The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has defined three main application scenarios for 5G: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (uRLLC), and machine-type communication (mMTC). eMBB primarily addresses the explosive growth of mobile internet traffic, providing users with a superior application experience. uRLLC mainly targets vertical industry applications with extremely high latency and reliability requirements, such as industrial control, telemedicine, and autonomous driving. mMTC primarily addresses applications focused on sensing and data collection, such as smart cities, smart homes, and environmental monitoring. To meet the diverse application needs of 5G, its key performance indicators are more diversified. The ITU has defined eight key performance indicators for 5G, with high speed, low latency, and massive connectivity being the most prominent features. User experience speeds reach 1Gbps, latency is as low as 1ms, and user connection capacity reaches 1 million connections per square kilometer. In March 2024, a report released by the GSMA think tank showed that the number of global 5G mobile communication technology connections had reached 1.6 billion. [87] On March 28, China Mobile held a 5G-A commercial launch conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. At the conference, it was announced that China Mobile's 5G Advanced network (5.5G) was officially commercialized. [88] As of the end of August 2024, the total number of 5G base stations in China reached 4.042 million, accounting for 32.1% of the total number of mobile base stations, and the number of 5G mobile phone users reached 966 million, accounting for 54.3% of mobile phone users. [100] As of November 2024, a total of 4.191 million 5G base stations had been built, a net increase of 815,000 from the end of the previous year. [107] As of the end of 2024, the number of 5G communication users in China had exceeded 1 billion.
5G (5th Generation Mobile Communication Technology) is a new generation of broadband mobile communication technology characterized by high speed, low latency, and massive connectivity. It serves as the network infrastructure for realizing the interconnection of humans, machines, and things, greatly promoting industrial upgrading and socio-economic development.<sup>12</sup>
Basic concepts and main characteristics of 5G communication technology
High speed: The peak speed of 5G networks can reach 10-20 Gbit/s, which can meet the needs of large data transmission such as high-definition video and virtual reality.
Low latency: The air interface latency is as low as 1ms, making it suitable for applications that require real-time interaction, such as autonomous driving and telemedicine.23
Massive connectivity: Capable of connecting millions of devices per square kilometer, meeting the communication needs of the Internet of Things.23
High spectrum efficiency: more than 3 times higher than LTE, providing better network coverage and user experience.23
High traffic density: Traffic density reaches 10Mbps/m² or higher, supporting high-density data transmission.
High mobility: It can still provide a good user experience in high-speed mobile environments (such as 500km/h) 23.
Application scenarios and impacts of 5G communication technology
5G is not only used for communication between people, but also widely applied in communication scenarios between people and things, and between things themselves, meeting the needs of IoT applications such as mobile healthcare, connected vehicles, smart homes, industrial control, and environmental monitoring. 5G will become a key new infrastructure supporting the digital, networked, and intelligent transformation of the economy and society.<sup>23</sup>
5G, short for fifth-generation mobile communication standard, is an extension of 4G.
Samsung Electronics of South Korea was the first to master the key technologies of 5G. On May 13, 2013, Samsung announced that it had successfully developed the core technology of 5G mobile communication, which can transmit data at a speed of more than 1Gbps in the 28GHz ultra-high frequency band, and the maximum transmission distance can reach 2 kilometers.
Previously, no company or organization in the world had developed a data transmission technology that could achieve Gb-level data transmission at ultra-high frequency bands above 6 GHz. This transmission bottleneck was widely regarded as a technical challenge by the industry because the ultra-high frequency wavelength band caused significant data loss and had a short transmission distance.
Following this technological breakthrough, other major players in the telecommunications industry have also made continuous breakthroughs in 5G. In 2017, the first version of the 5G standard, 5G NR, was officially released. Last year, 5G standards were further refined, with telecommunications giants, led by Huawei in China and Qualcomm abroad, developing more detailed rules for 5G communications. Huawei's victory in the short code scheme at the 3GPP meeting demonstrates that we have gained a voice in the 5G era and shows that my country is at the forefront of the world in the research and development and application of 5G communications.
Currently, countries around the world are working diligently to build 5G infrastructure. Numerous 5G base stations are connecting to form dense 5G networks, which still require continuous testing to ensure their reliability. Meanwhile, major tech giants are developing 5G baseband chips based on 5G networks; Huawei and Qualcomm have already successfully developed their own chips. Major mobile phone manufacturers are busy developing their own 5G phones to match 5G chips. Furthermore, 5G is being introduced into various fields such as transportation, machinery, and healthcare.
How will 5G change our world?
Almost every innovation in the field of communications has been accompanied by changes in our lifestyles. In the 2G era, we could browse web pages and view text and image information on our mobile phones; when 3G began to become popular, smartphones were just starting to develop in China, and more and more applications began to be installed on mobile phones. The arrival of the 4G era, along with the significant drop in data costs, has led more and more people to use mobile data to watch videos and listen to music, while also driving the rapid development of the mobile live streaming industry.
The 5G network, which is currently being deployed urgently worldwide, will bring about revolutionary changes to our lives.
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), an international standards organization, defines three major scenarios for 5G: eMBB, mMTC, and URLLC. eMBB corresponds to high-bandwidth mobile services such as 3D/ultra-high-definition video, mMTC corresponds to large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) services, and URLLC corresponds to services requiring low-latency and high-reliability connections, such as autonomous driving and industrial automation.
The first application scenario is clearly mobile communication, which is also the earliest 5G application we can experience. 5G networks mean ultra-fast data transmission speeds, capable of reaching 1Gb/s. In comparison, the current 4G LTE service has a transmission rate of only 75Mbps, less than one-tenth of 5G's speed.
So you no longer need to wait over ten minutes to download a 1GB+ HD movie, or even minutes—just 10 seconds. At the same time, the overall improvement in network speed will bring a better experience to mobile devices; mobile applications will be more stable, and chatting and watching videos will be smoother with clearer picture quality. And what we're discussing now is a 5G network built on the existing 4G LTE network, just the first generation of 5G modems; future 5G chips will likely be even faster.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a familiar concept to most. However, the current IoT is still relatively rudimentary, with a relatively small number of connected devices. The primary goal of 5G networks is to keep end users constantly connected, enabling the interconnection of everything. In the future, 5G technology will connect various devices around us. It won't just be smartphones; it will also support smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart home devices, and more. 5G will provide connectivity for numerous devices around us, bridging the gap between people and the intelligent interconnection of everything.
The concept of smart homes has been mentioned by many companies recently. In the future 5G era, various smart home appliances will connect to the cloud via 5G networks, using deep learning based on user habits to create a personalized smart home assistant. Just as smartphones can capture your various habits now, the devices around you in the future will be able to operate more precisely based on your user preferences. Air conditioners will record your temperature habits, televisions will record your playback habits, and even washing machines will record how often you wash clothes, creating a smart home for you.
Compared to the previous two scenarios, the applications of 5G's low latency and high reliability connectivity are not only closely related to our daily lives, but more importantly, they will bring about a transformation in industrialization. Currently, the 4G networks we use still experience latency of tens of milliseconds when playing games. While this may not have a significant impact on gaming, such latency is far from sufficient in the industrial sector.
When braking while driving, the average person's reaction time is about 0.5 seconds, or 500 milliseconds. In some emergency situations, this reaction time can still lead to significant safety accidents. However, with 5G, self-driving cars can react in just 1 millisecond, a hundredfold increase in speed that can greatly improve driving safety.
Meanwhile, for autonomous driving, 5G technology enables vehicles to navigate intersections automatically, quickly, and alternately. This is because, under a 5G network, vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity offers not only the ultra-high speed and ultra-low latency characteristics mentioned above, but also ultra-high density. Its standard is one million devices per square kilometer. At this digital density, all vehicles on the same network can execute autonomous driving more quickly and accurately. Therefore, in the future, you will no longer need to worry about long traffic jams; cars will efficiently take you to your destination.
Of course, with 5G, if you are a gamer, the latency between pressing the controller button and the effect displayed on the screen will be shorter, and the gaming experience will no longer be reduced due to long latency.
A landmark 5G economic study found that the full economic impact of 5G could be realized globally by 2035 by supporting a wide range of industries and potentially enabling goods and services worth up to $13.1 trillion.
This impact is far greater than that of previous generations of networks. The development needs of 5G networks are also expanding from traditional mobile network manufacturers to industries such as the automotive industry.
The study also shows that the 5G value chain alone (including OEMs, operators, content creators, application developers, and consumers) could support up to 22.8 million jobs, equivalent to more than one job per capita in Beijing, China. And many emerging and new applications will continue to be defined in the future. Only time will tell the full economic impact of the "5G effect." 5G wireless technology aims to provide more users with higher peak data speeds of multiple Gbps, ultra-low latency, higher reliability, massive network capacity, higher availability, and a more unified user experience. Higher performance and greater efficiency enable new user experiences and connect new industries.
