How 5G Works with Your Next Phone

How 5G Works with Your Next Phone

it's been a long time coming but the first-ever 5G spec was finally approved late last year 5G NR as it's called will bring about superfast mobile internet by tapping into new spectrum we're expecting to see the first five

you ready phones in the first half of 2019 although most people likely won't experience the full benefits of the new technology until about a year later still 5G our promises to dramatically improve cellular internet speeds and enable experiences like always connect to laptops or live streaming from stand-alone VR headset the entire mobile industry is excited as hell for it so here's a little guide to help you make sense of the hype.

How 5G Works with Your Next Phone

let's really briefly go over what 5G is it refers to the fifth generation of mobile networking standards determined by the 3gpp the organization that sets the guidelines for every company operating in cellular communications 

get used to hearing the official name 5G NR which stands for new radio by the way it doesn't really mean anything just be used the way LTE is today to differentiate it from previous versions where 3G brought the internet everywhere and 4G LTE made it faster 5G NR is meant to vastly boost the capacity and speed of networks bringing you your high res cat videos and 4k VR live streams without any delay 

one of the ways 5G will enable this is by tapping into new unused bands at the top of the radio spectrum these high bands are known as millimeter waves and have been recently opened up by regulators for licensing they've largely been untouched by the public since the equipment required to use them effectively has typically been expensive and inaccessible like you'd need a large satellite dish to use these waves to communicate over long distances but technology has improved to the point 

where the industry collectively believes we can start tapping them for consumer electronics and since they haven't been used for much compared to lower bands they're far less congested and can therefore enable superfast transfers holcomb said you can expect typical speeds of 1.4 gigabits per second that's 20 times faster than the average u.s. home broadband connection at peak rates think five Gbps it's enough to string 54k movies from Netflix at the same time 

millimeter waves tend to be susceptible to interference and generally needs a maintained line-of-sight for transmission to work at the most basic level a millimeter wave transmissions usually go in a straight line between point a and point B but with these waves something as simple as a person walking in between the receiver and the transmitter can block the signal altogether so 

companies have to figure out how to make sure the signal gets from base stations to mobile devices and with 5G are part of the solution are two processes called beamforming and beam tracking with waves in the lower bands operators can simply send a bunch of them to your phone since they're strong enough to penetrate obstructions

 think of sending a signal to your phone as trying to light up one person's face in a pitch-black theater with lower bands it's like using floodlights easy peasy you can cover larger areas and most likely get the person's face although maybe not very intensely with beamforming of millimeter waves it's more like using a spotlight to find that place which is tricky if the person is turned away from the source 

so you'll have to get creative by using the environment you can bounce light off reflective surfaces in the theater or set up multiple spotlights in different places to make sure that there's always one that can shine on your desired area you can also set these lights to sweep moving around along with the target companies like Qualcomm and Ericsson have made equipment that can send and receive these beams in the most simple scenario for beam forming where the biggest challenge is that the receiver isn't facing the transmitter the 

solution is as simple as bouncing the beam off a surface at a precise angle the receiving device uses beam tracking to determine which signal is the strongest and picks it up that sounds straightforward until you consider the challenges when implementing this in the real world take an office building for example even when you have base stations set up on your floor there are many variables to consider for instance metals bounce beams while concrete absorbs them 

so if you're inside a conference room and basestation from outside could potentially shoot a beam in through a wall hit a metal lamp and bounce off to your phone to get this to work reliably enough for public use there have to be a ton of beams for your phone to track not only that your phone's antenna array has to be built in a way that your hand doesn't completely cover up the receiver at any time quantum solution is to have antenna arrays in opposite corners of your phone and since many major smartphone brands have announced that they'll be using Snapdragon 5G capable components for launches in the first half of 2019 

this is likely to be the setup for most of the first five you ready phones not sold or not convinced that millimeter waves will be stable enough for sure don't panic yet just as your phone falls back to 3G when LTE isn't available 4G will stick around to make sure your remain connected to the Internet even if you're not using millimeter waves 

most people won't even have access to 5G immediately the rollout is likely to begin in cities and spread out to rural areas and you may need an expensive high-end device to tap the new technology at first later versions of 5G will also allow things like IOT devices to connect some millimetre waves as well as allow for use of unlicensed spectrum so increase speeds some more but eventually it should become as prevalent as 40 years today when that happens it'll be time to.