Latin America. The 5G device landscape is rapidly evolving to meet the varied needs of different use cases, ranging from smartphones to specialized IoT devices to new battery-free ambient IoT devices.
5G Americas, the voice of 5G and subsequent generations in the Americas, presented a white paper called 'Evolving Devices for 5G Adoption', which analyzes the evolution of 5G devices and sheds light on the optimization and adaptation of 5G technologies that fit a wide variety of use cases.
Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas, shared his insight: "The evolution of 5G devices involves a dynamic shift in connectivity that transforms industries and empowers people. From the Power of Smartphones to Environmental IoT, this 5G Americas briefing paper reveals the diversity of 5G devices into the future."
Here are some of the key topics addressed in the new 5G Americas briefing paper:
Device features: As 5G reconfigures communications around the world, device functions remain crucial. Characteristics such as mobility, bandwidth, size, accessibility, cost, security, coverage, battery life, and radio access technology influence the design and functionality of 5G devices for various applications.
Device landscape: Beyond smartphones, the device ecosystem is rapidly growing to include AR (Augmented Reality) glasses, voice-enabled devices, and specialized IoT technologies. These developments are transforming industries, improving communication, and enabling remote health care.
Reduced Capacity Devices: Initially, 5G New Radio technology focused on optimized mobile broadband (eMBB) applications. Later, 3GPP introduced specifications for Reduced Capacity (abbreviated as RedCap) in Release 17 to address low transmission rate, cost and energy efficiency use cases. These devices offer a balanced solution to data rate, latency, and battery life.
Environmental IoT: Environmental IoT devices operate exclusively from energy extracted from their environment, eliminating the need for batteries. Characterized by small size, low cost, and ultra-low power consumption, they are used in various industries, such as inventory management and environmental sensors.
According to Brian Daly, Assistant Vice President at AT&T and co-leader of the briefing, "This paper covered a wide variety of current and future 5G devices, ranging from smartphones to battery-free RedCap Ambient IoT devices. We categorized these devices according to several factors, emphasizing optimization for IoT applications in terms of complexity, performance, and efficiency." He added: "Overall, the evolving landscape of 5G devices presents exciting opportunities across the realm of IoT, RE and beyond."
Yuchul Kim, Principal Engineer at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and co-leader of the working group for this 5G Americas project, stated, "This 5G Americas document provides a holistic view of how 5G devices are evolving to address the diverse needs of today's interconnected world and serves as a testament to the continuous innovation that drives new services offered by the 5G industry."
To view the document, click here.
