I guess in the spirit of the VR Showcase thread. it's time for me to start posting news articles about 5G. feel free to contribute what you find online too. thanks.
here's what I found in 2 seconds.
What Is 5G?
We've only had 4G cellular networks for a few years, but all the wireless carriers are already
talking about 5G. It's actually surprisingly easy to do so, because there isn't any official definition of 5G yet. What's happening now is that all the players in the wireless world, from chipset makers to carriers, are jockeying to be able to define 5G and establish themselves as 5G leaders.
So head with me down the rabbit hole that is 5G as I try to explain what the heck is going on here.
1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G
The G in 5G means it's a generation of wireless technology. While most generations have technically been defined by their data transmission speeds, each has also been marked by a break in encoding methods, or "air interfaces," which make it incompatible with the previous generation.
1G was analog cellular. 2G technologies, such as CDMA, GSM, and TDMA, were the first generation of digital cellular technologies. 3G technologies, such as EVDO, HSPA, and UMTS, brought speeds from 200kbps to a few megabits per second. 4G technologies, such as WiMAX and LTE, were the next incompatible leap forward, and they are now scaling up to hundreds of megabits and even gigabit-level speeds.
What Is 5G?
5G is a new network system that has much higher speeds and capacity, and much lower latency, than existing cellular systems. The technologies to be used in 5G are still being defined, but there are some general themes everyone agrees on.
5G networks will use a type of encoding called OFDM, which is similar to the encoding that LTE uses. The air interface will be designed for much lower latency and greater flexibility than LTE, though.
The new networks can use frequencies as low as old TV channels, or as high as "millimeter wave," which are frequencies that can transmit huge amounts of data, but only a few blocks at a time. 5G may also bring in Wi-Fi as a seamless part of a cellular network, or transmit LTE-encoded data over Wi-Fi frequencies, which is called LTE Unlicensed.
5G networks are much more likely to be networks of small cells, even down to the size of home routers, than to be huge towers radiating great distances. Some of that is because of the nature of the frequencies used, but a lot of that is to expand network capacity.
So 5G networks need to be much smarter than previous systems, as they're juggling many more, smaller cells that can change size and shape. But even with existing macro cells, Qualcomm says 5G will be able to boost capacity by four times over current systems by leveraging wider bandwidths and advanced antenna technologies.
AT&T has also spoken of "edge intelligence" as being part of its 5G vision. With edge intelligence, the individual small cells have much more autonomy to decide how and where to route data, which can greatly lower latency.
The goal is to have far higher speeds available, and far higher capacity per sector, at far lower latency than 4G. The standards bodies involved are aiming at 20Gbps speeds and 1ms latency, at which point very interesting things begin to happen.
http://www.pcmag.com/article/345387/what-is-5g