the average American family could save nearly $5600 per year in transportation costs, and the United States will save an additional $1 trillion per year (Arbib and Seba 2017 ).

Autonomous cars disrupt the transportation industry in several ways. Driven by the exponential rise in electric vehicles, improved connectivity services provided by faster networking solutions, and technological breakthrough, consumer mobility behavior is changing. It is predicted that one out of ten cars sold in 2030 will potentially be a shared vehicle. Once regulatory issues have been resolved, up to 15% of new cars sold in 2030 could be fully autonomous (McKinsey & Company 2016 ). Auto production will suffer because autonomous fleets will need far fewer cars than are currently consumed. According to an estimate by RethinkX Sector Disruption Report, the number of U.S. vehicles will drop 82% from 247 to 44 million in the new age of autonomous vehicles. That will lead to a 70% reduction in automotive manufacturing. Moreover, nearly 100 million existing vehicles will be abandoned as they become economically unviable (Arbib and Seba 2017 ). This could result in total disruption and almost complete destruction of the auto industry—specifically car dealers, maintenance, and insurance companies. Automakers’ business models will shift from producing cars for public consumption to producing cars to deploy in their self-driving fleets. Traffic becomes a thing of the past, commute times will decline significantly, and workers can move even further from their place of employment. As a result, real estate will become more accessible, increasing urban sprawl (Arbib and Seba 2017 ). The primary challenges impeding faster market penetration for fully autonomous vehicles are pricing, consumer understanding, and safety/security issues. Fully self-driving vehicles are unlikely to be commercially available before 2020 (McKinsey & Company 2016 ). However, these driverless cars are already here to stay. Tesla recently announced the company’s aspiration to release a fully autonomous Robo taxi fleet next year. Lyft announced that self-driving cars are a central part of its vision for reducing individual car ownership, creating safer streets, and alleviating congestion. In 2018, Lyft partnered with vehicle technology firm Aptiv to begin its driverless car program in Las Vegas. Lyft’s fleet of 30 driverless cars has completed 50,000 rides in Las Vegas, up from 30,000 in January 2019. Passengers rated their trips an impressive average of 4.97 out of 5. Moreover, 92% of riders felt very safe or extremely safe during the ride. 95% of riders indicated it was their first time inside a self-driving vehicle (Lyft Blog 2019 ). Lyft is looking for partnerships to further its self-driving ambitions. It recently announced a deal with self-driving technology firm Waymo for a ridesharing service in Phoenix, Arizona (Mogg 2019 ).

The impact of 5G on automotive industry

According to a 2017 study by Qualcomm, by 2035, 5G networks will enable more than $2.4 trillion in total economic output in the automotive sector, including its supply chain and its customers. 5G economic impacts in this sector will represent about 20% of the total global 5G economic impact by 2035 (Condon 2017 ). According to the World Economic Forum, the digital transformation of the automotive industry will generate $67 billion in value for that sector over the 2015–2025 periods. Additionally, this transformation will generate $3.1 trillion in the societal benefit that includes autonomous vehicles improvement and the transportation enterprise ecosystem over the same period (World Economic Forum 2015 ).

Automakers are racing to improve the technology that will power self-driving cars. 5G networks enable the digital transformation of the automotive industry. Smart cars consume a lot of bandwidth, require quicker responses from the network, and demand continuous connectivity to the network. 5G supports higher bandwidth and lower latencies, which enables Smart Cars to function efficiently. 5G technology improves mobile wireless networks’ capacity and data speeds. It allows network providers to offer much more robust internet connections to devices. As such, 5G will play an important role in the proliferation of self-driving cars, which will produce enormous amounts of data. This technology makes intelligent driving safer and more efficient. As such, 5G networks will help enable the autonomous urban ride services and most self-driving car players. Additionally, 5G networks can offer many services to automakers, including navigation information, traffic information, e-tolling, hazard warning, collision warning, weather updates, and cybersecurity services to monitor vehicles for intrusions.

6 5G for manufacturing sector and smart factory

The constantly changing manufacturing industry

The manufacturing industry is going through a significant period of change driven by rapid technological advancements that have enabled manufacturers to meet consumer demands better. Technology will play a key role in empowering manufacturers to innovate and embrace the opportunities that will present themselves. Manufacturers must keep up with the technological evolution of the products and processes, as they are continually improved. As more and more ‘smart’ devices are integrated into manufacturing, industry 4.0 will continue to dominate the manufacturing process. Industry 4.0 combines artificial intelligence and data science to realize the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) (Attaran 2017b ). Sensors and tags are attached to parts to track them throughout the manufacturing and assembly process. Sensors are also used to improve the performance of machines, to extend their lives, to predict when equipment is wearing down or in need of repair, and to learn how machines can be redesigned to be more efficient. This could reduce maintenance costs by 40% and cut unplanned downtime by 50% (Hale 2019 ). Furthermore, an increasing amount of data being created by Industry 4.0 provides the opportunity for the manufacturer to significantly enhance the customer experience.

Additionally, during the past years, the use of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies in different industries have increased substantially. AM is used to produce products that can be customized individually. The technology offers several benefits to the manufacturing industry, including shorter production lead times, reduced time to market for new product designs, and faster response to customer demand (Attaran 2017a ).

Finally, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another technology that is set to have a profound impact on the manufacturing industry in several diverse ways. For example, AI can be used to make more sense of the mountains of data manufacturers are now collecting and storing. It can also be used to improve customer service and support.

5G and manufacturing industry

Manufacturing companies around the world are under extreme competitive pressure due to shorter business and product lifecycles. Margins are being squeezed more than ever, and workforces are aging and becoming costlier to maintain. To compete globally, manufacturing companies have to improve efficiency and reduce costs through new process innovations—technologies like robotics, warehouse automation, smart factories, and flexible manufacturing help. 5G networks and IoT will play crucial roles in enhancing and enabling these manufacturing advances. 5G networking technologies provide the network characteristics essential for manufacturing. 5G will give manufacturing companies a chance to build smart factories and truly take advantage of technologies such as automation, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality for troubleshooting. 5G is a significant technology for industry digitalization that directly enhances connectivity, quality, speed, latency, and bandwidth. 5G could help overcome manufacturing problems and pain points, including connectivity issues such as insufficient bandwidth, speed, and latency issues. 5G will also improve connectivity for a large network of sensors for predictive maintenance of factory floor machines and robots. 5G networks will allow for higher flexibility, lower cost, and shorter lead times for factory floor layout changes and alterations. 5G networks, services, and connectivity capabilities have the potential to transform production, business models, and sales in ways that will benefit manufacturing. Advanced 5G networks and information processing technology can streamline smart factories, improve internal and external communications, and unify full product life cycle management on a single network. Other important pain points and crucial manufacturing use cases 5G can overcome are summarized in Table  1 (Ericsson 2019 ).

7 5G for the healthcare industry

The ever-changing healthcare industry

Allied Market Research estimates that there are 3.7 million connected medical devices in use to enable healthcare decisions. According to its prediction, the worldwide IoT healthcare market will reach $136.8 billion by 2021 (Market Watch 2016 ). The applications of IoT in the healthcare industry are limitless. The concept is referred to as the Internet of Medical Things or “IoMT.” It is the collection of medical devices equipped with Wi-Fi and applications connected to healthcare IT systems through online computer networks. As hospitals struggle to lower operating costs and remain competitive, IoMT has the potential to reduce costs and improve a patient’s journey through a medical facility. The idea of telemedicine or the ability of a doctor with a webcam to diagnose a patient’s problems without an office visit is becoming popular. This is very useful when patients live in remote areas or when they need specialized care. Mobile health can help the healthcare industry improve efficiency and reduce costs in the areas of disease prevention, counseling, treatment, and rehabilitation (Marr 2018 ).

5G advantages for healthcare

5G networks and services provide mobile health platform advantages such as integrated mobility and advanced connectivity so doctors and nurses can achieve patient monitoring anywhere, anytime. 5G technology enables patients to use wearable devices to transmit their health symptoms and status. 5G enhanced mobile broadband with faster speed and more bandwidth can help doctors have access to patient’s information for remote monitoring and diagnosis.

5G networks enable factory robots to communicate their task and position, allowing them to do more tasks efficiently and wirelessly. Drones could fly over a field of crops, using sensors on the ground, to sort, pick, feed, and water individual plants. In April 2019, a Chinese neurosurgeon successfully operated on a patient suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The doctor used a pacemaker-like implant on a patient that was about 1864 miles away during the surgery. This surgery was only possible because of the lightning-fast connection of 5G networks that allows surgeons such as the one in China to control an off-site surgical robot and operate in real-time (China Daily 2019 ).

A recent study by Ericsson identified different ways the healthcare industry can derive value out of 5G networking technology (Ericsson 2018 ). They are summarized below:

Effective capture of the vast amount of patient data.

Real-time mobile delivery of rich medical data.

Improved availability of suitable infrastructure.

Improved security of patient data and superior data storage.

Ability to accurately control remote medical equipment without delay.

Ability to incorporate augmented and virtual reality for enhanced training of interns.

Facilitate the connectivity and operations of smart medical objects and instruments such as syringes, beds, and cabinets.

8 5G for smart grids and smart cities

5G for smart grids

The smart grid is one example of the application of IoT where components of the electric grid from transformers to power lines to home electric meters have sensors and are capable of two-way communication. The electric company can use the smart grid to manage distribution more efficiently, be proactive about maintenance, and respond to outages faster. Smart grids integrate traditional power systems with information, communication, and control technology to improve the power grid’s stability, security, and operating efficiency. Power generation facilities are digitizing form, scale, power management, and control to increase systems and operating efficiency. The communications systems for smart grids cover all nodes on the power system, including power generation, transformation, transmission, distribution, and usage. The new digitized power generation facility attempts to improve the efficiency of power systems by building a high capacity, high-speed, real-time, secure, and stable communications networks. 5G greatly enhances the amount of spectrum used to send and receive data. It can act as an integrator and support the diverse requirements of smart grids. 5G is more efficient and faster than fiber optic and short-range wireless communications technology, supports over-the-air wireless connectivity, and has excellent disaster recovery capabilities. Other advantages like ultra-high bandwidth, wide-area seamless coverage, and roaming make 5G an ideal technology for smart and digital grids.

A recent study by Ericsson identified different ways the Energy and Utilities industry can derive value out of 5G networking technology (Ericsson 2018 ). They are summarized below:

Improves the integration of new technologies within the existing infrastructure.

Improves capturing and handling of the large volume of data.

Facilitates automation across distribution, operations, and energy efficiencies.

Facilitates connecting and monitoring of remote sites such as wind farms.

Improves industrial control and automation systems.

Improves applications to gather and monitor data.

Improves management of distributed energy resources.

Improves integration of sensors in microgrid and distributed generation.

5G for smart cities

In addition, 5G is a critical element in providing better networking in our technological world. For example, a smart city integrates information and communication technology and 5G networking solutions in a secure fashion to manage a city’s different functions. Those functions include, but are not limited to, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and other community services. There is a need for finding a way of aggregating multiple layers of data, spanning traffic flows, individual transactions, human movement, shifts in energy usage, security activity, and almost any major component of contemporary economies. 5G technology can facilitate this aggregation. 5G technology can facilitate this aggregation. The savings gained from Smart Cities is incredible. For example, smart water technology can save $12 billion annually. Sensors installed in individual vehicles can be linked to broader systems that help to manage traffic congestion across the city.

9 Obstacles to rapid adoption

There are numerous challenges in applying 5G networking technology in a way that would allow for its significant and rapid growth. Security and privacy is the primary concern among consumers and businesses as devices become more connected. The major challenges include technological maturity, global standardization, government regulations, and cost. A recent study conducted by Ericsson revealed that companies are still hobbled when it comes to overcoming barriers to actually using the 5G technology. The significant barriers were identified as data security and privacy, lack of standards, and challenges of end-to-end implementation (Ericsson 2018 ). 5G’s speed will expedite incidents of a breach, and as we add more small cells, there will also be more vulnerable hardware. 5G technology also brings an increase in open-source designs and technologies. Open source brings the speed of innovation and collaboration, but it can also bring security vulnerabilities.

Technology standard is non-consistent and remains fragmented in most areas. Technical and boundary limitations still exist in some areas of technology. Capturing the full potential of 5G networking potentials will require innovation in technologies and business models, as well as investment in new capabilities and talent. Most businesses have not equipped their teams with 5G capable smartphones, scanners, laptops, nor, in the case of manufacturing facilities, smart machines on the factory floor. These devices will need to be upgraded or replaced, which means added training and cost for businesses. Business infrastructures will require updating to reap the full interconnected benefits of 5G. Existing devices will need to be upgraded or replaced with new devices that are enabled for 5G technology.

10 Summary and Conclusions

5G networks and services will be deployed in stages over the next few years to provide a platform on which new digital services and business models can thrive. 5G will mark a turning point in the future of communications bringing high-powered connectivity to billions of devices. It will enable machines to communicate in an IoT environment capable of driving a near-endless array of services. As more devices become connected, and the IoT use cases grow exponentially, 5G networks facilitate the rapid increase of IoT and will bring significant benefits to corporations and consumers. 5G networks will revolutionize transportation and will reliably connect patients and doctors all over the globe providing improved access to medical treatment. As digital transformation is shifting user experience away from the text, image, and video into immersive VR and AR., 5G cellular technology will facilitate this new shift by offering high speed, superior reliability, extreme bandwidth capacity, and low latency.

This paper examined the essential roles 5G plays in the success of different industries, including IoT, the auto industry and smart cars, manufacturing and smart factories, smart grids, and smart cities, and healthcare. It discussed how 5G is critical for growing industry digitization and for addressing the numerous challenges different manufacturing industries face in this rapidly changing landscape. Finally, this paper presented the crucial role that 5G plays in providing a competent platform to support the widespread adoption of critical communications services and driving the digitization and automation of industrial practices and processes of Industry 4.0.

Future directions

5G will continue to evolve as companies work towards its next phase, though it will take some time before 5G networks are fully rolled out and utilized. It is expected that 5G will scale rapidly after launch in 2020, with coverage reaching just over a third of the global population in 5 years.

The implications of the rise of an autonomous electric fleet for the transportation industry, society, and the automotive industry are huge. 5G will play an important role in making electric vehicles and autonomous ride-sharing a reality. 5G will enable networks of self-driving cars with the ability to send data between each other, communicate with traffic lights, road sensors, aerial drones, and so on within a millisecond. Additionally, autonomous trains, delivery trucks, even airplanes could be on the horizon soon.

5G Wireless will also play a crucial role in a growing number of consumer electronics technologies and companies and will transform the fundamental ways industries conduct business. 5G wireless will enable companies to be on the growing side of the growth wave keeping their investors, customers, and workers happy. So, the very near future will be one of the most exciting times for business in our lifetimes, full of challenges, opportunities, and risks.

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Attaran, M. The impact of 5G on the evolution of intelligent automation and industry digitization. J Ambient Intell Human Comput 14 , 5977–5993 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-020-02521-x

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Research areas in 5G Technology

We are currently on the cusp of 5G rollout. As industry experts predict , 5G deployments will gain momentum, and the accessibility of 5G devices will grow in 2020 and beyond. But as the general public waits for mass-market 5G devices, our understanding of this new technology is continuing to develop. Public and private organizations are exploring several research areas in 5G technology, helping to create more awareness of breakthroughs in this technology, its potential applications and implications, and the challenges surrounding it. 

What is especially clear at this point is that 5G technology offers a transformative experience for mobile communications around the globe. Its benefits, which include higher data rates, faster connectivity, and potentially lower power consumption, promise to benefit industry, professional users, casual consumers, and everyone in between. As this article highlights, researchers have not yet solved or surmounted all of the challenges and obstacles surrounding the wide scale deployment of 5G technology. But the potential impact that it will have on the entire matrix of how we communicate is limited only by the imagination of the experts currently at its frontier. 

New developments and applications in 5G technologies

Much of the transformative impact of 5G stems from the higher data transmission speeds and lower latency that this fifth generation of cellular technology enables. Currently, when you click on a link or start streaming a video, the lag time between your request to the network and its delivery to your device is about twenty milliseconds. 

That may not seem like a long time. But for the expert mobile robotics surgeon, that lag might be the difference between a successful or failed procedure. With 5G, latency can be as low as one millisecond. 

5G will greatly increase bandwidth capacity and transmission speeds. Wireless carriers like Verizon and AT&T have recorded speeds of one gigabyte per second. That’s anywhere from ten to one hundred times faster than an average cellular connection and even faster than a fiber-optic cable connection. Such speeds offer exciting possibilities for new developments and applications in numerous industries and economic sectors.

E-health services

For example, 5G speeds allow telemedicine services to enhance their doctor-patient relationships by decreasing troublesome lag times in calls. This helps patients return to the experience of intimacy they are used to from in-person meetings with health-care professionals. 

As 5G technology continues to advance its deployment, telemedicine specialists find that they can live anywhere in the world, be licensed in numerous states, and have faster access to cloud data storage and retrieval. This is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic , which is spurring new developments in telemedicine as a delivery platform for medical services. 

Energy infrastructure

In addition to transforming e-health services, the speed and reliability of 5G network connectivity can improve the infrastructure of America’s energy sector with smart power grids. Such grids bring automation to the legacy power arrangement, optimizing the storage and delivery of energy. With smart power grids, the energy sector can more effectively manage power consumption and distribution based on need and integrate off-grid energy sources such as windmills and solar panels.

Another specific area to see increased advancement due to 5G technology is artificial intelligence (AI). One of the main barriers to successful integration of AI is processing speeds. With 5G, data transfer speeds are ten times faster than those possible with 4G. This makes it possible to receive and analyze information much more efficiently. And it puts AI on a faster track in numerous industries in both urban and rural settings. 

In rural settings, for example, 5G is helping improve cattle farming efficiency . By placing sensors on cows, farmers capture data that AI and machine learning can process to predict when cows are likely to give birth. This helps both farmers and veterinarians better predict and prepare for cow pregnancies.

However, it’s heavily populated cities across the country that are likely to witness the most change as mobile networks create access to heretofore unexperienced connectivity. 

Smart cities

Increased connectivity is key to the emergence of smart cities . These cities conceive of improving the living standards of residents by increasing the connectivity infrastructure of the city. This affects numerous aspects of city life, from traffic management and safety and security to governance, education, and more. 

Smart cities become “smarter” when services and applications become remotely accessible. Hence, innovative smartphone applications are key to smart city infrastructure. But the potential of these applications is seriously limited in cities with spotty connectivity and wide variations in data transmission speed. This is why 5G technology is crucial to continued developments in smart cities.

Other applications

Many other industries and economic sectors will benefit from 5G. Additional examples include automotive communication, smart retail and manufacturing. 

Wave spectrum challenges with 5G

While the potential applications of 5G technology are exciting, realizing the technology’s potential is not without its challenges. Notably, 5G global upgrades and changes are producing wave spectrum challenges.

A number of companies, such as Samsung, Huawei Technologies, ZTE Corporation, Nokia Networks, Qualcomm, Verizon, AT&T, and Cisco Systems are competing to make 5G technology available across the globe. But while in competition with each other, they all share the same goal and face the same dilemma.

Common goal

The goal for 5G is to provide the requisite bandwidth to every user with a device capable of higher data rates. Networks can provide this bandwidth by using a frequency spectrum above six gigahertz . 

Though the military has already been using frequencies above six gigahertz, commercial consumer-based networks are now doing so for the first time. All over the globe, researchers are exploring the new possibilities of spectrum and frequency channels for 5G communications. And they are focusing on the frequency range between twenty-five and eighty-six gigahertz.

Common dilemma

While researchers see great potential with a high-frequency version of 5G, it comes with a key challenge. It is very short range. Objects such as trees and buildings cause significant signal obstruction, necessitating numerous cell towers to avoid signal path loss. 

However, multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) technology is proving to be an effective technique for expanding the capacity of 5G connectivity and addressing signal path challenges. Researchers are keying into MIMO deployment due to its design simplicity and multiple offered features. 

A massive MIMO network can provide service to an increased multiplicity of mobile devices in a condensed area at a single frequency simultaneously. And by facilitating a greater number of antennas, a massive MIMO network is more resistant to signal interference and jamming.

Even with MIMO technology, however, line of sight will still be important for high-frequency 5G. Base stations on top of most buildings are likely to remain a necessity. As such, a complete 5G rollout is potentially still years away. 

Current solutions and the way forward

In the interim, telecommunication providers have come up with an alternative to high-frequency 5G— “midband spectrum.” This is what T-Mobile uses. But this compromise does not offer significant performance benefits in comparison to 4G and thus is unlikely to satisfy user expectations. 

Despite the frequency challenges currently surrounding 5G, it is important to keep in mind that there is a common evolution with new technological developments. Initial efforts to develop new technology are often complex and proprietary at the outset. But over time, innovation and advancements provide a clear, unified pathway forward.

This is the path that 5G is bound to follow. Currently, however, MIMO technological advancements notwithstanding, 5G rollout is still in its early, complex phase.

Battery life and energy storage for 5G equipment

For users to enjoy the full potential of 5G technology, longer battery life and better energy storage is essential. So this is what the industry is aiming for.

Currently, researchers are looking to lithium battery technology to boost battery life and optimize 5G equipment for user expectations. However, the verdict is mixed when it comes to the utility of lithium batteries in a 5G world. 

Questions about battery demands and performance

In theory, 5G smartphones will be less taxed than current smartphones. This is because a 5G network with local 5G base stations will dramatically increase computation speeds and enable the transfer of the bulk of computation from your smartphone to the cloud. This means less battery usage for daily tasks and longer life for your battery. Or does it?

A competing theory focuses on the 5G phones themselves. Unlike 4G chips, the chips that power 5G phones are incredibly draining to lithium batteries. 

Early experiments indicate that the state-of-the-art radio frequency switches running in smartphones are continually jumping from 3G to 4G to Wi-Fi. As a smartphone stays connected to these different sources, its battery drains faster.

The present limited infrastructure of 5G exacerbates this problem. Current 5G smartphones need to maintain a connection to multiple networks in order to ensure consistent phone call, text message, and data delivery. And this multiplicity of connections contributes to battery drain.

Until the technology improves and becomes more widely available, consumers are left with a choice: the regular draining expectations that come with 4G devices or access to the speeds and convenience of 5G Internet. 

Possibilities for improvement on the horizon

Fortunately, what can be expected with continuous 5G rollout is continuous improvements in battery performance. As 5G continues to expand across the globe, increasing the energy density and extending the lifetime of batteries will be vital. So market competition for problem-solving battery solutions promises to be fierce and drive innovation to meet user expectations. 

Additional research areas in 5G technology

While research in battery technology remains important, researchers are also focusing their attention on a number of other areas of concern. This research is likewise aimed at meeting user expectations and realizing the full potential of 5G technology as it gains more footing in public and private sectors. 

Small cell research

For example, researchers are focusing on small cells to meet the much higher data capacity demands of 5G networks. As mobile carriers look to densify their networks, small cell research is leading the way toward a solution.

Small cells are low-powered radio access points that take the place of traditional wireless transmission systems or base stations. By making use of low-power and short-range transmissions in small geographic areas, small cells are particularly well suited for the rollout of high-frequency 5G. As such, small cells are likely to appear by the hundreds of thousands across the United States as cellular companies work to improve mobile communication for their subscribers. The faster small cell technology advances, the sooner consumers will have specific 5G devices connected to 5G-only Internet. 

Security-oriented research

Security is also quickly becoming a major area of focus amid the push for a global 5G rollout. Earlier iterations of cellular technology were based primarily on hardware. When voice and text were routed to separate physical devices, each device managed its own network security. There was network security for voice calls, network security for short message system (SMS), and so forth.

5G moves away from this by making everything more software based. In theory, this makes things less secure, as there are now more ways to attack the network. Originally, 5G did have some security layers built in at the federal level. Under the Obama administration, legislation mandating clearly defined security at the network stage passed. However, the Trump administration is looking to replace these security layers with its own “national spectrum strategy.”

With uncertainty about existing safeguards, the cybersecurity protections available to citizens and governments amid 5G rollout is a matter of critical importance. This is creating a market for new cybersecurity research and solutions—solutions that will be key to safely and securely realizing the true value of 5G wireless technology going forward.

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What is the 5G Network?

Tremendous speed is the only thing that comes to our mind when we hear the term 5G. It’s much more efficient than previous generation networks. Just to see how fast it is, 5G is blazing-fast that you can get download speeds of over one gigabyte per second. That is ten times faster than the home Wi-Fi connections.

Whereas 3G and 4G networks are not up to mark in supporting these applications compared to 5G.

Do you wish to know more about the specific details regarding how 5G helps in the applications mentioned above?, then approach phd topics in the 5G network . It provides all information related to manifold topics of 5G without leaving the nook & corner of structuring Thesis on 5G Technology . It is better for you to utilize this scheme as it has experienced scholars to look after your 5G wireless thesis .

WiFi 6 in 5G [Latest Breakthrough Explained]

At present, this Wi-Fi 6, otherwise known to be 802.11ax has identical traits with 5G for its enhanced functionality. It guarantees better coverage as well as inexpensive service. This Wi-Fi 6 radio is also known for its multiple tasking and faster top speeds. More research work is carried out in 5G Technology .

Performance Result of WiFi6 in 5G

• End-to-end delay (10 – 100ms)
• Pea Data Rate (10’s of Gbps)
• Traffic Volume Density (10’s Gbps)
• User Experienced Data Rate (0.1-1 Gbps)
• Mobility (greater than 500km)
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MIMO technology is often known as massive MIMO Projects (multiple inputs, multiple outputs). This massive MIMO’s base stations can support a hundred ports, increasing the capacity of today’s network. As a result, it aids in forwarding data simultaneously, providing additional bandwidth.

How to choose the simulator for 5G network projects?

Choosing the aptest simulation tool for the 5G network is not an easy decision, but this is the required action .  Further, tool selection must be involved with several elements such as  module availability, packages, libraries , etc. These libraries and tools are used for forecasting 5G that helps to produce   b ase stations, servers, virtual nodes, towers, and controllers . The advantage of these libraries and tools is that they don’t need any smartphones, computers, or other devices to test the network’s functionality. Further, simulation parameters must be verified for each type of simulator based on large-scale or small-scale scenarios.

5G’s Digital experience – Thesis on 5G Technology [Future]

If you want to encounter the digital experience, then machine learning along with 5G is good to go. As a sub-set of AI, it allows the systems to learn by themselves without being programmed. With this, we get a response within fractions of a second. E.g., self-driving cars . This kind of computerized provisioning and dynamic governing of traffic and services enabled through this machine learning paves the way for reduced framework cost and connected D2D Communicatio n circumstances. Find out how 5G is changing the world of telecommunication , learn about the latest trending 5G technology thesis topics .

IMPORTANT SIMULATION PARAMETERS IN 5G NETWORK

• Simulation scenario parameters
• Application Throughput (Video, Interactive, etc.)
• Cell Coverage
• Noise Spectral Density
• Peak Data Rate
• Network topology
• Node and link types
• UL / DL parameters

Performance Analysis of 5G Parameters

Beamforming Parameters

• Served users
• Men bit error rate
• Spectral efficiency
• Power consumption
• Network capacity
• Antenna gain

D2D parameters of 5G

• MD2D service efficiency
• System throughput
• Blocking probability of originating D2D calls
• Sum-achievable rate
• Bandwidth utilization

5G Handover Parameters

• Unnecessary handovers rate
• Handover delay
• Interruption time
• Ping-pong effect
• Handover failure probability
• Radio link failure
• Cache hit rate

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Decentralized system synchronization among collaborative robots via 5g technology.

1. Introduction

1.1. state of the art, 1.2. novelty and contributions.

• Producer–consumer applications [ 29 ]: These involve a system where “producers” generate or supply data, materials, or products, and “consumers” utilize or process these resources. This concept is central to many industrial processes, particularly in manufacturing, where automated material handling is of relevance. A cobot-based implementation of this is illustrated in Figure 1 . Here, the cobots on the left and right take the roles of “producer” and “consumer”, respectively. Both cobots share a physical area of the production (critical section), where synchronized actions are needed in order to avoid collision accidents or malfunctions of the underlying manufacturing process. In a coordinated and ordered manner, the producer cobot picks the material (cylinder) up from its predefined position on the left and places it within the critical production area. Sequentially, the consumer cobot will access the critical area and pick the cylinder up to place it at its goal position on the right. In this case, non-simultaneous access and operation over the critical shared area and synchronization of actions between consumer and producer, as well as the causal order of operations, are important to ensure that the materials are operated in the correct order set by the production control.
• Automated assembly line applications [ 30 ]: These often involve multiple robots of the same type working together to enhance efficiency and productivity. In scenarios where different robots pick up pieces of material, coordination and precision are key. These scenarios are present in processes in many different industries: car body assembly in car manufacturing, PCB assembly in electronics manufacturing, or bottling lines in the food and packaging industry. In the cobot-based implementation exemplified in Figure 2 , the two cobots can pick materials (cylinders) from the critical section area and place them outside. As in the producer–consumer case, the access to the shared production area needs to be coordinated to avoid collisions, but in this case the order of operations is not relevant as any cobot can pick any available cylinder. Thus, the only production control requisite is to ensure non-simultaneous access and updated information about the remaining materials within the critical section.
• Design, mathematical formulation, and SW implementation of a multicast-based decentralized synchronization method.
• Integration, operation, and validation of the decentralized coordination solution over 5G and edge-cloud technology.
• Scalability testing and performance evaluation of the proposed solution.
• Comparison of the performance of the proposed solution with that achieved when the solution is implemented over traditional reference control architectures with cabled technology.

2. Proposed Multicast-Based Decentralized Synchronization Method

3. Network Implementation

• 5G: This considers that each of the robots is equipped with a 5G modem and an active subscription that allows, in this case, connectivity towards the global MS Azure cloud over a public 5G network. This is the main target of our evaluation as it fully fulfills all decentralization and flexibility requirements from future cobot scenarios. In our practical implementation Quectel RM502Q-AE, modems [ 34 ] and 5G IoT enterprise subscriptions with dedicated access point name (APN) from the telecom operator Telenor DK were used. These are depicted in Figure 4 . Reference access network conditions are summarized in Table 2 .
• Ethernet (ETH): This configuration requires that the robots are Ethernet-cabled to the factory network for Internet and cloud access, thus limiting the flexibility of the implementation. It is mainly used as a reference to compare the performance of the algorithm over 5G against the one achieved over standard cable Internet connections. As detailed in Table 2 , in this scenario, while data-rates are comparable, the RTT latency towards the MS Azure global cloud is lower than over 5G.
• Local: This represents a configuration with no external cloud dependence. In this case, the broker is deployed locally in the factory machine and robots are Ethernet-cabled to it. This would be equivalent to running the proposed decentralized coordination algorithm on a local line controller.
• PLC: This case resembles the current situation in typical factory robot work lines, where single-robot control operations are fully centralized and scheduled by a PLC, and further PLC–PLC coordination is needed for multi-robot operations. This configuration is representative of non-decentralized access and is affected by all the operational limitations described in Section 1 .

Key Performance Indicators and Data Processing

• Proposed causal ordering method (as per Algorithm 1). This would be representative of industrial applications such as the producer–consumer use case described in Section 1.2 .
• Non-causal random access, where robots individually access the critical section but no order/coordination is guaranteed within the process (same baseline execution, except that the causal access conditions at line 8 in Algorithm 1 are skipped, triggering that CS “acquire” requests are processed as they come and allowing that the CS is acquired by the quickest interface without any specific synchronized order). This would be representative of applications similar to the automated assembly line scenario described in Section 1.2 .

4. Performance Results and Discussion

4.1. acquire, release, and total access times, 4.2. causal vs. non-causal decentralized access, 4.3. overall industrial system performance, 5. validation in operational conditions and future research prospects, 6. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest, abbreviations.

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Celik, A.E.; Rodriguez, I.; Ayestaran, R.G.; Yavuz, S.C. Decentralized System Synchronization among Collaborative Robots via 5G Technology. Sensors 2024 , 24 , 5382. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24165382

Celik AE, Rodriguez I, Ayestaran RG, Yavuz SC. Decentralized System Synchronization among Collaborative Robots via 5G Technology. Sensors . 2024; 24(16):5382. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24165382

Celik, Ali Ekber, Ignacio Rodriguez, Rafael Gonzalez Ayestaran, and Sirma Cekirdek Yavuz. 2024. "Decentralized System Synchronization among Collaborative Robots via 5G Technology" Sensors 24, no. 16: 5382. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24165382

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Essay On 5g Technology: Free Samples Available for Students

• Updated on  
• Dec 29, 2023

Congratulations to the world on the evolution of technology; from the first general-public computer named INIAC in 1945 to 5g technology in 2022, technology has greatly improved and has eased our lives. 5g technology is the advanced version of the 4g LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile broadband service. We have all grown up from traditional mobile top-ups to digital recharges. According to sources, 5g is 10 times faster than 4g; a 4g connection has a download speed of 1 GBPS (Gigabyte Per Sec) and 5g has 10 GBPS. Below we have highlighted some sample essay on 5g technology.

Table of Contents

• 1 Essay on 5G Technology in 250 words
• 2.0.1 Conclusion
• 3 Benefits of 5G
• 4 10 Lines to Add to Your Essay on Technology

Also Read: Short Speech on Technology for School Students Short Essay on 5g Technology

The fifth generation or 5g technology for mobile networks was deployed all over the world in 2019, with South Korea becoming the first country to adopt it on a large scale. In mobile or cellular networks, the service or operating areas are divided into geographical units termed cells. The radio waves connect all the 5g mobile devices in a cell with the telephone network and the Internet. 

5g is 10 times faster than its predecessor, 4g, and can connect more devices in a particular area. Not only this, it also introduces new technologies such as Massive MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output), beamforming, and network slicing. Before switching to 5g, make sure to remember that 5g is not compatible with 4g devices.

Also Read: Essay on Health and Fitness for Students

Essay on 5G Technology in 250 words

The fifth generation of networks is the 5G network and this network promises to bring faster internet speed, lower latency, and improved reliability to mobile devices. In India, it is expected to have a significant impact on several industries such as healthcare, education, agriculture, entertainment, etc.

5G carries a lot of features such as:-

• Higher speeds: – The 5G network will have wider bandwidth which will allow for more data to flow. Hence, it will result in higher download and upload speeds.
• More capacity :- 5G network, in comparison to 4G, will have greater capacity to hold more network devices. This is very essential as the number of network devices increases each day.
• Lower latency: – 5G network will have much lower latency. This is essential for many tasks such as video conferencing or even online gaming which is a known profession these days. 

Due to all these, a lot of things will have a positive impact. Connectivity will improve and enable even the most rural areas to become connected to the rest of the world. 5G technology will help revolutionise the healthcare industry in India in ways such as telemedicine, remote surgeries, real-time patient monitoring, etc. 

However, like any other innovation, 5G does come with some concerns. There are certain concerns regarding the security of the 5G network, hence Indian Government needs to ensure that this network is safe from all the cyber threats. Also, although not proven, there are some concerns regarding the effects of 5G radiation on health. 

There is no doubt that 5G technology holds immense potential for India. And although there are many challenges to its deployment, the Indian Government and other industry experts should work together to over come these challenges and make the most of this technology.

350 Word Essay on 5g Technology

How significantly technology has improved. 50 years back nobody would have imagined that a mobile connection would allow us to connect anywhere in the world. With 5g technology, we can connect virtually anywhere with anyone in real-time. This advanced broadband connection offers us a higher internet speed, which can reach up to two-digit gigabits per second (Gbps). This increase in internet speed is achieved through the use of higher-frequency radio waves and advanced technologies.

The world of telecommunication is evolving at a very fast pace. 3g connectivity was adopted in 2003, 4g in 2009, and 5g in 2019. the advent of 5G technology represents an enormous leap forward, promising to reshape the way we connect, communicate, and interact with the digital world. 

The 5th Generation of mobile networks stands out from its predecessors in speed, latency, and the capacity to support a larger array of devices and applications. 5g speed is one of the most remarkable features, which allows us to download large amounts of files from the internet in mere seconds. Not only this, it also allows us smoother streaming of HD content and opens the door to transformative technologies.  Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, which demand substantial data transfer rates, will become more immersive and accessible with 5G.

What is the difference between 5g and 4g?

The difference between 5g and 4g technologies clearly highlighted in their speed, latency, frequency bands, capacity and multiple other uses.

• The average downloading speed of 4g connectivity was 5 to 1000 Mbps (megabytes per sec). But with 5g, this speed increases 10 times.
• 4G networks had a latency of around 30-50 milliseconds and 5g reduces latency to as low as 1 millisecond or even less.
• 4G networks mainly use lower frequency bands below 6 GHz, but,  5g utilizes a broader range of frequencies, including lower bands (sub-6 GHz) and higher bands (millimeter waves or mmWave).
• 4g was well-suited for broadband applications like web browsing, video streaming, and voice calls. 5g is capable of supporting a large number of applications from smart cities, critical communication services, and applications that demand ultra-reliable low-latency communication.

Benefits of 5G

• Lower Latency: 5G Network will have extremely lower latency compared to that of 4G LTE. This will result in a much more smoother experience in terms of real time communication such as video conferencing or online gaming.
• Faster Speeds : 5G Network is expected to peak at high speeds of around 10 Gbps which is extremely high as compared to that of 4G LTE. This will result in high download as well as upload speeds and much smoother video streaming, etc.
• New Applications: Some applications that were not possible with 4G LTE will now be possible because of 5G such as remote surgery, augmented reality, etc.
• More Capacity: 5G bands can support Much more devices as compared to 4G LTE networks. This is extremely important as the number of connected grows everyday.

Also Read: Essay on Farmer for School Students

10 Lines to Add to Your Essay on Technology

Here are 10 simple and easy quotes on 5g technology. You can add them to your essay on 5g technology or any related writing topic to impress your readers.

• 5g technology is the fifth generation of mobile or cellular networks.
• 5g offers significantly higher download speeds, reaching several gigabits per second.
• 5g technology’s ultra-low latency is one of the most striking features, which can reduce delays to as little as 1 millisecond.
• 5G utilizes a diverse spectrum, including both lower bands (sub-6 GHz) and higher bands (mmWave).
• The increased speed and low latency of 5G support emerging technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
• It enables a massive Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, connecting a vast number of devices simultaneously.
• 5G is essential for applications requiring real-time responsiveness, such as autonomous vehicles and remote surgery.
• The deployment of 5G networks is underway globally, transforming how we connect and communicate.
• Smart cities leverage 5G to enhance efficiency through interconnected systems and sensors.
• As the backbone of the digital era, 5G technology is driving innovation and shaping the future of connectivity.

Related Articles

Ans: 5g technology is the advanced generation of the 4g technology. It’s a mobile broadband service, which allows users to have faster access to the internet. Our everyday tasks on the internet will be greatly improved using 5g technology. 5g is 10 times faster than its predecessor, 4g and can connect more devices in a particular area. Not only this, it also introduces new technologies such as Massive MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output), beamforming, and network slicing. Before switching to 5g, make sure to remember that 5g is not compatible with 4g devices.

Ans: 4g technology has a download speed of 5 to 10 Gbps. This broadband service is 10 times faster than its predecessor, 4g.

Ans: 5g is an advanced version of the 4g connectivity in terms of speed, latency, frequency bands, capability, and uses. 4G networks had a latency of around 30-50 milliseconds and 5g reduces latency to as low as 1 millisecond or even less.

For more information on such interesting topics to help you with your school, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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