31
A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security, First Edition. Edited by Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad,
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
2
2.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter, we have seen the history and evolution of the four generations
of mobile cellular systems. After more than three decades of evolution, mobile cellular
systems have significantly changed from analog or circuit‐based to packet‐based
communication systems, with also big changes in the speed and bandwidth improvement
as well as the number of connected devices. According to a forecast by Ericsson [1], the
number of connected devices is growing rapidly and will reach to close to 28 billion by
2021, with around 16 billion Internet of Things (IoT) related devices.
This big change in the demand from users and the emergence of new services, and the
increase of the communication needs from vertical industrial sectors such as automotive, agriculture, health, and transport, impose a huge challenge on the current generation of mobile cellular system (i.e. 4G). As a consequence, it requires the development
of the next generation mobile system or fifth generation (5G), which is expected to be
an ecosystem for every Internet‐enabled device. In the following, we will explore more
about the vision of the 5G system and its typical use cases to see how it differs from
today’s 4G mobile networks.
2.1.1 What is 5G?
Since 5G is still in its infancy and the progress on standardizing is still ongoing, there
exist many different definitions of what 5G is and what it will be supporting. In 2015,
the Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) Alliance, an association of more than
80 partners from the mobile telecommunications industry and research, published a
white paper [2], where 5G is defined as “an end‐to‐end ecosystem to enable a full mobile
and connected society. It empowers value creation towards customers and partners,
through existing and emerging use cases delivered with consistent experiences, and
enabled by sustainable business models”. It should be recognized that 5G is not just a
one‐step evolution from today’s 4G network (i.e. LTE 4G and IMT‐Advanced), but
instead it is a big paradigm shift. According to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project
5G Mobile Networks: Requirements, Enabling
Technologies, and Research Activities
Van‐Giang Nguyen, Anna Brunstrom, Karl‐Johan Grinnemo, and Javid Taheri
Department of Computer Science, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden
A Comprehensive Guide to 5G Security, First Edition. Edited by Madhusanka Liyanage, Ijaz Ahmad,
Ahmed Bux Abro, Andrei Gurtov, and Mika Ylianttila.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
2
2.1 Introduction
In the previous chapter, we have seen the history and evolution of the four generations
of mobile cellular systems. After more than three decades of evolution, mobile cellular
systems have significantly changed from analog or circuit‐based to packet‐based
communication systems, with also big changes in the speed and bandwidth improvement
as well as the number of connected devices. According to a forecast by Ericsson [1], the
number of connected devices is growing rapidly and will reach to close to 28 billion by
2021, with around 16 billion Internet of Things (IoT) related devices.
This big change in the demand from users and the emergence of new services, and the
increase of the communication needs from vertical industrial sectors such as automotive, agriculture, health, and transport, impose a huge challenge on the current generation of mobile cellular system (i.e. 4G). As a consequence, it requires the development
of the next generation mobile system or fifth generation (5G), which is expected to be
an ecosystem for every Internet‐enabled device. In the following, we will explore more
about the vision of the 5G system and its typical use cases to see how it differs from
today’s 4G mobile networks.
2.1.1 What is 5G?
Since 5G is still in its infancy and the progress on standardizing is still ongoing, there
exist many different definitions of what 5G is and what it will be supporting. In 2015,
the Next Generation Mobile Network (NGMN) Alliance, an association of more than
80 partners from the mobile telecommunications industry and research, published a
white paper [2], where 5G is defined as “an end‐to‐end ecosystem to enable a full mobile
and connected society. It empowers value creation towards customers and partners,
through existing and emerging use cases delivered with consistent experiences, and
enabled by sustainable business models”. It should be recognized that 5G is not just a
one‐step evolution from today’s 4G network (i.e. LTE 4G and IMT‐Advanced), but
instead it is a big paradigm shift. According to the 3rd Generation Partnership Project
5G Mobile Networks: Requirements, Enabling
Technologies, and Research Activities
Van‐Giang Nguyen, Anna Brunstrom, Karl‐Johan Grinnemo, and Javid Taheri
Department of Computer Science, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden