5G TECHNOLOGY

eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband) – the ultrafast mobile broadband
5G delivers data rates up to 10 Gbit/s, supporting virtual applications like VR (Virtual Reality), AR (Augmented Reality), and high-resolution videos (4k or 8k videos). These applications require high data rates and large capacities. eMBB is also used as the fixed line replacement for sparsely populated regions.

mMTC ((Massive Machine Type Communications) – the communication between machines and applications
Industry 4.0, Machine-to-Machine communication (M2M), or the Internet of Things IoT refers to the networking of machines and devices of all kinds. All these applications have one thing in common: These applications only transfer small amounts of data and the number of networked devices increases rapidly. The transfer speed plays a very limited role for these applications, but the low energy consumption of the devices is one of the key requirements.

URLCC (Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications) – a highly reliable network with short response times
For time-sensitive applications such as autonomous driving or high-speed processes in medicine and in the industry, information’s needs to transfer reliable with ultrafast speed in real time. The 5G network with latency in the range of up to 1ms provides the best technical basis for these applications.

Carrier Aggregation (CA)
With the help of the carrier aggregation technology a higher bandwidth can be provided to the user. For that, the radio frequency ranges (channels in a frequency block) of a network operator are bundled. The user get assigned several individual frequency blocks (carrier), whereby the data rates per user will increase. The higher the number of frequency blocks, the more the maximum data rates is available per user. With better utilisation of the available frequencies, the total data rates per cell will also increase.

Small Cells – increased integration of small cell networks
Nowadays, mobile service providers use classic rooftop locations and freestanding towers in order to ensure network coverage in certain regions. Apart from other rooftop locations that are required with 5G, the Small Cell network deployments will increase. Small cells are already in use in places with high user density, for example in pedestrian zones, stadiums, fairgrounds, or in other highly frequented places. Small cells do not replace the classic mobile network locations; small cells only supplement them by increasing the network capacity in regions with high-density traffic.

Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) – Multi-antenna systems
With the multi-antenna systems (MIMO), a special coding method is applied, making use of the temporal as well as the spatial dimension for transferring information (Space-Time Coding). In this way, the quality, reliability and data rate of mobile data transfer improve significantly without using additional frequencies. This is a massive advantage because frequencies are the most important asset for the mobile data transfer.

Beamforming – targeted transmission to individual users
An extension of the multi-antenna systems (MIMO) is the targeted transmission (Beamforming) to individual users. The antenna transmitting direction adjust in such a way that the user receives the maximum signal. The radio waves are bundled in order to ensure a precise orientation of the signal in the direction of the user. Beamforming is a signal processing technique, where the assigned signal is spatially filtered to target the individual end devices, either directly through the line of sight operating range or indirectly through reflecting surfaces in the surroundings. In this way, the energy consumption of the transmitter is significant reduced and the user receives a clear signal with fewer interruptions. This way, the data transfer is simultaneously to several mobile devices in the same frequency range. The transmission capacity can also be freely adapted according to the applications. The efficiency increases significantly thanks to the reduced scattering of transmission.

Network Slicing – virtually divided networks
Different applications and users have their own special requirements with regard to quality and capacity. With the help of the Network Slicing technology, the network operator divides the shared physical network into several virtual networks allowing a flexible adaption of the quality requirements for the various applications as well as for the specific customer requirements. This service offered by network operators to adapt the virtual networks for the respective application is also known as “Network as a Service”.

Mobile Access Edge Computing (MEC) – Intelligent offloading near the radio station
MEC is a network architecture for providing distributed services and resources on the edge of the network (near the radio station). This enables shorter response time for time-sensitive communication. Multi Access Edge Computing enables the implementation of a number of applications, for example: Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, autonomous driving, management of transport networks, indoor positioning, Internet of Things (IoT), networked processes of Industry 4.0.