3G took mobile technology to a new level, one that turned our corner of the world gadget-savvy. So-called 4G is still new, slowly spreading across the globe and helping us climb to a higher plateau of data transfer. When we get there, we’re not going to have very much time to admire the view. By then we’ll have left 4G behind and looking upward to new 5G heights.
A group of engineers at Samsung have announced that the era of 5G is soon to begin. The millimeter-wave band, which previously suffered from range limitations, can now be employed using adaptive array transceiver technology. Chang Yeoung Kim, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics, had this to say about his firm’s involvement:
“The millimeter-wave band is the most effective solution to recent surges in wireless Internet usage. Samsung’s recent success in developing the adaptive array transceiver technology has brought us one step closer to the commercialization of 5G mobile communications in the millimeter-wave bands.”
The millimeter-wave band is the highest radio frequency. With frequencies between 30 and 300 GHZ, radio waves are as large as ten millimeters. Although susceptible to atmospheric attenuation, the wave is used in astronomy, security scans, medicine, and a nonlethal but creepy heat ray weapon.
The adaptive array transfer technology uses 64 antenna elements, and using a frequency of 28 GHZ, has apparently clocked a transfer of up to 1.056 Gbps over two kilometers. By 2020, 5G promises to flirt with the tens of Gbps- in other words, a movie in a second. These speeds are “up to several hundred times faster” than 4G currently is.
If you’re having trouble wrapping your mind around the machinations of the “adaptive array transfer technology” that has harnessed the elusive millimeter-wave band, you’re not alone.
Samsung is keeping it’s new technology under wraps, and hasn’t released any specifics. The last thing they need is anyone over at Apple announcing that they can send 1.057 Gbps over three kilometers.