6.0 – Other Technologies and Developments

This chapter discusses the reader to other technologies and developments relevant to a 5G system.

6.1 Other Technologies

There are of course other technologies e.g. Satellites which may have not been mentioned previously but have a key role to play in the deployment of 5G. For example, Satellites (see Fig. 6.1) could be used for backhaul, to offload traffic from base stations, deliver broadband services in underserved areas or emergency regions, safety services and for IoT devices. The integration of terrestrial and satellite domains within the 5G network is all due to Virtualization [20].

6.2 Waveforms and Access Technologies

There is currently research on the development of new waveforms and access technologies e.g. Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA), Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Filter-Band Multi-Carrier (QAM-FBMC) etc. for use in a 5G network.

6.3 Security and Privacy

The virtualization of the network raises complex issues for critical services and security.

The heterogeneous nature of the 5G network also means that each layer of the network could be owned and operated by different virtual operators; therefore privacy become a major issue.

Interoperability is key for the different technologies to work within the heterogeneous environment; this also raises important questions on ethics, security and privacy concerns.

6.4 Green Communication Technologies

There is a target within the Communications Industry to reduce energy consumption by 90% without a reduction in performance and cost. For this reason, Green Communication technologies are being researched for implementation within a 5G network to reduce energy consumption and improve energy efficiency [20].

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