According to the latest report from GlobalData entitled; ‘GlobalData Perspective on 5.5G Technology’, advances in semiconductor fabrication will enable 5.5G manufacturers to incorporate significant compute power into mobile devices.
At the same time, network equipment suppliers are incorporating cloud-native designs into the 5G radio access network (RAN) and 5G Core, which will create a more automated and intelligent 5.5G and enable companies to capitalise on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) - enabled capabilities.
5.5G builds on 5G and is defined by four key performance indicators; the first is downlink speeds of 10Gbps, uplinks speeds of 1Gbps, 100 billion connections and native intelligence.
At present, 5.5G is on track to become commercially ready in late 2024 or early 2025 at the latest.
Connected People
Through the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP’s) Release 18, 5.5G will bolster digital transformation and the digital economy enabling time-sensitive services, achieving lower latencies and enabling broader coverage.
5.5G will also deliver greater options for connecting people and meeting more consumer-focused use cases. It is expected to enable early metaverse use cases and help 5G mature, on the path to 6G.
Some of the keys use cases include 3D calling, real time collaboration for employees across multiple sites, education and manufacturing, as well as greater immersive user experience using augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) or Extended reality (XR) and AI.
In this area there are particular applications in personal IoT that will be specifically enhanced with 5.5G.
Sidelink, which enables device-to-device communications without using the mobile network, will be bolstered with 5.5G due to improvements in resource allocation, power-saving enhancements, as well as new Sidelink frequency bands and Layer 2/3 relay capabilities.
This will mean that people will be able to setup their own IoT network within their residential premise, these networks could even cover farms and ranches.
In addition, 5.5G will enable smartphones and tablets and other devices to act as a gateway in a personal IoT network.
Connected Families
5.5G can also help better connect families through home automation as well as indoor and outdoor connectivity for the residential properties.
Connectivity devices in the home will use a combination of different access technologies including satellite broadband – connecting to GEO or LEO satellites via a flat panel array antenna that can mounted on home roofs or other locations.
Other technologies include fibre-to-the-home broadband, mobile 4G or 5G, Zigbee used in smart metre, Wi-Fi 5/6/7, Bluetooth, Passive IoT, 5G-to-Satellite NTN, and device-to-device technologies such as Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth and 4G/5G Sidelink.
With use cases that include gaming leveraging IoT beacons to support AR/VR games; media sharing transmitted by a personal IoT element across a personal IoT network or home IoT giving rise to temperature, humidity, vibration sensors, home structural sensors, surveillance and intrusion detection cameras, sound detection in the home, it’s clear that the connected home and the connected family will come together to become an entire ecosystem.
While some devices might not require the high bandwidth of 5G it will benefit from the IoT features of 5.5G.
Connected Things
For telcos the proliferation of connected things will enable them to provide national or regional monitoring and alarm services as well as cloud server and storage and big data analytics.
Also, thanks to 5.5G’s greater uplink and downlink speeds, it will also facilitate a wide range of high-performance, low latency use cases such as smart stadiums, smart transportation, AR/VR, and 3D displays.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is comprised of connected robotics and machines in manufacturing operations including Automated Guide Vehicles, Automated Mobile Robots, video analytics for reading older machine dials and monitoring as well as directing factory floor traffic etc.
Thanks to new sensor technologies, wireless connectivity options like NB IoT, LEO/GEO satellite, NB IoT NTN, 4G/5G, microwave as well as the rise of AI/ML, and the maturation of cloud platforms, distributed storage architecture, and massive sold-state storage capacity 5.5.G is poised to deliver better visibility and predictability of operational performance and therefore IIoT use cases.
One of the newer areas of opportunity is integrated communication networks in smart buildings and non-premise connectivity for IoT sensors and cameras in public infrastructure.
Concurrently, it will also deliver high-bandwidth backhaul links for various IoT deployments, many of which are currently narrowband but will be migrated to 10-80+ Mbps enabling video functionality.
Also with various telcos participating in 5G Private Wireless Network (PWNs) projects, across verticals such as factories, oil and gas production, railway lines and metro stations, and government buildings, school and university campuses to name a few, 5.5G can also be applied in these environments to enhance and build on the work being done with 4G PWNs and 5G PWNS, thanks to the enhanced speeds, bandwidths and capabilities previously described.
Connected Vehicles
With significant reductions in car related accident as we result of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) systems, self-driving and intelligent connected driven cars are the future of the industry.
Intelligent connected vehicles require hundreds of embedded CPU processors managing everything from the engine control to exhaust control to breaking and light system. While Connected vehicles are equipped with wireless data transmission technologies such as dedicated short-range communications, mobile 4G/5G and satellite DVB-S2X/5G-to-satellite.
Benefits of connected vehicles include improved road safety, better traffic efficiency, greater energy savings, better roadside surveillance, autonomous ride services and self-driving and overall enhanced public safety.
In the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) space, vehicle-to-Infrastructure and vehicle-to-vehicle communications will rely on roadside units, radio access networks and multi-access edge compute. Therefore, telcos are well positioned to participate in the design, construction and operation of the V2X infrastructure.
5.5G will enhance this with increase Sidelink data rate by adding a carrier aggregation capability in Sidelink as well as extending the frequency band for Sidelink to mmWave. Also, through 3GPP’s Release 18, precision for positioning capabilities of 5.5G networks will have been reduced to 20-30 cm in range.
Telco opportunities
In an increasingly connected world of things, enabled by 5.5G, there exists several new opportunities to create new revenue streams. For example, telcos can provide monitoring and alarm services as well as cloud server and storage and big data analytics.
Service providers can also offer managed and bundled services such as smart home solutions for consumers, 5G private networks services for industrial firms, and various management and monitoring services for government and smart cities. On the manufacturing side, there also exists an opportunity to create 5.5G network equipment.
Earlier this year for example, Huawei announced plans to launch its complete set of commercial 5.5G products in 2024.
Under its ‘5G Era’ concept, which is based on an end-to-end solution that integrates technologies including 5.5G, F5.5G and Net5.5G, these solutions will feature 10Gbps peak downlink speeds and gigabit peak uplink speeds to meet increasingly diverse service requirements.
5.5G promises to be more than just a placeholder for 6G, providing a real step change in speed. performance and an opportunity for digital acceleration. More than just the next iteration of 5G, it should be seen as a major upgrade.
