THE PROMISE OF 5G

WHAT THE FIFTH GENERATION OF MOBILE BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY MEANS FOR ENTERPRISES

5G makes new applications and transformative business changes possible with low latency and higher bandwidth. According to the GSMA report, 5G connections will account for one-fifth of global mobile connections this year. Moreover, its penetration is moving faster than previous generations of mobile network technology.

A recent GSMA analysis reveals that the strong development of 5G in the GCC has delivered some of the fastest 5G services as the region was one of the first to assign the key mid-band spectrum for 5G. The regional telecom giants – Etisalat, STC and Ooredoo – competed to be the world’s first 5G operator in 2018, and since then spectrum assignment has fostered growth opportunities. It adds that today mobile operators in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and UAE have access to more than 1 GHz of licensed spectrum to provide mobile broadband services in the low- and mid-bands.

While governments and regulators are striving to enable 5G in the most efficient manner possible, some top trends will shape the state of 5G in 2022.

“With the increased number of 5G Standalone networks deployments, we expect that utilisation of the network slicing technique will accelerate throughout the year,” says Zoran Lazarevic, Chief Technology Officer,

Aji Ed Ahmed Ibrahim

Ericsson Middle East and Africa. “Network slicing plays a crucial role in enabling service providers to offer innovative services to enter new markets and expand their business. With the support for slicing in the latest smartphone operating systems, we will start seeing slicing per application/ service in smartphones.”

He adds that we will see more industries start adopting IoT technology as 5G deployments increase this year. With IoT-enabled devices containing sensors that constantly collect and react to data, IoT will help enterprises around the world unlock new levels of intelligence.

Aji Ed, CTO Mobile Networks MEA, Nokia, picks the evolution of 5G beyond NSA (non-standalone architecture) as one of the top trends this year.

“In today’s world, almost all the 5G networks are deployed with NSA architecture, and they are focused on providing fixed wireless access (FWA) or high-capacity mobile broadband solutions. However, transition to 5G Stand-alone (SA) is required to achieve the full potential of 5G to enable ultralow latency and extreme high capacity. Stand-alone eliminates the need for an LTE anchor layer and connects directly to the cloud-native core network. This supports advanced network slicing functions,” he says. use cases, reduced latency, allowing for real-time interactions – delivered seamlessly across fixed, mobile, satellite, and ad-hoc networks.

Kamel Al Tawil, Managing Director Middle East and North Africa, Equinix, shares another perspective: “The success of 5G technology is a function of both the infrastructure that supports it and the ecosystems that enable it. Today, the definitive focus in the 5G space is on enterprise use cases, ranging from dedicated private 5G networks to accessing edge compute infrastructure and public or private clouds from the public 5G network.

“As a result, vendor-neutral multitenant data centre providers and their rich interconnection capabilities are pivotal in helping make 5G a reality. This is true both in terms of the physical infrastructure needed to support 5G and the ability to connect enterprises to 5G effectively.”

5G use cases

Services that we used to see as futuristic, such as e-health, connected vehicles and traffic systems, and advanced mobile cloud gaming have been turned into reality through 5G.

Lazarevic from Ericsson says spanning a variety of use cases across various industries, 5G is enabling the creation of a smarter, safer, and more sustainable future.

Ahmed Ibrahim, Director, Global Business Development – Service Providers, Intel, says one of the biggest game-changers for 5G is the ultralow latency it will provide. Human communication can accommodate a lot of latency—and we can still understand each other. But when machines need to communicate directly, whether robots on a production line of remotecontrolled excavating equipment—ultralow latency is required.

“5G mobile networks will be able to deliver ultra-low (wired-like) latency. That opens up a whole new ball game in terms of usages—like controlling machinery remotely hence reducing risk to humans, eSports players will be able to play from anywhere, and even use cases like remote real-time controlled surgery are all being explored,” he says.

To harness the power and promise of 5G, it is essential to understand the use cases and new applications that would be possible.

“With faster data speeds, increased device density, and ultralow latency, 5G will become a foundation for innovation, transforming many sectors and creating industry verticals not imagined today,” says Faisal Hamady, Managing Director & Partner, BCG.

In his opinion, it will enable extended reality applications, greater capacity empowering the explosion of digital

Faisal Hamady

Kamel Al Tawil

He cites the example of the transportation industry, where the high-speed data transfer speeds, ultralow latency, and increased reliability provided by 5G networks enable vehicles to seamlessly communicate with the cellular network, other vehicles, roadside infrastructure, and even pedestrians real-time. It also holds promise to strengthen the capabilities of self-driving vehicles and allow accident-free, stressfree, and emission-free driving.

Another example is the manufacturing industry, where 5G allows for higher flexibility, lower cost, and shorter lead times for factory floor production reconfiguration, layout changes, and alterations. It also enables manufacturers to do remote quality inspections as well as identify and monitor items in real-time to guarantee they are delivered when and where they are needed.

5G vs. Wi-Fi 6

These next-gen wireless technologies promise to revolutionise connectivity, but the differences between the two are often misunderstood.

“5G and Wi-Fi 6 are two different technologies for different purposes - one is deterministic and the other non-deterministic,” says Ayhem Alzaaim, CEMEA Telco Sales Director, Red Hat. “One’s performance can scale to a large number of users while the other weakens with load for the same radio coverage and one can be

Ayhem Alzaaim

WI-FI 6 IS BASED ON THE IEEE 802.11AX STANDARD, WILL DELIVER 4X HIGHER CAPACITY AND 75 PERCENT LOWER LATENCY, OFFERING NEARLY TRIPLE THE SPEED OF ITS PREDECESSOR, WI-FI 5.2. HOWEVER, THIS WILL BE RUNNING ON UNLICENSED SPECTRUM.

deployed in macro RAN, small cell and in building while other is only for metro and buildings. The only thing common between both is that they support high data rates, which is especially true for Wi-Fi 6 for small number of users.”

Ram Ramachandran, Senior Vice President for Middle East & Africa at Tech Mahindra, says 5G has more coverage in terms of longer ranges, apt for large enterprises. Wi-Fi 6 suits users of home and office environments. They are technologies that provide better speed, lower latency, and increased capacity over their legacy solutions.

Ed from Nokia says 5G networks will provide 10x more speed, < 5ms latency, and massive connectivity compared to 4G/LTE. This means 5G will be able to connect more devices and transmit more data than ever before, delivering fast connectivity and significantly enhanced user experiences. 5G will run on a dedicated licensed spectrum and be managed by operators. This ensures certain level of QoS (Quality of Service) while using 5G. With massive MIMO and other beamforming technologies, 5G coverage has significantly improved.

Wi-Fi 6 is based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, will deliver 4x higher capacity and 75 percent lower latency, offering nearly triple the speed of its predecessor, Wi-Fi 5.2. However, this will be running on unlicensed spectrum. Wi-Fi 6 devices require a Wi-Fi 6‒compliant access point to get the full speed, latency, and capacity improvements. Since Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum, Wi-Fi performance can be severely degraded if there are many users using it at the same time. In addition, the coverage of Wi-Fi 6 is very limited inside homes or offices.

“But in general, we can say that both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 are complementing each other. Of course, the decision to use 5G or Wi-Fi 6 is dependent on the use case and performance requirements at the end of the day,” Ed sums up.

Ram Ramachandran