5G Infrastructure to Enhance Networking at an Ultra-Fast Speed

By Rohanish Chavan

As the technology advances, it offers new opportunities for telecommunication players. But, the 4G infrastructure did not meet the expected growth that was speculated by the mobile network operators. The revenues showed tepid or flat growth despite greater investments in the 4G infrastructure. After the introduction of 4G, shockingly even the revenues dropped in the areas like Latin America and Europe. Currently 5G infrastructure is under development and is made to pass through exhaustive tests simulations to ensure perfection. Mobile operators are eagerly waiting for the launch of 5G, as it will open new opportunities that will capture the values from 5G uses cases and adopt the Internet of Things (IoT) over a wide range. The 5G network will compel the mobile operators to advance their infrastructure investments in this technology. Furthermore, they will have to upgrade their existing 4G networks to deal with the increasing demand. It is predicted that the expenditures for network related capital will increase exponentially and will double the total cost of ownership (TOC) over the time.

This recent development has left mobile players with a conundrum regarding the significant factors such as investment strategies and future profits. 5G infrastructure can be bifurcated in three parts: IoT, mission critical applications, and enhanced mobile broadband. These elements require advanced network performance across the parameters like throughput, latency, scale, and reliability. To achieve this, mobile operators will have to invest in several network domains such as radio access network (RAN) infrastructure, core networks, spectrum, and transmission.

Several elements of the 5G infrastructure are built on the 4G networks which will simplify the operations of mobile operators. Operators can easily upgrade the capacity of the 4G macro network by tweaking and modifying small portion of their 2G and 3G spectrum or by advancing additional spectrum. They can delay their investments for the 5G infrastructure by following these protocols and upgrading the devices to LTE and LTE-Pro features, including massive MIMO (multiple input multiple output technology) or 4×4. This is an evolutionary path that will help the operators by reducing their investments and increasing the revenue potential. Once the traffic increases and the existing network would no longer suffice, operators will have to develop new small cells or macro sites.

Mobile operators will be forced to improve their antennas and radio interfaces to amplify the efficiency of the new spectrum. As the demand for handsets and traffic shifts out of legacy 3G and 2G, operators can expand the spectrum from the bands 4G and 5G. Operators could face new challenges in the future when the new spectrum is facilitated over the large-scale adoption of unlicensed access. Operators are handling the traffic in the rural and suburban areas including the roadways, by managing the network density across the existing networks and macro sites. They can shift the network priority more towards the urban areas where the population is more and the network usage and requirement are greater than as compared to the rural areas.

The key factor in any network-based infrastructure is its transmission over the area. More preference is given to the network that can spread over a large area with minimal power requirements. In order to improve the transmission, it is necessary to undertake large-scale fiberization. A 5G infrastructure offers a network of superior capacity and latency which is essential in small-cell deployment in urban cities. This will directly affect the core networks in the area resulting in converging of the core networks. Earlier the core networks consisted of elements such as circuit switching and packages. This has evolved in to IP multimedia subsystems (IMS) due to converging of networks. This has facilitated broader IT advances including network function virtualization and software defined networking, owing to the surge in capacity and functionality. Furthermore, these developments complement agility and reconfigurability of the networks, allowing the operators to provide networks at lower unit cost.

The benefits of the 5G infrastructure have spread worldwide and their need is now felt in all the sectors. In order to expand their footprint, several operators have invested for the deployment of 5G network systems. They are currently looking for a high-speed and secure network that is connected over a wide range giving immaculate access to all their users. They expect that the 5G infrastructure would meet the requirements of the digitalized high-speed world. In conclusion, many company or organization have taken initiatives for the advancements in the technology of 5G infrastructure. This technology can be helpful for faster means of communication, data transfer, and transmission. Several enterprises and corporation have invested in 5G infrastructure market as its benefits far exceed its drawbacks. After exhaustive research, Allied Market Research has estimated that the global 5G infrastructure market would garner $58.17 billion by 2025, growing exponentially at a CAGR of 95.8% from 2018 to 2025. The market of 5G infrastructure market has great potential and will increase at a steady pace as new technologies and innovative products are introduced in this market.

Rohanish Chavan is a content writer, working on a large marketing and sales platform that helps firms attract visitors and close customers. Proficient monitoring and evaluating search results and search performance in order to write market reports and editorials sums up his job description. He keeps his technical skills and knowledge up to date to optimize the social media updates and industry changes. In his free time, he also writes short stories, poems, and blogs in order to cultivate his writing prowess.