Interest in 5G is raising and spreading recently, as various organizations around the world have been formed to work on the next big communication standard. At the currently ongoing mobile world congress in Shanghai, “Mobile World Live” had a chance to interview Zhu Peiying, Huawei’s head of 5G wireless system research.
She pointed out that the vital element of the next standards success would be partnerships across different industries. Like the 5G-oriented committees in Europe and the US, she mentioned that 5G would have to be a major leap forward, rather than a soft evolution, as the new networks will have to deal with totally different and more complex requirements. The Internet of things is the most mentioned subject in relation to 5G, as it will bring massive amounts of devices and completely new demands like (near) on-time and constant communication. The sheer number of devices will be a big challenge for upcoming networks, like IPv4 will hit its limits with that development, which is e.g. why IPv6 had to be designed and will have to be deployed globally before the next big steps may be taken.
Of course, the main reasons behind a unified, universal standard around the world and throughout all possible fields are of economical background, as less diversity and adaptations mean lower cost and better efficiency due to much easier integration. According to Peiying, the only way to comply with the new requirements and give the standard a chance to be successful would be to create something entirely new, from scratch, totally independent of the currently available standards.
As reported before, US and European organizations have realized that a global cooperation will facilitate and ease the process of creating and introducing the new standard, and with Asian manufacturers chiming in on that tune, chances are rising for a really global solution to upcoming challenges in the communication technology.
Since we’re talking of 2020 and onwards until 5G is to be made commercially available, there will naturally be further improvements and developments around 4G, while its designated successor will focus on establishing new fields and “expand the traditional operator market”.