5G, When Will We See It?
Author: MICHAEL
Since the start of the century, wireless communications has been a driving force behind key innovations, such as smartphones, and an enabling technology for economic growth, especially in developing countries. The next major innovation in wireless communications pipeline is 5G.
5G is the next-generation wireless access technology after 4G (LTE, LTE-A and LTE-A Pro). It is currently being defined across several global standards bodies — ITU (International Telecommunication Union), 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). The players behind 5G standard is amazingly complicated. In brief, ITU is part of United Nations (UN), composed of different organizations, and ITU-R is a sector of ITU. WRC (World Radiocommunication Conference) is held to set spec for ITU-R. 3GPP can be viewed as a collaboration between telecoms around the globe that tries to set a spec that fits ITU’s standard. ETSI (and its members ) plays roles in both ITU and 3GPP.