Galileo Satellite Recovered, Transmitting Navigation Messages

As reported by InsideGNSS: Europe's fifth Galileo satellite, one of two delivered into a wrong orbit by a Russian Soyuz-Fregat launcher in August, transmitted its first navigation signal in space on Saturday (November 29, 2014) after reaching its new target orbit.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), a detailed test campaign is under way now the satellite has reached a more suitable orbit for navigation purposes.

The first two full operational capability (FOC) Galileo satellites ended up in an elongated orbit that extended up to 25,900 kilometers above Earth and as low as 13,713 kilometers. They also were in an incorrect plane more than 3,000 kilometers off target. The intended orbit would have been circular, inclined at 55 degrees to the equator at an altitude of 23,222 kilometers.

A total of 11 maneuvers were performed over the course of 17 days, gradually nudging the fifth satellite (Galileo-FOC FM1) upwards at the lowest point of its orbit. As a result, it has risen more than 3,500 kilometers, rendering its orbit more circular.

"The maneuvers were all normal, with excellent performance both in terms of thrust and direction," explained Daniel Navarro-Reyes, ESA Galileo mission analyst. "The final orbit is as we targeted and is a tribute to the great professionalism of all the teams involved."

The commands were issued from the Galileo Control Center at Oberpfaffenhofen,  Germany by Space Opal, the Galileo operator, guided by calculations from a combined flight dynamics team of ESA's Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, and France's CNES space agency.

The commands were uploaded to the satellite via an extended network of ground stations, made up of Galileo stations and additional sites coordinated by CNES. Satellite manufacturer OHB also provided expertise throughout the recovery, helping to adapt the flight procedures.

Until the manoeuvers started, the combined ESA-CNES team maintained the satellites pointing at the Sun using their gyroscopes and solar sensors. This kept the satellites steady in space but their navigation payloads could not be used reliably.

In the new orbit, the satellite's exposure to radiation in the Van Allen belts has also been greatly reduced, ensuring more reliable performance for the long term.

The revised, more circular orbit means the fifth satellite's Earth sensor can be used continuously, keeping its main antenna oriented towards Earth and allowing its navigation payload to be switched on.

Significantly, the orbit means that it will now overfly the same location on the ground every 20 days. This compares to a normal Galileo repeat pattern of every 10 days, effectively synchronizing its ground track with the rest of the Galileo constellation, according to ESA.

FOC-FM1 Navigation Test Campaign
The satellite's navigation payload was activated last Saturday to begin the full “in-orbit test” campaign being conducted from ESA's Redu center in Belgium, where a 20-meter–diameter antenna will study the strength and shape of the navigation signals with high resolution.

"First, the various payload elements, especially the passive hydrogen maser atomic clock, were warmed up, then the payload's first 'signal in space' was transmitted," said David Sanchez-Cabezudo, managing the test campaign.

"The satellite-broadcast L-band navigation signal is monitored using the large antenna at Redu, with experts from OHB and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd - the payload manufacturer, based in Guildford, UK - also on hand to analyse how it performs over time."

The first Galileo FOC navigation signal-in-space transmitting in the three Galileo frequency bands (E5/E6/L1) was tracked  by Galileo test user receivers deployed at various locations in Europe, namely at Redu (B), ESTEC (NL), Weilheim (D) and Rome (I). The quality of the signal is good and in line with expectations.

A search & rescue (SAR) payload will be switched on within a few days in order to complement the in-orbit test campaign.

The same recovery maneuvers are planned for the sixth satellite, taking it into the same orbital plane but on the opposite side of Earth.

A decision whether to use the two satellites for navigation and SAR purposes as part of the Galileo constellation will be taken by the European Commission based on the test results.

Although plans have not been finalized, the next launch of two Galileo FOCs onboard a Soyuz rocket could take place in February 2015, followed by an Ariane 5 launch in the September-October 2015 timeframe. The modified Ariane rocket is capable of launching four satellites at a time.

The Internet of Things (IoT) to Bring a New Economic Boom

As reported by ComputerWorld:  The Internet of Things (IoT) may be more significant in reshaping the competitive landscape than the arrival of the Internet. Its productivity potential is so powerful it will deliver a new era of prosperity.

That's the argument put forth by Michael Porter, an economist at the Harvard Business School and James Heppelmann, president and CEO of PTC, in a recent Harvard Business Review essay. PTC is a product design software firm that recently acquired machine-to-machine (M2M) firm Axeda Corp.

In the past 50 years, IT has delivered two major transformations or "waves," as the authors describe it. The first came in the 1960s and 1970s, with IT-enabled process automation, computer-aided design and manufacturing resource planning. The second was the Internet and everything it delivered. The third is IoT.

With IoT, "IT is becoming an integral part of the product itself," wrote Porter and Heppelmann. It is doing this by infusing sensors, processors and software in every product imaginable and coupling it with analytics. That combination will change how businesses operate, how they deliver their products and how interact with customers.

"Another leap in productivity in the economy will be unleashed by these new and better products," Porter and Heppelmann argue. "The third wave of IT-driven transformation thus has the potential to be the biggest yet, triggering even more innovation, productivity gains, and economic growth than the previous two." 

 That's a strikingly sweeping claim and there will no doubt be contrarians to Porter and Heppelmann's view. But what analysts are clear about is that IoT development today is at an early stage, perhaps at a point similar to 1995, the same year Amazon and eBay went online, followed by Netflix in 1997 and Google in 1998. People understood the trend at the time, but the big picture was still out of focus.

Alfonso Velosa, research director of IoT at Gartner, believes a fundamental change is coming, but at a more distant horizon -- 10 or 20 years out. The interest in IoT is happening now because all the necessary ingredients, the semiconductors, sensors, software, communications, "have all come to align us on this path," he said.

Velosa said IoT-related industry changes are just beginning. Usage-based insurance, for instance, based on mileage and driving behaviors, was a new thing just five years ago. Today it's a real option.

It "highlights how an industry can change in five years," said Velosa, "but it also points to the fact that we have just barely scratched the surface."

The IoT is premised on the idea that products can become smart, and can communicate with each other on your behalf. Every product becomes part of a service, and no product will have significance as an independent entity, said Fiona McNeill, global product marketing manager at SAS, an analytics software firm.

To illustrate, SAS is working with a truck maker and is using IoT technologies coupled with predictive analytics to determine when a part might fail. It can now predict failure 30 days in advanced and with a 90% accuracy rate, said McNeill. That type of capability is being added to high-value equipment, such as locomotives, medical equipment and oil and gas equipment, but eventually will find its way into wearables, she said. 

 The IoT's potential may be hard to realize because it takes imagination to consider how products change once they are enabled. What's done with the data? What services does it create? What new products emerge from it? Are you now competing on price or services (or both)?

All the recent advances -- cloud computing, mobility and big data -- either extended or replaced existing business operations, said Seth Robinson, senior director of technology analysis at IT trade association CompTIA. But with the IoT, "the greatest opportunity for a business is to do something new."

There's no map to how this may unfold and that makes some hesitant about it, said Robinson.

"That lack of [a] direct map ... highlights, actually, that there is great potential here." 

NASA’s Launch Of Orion Will Be A Huge Day For Colorado

As reported by CBS Denver: Colorado’s aerospace industry is about to the lead the way into space with the Orion Project.
 
The test flight for a capsule that could take man back to the moon or even as far away as Mars lifts off Thursday morning.

The Orion’s heat shield was made by the people at Lockheed Martin in Littleton, and United Launch Alliance in Centennial built the rocket that will lift it into space. The whole event will be able to be seen courtesy of flight cameras built buy Ball Aerospace in Broomfield.

On Tuesday scientists held a briefing about how the countdown to Thursday morning’s launch is going.

”Thursday is a huge day — it is the beginning of actually putting Orion in space,” said Mark Geyer, Orion Program Manager.

And it will be a huge day for Colorado. The Colorado-built rocket will launch Orion into space in 17 minutes.
“It will be the first time in 40 years that this nation, the most powerful nation in the world, has ever designed and built a spacecraft intended to carry humans beyond low Earth orbit, and that’s a big, big deal,” said Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator.

The orbit will be 15 times further than the International Space Station, traveling 3,600 miles above Earth.

Although the capsule Lockheed Martin built is high-tech, reusable and light years ahead of the Apollo mission that put human footprints on the moon, the re-entry to Earth hasn’t changed much.

CBS News hitched a ride with the Navy on the USS Anchorage as NASA tested out Orion in the Pacific Ocean recently. During the test run it took nearly 3 hours to hook Orion and drag it out of the water. They flooded the back of the Navy ship and eventually guided the capsule on board.  All of the testing is being done in preparation to carry six astronauts into space someday.

“What I think about is the future, and this is one of several vehicles that we’re looking at to get the United States back in a spacecraft into space,” NASA astronaut Nicole Stott said. “This one for sure is one that’s going to take us farther than we’ve gone in a very long time.”

Orion is critical to NASA because the agency retired the space shuttle program in 2011. That’s forced American astronauts to rely on the Russians for rides into space.

American astronauts are training to go into space in 6 or 7 years.

Magnetic Levitating Transmission Gear System Loses its Teeth

As reported by Gizmag: A new transmission device that uses magnetic levitation to almost completely eliminate friction and wear has been developed as part of the MAGDRIVE research project, a collaboration of seven European nations previously reviewed in 2010. The creation of the unit entailed the development of a magnetic gear reducer and corresponding frictionless magnetic axles. Aimed primarily for use in spacecraft due to its extended mechanical life, the system is also adaptable for use in automobiles, railways, and aircraft.

Researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) created the magnetic drive system reducer in response to a problem of mechanical wear initially posed by the European Space Agency (ESA), where conventionally-connected gears, axles, and drive shafts remain problematic due to their lubrication requirements and relatively short life spans.

"The operating life of these devices can be much longer than the life of a conventional gear reducer with teeth, and can even work in cryogenic temperatures," said Efrén Díez Jiménez, a researcher from the UC3M Department of Mechanical Engineering. He added that even after an overload, the device will continue to function. And if the axle is blocked, “the parts simply slide amongst themselves, but nothing breaks."

To demonstrate their device, the UC3M researchers created two prototypes. The first is designed for use in space, and is a cryogenic model that keeps the axles floating via levitating superconductor bearings that work at a temperature of around -210° C (-346° F) in a vacuum. The superconducting magnet also helps stabilize the rotating parts to prevent oscillating motions or imbalances.

Prototype number two is designed to be used at room temperature. In this case, the magnetic reducer sees the gear teeth replaced with permanent magnets that repel and attract each other so that "the transmission of couples and forces between the moving parts with contact is achieved."

According to the researchers, the second prototype may be used in any area where standard mechanical gear reducers are employed, such as in machinery for railroads, the oil industry, or in engineering applications in general. The researchers also believe that the lack of any lubricants would make the gear system especially suitable for sterile applications, such as those found in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, and food production areas.

As for space applications, Jiménez says applications for the technology range, "from robot arms or antenna positioners, where high-precision movements are needed or when contamination from lubricants is undesired, to vehicles that, because of temperature or extreme conditions of absence of pressure, shorten the life of conventional mechanisms, as happens with the wheels of a Rover that has to go on Mars."

Despite the fact that the cryogenic superconductor prototype addressed the problem posed by ESA, it is the prospect of using a frictionless drive at ordinary temperatures and in everyday situations that will likely have the most appeal.

"No doubt the room temperature prototype is the one that can have the biggest impact and industrial application," said the researchers.

A spin-off company called MAG SOAR has also been created to explore commercial exploitation of technologies arising from this project. Presented at a number of different conferences organized by ESA, NASA, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the results of the MAGDRIVE research have also been published in the Journal of Engineering Tribology.

The video below shows the superconducting cryogenic magnetic device in action:

eLoran Back-up to Vulnerable GPS Signals Required for Busy UK Shipping Lanes

As reported by GPSWorld: The General Lighthouse Authorities (GLAs) of the UK and Ireland announced October 31 the initial operational capability of UK maritime eLoran. Seven differential reference stations now provide additional position, navigation, and timing (PNT) information via low-frequency pulses to ships fitted with eLoran receivers. The service will help ensure they can navigate safely in the event of GPS failure in one of the busiest shipping regions in the world, with expected annual traffic of 200,000 vessels by 2020.

Ships carry 95 percent of UK trade, accounting for its strongly expressed concerns regarding GPS vulnerability to jamming and spoofing, and the leadership role it has taken in eLoran research and testing. The UK is the first country in the world to deploy the technology along its coastline, thronged with both passenger and cargo services. Deployment involved replacing the existing radio receiver equipment in two prototype reference stations at Dover and Harwich, and the creation of five new reference stations in the Thames, Humber, Middlesbrough, and Firth of Forth and Aberdeen in Scotland, on the North Sea where oil-laden vessels come from deep-sea drilling rigs.

Entirely independent of GPS, eLoran can provide navigation information for vessels as well as the timing data necessary to maintain the power grid, cell phones, financial networks, and the Internet in the event of an outage. Unlike space-based navigation, eLoran signals can also reach inside buildings, underground, and underwater. 

Captain Ian McNaught, deputy master of Trinity House, commented, “eLoran provides a signal around 1 million times more powerful than those from satellite signals, providing resilience from interference and attack. The achievement of initial operational capability for the system at Dover and along the east coast of the UK is a significant milestone, providing for improved safety aboard appropriately equipped vessels. The maritime industry would now benefit from the installation of eLoran receivers on more vessels to take advantage of improved navigational safety.”

“Telecoms, finance, energy, and other industries, which are subject to significant issues caused by the loss of timing signal provided by GPS, are recommended to take advantage of the enhanced reliability now available to address the over-dependence of key national infrastructure on vulnerable satellite systems,” McNaught said.

eLoran technology is based on longwave radio signals and is independent and complementary to GPS.

Several other nations are consulting with the UK GLAs on eLoran. South Korea wants to establish an eLoran alliance with the UK while it pursues its own rollout of differential eLoran reference stations and new eLoran transmitters based on the latest technology. In 2012, South Korea was the victim of a 16-day GPS jamming attack by North Korea.

Full operational capability covering all major UK ports is expected by 2019.

Galileo Roving High
The fifth Galileo navigation satellite, one of two left in the wrong orbit in August, made a series of November maneuvers as a prelude to its health being confirmed. The aim was to raise the lowest point of its orbit — its perigee — to reduce the radiation exposure from the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth, as well as to put it into a more useful orbit for navigation purposes.

Should the two-week operation prove successful, the sixth Galileo satellite will follow the same route, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Galileo pair, launched together on a Soyuz rocket on August 22, ended up in an elongated orbit traveling out to 25,900 kilometers (km) above Earth and back down to 13,713 km. The target orbit was a purely circular one at an altitude of 23,222 km. Also, the orbits are angled relative to the Equator less than originally planned.

The two satellites have only enough fuel to lift their altitude by about 4,000 km — insufficient to correct their orbits entirely. But the move will take the fifth satellite into a more circular orbit than before, with a higher perigee of 17,339 km.

“The new orbit will fly over the same location every 20 days,” said Daniel Navarro-Reyes, ESA Galileo mission analyst. “The standard Galileo repeat pattern is every 10 days, so achieving this will synchronize the ground track with the rest of the Galileo satellites.”

“In addition, from a user receiver point of view, the revised orbit will reduce the variation in signal levels, reduce the Doppler shift of the signal, and increase the satellite’s visibility,” Navarro-Reyes said. “For the satellite, reducing its radiation exposure in the Van Allen radiation belts will protect it from further exposure to charged particles. The orbit will also allow Galileo’s Earth Sensor to hold a stable direction for the satellite’s main antenna to point at Earth. Right now, when the satellite dips to its lowest point, Earth appears so large that the sensor is unusable. The satellite relies on gyroscopes alone, degrading its attitude precision.”

The recovery is being overseen from the Galileo Control Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, with the assistance of ESA’s Space Operations Centre, ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany. France’s CNES space agency is providing additional ground stations so that contact can be maintained with the satellite as needed, ESA said.

Welcome IIF-8
The U.S. Air Force launched the eighth GPS IIF satellite on October 29, aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket. With this new arrival on orbit, only four more Block IIF satellites remain to be placed aloft. Three are in storage awaiting launch, and one is in production.

The Boeing-built GPS IIF-8 (SVN-69/PRN-03) will replace SVN-51 in the E plane slot 1. SVN-51 will be re-phased from E1 to an auxiliary node at E7 somewhere around SVN-54 currently on station at E4, according to the Air Force Second Space Operations Squadron (2 SOPS). SVN-38/PRN-08 will be taken out of the operational constellation prior to SVN-69 payload initialization and sent to Launch, Anomaly Resolution and Disposal Operations (LADO). PRN-08 will be assigned initially to SVN-49 and set to test.

SVN-51 will remain in an auxiliary node once it completes its re-phase journey. The SVN-51 re-phase will take about six months after the initial burn occurs.

Intelligent Transport Systems: Ending the Gridlock

As reported by The Guardian: Two years ago, Bill Ford, chairman of Ford Motors, warned of “global gridlock” unless we developed a better connected, more intelligent transport system for our cities. Based on closer collaboration between carmakers, and greater use of technology, the system needed, he said, to link pedestrians, bicycles, cars and commercial and public transport as part of one interconnected system. “If we do nothing,” Ford said, “the sheer number of people and cars in urban areas will mean global gridlock.”

This state of affairs is not an option for our cities. They are the economic engines of most industrialized nations, and the ability to move goods and people around them freely and quickly is essential to sustained growth.

Of course cities are all profoundly different, says Rupert Fausset, principal sustainability adviser at Forum for the Future. “European cities are very dense and old, but with lots of resources,” he says. “Cities in the developing world are growing enormously, but they don’t necessarily have the same resources … (and) American cities are at a completely different level of density (with) much heavier car use.”

This means there is no off-the-shelf remedy to “global gridlock” either. Instead, a mixture of solutions is needed that enhances mobility and, at the same time, reduces congestion, accidents and pollution.

“If you introduce a car-restraint measure you have to put something else in place,” says Fausset, “some other way for people to get around.” An example of this was the expansion of public transport in London when the city’s congestion charge was introduced in 2003.

Peter Harris, director of sustainability for Europe, at global logistics provider UPS, agrees. “One of the most effective ways for a city to decrease congestion and pollution – and become safer, more livable and more attractive to those looking to move to the city – is a strong network of public transportation,” he says.

Fausset says that the key is to make the system as user-friendly as possible: “Most people will try a new mode of transport, but if they have one or two failures that’s it, they’re back in the car again.”

Increasingly, mobile phone technology has a role to play in good public transport, with a proliferation of phone apps such as Citymapper providing commuters with real-time information about buses, and helping them plan a connected journey across a city based solely on public transport.

Fausset also believes that “cars have lost their luster” among young people in some countries, not just because of the expense involved in running a car, but also because using public transport means that they can use their smartphones at the same time. Free Wi-Fi on buses or trains helps to get people in the seats.

Car clubs and lift-sharing (Uber/Lyft) are being revolutionized by IT. You can now book lifts/taxis in advance, and know who you’ll be traveling with, while a smartphone can find and unlock a pool car in the same way as you would hire a city bike.

But while car use may be declining, there has been a steady increase in van traffic, with a proliferation of service providers, such as phone and internet companies, and a huge hike in the number of people shopping from home.

Companies such as Amazon, UPS and Argos are introducing drop-off points at stations, for instance, where people who aren’t at home to take delivery of their parcels can collect them on their way home from work, saving on wasted visits. Other retailers have introduced a system that delivers online orders to a local store for collection.

Data is increasingly being used to optimize route planning too, making trucks more efficient while they’re on the road. Consolidation centers are also being introduced to take bulk deliveries, so that the final leg of a package’s journey can be undertaken by more sustainable methods, such as electric vehicles or bike.

In Hamburg, says Harris, UPS has worked with the city to deploy electrically assisted tricycles, removing trucks from the downtown area altogether, while still offering an efficient and reliable service.

So what does the future hold for transport in our cities? “As cities are growing the desire for people to move around and have goods delivered is going to increase,” says Andrew Everett, chief strategy officer of Transport Systems Catapult, the UK’s technology and innovation center for intelligent mobility. But for technology to have an impact, it’s important that new ideas are trialled and tested rather than simply pushed through, he says, and that means more collaboration between companies, business and regulators.

Several companies are trialling autonomous vehicles, which drive themselves. The argument is that they can be driven more efficiently and closer together without a human behind the wheel, especially on motorways. Similar automated controls could also be used to run London’s tube more frequently, helping to increase capacity without any increased investment.

The technology is also there for green-laning, says Everett – intelligent traffic lights that recognize where traffic is coming from, allowing cars to flow more freely and cutting down on unnecessary braking and restarting, which wastes energy.

In terms of logistics, says Harris: “Efficiency is the place to start. After that, for freight we need to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible [in the EU] with pedestrian-friendly tricycles, and then maybe drones, to drive down the number of trucks further.”

But Everett sees an even simpler solution. “There are opportunities for businesses to help cut urban traffic by looking at the way [employees] work,” he says. Flexi-time, remote working or simply shifting start and finish times by half an hour could help to flatten out rush-hour spikes.

“You could improve productivity too because people are more relaxed when they get to work – and the deliveries are on time,” he adds.

How Will the 5G Network Change the World?

As reported by BBC News: If you're thinking, "Great, that's the end of my apps stalling, video faltering, and that everlasting load sign," then you are right - but that's only part of the story.

"5G will be a dramatic overhaul and harmonization of the radio spectrum," says Prof Rahim Tafazolli who is the lead at the UK's multi-million government-funded 5G Innovation Center at the University of Surrey.

That means the opportunity for properly connected smart cities, remote surgery, driverless cars and the "internet of things".

So, how best to understand this joined-up, super-fast, all-encompassing 5G network? It seems that the term "harmonization of the radio spectrum" is key.

A quick refresher: Data is transmitted via radio waves. Radio waves are split up into bands - or ranges - of different frequencies.

Each band is reserved for a different type of communication - such as aeronautical and maritime navigation signals, television broadcasts and mobile data. The use of these frequency bands is regulated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) [Similar to the FCC in the USA].

It is too early to say exactly what 5G products will look like

Currently, the radio frequency spectrum is a bit of a mess. As new technologies have been developed, frequencies for them to use have been squeezed into its gaps.
This has caused problems with connection speeds and reliability.

So, to pave the way for 5G the ITU is comprehensively restructuring the parts of the radio network used to transmit data, while allowing pre-existing communications, including 4G and 3G, to continue functioning.

100 times faster 5G will also run faster, a lot faster.

Prof Tafazolli now believes it is possible to run a wireless data connection at an astounding 800Gbps - that's 100 times faster than current 5G testing.

When Samsung announced in 2013 it was testing 5G at 1Gbps, journalists excitedly reported that would mean an HD film could be downloaded in a second.

A speed of 800Gbps would equate to downloading 33 HD films - in a single second.

In June 2000 Samsung released the IMT2000, touted as the world's first web video phone

5G's capacity will also have to be vast.
"The network will need to cope with a vast increase in demand for communication," says Sara Mazur, head of Ericsson Research, one of the companies leading the development of 5G.

By 2020 it is thought that 50 billion to 100 billion devices will be connected to the internet. So, connections that run on different frequency bands will be established to cope with demand.
Raising the capacity of a network is a little like widening a road tunnel.

If you add more lanes more cars can go through. And ordering makes it more efficient: some lanes for long-distance, others lanes for local traffic.

The huge rise in connected devices will be due to a boom in inanimate objects using the 5G network - known as the internet of things [IoT].

 

Self-driving cars talk to each other to avoid accidents

It won't be just products like remotely controlling your heating or that mythical fridge ordering you more milk, trains could tell you which seats are free while they are in the station.

Devices will be able to choose dynamically between which of three still-to-be-determined bandwidths they use to avoid any of frequencies from becoming overloaded, explains Prof Tafazolli.

"Only once these frequencies are set and established can product development begin," Ms Mazur adds.

The aim is for the first of the frequency bands to come into use around the year 2020, with the other two to follow soon after.

 

Small masts could be used where buildings might block higher frequencies

Another defining feature will be that, crucially, 5G shouldn't break.

"It will have the reliability that you currently get over fiber connections," says Sara Mazur.

Advances in antenna technology promise an end to sudden data connection drop-outs.

This will be essential for safety. Companies including China's Huawei are already talking about using 5G to let driverless cars communicate with each other and the infrastructure they pass.

Tech such as smart transport and remote surgery, where a human remotely operates a robot to carry out complicated operations, will rely on lower latencies too.

Latency refers to the time lag between an action and a response.

Ericsson predict that 5G's latency will be around one millisecond - imperceivable to a human and about 50 times faster than 4G.

This will be critical, for example, if doctors are to command equipment to carry out surgery on patients located in different buildings.

5G trial network So how much will it all cost? Ericsson and Huawei say they simply don't know yet.
Until the product development phase starts it is too early to tell.

 

Japan wants to play host, not just to the 2020 Olympics, but also to the world's first commercial 5G network

But that doesn't stop them from wanting to flaunt their research to the market.

In South Korea, which spearheaded work on 4G, Samsung hopes to launch a temporary trial 5G network in time for 2018's Winter Olympic Games.

Not to be outdone, Huawei is racing to implement a version for the 2018 World Cup in Moscow.
Despite such apparent rivalries and the huge sums each is investing in R&D, the bigger story is that they are co-operating to deliver 5G. And that in turn paves the way for potentially unmatched new technologies.

"That's until 6G comes along in around 2040," Prof Tafazolli remarks.