5G and Next-Generation Mobile Communications

The age of fifth generation (5G) mobile communications, the next dominant critical telecommunications capability, will fully arrive in the 2020s if it follows the 10-year maturity cycle of the previous four generations. 5G offers a broad spectrum of applications boosted by massive connectivity, ultra-high reliability, and capacity enhancements (e.g., gigabytes in a second). This ubiquitous capability for handling huge amounts of data comes with the promise of enabling dramatic increases in numbers and types of connected devices, including new networks of varying requirements and capabilities.