5G and the Tactile Internet

Today mobile wireless networks are truly like oxygen and form an indispensable part of our lives. Not only have they been essential for personal and business communications but also have played an important role in socio-economic development of both developed as well as developing countries. Many operators/carriers around the world today are deploying 4G LTE to offer faster access and lower latency for myriad of applications. Mobile network traffic has more than doubled over last decade or so and wireless networks have experienced explosive growth.

The 5G mobile technology is envisioned to address the demands and business needs of 2020 and beyond and it is expected to further empower and jolt the socio-economic development in countless ways unimagined today. 

The Tactile internet will be the next evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT), machine to machine and human to machine communications. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) defines the Tactile internet as an internet network that combines ultra low latency with extremely high availability, reliability and security. It believes the Tactile internet represents a "revolutionary level of development for society, economics and culture"

The 5G vision is to provide services and enable applications that fall in 3 broad categories described below:

Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB)

eMBB envisions fully connected society. Broadband internet services will be available for all from dense urban areas to rural population and at higher speeds. Some of the use cases that fall in this category are:

• Pervasive Video
• Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Applications: imagine kids to be able to learn solar system by visually seeing different planets and their characteristics.
• Smart Office : processing large amounts of data in the cloud and instant communication by video 
• High Speed Trains: with concept of Hyperloops now being closer to reality, providing broadband access to users at speeds greater than 500km/h will be possible.

Ultra-Reliability Low Latency Communications (URLLC):

This family of use cases envisions support for Lifeline communications in the event of natural disasters and health and assisted living applications. Going forward, many industries such as automotive, Manufacturing and agriculture will reply on low latency applications to improve quality and productivity. Some of the use cases that fall in this category are:

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•        Factory Automation 
•            Remote Surgery 
•            Connected Drones 
•            Collaborative Robots: A control network for robots 
•            Self-Driving Cars and Automated Traffic Control 
•            TeleHealth

All of the use cases mentioned above require ultra low latency (<1ms and="" availability="" high="" network="" o:p="" reliability.="">

Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC):

Massive Internet of things means growing number of connected devices (e.g. sensors, cameras, actuators) with varying demands and characteristics. The family of large number of connected and communicating is termed as Machine Type Communications. Last 3-4 years have seen explosive growth in number of smart devices such as wearables and the trend is expected to continue to grow at a rapid rate. This family will include low cost/long-range/low power devices as well as broadband devices. Some of the use cases that fall in this category are :

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•        Smart wearable 
•        Sensor Networks
•            Smart City Applications: smart grid, city wide video surveillance. 
•          Connected Home: imagine a connected refrigerator knows that it is low on Milk, automatically places the order for a carton of milk on amazon and the milk gets delivered at the doorstep.

With 5G all of the above use cases are made possible by availability of huge bandwidth in Super High Frequency (3-30 GHz) and Extreme High Frequency Bands (30 - 100 GHz) along with technological advancement in antenna techniques such as massive MIMO, beam forming and beam steering. Most of the 5G deployments will required bandwidth in the range of 300 - 800 MHz providing the big fat pipe required for enormous data consumption. 

While RF spectrum and physical layer changes provide for data usage, architectural changes such as Edge computing, Network Slicing provide for key differentiating factors required for ultra low latency and machine type communications. 

5G will truly usher in the Fourth Industrial revolution. Expert analysis has predicted the macroeconomic impact of 5G to be $12 trillion by 2035 and the White House has declared 5G to be a national priority !!!