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The Promise of 5G
An anonymous reader writes: From instant monitoring of leaking pipelines, to real-time worldwide collaboration, the increase in machine-to-machine communications that 5G allows will change the way we live. This TechCrunch article takes a look at the promise that 5G holds and its possibilities. From the article: "By 2030, 5G will transform and create many uses that we cannot even think of yet. We will live in a world that will have 10-100 times more Internet-connected devices than there are humans. Hundreds of billions of machines will be sensing, processing and transmitting data without direct human control and intervention."
I mean, afterall, we're all so good at network security now...
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And speaking of 4G vs 5G... I can burn through my 5 GB/month data allowance in about 45 minutes by maxing out my 4G connection. Not in any hurry to do it in 45 seconds via 5G.
O RLY? 4G is way too slow for real-time traffic.
5G is going to be meaningless if it means carriers like Verizon and AT&T are metering usage at a per gigabyte rate. RIP grandfathered verizon unlimited data plan.
The Nokia executive who wrote this article is spouting misinformation here. Talking about 5G, when 4G systems don't exist yet. LTE (Long Term Evolution) service is 3G which is (in theory) moving towards meeting 4G standards of 1 gigabit/sec, but is nowhere even close to that now. It's only branding. Considering AOL owns techcrunch, this is clearly a PR/propaganda piece which no content of any actual value in the entire article. Even the slashdot summary is misinformed. The only way you'll be seeing 5G is in a false advertising lawsuit.
Anything to trade you up to a new two year contract.
Have gnu, will travel.
The non-linear, if not exactly exponential, growth of information-related technologies from Moore's proverbial microchips to wide area network speeds appear to have the side effect of placing important aspects of global civilization under the control of a few companies when they have the equal potential to decentralize it. Why has Google search become for most people the starting point for research or Facebook the dominant means of text-based communication?
I know the arguments for economies of scale. But why can't we have mesh or peer-to-peer versions of these technologies where we don't have to rely on the good intentions or fault tolerance of a few dozen IT behemoths? We now have the equivalent of an '80s supercomputer in our pockets. Why can't I just beam my documents or videos directly to my friend on the other side of town, instead of routing them right across the world?
Critics scoffed at the ease with which a human "hacker" brought down the alien invasion force in Independence Day. I'm thinking the movie's a metaphor for where the Internet and all our information technologies are heading.
"Statistics show that 20 percent of our water supply is lost every single day because of leaks in the pipes that make up the national infrastructure...
Monitoring every pipe in real time would require the ability to gather and analyze huge volumes of data at speeds that are just not possible today. "
I'm not sure how 5G is going to help our 100 year old supply pipes that we can't even afford to repair. Perhaps we can plug the cracks with 5G Nokia phones.
This appears to be a promo aimed at ignorant investors. It's hard to believe that the Nokia CTO would write such nonsense to the tech savvy.
...omphaloskepsis often...
First, an inventor invented invented a pipe, and installed it, and it was found to leak. Then a plumber improved the pipe and re-installed it, and would never leak again.
Then a new-age company said they could build a cheaper pipe to save costs. It was installed, and it leaked only sometimes. Then a plumber figured out precisely how often it would leak, and designed a maintenance plan to prevent it from leaking, so the leaking would never be a problem again.
Then an accountant saw the money being spent on maintenance of a pipe that didn't leak, and reduced the maintenance until it started to leak.
Now, a new-age company is offering to invent and build and install billions of sensors on the pipe, to see when it's leaking, so we'll know when to perform the maintenance.
It'll work great. Not only will we know exactly when to send out the maintenance crew -- i.e. pretty close to the same rate as when the plumber designed the maintenance plan the first time, because he wasn't stupid -- but we'll spend more money on the sensors than we will on the pipe.
As my mother's always said. You can pay me now, or you can pay me later. So the pipe will be cheap, and the maintenance will be occasional, and the sensors will be amazing.
And then we'll save money on the sensors.
And then we'll have a maintenance plan for the sensors.
And then we'll start monitoring the sensors.
It's turtles all the way down.
Anyone remember how much the high quality pipe that didn't leak in the first place cost? I didn't think so.
Hundreds of billions of machines will be sensing, processing and transmitting data without direct human control and intervention."
Hundreds of billions of machines will be connected to botnets that will be indirectly controlled by humans for fun and profit at the expense of others.
Hossein Moiin (author) is executive vice president and CTO of Nokia Networks.
Wow...how far Nokia has sunk.
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar