5G and Beyond - The Future of Mobile Connectivity

5G technology promises extreme bandwidth and ultra-low latency that could revolutionize business, yet also presents unique challenges to its transformation and operational sustainability.

This book delves deep into the technologies supporting 5G and beyond, from its fundamentals and standards through disruptive network solutions and adoption, new service offerings, and use case modeling.

Table of Contents

1. The Internet of Things

IoT (Internet of Things) refers to the interconnectivity of devices through wireless technology and machine-learning analytics to allow data collection and analysis across business systems.

Manufacturing, transportation and utilities all can use IoT-connected sensors to increase efficiency in terms of manufacturing, transportation and utilities. A company could utilize such sensors to monitor remote machines for health problems, then schedule preventive maintenance service calls as soon as needed.

IT can also help make devices more energy-efficient and responsive to their environments, such as monitoring temperatures and moisture content in plants for automated irrigation processes that would reduce water usage – saving both time and money by cutting downtime.

2. Smart Cities

Smart cities are urban environments that utilize technology and infrastructure to enhance quality of life for residents. Smart cities use data collected from sensors across their city to efficiently manage assets, resources, and services while saving money for citizens.

Cities need to work closely with both private companies and residents in order to implement technologies that will assist in meeting their goals, thus strengthening relationships between public and private institutions and permitting the sharing of data and insight.

One key to creating a successful smart city is ensuring it has a secure and robust network. Without such connectivity, devices used to collect and analyze data would become useless, potentially leading to issues with air quality monitoring devices or others that must remain connected all of the time or transmit their data in real-time.

3. Artificial Intelligence

AI holds enormous potential to transform our daily lives, from work and leisure activities to customer service and lead generation. AI technology could transform how humans live, work and play together as it automates tasks that previously required human input such as customer support or lead generation.

Artificial intelligence may hold immense promise, yet its implementation presents some unique obstacles. Artificial intelligence systems are complex to deploy and require specific hardware and software along with expertise that is in high demand yet often difficult to find.

AI can currently be divided into four distinct classes, from task-specific intelligent systems that are widely deployed today to those that have yet to be developed – like Google’s AlphaGo or IBM Deep Blue that beat world chess masters – but there has been one success story in gaming: AlphaGo from Google and Deep Blue from IBM are two prime examples.

4. Robotics

Robotics is a field encompassing many devices capable of performing diverse tasks, ranging from inspecting and measuring objects to assembling products. Robots are increasingly being utilized in fields like healthcare, agriculture and emergency services.

There are various kinds of robotics, from pre-programmed machines to humanoid robots resembling people. Robotics can perform jobs which would tire out humans quickly, such as picking up heavy objects and assembling them again.

As new breakthroughs in machine intelligence, connectivity, and control emerge, they will enable expanded capabilities for smart robots while simplifying interactions between them and humans. 5G networks and edge services which increase robot and sensor computing power will further advance these advances.

5. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) is the immersive simulation of computer-generated environments into which users become fully immersed and can interact, providing an engaging technology for entertainment and education alike.

VR provides an immersive virtual world experience through pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays, giving the person a complete simulated environment for practical training, entertainment or medical research. Common applications of this technology are practical training courses, media entertainment or medical studies.

Virtual reality (VR) has had an enormous impact on industries spanning from healthcare to tourism, making VR an integral component of many corporate digital transformation strategies.