The 5G Energy Gap [Expert View]
Brian Zahnstecher · IEEE Power Electronics Magazine · 2019
There is no shortage of hype and excitement when it comes to discussions about the next -generation cellular network, now in the process of production deployment worldwide, known as 5G (or 5G New Radio or the Third Generation Partnership Project Release 15 standard [1], to be more accurate). Combine this with all of the marketing projections for the many billions of (or even trillions, depending on your definition) smart devices, wearables, trackers, Internet of Things (loT) and Industrial IoT applications, autonomous vehicles, virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) equipment, and so on, and it seems like there is a pretty exciting marriage of a massive network with an explosion of devices to reshape our daily lives. But hold on a second: Almost every marketing projection and "killer app" (apologies for this overused buzzword) starts with an assumption that has the potential to be an absolutely fatal fl aw. It certainly makes this author question if the technical and business justifications exist today for the expedient deployment of this new network standard.