You’re wandering through the forest – lost, worried, thirsty. Your phone is at 6%. You have AT&T, so of course you have no service. You’re a 21 year old raised in the suburbs of Chicago. You’ve barely seen a tree, let alone have any survival skills.
When all of a sudden, your phone buzzes with a YouTube notification. Your phone just connected to a 5G tower that was disguised as a tree. You call 911. You’re saved. Thank you so much 5G!! Yet, once you return to society, you don’t return the favor to 5G; you just continue to live clueless about what 5G is or how the thing that just saved your life works. This is, of course, an extremely relatable story. We’ve all been there. So I’m here to fulfill your life debt to 5G and explain how it works.
5G is the latest technology for mobile communication networks that promises faster internet speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity to connect more devices simultaneously.
To put it simply, you know how your phone connects to the internet using cellular data or Wi-Fi? 5G is the next and latest version of that connection, and it’s better than previous versions. It’s like upgrading from an old bike to a faster one.
With 5G, you’ll be able to download movies, music, and other files much faster than you do now. In fact, you’ll be able to download a full-length HD movie in just a few seconds. That’s like getting your candy bar in less than a second at the checkout counter!
5G is a type of cellular network where the service area is divided into geographic cells. All devices with the antenna that allow them to connect to 5G wireless access the radio waves generated from these towers. The towers also have antennas to pick up on 5G signals sent back from the devices. These radio waves transmit and accept information.
The technology behind 5G is also more efficient, which means that it won’t drain your phone’s battery as quickly as older networks. It’s like having a phone that lasts longer before you need to charge it.
There is also something known as “beamforming” used in 5G networks which is worth discussing in this overview. Beamforming is a way of processing signals for directional signal transmission/reception. As you can see, different antenna quantities can affect the efficiency and range of signal processing. Beamforming can be divided into two categories: digital and analog. Digital beamforming involves the transmission of data across multiple channels, while analog beamforming focuses on shaping the radio waves to be directed in a particular direction.
You now understand the very basics of 5G and have fulfilled your life debt. Congrats!
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Hoffman, Chris (January 7, 2019). “What is 5G, and how fast will it be?“. How-To Geek website. How-To Geek LLC. Archived from the original on January 24, 2019. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
Yibo, Wang. “What Is Beamforming?”. Info-Finder. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Updated February, 4, 2022. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
