162 Software Networks
Thanks to these technologies, it is predicted that data rates will
increase by a factor of 1000 within the next ten years.
6.14. 5G
5G is 4G’s successor. It is likely to be 2020 before it is
standardized, and a few years after that before it begins being
commercialized. The first major development which it offers regards
the peak data rate, which should be between 1 and 10 Gbps. The main
characteristic is the Internet of Things – “things” essentially being
medical devices, household appliances or objects and sensors.
The characteristics of 5G contain numerous key terms, including:
– UWB (Ultra Wide Band): use of a very wide spectral band,
which can be purchased from states or used in cognitive radio;
– smart antennas: antennas capable of operating with diverse
encoding techniques, and also practically in any frequency;
– small cells: as we saw earlier, small cells help to exponentially
increase data rates by reusing the available frequencies;
– software-based approach, using virtualization: this approach is
widely used with this new generation of technology. In our coming
discussion, we shall look at several examples of virtualization, but this
technology is also encountered in at least three main techniques:
- software-defined radio,
- software-defined networking,
- seamless combining of wide-band networks;
– virtualization: virtualization also takes place in the devices
themselves, such as:
- HLRs, VLRs, eNodeB, RANs,
- Cloud-RANs;
– multi-access, multihoming, multi-technology and multi-route,
which are technologies that are developing in the form of products
available since 2014;
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