5G Might Change "Networks," Not Just "Mobile Networks"

With the caveat that we might be overly aggressive in terms of our expectations for fifth generation mobile networks, a new International Telecommunications Union group looking at 5G fixed infrastructure shows just how much might be changing.

ITU has established a new Focus Group to identify the fixed network requirements for 5G.

The ITU notes that its IMT 2020 program already envisions “wireless communication to match the speed and reliability achieved by fibre-optic infrastructure.”

As dazzling as gigabit access speeds might seem, those advances will be dwarfed by the even more strategic shift in capabilities of mobile networks, compared to fixed. For the first time ever, it might be possible not only to say mobile networks "meet or beat" fixed network access features, but might also exceed common fixed network features.

In other words, where it has been common to argue that mobile networks are the best way to deploy new networks because they offer a better business case, in the future it might be possible to argue that mobile network performance also is vastly better than that offered by the fixed network, to the extent one can even speak meaningfully about the differences.

Ignoring bandwidth for the moment, as others note, the next generation of potential apps will require extremely low latency--with a goal of one millisecond, end to end latency as the 5G design goal.

“One-millisecond end-to-end latency is necessary for technical systems to replicate natural human interaction with our environment, a goal that experts say should be within reach of future networks,” the ITU said.

“Air interfaces and radio access networks are progressing rapidly, but there is a need to devote more attention to the networking aspects of IMT-2020,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.

“Today’s network architectures cannot support the envisaged capabilities of IMT-2020 systems,” said Chaesub Lee, ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau director.

If that design goal is met, it will be because all underlying systems have been rearchitected. It is hard to see how one millisecond can be the end to end latency in any other way.