Eli5: What’s special/different about 5G?
In: Technology
Using a higher frequency of radio waves lets you pack more data into the signal. Imagine sending a message with beeps, but not like Morse code. Instead, there’s a constant one beep every second. You can *modulate* your beeps to send a beep every half second instead. So, “beep beep beep” would be 000 and “beep beepbeepbeepbeep” would be 011, and so on.
This limits your data speed to one bit (0 or 1) per second, since you have to wait a full second each time to know if it’s a 0 or 1. If you instead increase the speed to ten beeps per second for a 0 and twenty for a 1, you can obviously send data way faster!
Similarly, the radio signal is a wave that goes at a certain frequency, and you can modulate the frequency to increase it or decrease it slightly to indicate a 0 or 1. A higher frequency means more data.
One problem with this is that if your “beeps” are too rapid, and the difference between the two speeds is too small, you might not be able to hear the difference between them. Similarly, a higher frequency is a bit harder for the receiver to decipher. That’s not a big problem, though, and modern technology has advanced enough for devices to be able to figure it out.
The other big problem is that for physics reasons higher frequencies don’t travel as far. They get absorbed better by stuff, especially water, which the atmosphere is full of. Walls and trees aren’t helping, either.
To overcome that, you need more towers that are closer together. That becomes very expensive very quickly. Like the early days of cell phone coverage, some places just aren’t going to get 5G. And in fact, this is the same reason that some places even in the US *still* don’t have 4G or sometimes even 3G coverage.
The other way to solve this problem is to make the receiver more sensitive. That has its own problem – it will also pick up more radio noise, so it needs to be able to filter the noise and find the signal you’re trying to pick up.
As you’ve probably picked up by now, 5G uses a higher radio frequency so it has a higher bandwidth than 4G – *much* higher bandwidth. Phone technology is good enough now to be able to detect a weaker signal and filter out the noise. Service providers also have more existing infrastructure to add antennas and are willing to invest to build the additional infrastructure needed so there’s enough coverage.
With these advances, 5G could give the kind of internet speeds you normally only see with on a decent connection at home.
Videos playing faster isn’t really the point (though it’s a minor point). The main point is that 5G can handle more users in crowded spaces like concerts and sporting events. (In the beforetimes, crowded spaces were when our phones stopped working even though we had service because towers were overwhelmed.)
It will also be able to provide short distance super high speeds. So, maybe you have a park that gets 5G millimeter wave (which is what it’s called). Eventually, that tech will roll out to more places than just a few parks. Adding bandwidth enables new capabilities. There’s much bigger files out there than YouTube videos. Maybe people want to use AR in the park or businesses want to transmit high quality 3D scans of construction work. Streaming video games and other programs will require lots of bandwidth.
A notable difference is it uses a much higher band than previous mobile network generations. What makes 5G special is just that it goes a lot faster than 4G.
Higher speeds, better bandwidth, better support for lots of connected devices.
That’s it really. Consumers will probably notice an improvement when streaming or gaming on 5G, and it’ll be better in crowds like at big sporting events and festivals.
Everything I do on the phone pops up instantly. I never have to wait for videos or anything to load. How will I be able to tell the difference?
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