Today’s mobile users demand faster data speeds and more reliable service. 5G, the next generation of wireless networks, promises to offer all that and more. For now, however, 5G is still in the planning stages, with companies and industry groups working together to figure out exactly what it will look like. But as the number of mobile users and their data demands grow, 5G will need to handle much more traffic at much faster speeds than the base stations that make up today’s mobile phone networks. agrees. Beamforming is one of the fastest growing technologies that can help get there.
Beamforming is a traffic light system for cellular base stations that identifies the most efficient data delivery route to a particular user, reducing interference to nearby users in the process. There are several ways to implement it in a 5G network, depending on the situation and technology.
Beamforming helps massive MIMO arrays, which are base stations with dozens or hundreds of individual antennas, more efficiently utilize the surrounding spectrum. The main challenge of massive MIMO is to transmit more information from more antennas at once while reducing interference. At massive MIMO base stations, signal processing algorithms plot the optimal transmission route through the air to each user. Individual data packets can then be sent in different directions and reflected off buildings and other objects in precisely tailored patterns. Beamforming allows many users and antennas on a massive MIMO array to exchange more information at once by coordinating packet movement and arrival times.
For mmWave, a high frequency that is expected to play a key role in 5G networks, beamforming is primarily used to address a variety of issues. Cell phone signals are easily blocked by objects and tend to be weaker over long distances. Beamforming can help in this case by concentrating the signal into a focused beam pointing only in your direction, rather than broadcasting in many directions at once. This approach increases the likelihood that the signal will arrive intact and reduces interference to others.
Engineers hope to use beamforming and other 5G technologies to build the wireless networks that future smartphone users, VR gamers, and self-driving cars will rely on every day. Already, researchers and businesses are pinning high hopes on 5G, promising ultra-low latency and record-breaking data speeds to consumers. If we can solve the remaining challenges and find a way to make all these systems work together, ultra-fast 5G services could reach consumers within the next five years.
