“5G” refers to the fifth generation wireless communication standard, which includes support for three core capabilities: high bandwidth (eMBB), high connection density (mMTC) and ultra-low latency (URLCC). Compared with today’s commonly used 4G network technology, 5G can provide faster transmission speeds, massive connectivity of devices, and lower transmission delays, but many people still ask the question: why do we need a new communications technology standard when 4G is already enough? Going back ten years, it was impossible to imagine streaming music & videos and filming live broadcasts with your mobile phone. When 4G speeds improved enough to support video & music streaming capabilities however, multimedia platforms such as YouTube began to explode, creating a huge new Internet economy.

With the high bandwidth and low latency capabilities of 5G, game streaming services will explode. Gamers seek to play games with high-definition graphics and sound, which in the past have required the support of high-end, high-performance physical hardware. In the future however, these compute heavy workloads will be able to be performed remotely by a cloud data center. Even when the gamer is outside they won’t need to rely on any heavy desktop computer equipment and can play triple-A level games simply by turning on their tablet, phone or laptop.

We are already very familiar with the ride hailing app Uber, but what if we could also use it to hail a driverless cab? An “autonomous vehicle fleet” is a highly anticipated commercial application – just input an address and the vehicle will automatically take you to your destination. However, even as autonomous driving technology is becoming more mature, we still worry about the danger of not having a real human in the driver’s seat. In order to avoid accidents therefore, instantaneous communication between autonomous vehicles will clearly be important. Self-driving vehicles can monitor the surrounding environment and the distance between other vehicles or obstacles, and send these detected conditions back to a base station using edge computing. After collecting location details of all vehicles, traffic flow can be predicted to make route suggestions, and your vehicle can also be made aware of sudden road conditions ahead to ensure driving safety. 

5G will enable our cities to feature low-latency, high-speed wireless networks that can allow autonomous vehicles to communicate with each other, and allocate and dispatch the appropriate number of unmanned taxis in each district. Low-latency networks are the key to realize the application of driverless transport, so that vehicles can react in milliseconds to avoid any accident. 《Learn More: 5G URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications) technology》

Virtual Reality (VR) uses powerful visual and audio playback capabilities to immerse users into a virtual world with 360 degree views. However, traditional VR headsets have been too heavy to give the user a comfortable long-term wearable experience. 5G technology is the key to a new generation of lightweight VR devices.

Using the advantages of 5G technology, smartphones will have the ability to stream and process high-definition VR films. VR devices will then be separately designed as display and sensing accessories to be more lightweight and easy to wear, making them more suitable for everybody to use for longer periods of time and cheaper than an integrated VR headset. And in the future, VR will be widely used in various situations – for example, business meetings can be held remotely with employees simply needing to join a virtual conference room, potentially saving a huge amount in travel expenses and time. VR can also be extended to applications such as films and entertainment, education and training or smart medical treatment. 

What about Augmented Reality (AR)? The AR-enabled mobile game Pokémon has been a worldwide hit, but 5G will revolutionize AR for even more applications. Imagine for example, stepping into a high end restaurant, with the waiter presenting you not only with a menu but also a pair of AR glasses. Wearing the glasses, the menu will display real-time images of each meal in AR, with corresponding dishes appearing instantly on each page. In the future, AR could also be used for industries such as amusement parks, real-estate or furniture retail, perfectly merging real and virtual worlds together. 《Learn More: 5G eMBB (Enhanced Mobile Broadband) technology》

As 5G technology matures, applications such as smart cities, smart manufacturing, telemedicine, autonomous driving and smart energy will gradually take shape. Using 5G’s dedicated high bandwidth, high connection density and low latency network coverage, machines inside smart factories will be able communicate and co-ordinate with each other to automate production; and telemedicine will be able to break time and location constraints, allowing physicians and surgical robots to be connected together to perform instantaneous emergency surgery of patients in remote locations, increasing the chances of recovery.

In order to meet market demand for implementation of 5G, GIGABYTE has collaborated with ITRI to combine our H-Series Hyper-Converged Systems and G-Series GPU Servers as a hardware base together with 5G MEC application software and integrated networking and cloud virtualization technology. These offerings are not only able to process a huge amount of data but also can support real-time AR & VR edge computing, assisting companies to help implement the aforementioned 5G commercial applications.

Learn More:
《How Can Our iMEC Solution Assist Companies in Rapid Adoption of 5G? 》
《Related: 5G mMTC (Massive Machine-Type Communications) technology》