5G is a crucial and ever-more prevalent communications technology throughout urban
This is vital as it is a flawed notion that a home becomes a smart home as soon as its Internet capabilities have successfully facilitated the use of one or more smart devices, such as voice- activated systems like smart speakers (discussed later). Again, while smart speakers are an increasingly common feature of traditional modern homes, they are not a prerequisite for, or even necessarily a defining characteristic of, a smart home. With the importance of connectivity, reliability, and automation in mind, this discussion will consider the value of 5G in wearable technologies and other smart devices in smart homes. The next pages will cover 5G’s technical specifications before going on to discuss the technology’s chief features that facilitate smart device performance, miniaturisation, automation, and more.
areas, particularly smart cities. Far from simply a boost in smartphone Internet speeds, 5G is purpose- built for on-the-go activities such as location services, augmented reality, and even mission-critical applications like driver assistance systems What is less well known, however, is that 5G is also suited to smart homes and their applications. As the following sections will discuss, 5G can offer functionality that is similar to that of Wi-Fi, along with even higher reliability and security. This is particularly when compared to the iterations that precede Wi-Fi 6 (namely the most recent version of Wi-Fi that is discussed elsewhere in this ebook). Defining smart homes in the context of 5G To detail the benefits of 5G in a smart home, it is important to consider the particular way in which the word ‘smart’ will be used to consider the value of 5G and its applications. The word ‘smart’ will be used in this discussion to qualify a level of Internet connectivity that facilitates the reliable interoperation of connected consumer devices. This is to the point that such smart devices can collectively achieve a degree of automation that cannot be supported by traditional Internet-connected homes.
from 8 to 10 milliseconds. However, industry leaders such as Verizon have reported a 5G latency of 30 milliseconds during its early deployment. Various observations have identified a reduced 5G latency of 10 to 20 milliseconds close to 5G towers and an increased 5G latency of 50 to 500 milliseconds during handovers. 5G also leverages an adaptive modulation and coding scheme to maintain an ultra-low bit error rate. For low-band, mid-band, and high- band 5G, the estimated ranges are respectively: ■ 600 to 900 megahertz
5G technical specifications
5G technology offers improved capabilities compared to preceding communications technologies in terms of speed, latency, error rate, and range. With an estimated speed ranging from 50Mbit/s (megabits per second) to over 1,000Mbit/s – in other words 1 gigabits per second – 5G technology has the capacity to be 10 times faster than 4G. On top of this, 5G offers a theoretical air latency that ranges
■ 1.7 to 4.7 gigahertz ■ 24 to 47 gigahertz
The high speeds of 5G do still require a consideration of users’ network infrastructure to be best utilised, however. Reflective of this, the next section discusses the concept of 5G network slicing [1] . Network slicing 5G technology has the capability of supporting several smart home
we get technical
13
Powered by FlippingBook