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Monday, 10 November 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
To ensure all these devices will be reliably connected to help people make real-time decisions and further improve their lives, we will have to evolve beyond 4G LTE into 5G. The truth is the current standard capabilities will not withhold the high volume of connected things in the near future.
Because 5G is still in early development, there are many proposals and debates on its roadmap. However, one certainty is that 5G will be unlike any other wireless communication standard before it, addressing a very different set of challenges than previous generations. Whereas 1G to 4G was focused on improving connectivity and speed, 5G will be about intelligence.
What does this mean? It means 5G will not simply be about making our cellular connections faster, or adding more network capacity. It will also need to solve a more complex challenge of combining communications and computing together, so 
that intelligence is at a user’s fingertips and available to the machines that make up the Internet of Things. We anticipate that 5G will be the first network standard designed to be versatile and energy-smart for the hyper-connected ‘Internet of everything’ world.
In this next generation standard, communication capabilities and processing power will need to be diffused and intelligently managed across networks and mobile devices, empowering even the smallest connected devices to do heavy computational tasks and deliver rich content and services through its connection to the cloud.
5G networks will not only be faster, but also smarter. Therefore, the way we measure 5G network performance will be very different than before. Bits per second was a standard way of measuring network performance, but 5G will encompass much more – what I like to call bits per joule, bits per Hertz, bits per square meter of coverage and bits per dollar. This is because measurements like energy efficiency, spectrum performance, reliability and cost will be crucial for 5G.
Laying the foundation for 5G is extremely complex as we have to solve a variety of issues, but this does not mean it’s impossible. Every time we think we are reaching the practical limits of data usage, new user behaviours or new consumer technologies push the envelope even further.
The wireless industry is already hard at work trying to meet this rapidly growing demand and addressing the challenges and opportunities for 5G. In turn, by the 2020 timeframe, consumers can enjoy a better user experience, anywhere and everywhere, using various devices big and small. At the end of the day, end users do not care about acronyms like 3G, 4G or 5G, or how a network is set up – they just want to be connected to the people and things that matter the most.
(AshaKeddy is the vice president and general manager, Standards and Advanced Technology at Intel Corporation)
