5G is Just Around the Corner; So What is Next?

摘要

Since the completion of the first 4G LIE standard in the late 2000s, the research community has been conceiving 5G, mainly from two tangled angles, the novel use cases and the enabling technologies. At the time of the writing of this book, the SG standardization process has already started; the first 5G standards are scheduled to be finalized in the late 2010s. The 5G is expected to evolve throughout the 2020s; and, probably sometime in the latter part of the 2020s, the 6G standardization process will start, with possible deployments in the early 2030s. It is rather early at this point to over-speculate on 6G. Nevertheless, it is possible to highlight a number of important points in light of the experience gained from the first four or five generations. The big promise of 5G is that the use cases in this generation will not be confined to the smart phone environment Therefore, the success of 5G is closely tied to how quickly and to what extent these novel use cases will have market acceptance. Although the maturity of the 5G technologies for enabling the new use cases is essential, this is not the only factor for the success of 5G; arguably, market-readiness of these use cases will play an even more important role. One of the reasons for the great success of 4G LIE has been that the standard involved a number of technologies which were highly successful in enabling a primary use case, namely, video delivery on smart phones. At the same time, there was a great market/demand for this use case - the right synergy for success. 5G is coming with many powerful enabling technologies, many of which are highlighted in this book. However, anticipating the market adoption timeline of the 5G use cases is more difficult, as this timeline depends on factors beyond engineering. For example, the fully autonomous and connected vehicle paradigm cannot become a reality in a short time frame. A number of new use cases, such as this one, require policy and legislation chances which are inherently long processes. Therefore, during the latter part of the 2020s, when the 6G standardization is likely to occur, the discussions around many of the use cases attributed to 5G will likely to continue in the 6G context as well. 5G marks the start of a new era in wireless. The road towards 5G has been very exciting. The road towards 6G will be even more exciting...