Even if you don’t think 5G matters to you today, it definitely will soon. Where you and your business may not revolve around some of the latest and geekiest technology hitting society, the ecosystems in which we live and through which we source our inventory, equipment, and our customers most certainly do. Soon, everything from the toasters and wash machines you have at home to the CNC metal cutting equipment you own or that makes the things we all consume will be connected to the internet of things (IoT) via 5G. It goes by many names: the IoT, Industrial IoT, the edge that compliments the cloud, this and that 4.0, 5.0, et al; mostly all branding. Importantly, it is not just about speedier cellphones. So, what is 5G and what does it mean for you?
Using cellphones as a baseline for conversation, we all know that they became more capable and faster as the technology standards that drive them became more and more sophisticated. Those standards have been labeled, 1st generation (1G), 2G, 3G, and 4G where those names capture sub-standards such as CDMA, GSM, LTE etc. 5G is now here and it doesn’t replace 4G, it compliments it.
4G is a communication standard that utilizes particular frequencies (400MHz – 3.5 GHz) to propagate information on electromagnetic waves. Those waves surround us all the time and by their physical nature can travel known long distances to bring us one another’s voices, streaming video, and practically any information we desire. Sometimes that information transfer happens slowly – eg, it buffers – because the ‘pipes’ through which if flows are narrow and don’t carry as much information as we’d like. It happens slowly enough that we would never utilize 4G to assist us with real-time activities such as remotely receiving surgery from an expert on the other side of the world, or reliably talking to our family via a projected life-like 3D image in real-time (coming soon).
5G makes those things possible. 5G technologies and waveforms ride on electromagnetic waves just the like rest of the Gs, but you can think of 5G as having many many more lanes on the highway where many more cars (information) can flow, but without any traffic jams, and extremely efficient exiting off, and merging on to the highway.
It won’t work everywhere. 5G operates in a different frequency band (either sub 6GHz and/or 24-100GHz) that goes by names you may have heard: UHF/SHF/EHF and even microwaves, like those you nuke a potato with. Those frequency bands travel a much shorter distance than the frequencies that are used in 4G (just physics), so more antennas are needed to shuttle the signal along to where it needs to go. Because so many antennas are needed, you can expect 5G in cities and dense population areas, but you’ll be stuck with boring ‘ole 4G on the farm or driving away from our urban concrete jungles.
Importantly though, 5G devices can also talk to each other very efficiently. So even far away, your CNC machines can transmit huge amounts of data to be analyzed all around a connected shop, optimizing its performance. Your wash machine can talk to the light bulbs, which can talk to security system which is detecting where you are in the house, while all those things are optimized to work based on your habits.
Even if you have no plans to live in a smart home, you’ll likely either be using highly connected technology to stay competitive at work, or you’ll be selling it as part of your product portfolio where it may be embedded in the products themselves. Best to know a few things about what makes 5G potentially so transformative. It’s also good to understand that with so many connection points transferring so much information, privacy and cyber risks are very real concerns that your customers will want to know something about.
As with all change, staying on top of it can be beneficial. Find the opportunities that outweigh the risks. A lot of good information and opinions out there. Want to kick the tires, we’re here, and while we don’t have all the answer, we love to learn and apply universal critical thinking skills to problems that arise.
“Even if you have no plans to live in a smart home, you’ll likely either be using highly connected technology to stay competitive at work, or you’ll be selling it as part of your product portfolio where it may be embedded in the products themselves.”
