Today, the vast spectrum of the wireless technologies, on a very basic level, makes us dependent on remote systems to keep ourselves associated, regardless of where we are. The advancements in the technology and the innovations done so far, in the field of wireless connectivity, have created a hullabaloo among the industry.
New age remote advancements are presently coming to market, ready to convey far superior versatile encounters and open up new applications. 5G – the cutting edge cell arrange innovation, is beginning preliminaries and will in the end supplant 4G LTE. Also, simultaneously, we have Wi-Fi 6, the cutting edge Wi-Fi standard, a.k.a. 802.11ax – coming to boom.
Wireless technology plays a key role in today’s communications, and new forms of it will become central to emerging technologies including robots, drones, self-driving vehicles and new medical devices over the next five years.
In this article, ELE Times focuses on the next generation wireless technologies and trends, their significance, opportunities within them and the technological developments. So, lets’ go…
Long-Range Wireless Power
First-generation wireless power systems have not delivered the revolutionary user experience that manufacturers had hoped for. In terms of the user experience, the need to place devices on a specific charger point is only slightly better than charging via cable. However, several new technologies can charge devices at ranges of up to one meter or over a table or desk surface.
Long-range wireless power could eventually eliminate power cables from desktop devices such as laptops, monitors and even kitchen appliances. This will allow for completely new designs of work and living spaces.
Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Wireless
Both, self driving and conventional cars will need to communicate with each other, as well as with road infrastructure. This will be enabled by V2X wireless systems. In addition to exchanging information and status data, V2X can provide a multitude of other services, such as safety capabilities, navigation support and infotainment. V2X will eventually become a legal requirement for all new vehicles. But even before this happens, we expect to see some vehicles incorporating the necessary protocols. However, those V2X systems that use cellular will need a 5G network to achieve their full potential.
Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) Networks
LPWA networks provide low-bandwidth connectivity for IoT applications in a power-efficient way to support things that need a long battery life. They typically cover very large areas, such as cities or even entire countries. Current LPWA technologies include Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), Long Term Evolution for Machines (LTE-M), LoRa and Sigfox. The modules are relatively inexpensive, so IoT manufacturers can use them to enable small, low-cost, battery-powered devices such as sensors and trackers.
Wireless Sensing
The absorption and reflection of wireless signals can be used for sensing purposes. Wireless sensing technology can be used, for example, as an indoor radar system for robots and drones. Virtual assistants can also use radar tracking to improve their performance when multiple people are speaking in the same room. Sensor data is the fuel of the IoT.
Accordingly, new sensor technologies enable innovative types of applications and services. Systems including wireless sensing will be integrated in a multitude of use cases, ranging from medical diagnostics to object recognition and smart home interaction.
Wireless Location Tracking
A key trend in the wireless domain is for wireless communication systems to sense the locations of devices connected to them. High-precision tracking to around one-meter accuracy will be enabled by the forthcoming IEEE 802.11az standard and is intended to be a feature of future 5G standards.
Location is a key data point needed in various business areas, such as consumer marketing, supply chain and the IoT. For example, high-precision location tracking is essential for applications involving indoor robots and drones.
Millimeter Wave Wireless
Millimeter wave wireless technology operates at frequencies in the range of 30 to 300 gigahertz, with wavelengths in the range of 1 to 10 millimeters. The technology can be used by wireless systems such as Wi-Fi and 5G for short-range, high-bandwidth communications (for example, 4K and 8K video streaming).
Backscatter Networking
Backscatter networking technology can send data with very low power consumption. This feature makes it ideal for small networked devices. It will be particularly important in applications where an area is already saturated with wireless signals and there is a need for relatively simple IoT devices, such as sensors in smart homes and offices.
Software-Defined Radio (SDR)
SDR shifts the majority of the signal processing in a radio system away from chips and into software. This enables the radio to support more frequencies and protocols. The technology has been available for many years, but has never taken off as it is more expensive than dedicated chips. However, Gartner expects SDR to grow in popularity as new protocols emerge. As older protocols are rarely retired, SDR will enable a device to support legacy protocols, with new protocols simply being enabled via software upgrade.
The 5G Shot…
Fifth-generation wireless network technology is the technology on priority, and is being rolled out in major cities worldwide. By 2024, an estimated 1.5 billion mobile users, which account for forty percent of current global activity, which will be using 5G wireless networks.
With over 5 billion mobile users worldwide, our world is growing more connected than ever.
5G and India
The digital future of India is all set to be driven with the ongoing thrust to develop 5G infrastructure by 2020. The 5th generation of wireless technology will not only boost data speeds but also disrupt traditional industries like agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, and education, through the internet of things.
However, like every path-breaking development, adoption of such magnitude has spawned various issues and challenges that need consensus-building, analysis and groupthink. Be it technology selection or investments or collaborations or implementation or even maintenance – the race to Digital India by 2020 can only be won by putting the best minds in one place – together – focused on sharing insights, expanding horizons and identifying opportunities.
5G, the fifth generation of cellular communication technology, promises not just faster download speeds but also other enhancements – such as lower latency – which will be required for the coming wave of tech (IoT devices, self-driving cars, etc). 5G networks will use radio technology known as 5G NR (New Radio). This allocates chunks of radio bands, some below 6GHz, and others above 24GHz (also known as mmWave). In contrast, 4G LTE frequencies are much lower (Band 5 is around the 800MHz mark while Band 40 is around the 2300Mhz mark).
India is also in the midst of preparing for 5G networks. TRAI has chosen the 3.3Ghz to 3.6Ghz band as the main band for 5G (spectrum availability is limited as much of it is earmarked for defence and government purposes), while many telcos have expressed concern that the asking price could be too high to make services financially viable in a price-sensitive market like ours. According to current plans, the TRAI envisages spectrum auction to be completed this year, with commercial roll-out sometime in 2020.
Cellular technologies – 2G, 3G, 4G – have all been about personal transformation through mobile phone and Smartphone-led communication. However, 5G brings a whole new architectural change. It will drive personal, business, and social transformation by connecting industries, enterprises, homes, vehicles, and cities to internet and cloud in real-time. This will help drive productivity, improve efficiencies, enable richer content consumption, and build intelligence experiences. The positive impact of 5G is going to be unparalleled in India, potentially the world’s second-largest market in terms of the scale of mobile users, enterprises, and cities undergoing digital transformation.
There is no doubt that commercial deployment of 5G will necessitate major ecosystem changes in terms of spectrum usage, network infrastructure, and devices. It is therefore imperative for the government to price spectrum reasonably and rationalize myriad levies and taxes so that 5G services can be implemented seamlessly. 5G will not only have use cases unique to the country, such as driverless vehicles, smart healthcare, smart agriculture, smart transportation, etc, but it would also revolutionize business landscapes and networks.
India is on track of becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy and the evolving digital metrics are creating inroads for newer technologies and solutions. As digital adoption continues to grow phenomenally, India is all set to experience 5G and mobile-led technologies in a big way by being one of the few countries in the world that are ready to commercially adopt and deploy the 5G eco-system.
