BENGALURU: As India concludes a fascinating 5G auction which lasted 40 rounds with the bids reaching over ₹1.5 lakh crore, all eyes are now on how 5G will change India. Since Jio entered the market, competition ensured the internet was affordable and accessible pan-India. Covid-19 pushed those on the fence as the nation grappled with lockdowns. In India’s internet revolution, however, the defence sector has not been an active stakeholder. Could that change with the 5G rollout slated for October this year?
5G is the fifth-generation technology standard for broadband cellular networks. While 4G LTE focused on faster mobile broadband services than 3G, 5G is intended to be a unified, more capable platform that elevates mobile broadband experiences and supports new services such as real-time, reliable communications and the massive Internet of Things (IoT). 5G can natively support all spectrum types and bands, a plethora of deployment models and new ways to interconnect.
5G is also designed to get the most out of every spectrum across a wide array of available spectrum regulatory paradigms and bands—from low bands (below 1 GHz) to mid-bands (from 1 GHz to 6 GHz) and also high bands known as millimetre wave (mmWave). 5G is designed to support a 100 times increase in traffic capacity and network efficiency. 5G can be significantly faster than 4G, delivering up to 20 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) peak data rates and over 100 Megabits-per-second (Mbps) average data rates. 5G has significantly lower latency to deliver more instantaneous, real-time access: a ten-fold decrease in end-to-end latency, down to 1 millisecond.
The long and short of 5G is that instead of merely marginally pushing the limits of 4G, it is a fresh approach that supports almost all devices, bands and systems to create an enormous heterogeneous conglomeration of interconnected devices. Whether a hotspot delivering super high-speed internet in the public or a satellite, you shall always be connected seamlessly. Architecture for 5G can be genuinely liberal and, hence, be aligned toward specific use cases.
World Of New Possibilities: Avenues 5G Opens For Innovation
5G is not merely about increasing the throughput of consumer internet speed. It strategically and simultaneously enables a host of opportunities to function and opens the door to innovations.
A practical end-to-end latency (time needed to answer a request from a device) in typical public LTE networks is tens of milliseconds when connected and even longer when starting from idle. 5G networks use various techniques to substantially reduce latency—such as shorter transmission frames, flexible resource allocation and edge computing that locates processing closer to the user—thus reducing the distances that data needs to travel in the backhaul network. These technologies, with specific configurations, help 5G networks achieve one-millisecond latency.
Many applications using 5G connectivity will run locally or close to their end users. To achieve this edge computing, you must co-locate them with 5G network elements. This will guarantee the low latency required by some applications but is also a way to ensure that data stays local and under complete control of organisations, limiting the backhaul capacity requirements.
With the rise of IoT and the deployment of 5G technologies, networks will be required to support a much more comprehensive range of services. Therefore, their one-size-fits-all architectures must change, led by the evolution of cloud-native core networks that are programmable and highly scalable. A cloud-native architecture, built from the ground up to leverage the cloud advantages in both private and public cloud scenarios, allows operators to support both the scale and performance demands brought by broadband evolution and the introduction of IoT/machine-type communications (MTC) and 5G. Built to interface with many applications because it is equipped with APIs and designed as a service-based architecture (SBA), the 5G cloud-native core has the agility to serve a dynamic mixture of scalable services.
Network architecture was traditionally built around a specific use case. Now 5G enables an alternative to the “one use case per one physical network” approach. 5G aims to be one global infrastructure that can cope with various use cases, including high-speed data exchange, push-to-talk (PTT), push-to-video, vehicle-to-vehicle communication and many other uses.
To achieve this, 5G has introduced flexibility in the resource allocation at all network parts: radio, core network and backhaul. This network-slicing flexibility allows an operator to create, on-demand at service activation, entire virtual networks customised for each diverse use case. With 5G, different customised virtual networks will co-exist on a standard shared infrastructure without interfering.
5G will use satellites and high-altitude vehicles such as drones. One such high-altitude pseudo satellite, CATS Infinity, is under development as part of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s Combat Air Teaming System.
Internet Of Battlefield Things: What 5G Means For Defence
5G should be a connectivity platform that can power a broad set of digital applications and services. In that sense, it has wider applications than just the next-generation mobile radio. It can augment existing military-grade tactical wireless communication systems and possibly provide a platform for interoperability between multiple communication systems, with additional direct applicability in many military segments.
5G can play a crucial role in mission- and business-critical services for defence organisations, whether deployed in smart bases, support activities or even in a theatre of operations. With the introduction of 5G, ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC), edge cloud and network slicing, new applications will pave the way to assisted driving and fully automated vehicles. For defence organisations, automated or remotely controlled cars, robots (UGVs), drones (UAVs), and even unmanned ships can provide better situational awareness for intervention in hostile environments.
5G will ensure consistent and timely data transmission for augmented-reality applications with ultra-low latency and high reliability. Deployment of such AR/VR applications on the field is possible using mission-critical industrial edge solutions, which take advantage of ultra-low-latency capability.
Because 5G is designed to support a massive number of devices (massive IoT), in the next decade, it will dramatically augment the number of sensors used to monitor the operational environment (including those for noise, motion, gas/smoke, water, etc.), people (biometric devices) and any physical asset.
5G will power innovative services that can enhance the security, safety, productivity and efficiency of base operations, such as base perimeter security and staff safety, using multiple types of sensors, including CCTV cameras, motion sensors, microphones and micro-drones to detect anomalies and quickly react in case of problems. Maintenance and repair operations (MRO) can be conducted using telemetry to collect data from vehicles and other equipment and augmented reality to guide technicians working on complex systems. Bases can boast intelligent warehouses where defence operators can track assets in real-time and extensively use autonomous ground vehicles (AGV). Immersive training services using virtual or augmented reality can provide and monitor such training that simulates any situation. To remotely access specific expertise and speed up diagnosis and treatment, Telemedicine will also see a boost with 5G. It might be possible to track soldiers’ vitals and preempt their physiological and psychological needs in the theatre of war.
In operations, defence organisations must deploy temporary command and control (C2) centres. Typically, these C2s are disseminated between several buildings or tents and must be able to access and exchange large volumes of important multimedia information in real-time. This could be achieved using deployable 5G systems. 5G can provide smooth, real-time interconnection to central enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, enabling seamless logistics or condition-based maintenance planning.
Border control and coastal surveillance will take advantage of the same scaled-up technology as base perimeter surveillance, involving multiple sensors, micro-drones and push-to-talk/video. Coast guard operations will be able to use a mix of ship-to-shore and on-ship 5G connectivity to improve their situational awareness during surveillance and rescue operations, using data and multimedia-based services and tools.
Maritime task forces can leverage 5G as a general-purpose communication technology for ship-to-ship multimedia communications between boats of the same naval task force, powering many services. Satellite communications will remain available to connect such maritime task forces to other defence units, including the command and control centre.
5G brings us closer to a transformational overhaul of our operations in war. From messengers carrying updates from one front to the headquarters and back, we shall now have dashboards of data and predictions by artificial intelligence, a truly connected battlefield. As the backbone of the global IT sector, will India pioneer 5G’s capabilities in defence?
(The writer is an aerospace and defence analyst based in Bengaluru. Views expressed in this article are personal.)
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