Overview. 5G, the successor to 4G also known as the 4th Generation of wireless Long Term Evolution (LTE), is the new generation of mobile communications. It was designed to meet the growing communication needs and the idea of serving from the start economic sectors of society. 5G makes it possible to connect the car, the house, the city, and industry, and even the warfighter throughout the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) or Industry 4.0.
5G offers several new features, including, guaranteed very high speed and low latency, which will disrupt uses and markets. This is why 5G is truly a breakthrough communications advancement compared to previous generations of cellular technology based upon 3GPP standards. 5G makes it possible to better interconnect and harness the truly deep potentials of several applications and technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR), and autonomy in electric vehicles (EVs) and robotics. This will empower industries and economies to better meet new customer expectations and the challenges of tomorrow's markets and societies.
5G and eventually 6G, its successor currently under planning and initial research development, will be completely be replacing the very fabric of society that 3G and 4G/LTE wireless serves today mostly through Apple, Samsung, and other Android-based mobile devices tethered to the cloud. For citizens and consumers, this provides unimaginable efficiencies, automation, and infinite amounts of information at our fingertips. For industries, including defense, this provides an enormous opportunity to collect data, further advance AI and predictive capabilities, maneuver capabilities, products, and services, and represents an immense leap in manufacturing, automation, and autonomy.
Several companies are actively engaged in developing and testing 5G infrastructure and devices to participate in the eventual fully global build-out of 5G networks around the world. Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and Qualcomm are the top companies leading the research and development of 5G technologies.
The 5G ecosystem is also organized in cooperation with the Defense world. As such, the US Department of Defense (DoD) made a dozen sites available to private actors to perform their tests on military uses such as naval building connectivity and their installations in Norfolk. Moreover, to protect the 5G infrastructure and technologies, DoD is assessing 5G vulnerabilities and developing new security strategies for equipment, architectures, and operations in accordance with the National Strategy to Secure 5G.
5G vs 4G vs 3G. The new 5G standard brings even greater speeds than 4G, which can be guaranteed and a much lower latency time. 4G/LTE only ensures maximum possible speed. 5G also offers other performance gains and additional features. Eight performance indicators listed in International Mobile Telecommunications-2020 (IMT-2020) Standard were established by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to specify, quantify, and measure a 5G network’s characteristics. The table above includes all of the performance indicators of 5G established by the ITU's IMT-2020 and compares 5G with its predecessors, 4G/LTE, and 3G.
5G Use Cases. The performance of 5G offers prospects for new uses in many areas. They are summarized in the image below, based on their need for lower latency and speed. 3D video, also known as immersive video, is a video recording of a real-world scene where the image is recorded from all directions at the same time. These video recordings are made with a device commonly referred to as a 3D camera. 3D video and 4K TV require very high speeds.
Network Slicing is one of the cornerstones for 5G operators and wireless service providers: This variable feature is used to define a performance envelope, named slice (the slice). Thanks to the network slicing mechanism, it is possible to configure multiple services on the same infrastructure networks responding to specific needs with characteristics of specific communications. The ITU has defined 3 categories of use, which have been standardized in 3GPP standards. These 3 categories of use are specified by three generic slices (envelopes of performance) of 5G:
Military Use Cases. The use of the 5G technology in the military domain would significantly enhance military communications. The military is already exploring the possibilities. In fact, the Defense Science Board, a federal committee that provides scientific advice to the Pentagon, has recently published a report about the possibilities offered by 5G in the Defense Applications of 5G Network Technology.
Cost Reductions. As introduced, the integration of 5G technology would allow DoD an opportunity to adopt the benefits of 5G systems for operational needs at much lower cost. In other words, the commercial 5G network would be used by the United states armed forces, which would significantly drop communication costs because the Pentagon would not have to establish a network exclusively for military use.
Hypersonic Weapons & Lethality. Military experts predict that 5G would play a determining role in the use of hypersonic weapons – that is missiles and even missiles with nuclear warheads, which reach speeds in excess of Mach 5 (5 times the speed sound).
To guide these missiles in variable trajectories and be able to change their course in a fraction of a second, so that they are able to circumvent interceptor missiles, it is necessary to collect, process and transmit enormous amounts of data in very short periods of time.
The same needs are present when activating defenses against an enemy attack carried out with hypersonic weapons. Given the fact that the defense would practically have no time to make manual/human decisions, the only option to face these attacks would be to entrust 5G automatic systems.
This new technology will also play a key role in the network battle. By being able to simultaneously connect millions of transceiver devices in a given area, 5G will allow the military - entire departments and individuals - to exchange maps, photos and other data about the operation in progress real time.
Special Forces. 5G would also be extremely important for the secret services and special forces, by facilitating the deployment of much more efficient control and espionage systems than the existing options. It will also increase the lethality of killer Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones and war robots by making them capable of identifying, tracking and eliminating people based on facial recognition and other individually identifiable characteristics.
Being a high-tech war tool, 5G is destined to automatically become the target of sophisticated cyberattacks and war actions. In short, the battle around 5G is not just commercial. In fact, the military implications of this technology are not properly discussed. Critics of 5G including the ones submitted by established scientists focus their attention on the harmful effects that this technology can have on health and the environment due to constant exposure to low frequency electromagnetic fields but never mention the possible harmful application in the military area. Of course, this is of great importance, but it must be discussed at the same time as the military use of that technology, which is in a way indirectly financed by common users.
5G coupled with defense cloud and artificial intelligence would definitely contribute to the success of military missions by providing real time information to the military operation centers on what they may be facing and helping them prepare for it. In all, 5G will provide enormous benefits to the military going forward.
"Fast, intelligent internet connectivity enabled by 5G technology is expected to create approximately $3.6 trillion in economic output and 22.3 million jobs by 2035 in the global 5G value chain alone," wrote researchers at the World Economic Forum.
"This will translate into global economic value across industries of $13.2 trillion, with manufacturing representing over a third of that output; information and communications, wholesale and retail, public services and construction will account for another third combined."
-yahoo finance
Copyright © 2020 virtustar - All Rights Reserved.
From ideation to creation