The next generation of mobile networks, known as 5G, will drive adoption of IoT in smart cities, according to a new report.
The Mobility Report, published by Ericsson, says that thanks to a decision made by telecoms association 3GPP to approve initial 5G standardization, by 2022, there will be more than half a billion 5G subscriptions, with a population coverage of 15 percent.
5G, it continues, will bring a number of benefits to remote control systems, including core network slicing that will enable priority service provisioning, and radio access to bring ultra-low latency and beamforming for high throughput and capacity.
Meanwhile, declining modem costs, evolving LTE functionality and 5G capabilities are all expected to extend the range of applications for critical IoT deployments.
“Over time, 5G will enable a wide range of use cases for the IoT. Acceleration of the 5G NR standardization schedule will enable large-scale trials and deployments of 5G in 2019. The adoption rate of 5G mobile broadband is expected to be similar to that of LTE, and roll out will commence in major metro areas, reaching around 15 percent population coverage by 2022,” said the report’s authors.
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Scania proof-of-concept
Highlighted in the report is a 5G proof-of-concept test network, created by commercial vehicles manufacturer Scania and devoted to controlling a bus remotely from a vehicle operations center.
Work at the site is focused on two important areas: total system response time for remote monitoring and control, and the automated tools required to provision prioritized network services. The network was set up to isolate and measure the different contributors to the remote control system response time, including network latency.
The report states that during tests, total system response times of around 185 milliseconds were achieved.
“The most significant contributors to the response time and its variation were mechanical delays (physical actuators controlling the bus), followed by the video processing delay and, finally, the network delay (round trip time (RTT)),” says the report.
It adds that network latency improves significantly with 5G radio access, lowering network RTT to under 4 milliseconds.
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