The global race is on to develop 5G, the fifth generation of mobile network. While 5G will follow in the footsteps of 4G and 3G, this time scientists are more excited. They say 5G will be different - very different.
5G will also run faster, a lot faster. Prof Tafazolli now believes it is possible to run a wireless data connection at an astounding 800Gbps - that's 100 times faster than current 5G testing.
When Samsung announced in 2013 it was testing 5G at 1Gbps, journalists excitedly reported that a movie could be downloaded in a second. A speed of 800Gbps would equate to downloading 33 HD films - in a single second.
This type of connectivity and communication has many implications yet to be evaluated in areas such as medicine, childhood or business, even from a legal perspective. It is a technology whose use will combine external devices such as Google Glasses with "chips embedded in the user or headsets whose interface interacts directly with the brain," so that "this will not be a display showing information superimposed images, but that reconstructs the image itself" highlighting those items that most interest us, said Azcorra.
Another defining feature will be that, crucially, 5G shouldn't break. "It will have the reliability that you currently get over fibre connections," says Sara Mazur. Advances in antenna technology promise an end to sudden data connection drop-outs. This will be essential for safety. Companies including China's Huawei are already talking about using 5G to let driverless cars communicate with each other and the infrastructure they pass. Tech such as smart transport and remote surgery, where a human remotely operates a robot to carry out complicated operations, will rely on lower latencies too. Latency refers to the time lag between an action and a response. Ericsson predict that 5G's latency will be around one millisecond - unperceivable to a human and about 50 times faster than 4G. This will be critical, for example, if doctors are to command equipment to carry out surgery on patients located in different buildings.
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