India’s First 5G Testbed

In News 

• Recently, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the country’s first 5G testbed that will enable start-ups and industry players to test their products locally, thereby reducing dependence on facilities abroad.

About 

• The 5G testbed had been set up at a cost of about ?220 crore.
• It is  an important step towards self-reliance in the direction of critical and modern technologies in the telecom sector.
• The testbed will enable a supportive ecosystem for Indian industry and startups which will help them validate their products, prototypes, solutions and algorithms in 5G and next generation technologies.

What is 5G Technology?

• It is the latest upgrade in the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks with reduced latency than 4G.
  • 5G technologies offer an extremely low latency rate, the delay between the sending and receiving information.
  • From 200 milliseconds for 4G, 5G brings it down to 1 millisecond (1ms).
• It works in three bands of spectrum with their respective pros and cons.
  • Low Band Spectrum:
    • It shows great promise in terms of coverage and speed of internet and data exchange with a maximum speed limited to 100 Mbps (Megabits per second).
    • Telcos can use and install it for commercial cellphone users who may not have specific demands for very high speed internet.
    • It may not be optimal for specialised needs of the industry.
  • Mid-Band Spectrum:
    • It offers higher speeds compared to the low band, but has limitations in terms of coverage area and penetration of signals.
    • It may be used by industries and specialised factory units for building captive networks that can be moulded into the needs of that particular industry.
  • High-Band Spectrum:
    • It offers the highest speed of all the three bands, but has extremely limited coverage and signal penetration strength.
    • Internet speeds have been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps (gigabits per second).

Benefits 

• 5G technology would bring positive changes in the governance of the country, ease of living and ease of doing business.
•  This would boost growth in every sector like agriculture, health, education, infrastructure and logistics. 
• This will also increase convenience and create many employment opportunities.
• It will enable the development, testing and proliferation of 5G technology system components, cross-sectoral use cases, besides setting up the foundation for the development of the “6G Technology landscape” in the country.
• The users will be able to stream videos with multiple camera angles during sports matches or even play immersive video games using VR headsets or other accessories.
• It will also enable a mesh of connected Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices and services with zero-fail rate, as in the case of connected cars.
•  Other Benefits: 

o Healthcare: Healthcare providers can create sensor networks to track patients and share information faster than ever before.

o Public Safety: A vast network and rapid response times mean that public works can respond to incidents and emergencies in seconds rather than minutes, and municipalities can react fast and with reduced costs.

o Autonomous Vehicles: 5G will allow vehicles to communicate between them and with infrastructure on the road, improving safety and alerting drivers to travel conditions and performance information.

Challenges

• Lack of a clear road map of spectrum allocation and 5G frequency bands.
• Lack of flow of cash and adequate capital with the Telcos.

Suggestions/ Way Forward

• 5G will require a fundamental change to the core architecture of the communication system and India should be ready with a robust, scalable, and intelligent infrastructure that is capable of handling massive traffic growth.
• This year’s budget was focused on making use of technology to help the government and the country to achieve the goal of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’.
  • It will also make India a self-reliant country.
• India is familiar with the principles of science, but we need to learn to make maximum use of it for ‘Ease of Living’.
• Stressing the centrality of communication centres and fintech, India should look for indigenous ecosystem with less foreign dependence for the both.
• Private sector should take maximum advantage of the change of rules for the use of geo-spatial data and the infinite opportunities that have emerged due to the reform.
• A portal has also been proposed for skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of youth in the budget.
  • With this, youth will get the right jobs and opportunities through API based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers.
• There are 2 lakh crore rupees worth PLI schemes in 14 key sectors, in order to promote manufacturing in the country.

Source:TH