Helmut Melzer
It should once again be a veritable revolution. In any case, the new speeds in mobile networks will allow for emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and the Internet of Things (IoT). This has one main reason: the enormous amount of data that has to be sent through the network.
5G is to become the consistent advancement of the existing mobile radio technology - with much larger bandwidths and latencies in the low, single-digit millisecond range. Up to ten gigabits per second should be achieved. That would be about ten times faster than the current LTE standard. In Austria, the starting signal will be fired in autumn when the licenses are auctioned off. Around 500 million euros are expected for the state treasury. A big issue is the number of radio cells that are needed. 5G needs in the long term up to ten times as many, but much smaller antennas than the current standard.
The new future standard for wireless WLAN connections goes in the same direction. The data volumes in the WLAN networks have long since recorded enormous data throughput to enable movie and music streaming and much more. Up to 50 devices should be normal in the home network. Current benefits are already reaching their limits. This should be different with the WLAN ax standard (IEEE 802.11ax), the successor of WLAN ac: The aim of WLAN ax is to improve the efficiency of the WLAN protocol with high subscriber density - and thus at least four times faster. In lab conditions routers and smartphones already communicated with more than 10 Gbit / s, at this speed 1,4 Gigabyte data per second could be sent, reports Asus. In addition, with WLAN ax, which uses 2,4 GHz as well as the 5 Ghz band, neighboring networks will no longer interfere with each other. New wireless routers are already expected with spring 2018.
Both standards are expected by the media industry, as the future of TV and radio will be seen after the end of terrestrial television (and possibly soon radio) in the mobile network. A free network access to domestic streaming offers is already being discussed.
