Introduction

INTRODUCTION

5G is one of the most widely discussed topics these days. Many countries in Europe and the US have already rolled out 5G at various scales which is the new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. It is the first mobile technology designed to help establish a communication network between machines, systems, objects, and devices in addition to people. Given this scenario, 5G enabled networks to need to be designed from an end-to-end perspective to ensure that they are nimble yet resilient enough to handle seamless machine-to-machine interaction beyond conventional mobile services. 5G’s quantum leap in connectivity not only opens up a plethora of new opportunities especially for the industrial sector but also sets the stage for large-scale disruption. Industries such as manufacturing, automobile, healthcare, and construction are already adopting technologies such as IoT, AI, and ML in their pursuit to facilitate increased connectivity. All these industries could experience a transformative impact of 5G for two main reasons besides enhanced broadband connectivity that the technology promises:

Massive machine-type communications (mMTC): 5G has the potential to support high connection densities and in the process make industrial-scale IoT a reality. With this capability, 5G will be able to foster communication between millions of IoT sensors and devices within a square kilometer area.
Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (uRLLC): With the help of uRLLC, 5G will be able to facilitate a low-latency and reliable communication network between sensors, switches, actuators, and controllers.

From an industry and enterprise standpoint, capitalizing on 5G technology is not just about leveraging publicly available 5G connections like regular consumers. Rather, companies need to focus on building custom-designed 5G networks that can successfully underpin the concept of ‘smart factory’ or Industry 4.0 and bring it to life. Private mobile network is not particularly a new concept as industries such as defense, mining, and emergency services started using Private 4G LTE networks in some countries. These networks have been around for years. However, their widespread application across other sectors have still been a distant reality. 5G’s proliferation is expected to change this status quo. The network’s low latency, high-throughput capabilities is expected to drive its case towards greater acceptability and adoption.

Industries such as manufacturing, automobile, healthcare, and farming, and many more are already adopting the 5G technologies such as #IoT, #AI, and #ML, for a faster and more reliable network to facilitation enabled by faster connectivity.