Deutsche Telekom tests 5G in Berlin

network operator plans for 5g trials

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Deutsche Telekom (DT) carried out the first real-world 5G network tests in Europe, reports TechRepublic. The network operator is testing antennas to both transmit and receive data using 5G hardware, though final specifications for the forthcoming standard still haven’t been finalized by the International Telecommunications Union.

The development of 5G networks could have a major impact on the growth of smart city programs. DT is planning to test the feasibility of controlling traffic lights in Hamburg from a central command center using 5G, rather than relying on timing or wired networks. 5G would work well as the foundation for vehicle-to-infrastructure communications networks, which will be critical for forthcoming fully autonomous vehicles, allowing them to receive detailed information about road conditions, traffic patterns, and potential hazards as they plot courses around a city.

Telecoms are racing to put all the groundwork in place for the commercial rollout of 5G, which could start in the US as soon as 2019. 5G networks will transform wireless communications, transmitting data at least 10 times faster than today’s 4G-LTE networks, with DT reporting download speeds of 2 gigabits per second in its tests. And perhaps more importantly, 5G networks will offer much lower latency — the delay between an instruction and the beginning of a data transfer — than 4G networks, with DT finding a latency of just 3 milliseconds (ms) in its trial, compared with an average latency of 50-60 ms for US carriers’ 4G-LTE networks.

Lower latency means devices will be able to receive commands faster and can start to offload mission-critical functionality to cloud servers instead of relying on local systems. More than half of network operators around the world plan to have 5G trialsgoing by 2018 to make sure they’re in position to offer customers — both consumer and enterprise — the benefits of the forthcoming network standard as soon as technology allows.

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