Differences and Similarities Between 4G And 5G Networks (1)
4G mobile networks have now entered a stage of rapid popularization, and at the same time, 5G standards have also begun to emerge. These standards may not be unfamiliar to most people, but do you really understand them and know the difference? Recently, the technology website Android Authority gave a detailed introduction to the two mobile network standards of 4G and 5G.
4G standard analysis
4G and LTE technologies are synonymous, both are evolutions of the existing 3G wireless standard. In fact, LTE is an advanced form of 3G that marks the transition from hybrid data/voice networks to data-only IP networks.
The reason why LTE can achieve higher data throughput mainly depends on two key technologies: MIMO and OFDM. The latter stands for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, a spectrally efficient scheme that enables higher data rates and allows multiple users to share a common frequency band.
Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology uses multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver, further improving data throughput and spectral efficiency. It uses sophisticated digital signal processing techniques to set up multiple data streams within the same frequency band. Early LTE networks can support 2x2 MIMO in both uplink and downlink.
The LTE standard uses frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) two forms of duplex work. However, governments around the world are profiting from selling LTE spectrum without any planning or consideration, which also results in 44 confusing frequency bands for LTE today.
Finally, it should be pointed out that there are different types of LTE networks. From a consumer perspective, these types are mainly differentiated by theoretical speed.
LTE-Advanced: the bridge between 4G and 5G
LTE-Advanced, or LTE-A for short, is an evolution of the original LTE technology toward higher bandwidth, promising three times the speed of basic LTE networks.
LTE-A is mainly composed of 5 parts, namely carrier aggregation, enhanced MIMO, coordinated multipoint (CoMP), relay station, heterogeneous network or HetNet.
Carrier Aggregation or New Prop Sum is a transmission scheme that allows up to 20 signals from different spectrums to be combined into a single data stream. Next, LTE-A will increase the MIMO antenna configuration to 8x8 to increase the amount of radio current using beam steering technology.
Then, coordinated multipoint technology allows mobile devices to send and receive radio signals from multiple cells (Cell, which refers to the geographic area covered by the signal) to reduce crosstalk from other cells and ensure optimal performance at the cell edge as well. South Korean operator SK Telecom pioneered the world's first LTE-A network in the summer of 2012, using an early form of CoMP.
A relay in an LTE-A setup is a base station that uses multi-hop communication at the cell edge. It will pick up the weaker signal, then boost its quality and retransmit.
The last and most critical link is HetNet, a multi-layer system of large and small units stacked to generate cheap bandwidth. As a gradual evolution of the cellular architecture, HetNet is much more complex. Under this network, small cells add hundreds or even thousands of access points to the cellular system.
It's worth noting that while the LTE-A standard bridges the gap between 4G and 5G, in many ways the HetNet concept can be said to be the glue between LTE-A and 5G networks. That's why so many wireless industry watchers refer to 5G networks as an enhanced form of LTE-A.
Enter 5G
The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance defines 5G as follows:
5G is an end-to-end ecosystem that brings a fully mobile and connected device. It enhances value creation for consumer-facing collaborators through existing and new use cases with coherent experiences enabled by sustainable business models.
Basically, LTE-A is the foundation of the 5G radio access network (RAN) below 6GHz, while frequencies from 6GHz to 100GHz will be simultaneously explored for new technologies. Take MIMO, for example, 5G upgrades the technology to Massive MIMO, in which the antenna configuration jumps from 16x16 to 256x256, which will bring a leap in wireless network speed and coverage.
Early blueprints for the 5G pilot network consist primarily of beamforming technology and small cell base stations. Companies such as Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung have already launched pilot projects using both technologies, and the results obtained are encouraging.
The goals of 5G technology can be boiled down to the following numbers:
1000x capacity increase
100 billion+ connections supported
10GB/s top speed
Latency under 1ms
