Top Five Questions About 6G Technology

As 5G continues to roll out, work is already well underway on its successor. 6G wireless technology brings with it a promise for a better future. Among other goals, 6G technology intends to merge the human, physical, and digital worlds. In doing so, there is a hope that 6G can significantly aid in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This article answers some of the most common questions surrounding 6G and provides more insight into the vision for 6G and how it will achieve these critical goals.

1. What is 6G?

In a nutshell, 6G is the sixth generation of the wireless communications standard for cellular networks that will succeed today’s 5G (fifth generation). The research community does not expect 6G technology to replace the previous generations, though. Instead, they will work together to provide solutions that enhance our lives.

While 5G will act as a building block for some aspects of 6G, other aspects need to be new for it to meet the technical demands required to revolutionize the way we connect to the world in a fashion.

The first area of improvement is speed. In theory, 5G can achieve a peak data rate of 20 Gbps even though the highest speeds recorded in tests so far are around 8 Gbps. In 6G, as we move to higher frequencies – above 100 GHz – the goal peak data rate will be 1,000 Gbps (1 Tbps), enabling use cases like volumetric video and enhanced virtual reality experiences.

In fact, we have already demonstrated an over-the-air transmission at 310 GHz with speeds topping 150 Gbps.

In addition to speed, 6G technology will add another crucial advantage: extremely low latency. That means a minimal delay in communications, which will play a pivotal role in unleashing the internet of things (IoT) and industrial applications.

6G technology will enable tomorrow’s IoT through enhanced connectivity. Today’s 5G can handle one million devices connected simultaneously per square kilometer (or 0.38 square miles), but 6G will make that figure jump up to 10 million.

But 6G will be much more than just faster data rates and lower latency. Below we discuss some of the new technologies that will shape the next generation of wireless communications.

2. Who will use 6G technology and what are the use cases?

We began to see the shift to more machine-to-machine communication in 5G, and 6G looks to take this to the next level. While people will be end users for 6G, so will more and more of our devices. This shift will affect daily life as well as businesses and entire industries in a transformational way.

Beyond faster browsing for the end user, we can expect immersive and haptic experiences to enhance human communications. Ericsson, for example, foresees the emergence of the “internet of senses,” the possibility to feel sensations like a scent or a flavor digitally. According to one Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN) report, holographic telepresence and volumetric video – think of it as video in 3D – will also be a use case. This is all so that virtual, mixed, and augmented reality could be part of our everyday lives.

However, 6G technology will likely have a bigger impact on business and industry – benefiting us, the end users, as a result. With the ability to handle millions of connections simultaneously, machines will have the power to perform tasks they cannot do today.

The NGMN report anticipates that 6G networks will enable hyper-accurate localization and tracking. This could bring advancements like allowing drones and robots to deliver goods and manage manufacturing plants, improving digital health care and remote health monitoring, and enhancing the use of digital twins.

Digital twin development will be an interesting use case to keep an eye on. It is an important tool that certain industries can use to find the best ways to fix a problem in plants or specific machines – but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine if you could create a digital twin of an entire city and perform tests on the replica to assess which solutions would work best for problems like traffic management. Already in Singapore, the government is working to build a 3D city model that will enable a smart city in the future.

3. What do we need to achieve 6G?

New horizons ask for new technology. It is true that 6G will greatly benefit from 5G in areas such as edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), network slicing, and others. At the same time, we need changes to match new technical requirements.

The most sensible demand is understanding how to work in the sub terahertz frequency. While 5G needs to operate in the millimeter wave (mmWave) bands of 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz to achieve its full potential, the next generation of mobile connectivity will likely move to frequencies above 100 GHz in the ranges called sub-terahertz and possibly as high as true terahertz.

Why does this matter? Because as we go up in frequency, the wave behaves in a different way. Before 5G, cellular communications used only spectrum below 6GHz, and these signals can travel up to 10 miles. As we go up into the mmWave frequency band, the range is dramatically reduced to around 1,000 feet. With sub THz signals like those being proposed for 6G, the distance the waves can travel tends to be smaller – think 10s to 100s of feet not 1000s.

That said, we can maximize the signal propagation and range by using new types of antennas. An antenna’s size is proportional to the signal wavelength, so as the frequency gets higher and the wavelength gets shorter, antennas are small enough to be deployed in a large number. In addition, this equipment uses a technique known as beamforming – directing the signal toward one specific receiver instead of radiating out in all directions like the omnidirectional antennas commonly used prior to LTE.

Another area of interest is designing 6G networks for AI and ML. 5G networks are starting to look at adding AI and ML to existing networks, but with 6G we have the opportunity to build networks from the ground up that are designed to work natively with these technologies.

According to one International Telecommunication Union (ITU) report, the world will generate over 5,000 exabytes of data per month by 2030. Or 5 billion terabytes a month. With so many people and devices connected, we will have to rely on AI and ML to perform tasks such as managing data traffic, allowing smart industrial machines to make real-time decisions and use resources efficiently, among other things.

Another challenge 6G aims to tackle is security – how to ensure the data is safe and that only authorized people can have access to it – and solutions to make systems foresee complex attacks automatically.

One last technical demand is virtualization. As 5G evolves, we will start to move to the virtual environment. Open RAN (O-RAN) architectures are moving more processing and functionality into the cloud today. Solutions like edge computing will be more and more common in the future.

4. Will 6G technology be sustainable?

Sustainability is at the core of every conversation in the telecommunications sector today. It is true that as we advance 5G and come closer to 6G, humans and machines will consume increasing data. Just to give you an idea of our carbon footprint in the digital world, one simple email is responsible for 4 grams of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

However, 6G technology is expected to help humans improve sustainability in a wide array of applications. One example is by optimizing the use of natural resources in farms. Using real-time data, 6G will also enable smart vehicle routing, which will cut carbon emissions, and better energy distribution, which will increase efficiency.

Also, researchers are putting sustainability at the center of their 6G projects. Components like semiconductors using new materials should decrease power consumption. Ultimately, we expect the next generation of mobile connectivity to help achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

5. When will 6G be available?

The industry consensus is that the first 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards release to include 6G will be completed in 2030. Early versions of 6G technologies could be demonstrated in trials as early as 2028, repeating the 10-year cycle we saw in previous generations. That is the vision made public by the Next G Alliance, a North American initiative of which Keysight is a founding member, to foster 6G development in the United States and Canada.

Before launching the next generation of mobile connectivity into the market, international bodies discuss technical specifications to allow for interoperability. This means, for example, making sure that your phone will work everywhere in the world.

The ITU and the 3GPP are among the most well-known standardization bodies and hold working groups to assess research on 6G globally. Federal agencies also play a significant role, regulating and granting spectrum for research and deployment.

Amid all this, technology development is another aspect to keep in mind. Many 6G capabilities demand new solutions that often use nontraditional materials and approaches. The process of getting these solutions in place will take time.

The good news? The telecommunications sector is making fast progress toward the next G.

Here at Keysight, for instance, we are leveraging our proven track record of collaboration in 5G and Open RAN to pioneer solutions needed to create the foundation of 6G. We partner with market leaders to advance testing and measurement for emerging 6G technologies. Every week, we come across a piece of news informing that a company or a university has made a groundbreaking discovery.

The most exciting thing is that we get an inch closer to 6G every day. Tomorrow’s internet is being built today. Join us in this journey; it is just the beginning.

Learn more about the latest advancements in 6G research.

View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Keysight Technologies on 3blmedia.com.

SOURCE: Keysight Technologies – https://www.accesswire.com/717630/Top-Five-Questions-About-6G-Technology – 28 09 22

Cellular frequencies, 1980-2040

This graph shows the progress in mobile cellular frequency ranges – from the first generation (1G) in the 1980s to the sixth generation (6G) that is predicted for the 2030s.

 

 

Sources:

• 1G

“Typically 150 MHz and up.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1G

800 MHz
http://www.zseries.in/telecom%20lab/telecom%20generations/

150 to 900 MHZ
https://its-wiki.no/images/c/c8/From_1G_to_5G_Simon.pdf

• 2G

GSM (2G): 380 to 1900 MHz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_bands

CDMA: 800MHz and GSM: 900MHZ, 1800MHz
http://www.zseries.in/telecom%20lab/telecom%20generations/

“GSM (TDMA-based), originally from Europe but used in almost all countries on all six inhabited continents (Time Division Multiple Access). Today accounts for over 80% of all subscribers around the world. Over 60 GSM operators are also using CDMA2000 in the 450 MHZ frequency band (CDMA450).”
http://www.thefullwiki.org/2G

• 3G

810 Mhz to 2170 Mhz
http://www.teletopix.org/3g-wcdma/3g-spectrum-allocation/

1.6 to 2 GHz
https://its-wiki.no/images/c/c8/From_1G_to_5G_Simon.pdf

1.8 to 2.5 GHz
https://www3.nd.edu/~mhaenggi/NET/wireless/4G/

2100 Mhz
http://www.zseries.in/telecom%20lab/telecom%20generations/

• 4G

“850 MHz, 1800 MHz”
http://www.zseries.in/telecom%20lab/telecom%20generations/

700 MHz (Band 28 – Telstra / Optus)
850 MHz (Band 5 – Vodafone)
900 MHz (Band 8 – Telstra)
1800 MHz (Band 3 – Telstra / Optus / Vodafone)
2100 MHz (Band 1 – [a small number of Telstra sites] / Optus [Tasmania] / Vodafone)
2300 MHz (Band 40 – Optus [Vivid Wireless spectrum])
2600 MHz (Band 7 – Telstra / Optus)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G#Frequencies_for_4G_LTE_Networks

2 to 8 Ghz
https://its-wiki.no/images/c/c8/From_1G_to_5G_Simon.pdf

Additional source for 2 to 8 GHz:
https://www3.nd.edu/~mhaenggi/NET/wireless/4G/

Another source for potential maximum of 8 GHz:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301789296…

• 5G

3 to 300 GHz
https://its-wiki.no/images/c/c8/From_1G_to_5G_Simon.pdf

3 to 300 GHz
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301789296…

700 Mhz to 24 GHz and higher: “along with the 37-43.5 and 66-71GHz bands.”
https://5g.co.uk/guides/4g-versus-5g-what-will-the-next-generation-bring/

A few more countries/stats for 5G:
https://www.rfpage.com/what-are-5g-frequency-bands/

• 6G

https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/2018/11/22.htm

https://futurism.com/the-byte/the-fcc-clears-new-frequencies-for-6g-wireless-technology

https://www.cnet.com/news/as-5g-looms-chinas-already-looking-at-6g-development/

https://www.networkworld.com/article/3305359/6g-will-achieve-terabits-per-second-speeds.html

Source: https://www.futuretimeline.net/data-trends/11.htm – 05 11 21

6G Networks – Plans are Already in the Works for the Next Generation

Many of us are currently awaiting the release of 5G networks and devices, yet companies are already talking about plans for 6G. What will 6G potential provide, what research has been done into it, and what technology will become important?

5G’s Rollout and 6G Development

5G is the next-generation cellular technology that will provide many advantages over 4G including lower latency, higher download speeds, and higher instantaneous number of connections. However, the banning of Chinese developed hardware in the west and COVID has seen 5G hindered development. However, despite 5G still lacking in deployment, companies and researchers are already looking towards the next generation of cellular technology, 6G.

To start, 6G is nowhere near commercialisation, and is mostly researchers and engineers discussing protocols, expected speeds, and how it could be implemented. Two figures which have come up include terahertz signal frequencies and 95Gb/s connection speeds. Furthermore, the use of outer space for communication has also been mentioned with China having launched a 6G system into space in November 202 to test how well it would operate.

The network structure will also be similar 5G with cells that help to fragment and divide the network up. However, there has also been mention of the use of air balloons with solar panels on the top side to provide wide-area access that can indefinitely power themselves.

The Technological Challenges of 6G

One of the major challenges behind 6G technology is the use of terahertz frequencies. Such frequencies are currently impractical with modern technology. As such, semiconductors operating future 6G systems will be reliant on metamaterials such as graphene and gallium nitride high-electron-mobility transistors. For perspective, terahertz frequency ranges fall between 140GHz and 230GHz which is well beyond the frequency currently used by cellular telecommunications.

The second challenge that 6G will face is installing infrastructure as each and every predecessor has also faced. However, 6G could potentially benefit from software-defined systems that allow for masts and cells to be given a software update to handle new protocols without the need for new hardware. However, there would still be a need for new antenna and decoding systems as a result of the use of terahertz frequencies.

How will 6G change the technological landscape?

Determining the technological impacts of 6G is difficult to predict as 6G is not expected to become implemented until well into 2030. Furthermore, technology (and how it is used) could change dramatically in the next decade. No one could have predicted the rise of social media and its influence, nor would anyone be able to predict the sudden integration of smartphones into daily lives.

The next decade will see technology become smaller, cheaper, and more advanced which will result in an increase in the use of IoT devices. This increase will be amplified with smart cities’ development, and the continuing demand for smart technologies will see large amounts of data being generated.

Therefore, 6G networks may be seen as the next step in connecting all devices onto a singular network. Furthermore, everyday home devices may become 6G powered meaning that internet connections into homes via Fibre and broadband may be seen as redundant. This could result in only 6G stations having access to fibre and broadband connections while the population utilises 6G.

However, increasing concerns about privacy and security may also see edge computing become more important. As such, the total number of devices globally will increase, but the demand for internet service may not accelerate as much (as data is processed locally).

Only time can tell what troubles 6G will face, and what it will be expected to do. From a technical point of view, it makes sense to move as many devices onto cellular networks as possible. The use of Wi-Fi and Ethernet is quickly becoming irrelevant, and those who live in remote locations often find themselves utilising 4G for internet already. Thus, 6G could become the unified network of the future.

Source: https://www.electropages.com/blog/2021/02/6g-networks-plans-are-already-works-next-generation 12 02 21

5G’s Release 16 is complete, but COVID-19 may push Release 17 to 2022

Image Credit: 3GPP

Global partnership 3GPP is responsible for approving updates to the 3G, 4G, and 5G cellular standards that enable wireless phones and related devices to become faster and more power-efficient with each passing sub-generation. This process has yielded evolving 4G standards, such as LTE and LTE Advanced, as well as the earliest global 5G standards. Today, 3GPP member companies are trumpeting the ratification of 5G Release 16, a major step on the path to improved 5G performance, though the partnership has quietly warned that the next 5G update is at “high risk” of being delayed, notably pushing back the release of 5G wearables.

5G Release 16 is set to bolster “standalone” 5G networks — towers that don’t depend on older 4G hardware and standards — by increasing upload and download speeds, as well as enabling 5G vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications and industrial IoT deployments, two innovations changing the transportation and manufacturing industries. Embattled Chinese mobile company Huawei today praised 3GPP for completing Release 16 despite the global COVID-19 pandemic. Huawei noted it was “the first time ever that 3GPP has ratified a technological standardization outside of physical meetings,” though the milestone was pushed back by months as meetings were virtualized.

Cellular hardware and device makers typically wait on the completion of 3GPP standards before deploying their most important performance updates, as launching earlier could mean having to tear out and replace prestandards hardware — something Verizon encountered with its prestandards 5G network. Consequently, network hardware provider Ericsson waited until Release 16 was complete to today publicize its release of standalone 5G software, which it says has already been tested by T-Mobile and Telstra on their commercial networks. Virtually every cellular carrier across the globe will soon be adopting Release 16-based 5G, in some cases as a software update to tower hardware already deployed.

Release 17 is expected to bring a number of new features to 5G, including support for even higher-frequency (over 53GHz) millimeter wave spectrum, plus enhanced 5G IoT performance and location accuracy. One standout addition is NR-Light, a 5G variant that will work in energy-efficient wearables and industrial sensors. Using only a small sliver of radio spectrum, NR-Light will support 100Mbps downloads and 50Mbps uploads, giving 5G smartwatches enough bandwidth to record and share videos over cellular networks, among other advances.

Release 17 was scheduled to be complete in 2021, but in March the pandemic pushed key approval dates to September and December 2021, and additional delays are now being discussed. 3GPP planning documents suggest Release 17 dates “will have to be shifted,” and at least one working group is discussing a four-month delay that would push Release 17’s finalization into 2022. Device makers hoping to release 5G-compatible smartwatches, potentially including Samsung, Apple, and Google, will therefore not be able to offer the updated wearables during the 2021 holiday season. 3GPP expects a September 2020 meeting will confirm the new timelines, so stay tuned for the latest developments.

Source: https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/06/5gs-release-16-is-complete-but-covid-19-may-push-release-17-to-2022/ 06 07 20

Drones: out of sight, top of mind for telcos

Operators may not yet be experts in aviation, but they need to start thinking about managing and monetising the skies.

Today, with few exceptions, regulations only allow drone flight if the pilot can see the drone—in many ways, it’s not too dissimilar from model aircraft or drone enthusiasts you might spot in the park. If the aircraft disappears from view it’s not only illegal, but the pilot is likely to panic as its expensive toy may be lost forever.

While flight restrictions may be fine for drone enthusiasts, what about the companies that want drones to be part of their future business models? Line of sight is no good if you want to make a delivery across a city, move medical supplies or samples between health care facilities, or monitor crops.

This law is changing, though slowly. Regulators are now starting to partner with drone manufacturers, allowing limited testing of Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights. Telcos that haven’t already taken close notice of the potential of BVLOS flights should do so. Drones could be a great opportunity for operators with a country-wide deployment of cell towers. In fact, drones could be the most important ‘Thing’ in the IoT.

The future of drone flight

Automated BVLOS flights open up many opportunities—while most will immediately think of faster home deliveries for their fast food, there are other ways that drones can be useful.

These include medical use, such as shipping samples from hospitals to labs safely, or even transporting organs for transplant from one hospital to another. Disaster response and search and rescue is another potential use case, as is agriculture, where predicting potential yields is vital to keep farms profitable. Even construction and infrastructure development could be improved by drone use, though this will depend on more sophisticated and nimble drones.

All of these are impossible if a pilot has to be in line of sight, making BVLOS a necessity if this future is to be fully realised. But the regulators are rightly worried about what this means. With no manual pilot, how can the safety of regular air traffic be guaranteed? How can a drone be communicated with if a last-minute change to its flight plan is needed? Essentially, regulators such as the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol), want to permit the use of drones but without any risk to the public.

To achieve this aim and to overcome the fact that pilots do not always have direct visibility of UAVs, every BVLOS flight requires a continuous digital connection. This connectivity is needed to guarantee safety, whether the flightpath of a UAV is automated, or flown by an operator.

What is the opportunity for telcos?

The provision of this connectivity is an exciting opportunity for telcos. For safe operation and to help to mitigate risks, BVLOS will require guaranteed service levels for communication. This means that, for large commercial deployments of drones, cellular networks are in an ideal position to help—they can deliver the communication mechanisms for command and control of drones, assuring dedicated SLAs in licensed spectrum. The infrastructure, in the form of cellular networks, already exists and is affordable. There are alternatives, such as satellite communications, but these don’t meet requirements for drones, in terms of low latency, cost, weight, bandwidth and energy consumption.

Why not use the same comms that regular manned flights use? Terrestrial analogue signals or radar are not effective, or in most cases, just not working effectively at lower altitudes to meet the requirements of drones.

Unfortunately for telcos it’s not as simple as making their networks and the respective data available for use for BVLOS flight operations and aviation management systems. While existing cellular networks are able to handle BVLOS flight management, it is not a given that this is the case everywhere. Cellular networks are designed and optimised for ground operation. Thus, as a first step the aviation management systems need to know from the telcos where the cellular network is good enough for safe drone operation. Secondly, the network needs to be optimised for more flight operations in three-dimensional corridors where drones can safely be controlled.

There also needs to be a guaranteed connection as the drone moves, handing over between cells where necessary. A lost connection for a consumer is an annoyance, but for a fast-moving drone it means jeopardising public safety. The rollout of 5G and the introduction of network slices to guarantee a steady and dedicated connection will be important to ensure that drones can be safely controlled, but only if operators have the tools to manage and optimise these slices safely.

BVLOS means that telcos can provide the communications necessary to make our skies as busy as our roads—or perhaps busier, as many drones could replace trips that are currently made by road. It’s rare that telcos find themselves in a position to provide connectivity to a completely new industry vertical. They should grab at the opportunity and start planning now for a future where the sky is full as full of literal traffic as it is of mobile traffic.

Source text: http://www.visualpcs.com/drones-out-of-sight-top-of-mind-for-telcos/ 06 06 20
Source photo: RCR Wireless

The role of Wi-Fi in a 5G World

Google trends is a fascinating tool that provides unparalleled insight into what people across the world are thinking and doing. A quick glance at the search trend for the term “5G” reveals a growing interest in this wireless connectivity technology  (in case you are curious, here is the comparison against the search trend for “WiFi” and here it is against the trend for “4G”). At CES 2020, Lenovo announced Yoga 5G, the world’s first 5G laptop. Although it has yet to ship, its technical specs list 5G and Bluetooth 5.0 as the only two supported connectivity technologies. Wi-Fi is conspicuously absent on this laptop, which has a starting price of $1499. Is this a precursor of what’s to come or does the Yoga 5G merely address a small market segment? Several other questions arise: Is Wi-Fi going to be replaced by 5G? Is 5G superior to Wi-Fi? What is Wi-Fi’s role in a 5G world? Before we answer these questions, let us start with a quick primer on 5G.

What is 5G?

Over the last 40 years, the world has witnessed a new generation of mobile communication technologies every decade. The first-generation technologies (1G), which emerged around 1980, were based on analog transmission and limited to voice services. The first major upgrade to mobile communication arrived in the early 1990s with the introduction of second generation (2G) technologies based on digital transmission. The target service was still voice, although the use of digital transmission allowed 2G systems to support limited data services – and almost accidentally created text messaging. The third generation (3G) was introduced in 2001 to facilitate greater voice and data capacity, thereby laying the foundations for mobile broadband. While the first two generations were designed to operate in paired spectrum based on Frequency Division Duplex (FDD), 3G introduced operation in unpaired spectrum based on Time Division Duplex (TDD), although this was rarely implemented. We are currently in the 4G era, which began in 2010. 4G technologies leverageOFDM and MIMO techniques to achieve higher efficiency and higher end-user data rates – enabling mobile broadband and harmonizing the fractured ecosystem.

5G is the fifth and the latest generation mobile communication technology that  supports three primary use cases: enhanced mobile broadband (higher speeds to current users), low latency with high reliability (to enable services such as safety systems and automatic control), and massive machine to machine communication (the ability to concurrently connect a lot more devices – IoT). 5G operates in many different frequency bands — from 600 MHz to 39 GHz — to service a wide variety of use cases. Signal propagation and bandwidth availability at mmWave (24 – 39 GHz) is very different from signals below 6 GHz. While mmWave can achieve 10+ Gbps data rates by leveraging as much as 800 MHz bandwidth, its range is limited because of the higher path loss at higher frequencies. On the other hand, sub 6 GHz has good range, but the data rate is less since the bandwidth is limited to 100 MHz.

Is Wi-Fi going to be replaced by 5G? 

We often debate whether 5G will replace Wi-Fi. Ultimately, we concluded that both Wi-Fi and cellular technologies will continue to be strong complements to each other for the foreseeable future.

1. Total Ownership Cost: IP licensing costs associated with cellular technologies make cellular infrastructure and clients more expensive than their Wi-Fi counterparts. Unlike Wi-Fi, each new cellular generation is typically accompanied by new, and often expensive, spectrum. In addition, cellular services typically come with subscription fees paid to the network operator who owns the infrastructure and spectrum.
2. Installed Base: Wi-Fi is ubiquitous. There are more than 13 billion Wi-Fi devices in active use worldwide and many of them have a long replacement cycle. Every new generation of Wi-Fi ensures that these devices can continue to connect to the new Wi-Fi infrastructure just as they did with the older ones, thereby protecting the existing investment in legacy devices. On the other hand, cellular chips don’t provide complete backwards compatibility and typically support only one or two generations.
3. Ease of deployment: Wi-Fi uses free unlicensed spectrum and does not require any complex backend infrastructure such as a packet core. It can be deployed in minutes without requiring a skilled technician. Cloud management has further simplified Wi-Fi deployment, making it as simple as plug and play. Now that the Wi-Fi calling feature is natively supported on most smart phones, Wi-Fi is a good alternative to deploying dual systems for calling.
4. In-building coverage: We spend most of our time indoors, yet outdoor cellular signals have trouble penetrating buildings. While there are several ways to bring cellular services into a building, this has not proven economical for wireless service providers. Thus, Wi-Fi remains the preferred choice and offers an additional benefit for the tenant, as the spectrum is unlicensed and can be controlled entirely.

In the next section, we will see that the latest generation of Wi-Fi performs on par with 5G for most use cases.

Is 5G superior to Wi-Fi?

As with cellular, Wi-Fi has gone through several generations of evolution over the last three decades. Client and infrastructure products supporting the sixth generation of Wi-Fi, commonly referred to as Wi-Fi 6, have been shipping since 2018. Notably, all models of Samsung Galaxy S10 and all models of iPhone 11 ship with Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

Both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G use OFDM and OFDMA for PHY layer signaling and support up to 8 MIMO streams. While Wi-Fi 6 supports peak data rate of 9.6 Gbps, smartphone clients with two transmit and two receive chains can achieve over 1.7 Gbps TCP throughput in both uplink and downlink. This is comparable to the performance achievable with 5G. Wi-Fi 6 achieves a spectral efficiency of 62.5 bps/Hz, which exceeds the 5G requirement of 30 bps/Hz. It also includes several new features that enable AR, VR, and IoT applications through higher data rates, reduced latency, increased range, and extended battery life (similar to many of the features of 5G).

Wi-Fi 6 is optimized for extremely dense environments, with a single Wi-Fi 6 access point capable of serving a whopping 1024 clients concurrently. The trigger frame feature of Wi-Fi 6 enables scheduled access, similar to cellular, resulting in improved reliability of transmissions due to the elimination of collisions.

With the introduction of Passpoint, network discovery and selection have been fully automated rendering Wi-Fi roaming as seamless as cellular roaming. The latest security protocols, such as WPA3 and Enhanced Open supported on all Wi-Fi 6 devices have made Wi-Fi as secure as cellular. These protocols provide more secure and individualized encryption, making it difficult for hackers to snoop traffic even in an “open” network. Furthermore, features such as Rogue Detection supported on Wi-Fi access points protect users from “man-in-the-middle” attacks.

One of the areas where Wi-Fi falls short is mobility, as it is not specifically designed for high speed mobility. While cellular systems avoid interference by using different set of licensed frequencies from neighboring cells and provide guaranteed service quality, this is not the case, especially for unmanaged Wi-Fi networks.

The bottom line: Wi-Fi 6 is widely deployed today and measures up well against 5G.

What is Wi-Fi’s role in the world of 5G?

Given the favorable economics and high performance of Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi will remain a very attractive choice for indoor and enterprise applications. While cellular has its origins outdoors, we expect Wi-Fi and 5G to co-exist both indoors and outdoors.

Moreover, Wi-Fi continues to evolve faster than cellular with new Wi-Fi technology introduced once every 5 years – compared to the 10-year cadence of cellular technologies. Work has already started on the seventh generation of Wi-Fi, based on IEEE 802.11be. Wi-Fi 7 is targeting a peak throughput of at least 30 Gbps and strives to reduce the worst-case latency and jitter.

Recent efforts by Federal Communications Commission and OFCOM to open up in excess of 500 MHz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use is expected to be another major game changer for Wi-Fi. This clean spectrum will double the number of lanes on the Wi-Fi superhighway and turbocharge the user base with added capacity for existing and new applications. This spectrum is expected to bring significant reductions in latency, since it will be occupied only by highly efficient Wi-Fi 6 devices (also known as Wi-Fi 6E devices), further enabling latency sensitive applications.

There has been cross fertilization of ideas between Wi-Fi and cellular, and this trend will continue as the two technologies move closer and closer together. For example, Wi-Fi introduced OFDM as part of its third-generation technology ratified in 1999, while cellular leveraged OFDM as part of its fourth-generation technology introduced in 2010. The latest sixth generation of Wi-Fi (2018) supports OFDMA, which cellular has supported since 4G (2010). Wi-Fi 6 introduced scheduled access, in addition to the traditional Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), bringing the Wi-Fi and cellular channel access methods closer. While Wi-Fi has always restricted itself to unlicensed bands, cellular dabbled with deployments in the unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum using LTE-U (although it wasn’t as successful).

In summary, Wi-Fi and 5G will move closer together and coexist as complementary technologies for the foreseeable future.

Source: https://www.rcrwireless.com/20200428/opinion/readerforum/wi-fi-in-a-5g-world-reader-forum 28 04 20

Everything Gets Smarter When 5G and AI Combine

The epitome of science-fiction technology, though, is artificial intelligence (AI). It’s the robot that will interact with us, or in the case of some horror films, be humanity’s ultimate downfall. While we’re still years away from having a robot like the one on the TV cartoon The Jetsons doing our housework, 5G and AI are helping speed up the pace. Not only do they enable each other, but their fates are somewhat intertwined. 5G provides the infrastructure and massive amounts of data that AI needs to be successful, and AI, driven by advances in machine learning, provides the ability to make sense of the chaos and complexity of 5G.

To be clear, 5G is a set of new technologies, while AI is not. The basic algorithms used by machine learning to create AI have been relatively unchanged for the last 30 years. The concept, called backpropagation, is fairly simple. Data sets and the expected outcomes associated with them are input into a processor, and it outputs a pattern. The more data sets and outputs that are used as inputs to the processor, the more accurate the resulting pattern. Machine learning thrives with massive amounts of data, and 5G will create massive amounts of data.

Latency

One of the defining characteristics of 5G that makes it dramatically different than previous standards is the fact that it has a spec for latency built in (the target is 1 ms). Figure 1 from GSMA Intelligence presents a visual diagram of various applications that rely on cellular networks. The applications in gray are the ones that require some combination of the massive bandwidth and throughput promised by 5G in addition to tight latency requirements.

1. The diagram shows the various applications that rely on cellular networks. (Source: GSMA Intelligence)

While some applications, like augmented reality, will require very deterministic and low latency, others such as streaming video and making a phone call do not. The ability to provide truly low latency and high reliability communications will require proper priority of network trafficking.

Network Slicing

The idea of network slicing, using a single shared physical network with multiple fully virtualized networks running on top of it, is a popular solution. A factory, for example, could pay for a slice with a guaranteed latency and percent reliability to connect smart machines and factory equipment. It could then have a separate slice for employee communications, such as cell phones and tablets (Fig. 2). Or a 5G connected car could have a slice for autonomous driving and other mission-critical functions and a separate slice for infotainment.

2. A number of different network slices can exist in 5G.

There’s no debate about the appeal of network slicing. It’s already beginning to be rolled out to the market on some scale. Significant limitations hamper a network providers’ ability to offer this type of service, though. Currently, these slices all must be manually configured. And, as networks grow more complex with the addition of 5G, so too does the amount of configuration needed to set up a slice. AI is perfectly suited for this task. Bob Cai, chief marketing officer for Huawei carrier business group, says that “intelligence” and AI will facilitate network optimization, so that backend traffic is routed based on device needs and engineered configuration settings.

5G and IoT Accelerates AI’s Expansion

AI will be present in other aspects of 5G as well. AI already plays a significant role in our daily interactions with our cell phones. Voice-activated assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant already use AI to process our requests and return their best guess at an answer. But anyone who has used these tools knows they are far from perfect.

Bob Rogers, chief data scientist for analytics and AI in Intel’s Data Center Group, sees 5G as the way to give these AI assistants what they are lacking to be successful—contextual awareness. Similar to the other cases mentioned, by having access to more data and having that access at significantly faster speeds than are available with today’s LTE networks, devices will have a better ability to understand their surroundings.

AI also offers some appealing benefits when combined with the Internet of Things. As more devices become connected, more and more data about human patterns will be available for machine learning to take advantage of.

On a grand scale, this could completely revolutionize medicine. Medical studies strive to track as many patients as possible over a period of time to see how certain life choices, lifestyles, or locations may have an effect on their long-term health. Imagine a time in the future when a significant portion of the population wears smart health monitors. Statistics can be geotagged, timestamped, and sent to the cloud to be aggregated and processed. If medical records are also available for AI to process, correlations between different types of exercise and overall life expectancy, or more radically, specific locations and cancer could be determined.

On a simpler scale, AI and health related IoT devices could be used to monitor patients and make recommendations for treatment of disease much earlier than if a patient waits for symptoms to become overwhelming before visiting a doctor.

Side Effects?

Using AI to make cellular networks smarter and more efficient will almost certainly happen. Whether AI will be used for some of the other applications mentioned above remains to be seen. The possibilities of these new technologies is enticing and desirable. The cost, however, may not be one that people are willing to pay.

Recently, a large debate has raged on about users’ privacy and how data is controlled. There’s a certain amount of distrust in society for corporations collecting our personal data. Even if the end result is desirable, the possibility for corruption on various levels is high. Finding ways to better secure personal data or new business models that allow it to be collected without exploitation are also important challenges that must be solved to make 5G successful.

The potential applications with 5G are numerous, and hard to predict. As with other revolutionary technology, the applications that are anticipated to be groundbreaking at an early stage aren’t always the ones to be successful, and the ideas that were previously unheard of are the ones that surprise us all.

Source: https://www.electronicdesign.com/industrial-automation/article/21807565/brave-new-world-everything-gets-smarter-when-5g-and-ai-combine 28 04 20

Cellular to Wi-Fi Data Offloading

It’s now 18 years since the 802.11 came out by IEEE, since then the Wi-Fi had rapid developments and there are over five billion devices support Wi-Fi today around the world [1]. Since early beginnings of the year 2000, the competition of notebook, laptop and smartphone manufacturing made it essential to have a WLAN card for wireless networking, and the Wireless LANs are everywhere today in offices, hotels, homes, airports, and restaurants. The need for Wi-Fi is increasing day after day, and it became the most favorite way to be online. The Wi-Fi became a Universal technology for the modern term called “Connected Homes”, where TV and Multimedia, Home operations and automation, Life Management, and broadband connectivity are managed through the Wi-Fi.

The revolution of smartphone industry, which rose after the Apple iPhone®, had a vast spread of Wi-Fi technology along with smartphones. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations aims to make a globally applicable third-generation (3G) mobile phone system specification, became aware of the increasing role of Wi-Fi and started putting standards for Wi-Fi and Mobile Networks interoperability. Some mobile operators, Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), and vendors saw the potential in Wi-Fi as generic and low cost wireless technology to provide their data and Internet services to millions of users through their already equipped Wi-Fi in smartphones, tablets, laptops, and PDAs.

The global mobile data traffic grew by 81 percent in 2013 [2], and nearly 18 times nearly the entire global internet traffic in the year 2000. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are facing increasing deployment challenges to spread their 3G and 4G sites to serve the increasing needs of customers for high speed broadband connectivity. The cost of building a new 3G/4G site is about 100 to 150 times building a Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) [3], a study by Wireless 2020shows that Wi-Fi offloading could save around 7% of total Network Deployment cost with 60% Wi-Fi coverage.  The Wi-Fi offloading became lately the most hotly debated business opportunity that provides solutions for MNOs for a lot of challenges like spectrum licensing, running costs, coverage gaps ,deployment delays, and congestion. In addition, Wi-Fi can give new business opportunities to MNOs to access new types of users like laptop, tablet, and home users. The study of Wireless 2020shows that 65% of traffic can be offloaded via already installed Wi-Fi Networks in USA. Some MNOs are thinking about building their networks using the Wi-Fi as a primary network and the mobile cellular network as a secondary network.

 

What is Mobile Data Offloading?

Mobile Data offloading is the use of complementary network technologies for delivering data originally targeted for cellular networks. Examples of complementary networks are the Wi-Fi and Wi-Max. With Wi-Fi Mobile Data offloading, MNOs can deliver their data services to the customers through a Wi-Fi AP connected to the core network with seamless connectivity with the cellular network. Seamless connectivity means no need for any user interaction; with many options to authenticate the user and perform the data charge payments, and make an automatic handover called “vertical handover” from the cellular network to the Wi-Fi network and vice versa. With the increased CAPEX and OPEX of applying new 3G and 4G technologies, MNOs found a great business opportunity in Wi-Fi to increase the revenue per MB by deploying APs in hotspots and cellular network coverage gaps.

 

How it can be done?

3GPP started defining its system to Wireless LAN interoperability in Release 6, where the cellular core network authenticate the user through 3GPP AAA server, once authentication is performed the WLAN AP allow the user to access the internet.

The authentication can be performed in multiple ways: SIM based authentication, authentication through SMS, username and password authentication, or manual authentication.

Figure 1: 3GPP release 6 WLAN Access Control

 

Smartphone manufacturers started applying the choice in operating systems to favor either the Wi-Fi or the cellular network like Apple iOS and Android 4.0. 3GPP release 6 was the first step towards allowing Wi-Fi users to access the cellular network, but still the selections of the radio access not defined how to favor access between Wi-Fi and the cellular network; it still needs user interaction or management by an application. Another drawback is when the user switches from cellular to Wi-Fi during a download, depending on the application, the download may stop. This switching mechanism between the Wi-Fi network and the cellular network that depend on the application is called Application Based Switching as the application has to depend on its own to continue the data transfer after switching the Radio Access Technology.

In 3GPP release 8, a new approach introduced to solve the later problem and define a way for the mobile users to automatically choose between cellular and Wi-Fi networks and allowing the user to perform vertical handover between the two technologies without any application or user interaction. With the introduction of Hotspot 2.0 and Mobile IP (MIP), the 3GPP release 8 allows Wi-Fi mobility with service continuity when moving between the two technologies.

Figure 2: 3GPP release 8 WLAN Seamless Mobility

Hotspot 2.0 was created by the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2012, a technology intended to render Wi-Fi technology similar to cellular technology with a suite of protocols to allow easy selection and secure authentication. It allows the mobile devices automatically select the Wi-Fi network based on its SSID. It also allows reacting some useful information such as Network and venue type, list of roaming partners, and types of authentication available.

Mobile IP allows the mobile device to have dual IPs to communicate with each access technology; with the H1 interface the Home Agent (HA) manages the mobility between the two access technologies.

The 3GPP provided further enhancement with release 10; a completely seamless Wi-Fi offloading, where the mobile device can have multiple connections to each technology managed by the 3GPP core network. Some heavy traffic like video streaming and P2P downloads can be routed via Wi-Fi and the HTTP and VoIP traffic through the cellular Network.

Figure 3: 3GPP release 10 WLAN Seamless offload

 

Why Wi-Fi is the future potential for increased user demands?

With the increased speed of technology development today, companies like Apple, Samsung, Google, and Microsoft are changing their project schemes from yearly basis planning to quarterly basis. The market today receives a new product every quarter, the users are more demanding for high data rate applications, and the personal computing power doubles every 18 months. This creates challenges to the telecommunication vendors and cellular network operators of fast solutions to fit this increased user demands and offer economic and practical solutions to transfer from 10x speed today’s cellular data rate evolution into 1000x. The evolution of the Wi-Fi resulted in 5 generations, and reached today with IEEE 802.11ac Gigabits of speed.

Figure 4: The evolution of Wi-Fi

The mobile cellular technology has 4 generations today and practically reached 100 Mbps with the LTE technology, and it is expected to reach 300 Mbps with the coming few years.

Figure 5: The evolution of Mobile Cellular Speeds

Since the Wi-Fi AP is designed to cover a range of 50 meters indoor and 100 meters outdoors, repeating this coverage all over the coverage of a single cellular cell will allow the current data rate speed to jump from 10x growth into 1000x growth, providing higher spectrum efficiency and allowing application that consume much data rates like HD IPTV and the “Connected Home” approach.

Figure 6: Wi-Fi + Cellular Network Integration.

 Source: Qualcomm, Wi-Fi evolution

 

What is the Future?

            The Wi-Fi is a great opportunity for cellular mobile operators towards deploying high efficient, low cost, high speed, and robust network. Many vendors and operators already started deploying Wi-Fi offloading solutions around the world today, and mobile country regulators are started making new laws and regulations for the spectrum by increasing the band of Wi-Fi for mobile operators to implement this technology. It can be said that it’s a new track in the mobile telecommunication evolution before the Cellular 5th Generation standard comes within the next 10 years, forcing the standard writes to consider Wi-Fi as essential part the next global telecommunication  standard.

 

References:

1-      https://www.abiresearch.com/press/wi-fi-enabled-device-shipments-will-exceed-15-bill

2-      Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2013–2018

3-      ROI analysis of Wi-Fi Offloading: A Study by Wireless 2020.

4-      http://www.qualcomm.com/media/documents/files/wi-fi-evolution.pdf

Source: http://sifianbenkhalifa.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/cellular-to-wi-fi-data-offloading/

Intel Touts New Ultra-High-Speed Wireless Data Technology

Small base stations could achieve huge data capacity increases using Intel’s modular antenna arrays.

WHY IT MATTERS

Data demand is expected to surge in the coming years, requiring better wireless technologies.

Intel says it has prototyped a chip-based antenna array that can sit in a milk-carton-sized cellular base station. The technology could turbocharge future wireless networks by using ultrahigh frequencies.

Intel’s technology, known as a millimeter wave modular antenna array, is expected to be demonstrated today at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona, Spain, says Ali Sadri, director of the millimeter wave standards and advanced technology group at Intel.

The technology could take ultrafast capabilities that Samsung and researchers at New York University demonstrated last year using benchtop-scale equipment (see “What 5G Will Be—Crazy Fast Wireless Tested in New York City) and pack it into a box-sized gadget. The idea is that cities would be carpeted with such small stations—with one every block or two—and be capable of handling huge amounts of data at short ranges.

Any one such cell could send and receive data at speeds of more than a gigabit per second over up to few hundred meters—and far more at shorter distances—compared to about 75 megabits per second for the latest standard, known as 4G LTE.

For mobile cellular communications, both the Intel and Samsung technologies could eventually use frequencies of 28 or 39 gigahertz or higher. These frequencies are known as millimeter wave and carry far more data than those used in cellular networks today. But they are easily blocked by objects in the environment—and even water droplets in the air. So they’ve traditionally been seen as impractical for mobile devices.

To get around the blockage problem, processors dynamically shape how a signal is combined among 64, 128, or even more antenna elements, controlling the direction in which a beam is sent from each antenna array, making changes on the fly in response to changing conditions.

Several groups are working on such antenna arrays, but Intel says its version is more efficient. “We can scale up the number of modular arrays as high as practical to increase transmission and reception sensitivity. The barrier is only regulatory issues, not technological ones,” Sadri says.

A major problem is finding a way to get so many antennas into a mobile device. The NYU technology used a benchtop gadget hauled around the sidewalks of Manhattan for testing. It steers beams mechanically toward intended users. The Intel chip does the same thing by shaping the direction of the signal electronically, and is now packaged in a gadget smaller than a shoebox.

A number of companies are betting next-generation wireless technologies will need to use millimeter wave links to deliver all the data people want. The European Commission, for example, last year launched a $1.8 billion 5G research effort to help develop this and other technologies.

 

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/524961/intel-touts-new-ultra-high-speed-wireless-data-technology/

What to expect from mobile networks in 2014: The 4G car, LTE Broadcast and small cells

photo: Shutterstock / valdis torms

SUMMARY:In 2014, carriers will tinker with some new network technologies. They’ll start broadcasting video, shrinking the size of their cells and moving voice calls onto LTE. They’ll even start connecting cars to the 4G network.

2013 was largely a year of entrenchment in the U.S. mobile industry. Carriers expanded their 4G footprints geographically and added new capacity to meet the demands of an increasing number of LTE devices. But in 2014, we’re going to see carriers get a bit more experimental with their networks and their services.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile all have varying projects in the works that will result will result in faster, better performing networks, change the way services like voice and video are delivered to the handset and bring vehicles into the 4G fold. Here’s a look at what’s in store for our mobile networks in 2014.

Verizon becomes a broadcaster for the Super Bowl

Verizon plans to make a big splash with a new technology called LTE Broadcast at the country’s biggest sporting event in February. At Super Bowl XLVIII in Newark, N.J., Verizon will convert some of its LTE systems from two-way to one-way streets.

I’ve explained how LTE-Broadcast works in other posts, but in a nutshell it lets carriers transmit the same data stream to multiple devices simultaneously, much like a TV or radio station blankets a city with a single signal. If there are multiple people in the same cell consuming the same content, a carrier using LTE-Broadcast just ships the same packets to every device rather than establish separate streaming sessions for each individual subscriber and eating up valuable capacity.

As you might imagine, a technology like this becomes more valuable when you have a lot of people in the same place consuming the same real-time content. That makes Super Bowl Sunday at Prudential Center and its surroundings the ideal time and place to prove out the technology. Verizon hasn’t revealed the specific details of what kind of broadcast services it would offer at the Super Bowl, but we can take a guess at some possibilities.

For instance, the network could continually transmit a highlight reel of all of the game’s big plays that anyone with a Verizon LTE smartphone could tap into. It could also datacast a constantly updated ticker of player and game stats. If the NFL and Verizon get really ambitious they could broadcast a video feeds from every single one of the event’s 70 TV cameras to everyone in the stadium, letting people watch the live action or replays from any angle they choose.

Revving up the 4G car

We’re going to see the first LTE-connected vehicles in 2014, and right now it seems like a race between Audi, General Motors and Tesla to see who can get an 4G car on U.S. roads first.

Cellular connectivity in cars is certainly nothing new. Automakers have been using mobile networks to power their in-car roadside assistance and telematics services for the better part of a decade. But those connections have primarily been pokey 2G links, ideal for transmitting itty-bitty chunks of data – such as GPS coordinates or an “unlock vehicle” command – across the country.

But by embedding LTE in cars automakers and carriers will be able to deliver the kinds of data services we’ve grown to expect on our smartphones and tablets. Those connections will power apps in the dashboard and redistribute mobile broadband throughout the car via Wi-Fi.

Consequently, network connectivity will cease being a behind-the-scenes technology and turn into a data services sold to drivers by a carrier. Unfortunately we won’t have much choice in which carriers connect our cars – in the U.S. automakers are locking down their vehicles to specific networks – but if the carrier connecting your phone and car happen to be the same, you could attach your car to a shared data or family plan.

The incredible shrinking network

Operators spent the last few years building LTE coverage, but with their initial 4G rollouts complete or near completion they’re now starting to focus on capacity. We’re already seeing all four nationwide operators soup up their LTE speeds and capacity with new spectrum, but in 2014, they’ll start using a different tool: the small cell.

Carriers can only get so far with new airwaves. At a certain point they have to start reusing the spectrum they already have, which means breaking their big wide-reaching umbrella networks into ever-smaller partitions. As these “cells” get smaller, the overall capacity of the network grows, meaning more customers get faster, more resilient connections, especially in high-traffic locations like malls, parks and other public areas.

Of the major U.S. operators, AT&T is being the most aggressive, promising a 40,000-small cell network before the end of 2015. Sprint is also planning to make extensive use of the tiny base stations in its network. Verizon has been experimenting with small cells as well, though it’s much less enthusiastic about the technology.

VoLTE: Better late then never

Carriers have been promising for two years that VoIP services running over their LTE networks are just around the corner, but voice-over-LTE is hardly progressing. In fact, it seems to be regressing. MetroPCS launched the first U.S. VoLTE service last year, but T-Mobile has been quietly shutting it down as it transfers Metro customers onto its networks.

Both Verizon and AT&T have pushed back their planned VoLTE launches, but it looks like next year they’ll be finally ready to make their first moves toward all-IP communications. AT&T has said it would seed the network with the first VoLTE-capable handsets this year and launch an IP-phone service in 2014. News reports show Verizon’s VoLTE trials in the wild, and it too has promised to make it available to the public in 2014.

Carriers already have perfectly good 2G voice networks so they’re not in much of a hurry to move their core communications service over to LTE. And at least initially consumers probably wouldn’t notice if they did – their calls would just run over a different network.

The real promise of VoLTE is its ability to integrate easily with other IP communications services. We’ll see VoLTE phones linked to enterprise PBX systems first, and then we’ll see it make its way to consumers in the form of richer communications apps, supporting features like HD voice, one-touch group conferencing, messaging and video chat all within the same communications session.

Feature image courtesy of Shutterstock user valdis torms; Man-with-phones photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Stanislav Komogorov

 

Source: http://gigaom.com/2013/12/27/what-to-expect-from-mobile-networks-in-2014-the-4g-car-lte-broadcast-and-small-cells/#!