Beijing: Researchers are investigating how software-defined
cellular networking might be used to give smartphone users the next generation
of superfast broadband—5G.
Currently, the fourth generation of mobile phone connection
technology, 4G, in as far as it has been adopted provides broadband-type
connectivity for enabled devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, laptops
and other gadgets through two standards: the Mobile WiMAX standard and the
first-release Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard.
Peak speeds were set in the standards at 100 megabits per second
(Megabit/s) for mobile users and ten times that for static, domestic 5G users,
1 gigabit per second.
100 Megabits/s is three times faster than the earlier 3G system
but users commonly do not see data transfer at such high rates, downloads are
usually at best 10 Megabits/second.
As yet there is no single standard for 5G although various systems
are being touted based on rebuilding the cellular networks to be
super-efficient and exploiting different frequencies with their capacity for
greater data rates.
The hope is to be able to achieve download speeds of perhaps 10
Gigabits/second, researchers said.
