Thanks to the recent strides in technological advancement under programming logic and electronics, today’s gadgets are equipped with the incipient ability to take actions through a decision-making process. The two mentioned components that constitute technological advancement have brought robotization to life. Companies are currently using this knowledge base to make revolutionary and innovative statements in the industry. If you think its a bluff, check here. The rise of the machines’ world is contributing to a meaningful interaction base in the human world too. The robots have leaped into their Golden Age, and what we can expect is an improved living standard. The degree of change these robots are bringing is equivalent to our ancestors’ experience on industrialization that touched on transistors, electricity, and mass production.
‘Smart manufacturing’ references to the involvement of machines through a business process that drives them to a decision-making role. The provision of such decisions is through AI (Artificial Intelligence), and the refinement of the same choices is through ML (Machine Learning). The refinement process is possible through availed data, which is usually in zettabytes. The IoT (Internet of Things) makes this data available on a global scale that hosts networks of devices.
If computer networking technologies gain some level of improvisation, then it would be a contributive step towards the realization of the collaborating devices’ autonomy. Cooperative productivity will then follow as a feature that will demand minimal to zero assistance from the human operators. Regarding these sentiments, recommendations issued by ITU-R (International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunications Sector) are in play. It supports the exploration of cellular networking technologies operable under a fifth-generation standard (5G). The entrance of these sets of connected devices, base stations, and radio frequencies on the red carpet comes with a significant promise. That is surpassing the 4G/LTE (fourth-generation cellular standard) performance through offers related to:
• Speed advancements: File buffering will no longer have to queue under wait times. Data speedup will be valid across all networks. Hence the arrival time of destined hi-definition videos and large files will be instantaneous.
• 100-to-1 milliseconds decrease in latency: Communication delays will minimize for networked devices. The finesse of this feature will make the delays indistinguishable in real-time.
• Mobile devices’ power efficiency improvement: The mentioned latency decreases, and speed improvements will pave the way for the current battery-powered tablets and smartphone processing to offload to the network-attached servers. This transition will not diminish the user experience in any way.
• Flexible service delivery through network slicing: The deployment of network infrastructure’s customized slices will be through network operators catering to the specific needs of the customer.
• Distributed cloud computing: Customers of the current cloud infrastructure benefit from its storage and computations services resulting from a centralized infrastructure feature. However, under the distributed cloud computing, a connected device will transform to be its processing power cloud. Therefore, the functioning of the mobile networks’ critical aspects will be closer to the objectified endpoints.
Mobile Application Development
The upcoming years under the mobile application development phase will prioritize meeting user demands through high-speed network connections (e.g. 5G). It is thus a strong belief that tomorrow’s mobile software market leaders will offer a 5G-enhanced product experience through use cases that entail:
• IoT: Gartner survey recently made an indication that 2020 will embrace the deployment of 5G infrastructure through several organizations. 66% of these organizations will also strategize the use of IoT as a primary driver.
• Smart Cities: The 5G networks will have a feasible role in the creation of Smart Cities. It will be through real-time collaboration and sharing between millions of sensors.
• AR/VR: The users that prefer entertainment and instructional applications will benefit from the mainstream of virtual and augmented experiences. It is all due to 5G’s superiority and capabilities in networking.
• Remote machinery operation: Navigating around complex production processes under 5G-capable mobile applications will give the users more machine-control. Thus the production accuracy will subsequently improve.
• Healthcare: Users and patients will reap from robot-assisted medical procedures, autonomous dispatch of emergency vehicles, diagnoses, remote consultations, and wearable health monitors.
Robotics and Industrial Automation
5G technologies yield real-time networking. Thus a connection to an IoT communication and computational power cloud-based infrastructure by the manufacturers enables the interaction of this labor-saving approach also to join the fold. Additionally, the conscious factory concept can trigger the relocation of entire production lines if minimal costs are the objective of the producers. Thus renting out this infrastructure becomes a reaction to an on-demand supply chain.
Team Collaboration through Remote Work
Voice and text are the current communication channels, but agile production workflows have opened its arms to the significance of video streams. Employment no longer recognizes nor requires an individual to have an office space due to the popularity of remote experience. .Thus making use of faster and reliable computer networks will remotely bring co-workers together. Previously, it only required some document sharing tools and a simple video conferencing software to host on-site discussions for remote workers. Presently, haptic telepresence yields robot-assisted and virtual reality collaboration exchanges, which are more immersive thanks to the opportunities resulting from lower latency and higher network speed.
5G Challenges that need a Safe Haven
While the deployment of 5G networks is already in play, thanks to service providers and carriers. The target consumers still cannot escape some stagnating challenges. Thus the stakeholders on both sides need to find a way of taking this bull by the horn:
• Security: The increase in device connections will trigger a corollary increase in unavoidable network attacks. It is up to the software vendors and hardware manufacturers to come up with a more mature ecosystem through consolidated standards. Until then, the patching and procurement procedures will require consumers to make an effort diligently.
• A Proliferation of Towers: Comparing the 5G network with the earlier cellular networking technologies yields that its emission of radio frequencies is higher and at a shorter wavelength. Thus the 5G data throughput is higher, but the coverage is at a limited range. An increase in the populace of base stations is the current attempt by service providers to mimic full coverage. Moreover, attaining lower frequencies through extending the 5G licenses is also another card in play.
• Cost: The installation and maintenance of these base stations will be costly. The end-users thus should expect minimal savings from these wider shared bandwidths. The pass-on costs can only reduce after combining service rate competition, automation, and economies of scale.
• Politics: 5G network deployments are already experiencing interference from mercantilism and intrigue. This challenge is non-technological, and its solution would be to facilitate greater market freedom. Thus through boycott or patronage, the consumers will have the toolkit of becoming the ultimate regulators.
The industry insiders have all hands on deck on the year 2020 as a viable commercial platform for the new 5G standard. 5G’s competitive advantage is on a first-come, first-serve basis for city residents and businesses with established cellular infrastructures. Thus the power reign of the 5G network pledges and promises an improvement in the WANs (Wide Area Networks) and PANs (Personal Area Networks) experiences. Also, it extends the same promises and pledges to the billions of devices that will also tag along.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.