By Emeka Aginam,

AT the just concluded 10th edition of the Mobile World Con gress, MWC, held in Barcelona, Spain, next generation technology called 5G dominated discussion among industry experts across the world. Surpassing all projections, GSMA Mobile World Congress, the world’s biggest and most influential mobile event, had a record-breaking 93,000 attendees from 200 countries. As expected, over 2,100 companies had showcased their solutions and services with high level networking.

Promise of 5G

While the industry watchers expect that 5G will do a lot better than 4G in terms of video, faster download times and denser network coverage, majority of vendors had predicted a 100 to 1,000 fold increase in network capacity.

But the technology, according to experts will also have to grapple with a new challenge, given the fact that much of the world’s spectrum in lower frequency bands is used up. What remains is higher frequency spectrum that can only carry traffic over shorter distances.

Although spectrum will fuel the upgrade to 5G, in accordance with time line to complete 5G standardization by 2020, Ericsson and increasing number of mobile network operators, equipment vendors, research organizations and even government are already actively engaged in discussions on 5G and its key enabling technologies.

Although many service providers at the 2015 MWC showcased brilliant solutions, especially in preparation for 5G in 2020, it was the one presented by the Swedish multinational provider of communications technology and services, Ericsson that held much promise. The company at the MWC 2015 demonstrated a wide array of the world-leading technologies and solutions that enable the Networked Society where everything that can benefit from being connected will be connected.

Leading the industry evolution to 5G

Ericsson, according to its Chief Technical Officer, Ulf Ewaldsson has blazed the trail in all generations of mobile networks. Today, we are mapping out a new trail while leading the industry evolution towards 5G, he explained.

What makes 5G important

He further explained that 5G is an evolution rather than a revolution. “It will enable higher data rates everywhere. It will bring support for very low latency and very high reliability, and the possibility of low cost devices with ultra-high reliability. It will enable the Networked Society to be realized to its full potential”, he said.

According to him, 5G will also help realize the vision of essentially unlimited access to information and sharing of data anywhere and anytime, for anyone and anything. “The aim is for 5G networks to be highly efficient, faster, support more users, more devices, more services, and new use cases without a corresponding impact on cost or carbon footprint. These are the requirements of this new generation of mobile communication”, he explained.

Ericsson Chief Executive Officer, Hans Vestberg earlier during media and analyst briefing hosted by Ericsson had told the gathering that Ericsson will deliver to the promise of 5G. According to him, Ericsson has the state of the art technologies to deploy 5G to the increasing number of operators already approaching change maker in the networked society.

GSMA estimate on 5G

Meanwhile, the GSMA had estimated that operators will spend $1.7 trillion on equipment upgrades between now and 2020. Most of that is simply to add 4G network capacity and improve coverage in densely trafficked areas. “It is unclear what the opportunity or weakness that 5G should address is,” researchers at GSMA, the global trade group of mobile network operators, said in a report issued in December that punctured some of the more visionary claims for 5G.

Delivers 5 Gbps speeds

5G implementation in commercial mobile network is expected in 2020, but Ericsson has already achieved speeds of 5 Gbps in live, over-the-air demonstrations of the company’s pre-standard 5G network technology. This proven performance, according to experts will be critical to addressing growth in mobile data demand and enabling the next-generation machine-to-machine applications

5G hurdles

One of the hurdles that next generation 5G mobile communications will need to overcome, according to Ericsson experts is the predicted levels of traffic which may be 1,000 times that of today. Another part of the puzzle is the billions of devices that will be connected to networks, some of which may be mission critical.

These devices, experts from Ericsson said may not generate a significant amount of traffic individually, but together their traffic is significant and their design is lightweight with an emphasis on low-energy consumption

Technologies to support future demand of 5G

Ultra-lean design, spectrum flexibility, allocations; and low latency, according to experts are the technologies that will support future demand of 5G. It would be recalled that Ericsson at the MWC showed world-leading technology, service capabilities, and innovations.