This reorganization of the radio spectrum is the second part of a process that began earlier this year. As Pere Tuset Peiró, professor of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications at the UOC, explains, it involves relocating the digital terrestrial television (DTT) headends located in building common areas, if necessary, and retuning televisions to find channels on the new bands. The process will conclude in June 2020 with the switch-off of broadcasts on the old frequencies. "From that point on, a tender can be launched to allocate portions of this band to telecommunications operators interested in using them to provide 5G services," notes Professor Tuset Peiró, director of the UOC's Master's program in Industry 4.0.
However, we will have to wait a little longer to use 5G technology. "Despite the media hype of recent years due to the marketing zeal of mobile operators, 5G technology is still in the standardization and development phase. This means that the pilot projects announced to date only use a portion of the radio access technology, utilizing the 3.7-3.8 GHz band that is already available to operators. This is the case with Vodafone, which announced the deployment of its 5G network last summer in strategic locations in major cities like Madrid and Barcelona," explains Professor Xavier Vilajosana, who also teaches at the UOC's Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia, and Telecommunications.
Step by step.
The release of the spectrum occupied by digital terrestrial television (DTT) to another band is just one of the necessary steps for the arrival of 5G technology, which includes a complete redesign of the cellular network to meet the needs of new applications that cannot be met by current 4G technology. But we are still at the beginning of the journey. "Right now, we are still waiting for the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), the international organization in charge of developing mobile communication standards, to publish the latest version of the standard, which is expected by the middle of next year. From then on, manufacturers will have to release compatible network equipment and mobile devices, and operators will have to deploy pilot networks that support these capabilities and serve to test their operation in real-world environments. Therefore, we don't expect to see the first real 5G networks until the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023," says Pere Tuset Peiró.
It will be then that the mass rollout of the technology in the market will begin, a process that will be prolonged depending on user demand and the investment capacity of the different operators. As an example, Professor Xavier Vilajosana, principal investigator of the Wireless Networks (WiNe) group at the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), points to 4G technology, which was launched at the end of 2013 and even today still has areas without coverage due to low demand and the high cost of network deployment and maintenance, making it economically unviable.
The Internet of Things:
When it arrives, the promised revolution will translate into various improvements. For everyday users, the main change will be in data download speeds and the number of connected devices. As UOC professors explain, bandwidth will increase from 1 Gbps to 20 Gbps, allowing for a greater number of connected users with download speeds far exceeding current levels.
But this is not the only advantage of 5G technology. The main difference compared to current 4G technology will be the ability to enable autonomous communication between objects, known as the Internet of Things. "This includes devices that require massive, low-capacity communications, such as sensors deployed in smart cities, or devices that require low-latency and highly reliable communications, such as autonomous robots in factories or autonomous vehicles in cities," notes Professor Pere Tuset Peiró, also a researcher with the WiNe group at IN3.
Specifically, 5G technology will enable the following innovations:
- eMBB (evolved mobile broadband): allows the simultaneous transmission of large amounts of data (up to 20 Gbit/s peak speed). This type of communication is useful for transmitting very high-definition video, as well as when a large number of devices need to be connected in the same area and are constantly transmitting information.
- URLLC (ultra-reliable and low-latency communications): enables very low-latency communications (below 1 millisecond) and very high reliability (99.999% availability and reliability). This type of communication allows 5G technology to match the performance levels that, until now, could only be achieved with cables.
- mMTC (massive machine type communications): enables connectivity for a very large number of devices connected simultaneously. This type of communication is necessary when, for example, a large number of sensors are concentrated in a specific area. Although each sensor does not transmit a large amount of information individually, all the sensors together can generate a high demand for data transmission.
