5G Wireless: A New Network to Enable the Data Deluge

Faster wireless is the future of American technology. Emerging technologies like autonomous cars, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things all need fast wireless connectivity, and need it everywhere. Help is on the way in the form of 5G, the next-generation wireless standard being developed by the telecom industry. The arrival of 5G is expected to bring widespread disruption of American business, as low-latency connections enable new services. We think 5G will bring the original vision of Big Data to fruition." Understanding 5G and its development timeline is important to the data center industry, as the arrival of faster connectivity will impact our nation's Internet infrastructure. Most importantly, 5G will enable new data-intensive services like autonomous vehicles, which are untenable with current wireless connectivity. If 5G succeeds, it will be easier to move data between locations, a trend that has always been good for the data center business. It will need fiber – LOTS of fiber. It will also require new standards. Technically, 5G doesn't exist yet. The standard for 5G is currently being developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a collaboration between major global telecom standards groups. In March the group agreed to accelerate its process to enable standards-compliant testing of 5G in 2019 instead of 2020. Some major players aren't waiting, and are already deploying networks billed as early versions of 5G. So what exactly is 5G? It will be deployed over a number of years, spreading as standards are finalized and the buildout of fiber, tower and antenna infrastructure is completed. "5G is an evolution, not like flipping a switch," said Mobeen Khan, VP of Industrial IoT Solutions at AT&T. "It will happen in stages of technology rollout and coverage rollout." As 5G is deployed, it promises to have a transformational impact on data delivery to phones and devices, which currently rely on WiFi for about two-thirds of their data access. "The Internet of Things is requiring us to make information available anywhere, at any time, through any device," said Ilissa Miller, President of NEDAS (Northeast DAS and Small Cell Association), which sponsored several discussions of 5G at its recent New York conference. "We have to be able to access that information through our data plans, not just WiFi." How can entire industries be banking on a technology that hasn't yet been defined, much less deployed at great expense? The consensus for 5G is broad, motivated by mobile broadband's power to transform the U.S. economy and drive innovation and business growth. "This is about architecting the future," writes Aicha Evans, Senior VP and General Manager of the Communications and Devices Group at Intel. "As mobility evolves beyond the smartphone, 5G is becoming one of the most impactful technology transformations we are likely to see in our lifetimes.