Page 64 - European Energy Innovation - spring 2018 publication
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64 Spring 2018 European Energy Innovation
5G COMMUNICATIONS
5G – the new era for mobile
communications
By Nina Kajander, JRC Press Officer
About every 10 years, the Commission’s Joint Research the physical and the virtual worlds
technology that connects Centre (JRC) are busy studying new into a new smart environment, which
your mobile phone to the 5G frequency bands in Europe, senses, analyses and adapts, and
network changes. 5G is the prototyping waveforms and testing which can make our lives easier and
5th generation mobile network, a step 5G enabling technologies which will safer.
up from the 4G technology currently pave the way for a whole new world of
in use. The 5G network will be faster digital communications and services. “This is not only about browsing
and more reliable. It will have more the Internet. The 5G technologies
capacity to cope with high demand – BRINGING THE INTERNET OF inaugurate a whole new era of
for instance in crowded places such as THINGS TO LIFE connectivity and intelligence in which
concerts and stadiums, where many The 5G technology will enable the products, services and people can
users want to use the network at the industry to take a leap forward in connect. In the Internet of Things, any
same time – and allow data to be the provision of services based on physical or virtual object can connect
streamed much faster. machine-to-machine communication. to other objects, and people can
It will allow an enormous amount interact with them”, said JRC Spectrum
This is good news for all those who of devices to be connected to the Expert James Bishop.
are frustrated with slow Internet network to exchange data.
connections, but there is much more The Internet of Things (IoT) will
to 5G than faster wireless networks. This is predominantly driven by the force business transformation and
Researchers at the European Internet of Things: a combination of bring fundamental changes to our
perspectives on how technologies
and applications work in the world.
Currently, less than 1% of objects are
connected to the Internet, but the
number of IoT connections within
the EU is estimated to increase from
approximately 1.8 million in 2013 to
almost 6 billion in 2020, leading to the
EU IoT market being worth over one
trillion euros by 2020.
DIGITISING THE ENERGY SECTOR
The Internet of Things and 5G also
represent a new reality for the energy
sector. They facilitate the development
and implementation of smart grids
– intelligent energy networks that
combine smart appliances and energy
efficient resources with intelligent
computing systems to optimise
energy production and reduce energy
consumption.
New internet-connected devices
such as smart meters and end-to-
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