Which of the following technologies will be enabled by the 5G mobile communication networks?

1. Internet of Things

2. Edge Computing

3. Network Slicing Select the correct answer using the codes given below.

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, 1, 2 and 3. Each of the three is something the 5G standard was deliberately built to deliver, and 3GPP — the partnership that actually writes the specification, and which defines 5G from Release 15 onward, functionally frozen in June 2018 and fully specified by September 2019 — names all three in its own 5G System Overview. (1) Internet of Things: 3GPP lists "Massive Internet of Things" as one of the four axes on which 5G improves over 4G, observing that several scenarios require the system to support very high traffic densities of devices. The number behind that ambition comes from the ITU: Report ITU-R M.2410-0, which fixes the minimum technical performance requirements for IMT-2020, sets a connection density of 1,000,000 devices per square kilometre. That single figure is why dense sensor deployments become possible on 5G in a way they were not on 4G. (2) Edge Computing: 3GPP lists "EDGE computing" among the key new technologies the 5G network introduces and defines it as putting computational power as physically close to the end-user as possible, because virtual reality, the factory of the future and autonomous driving are all intolerant of network response time. The document then makes the link explicit: for critical communications it specifies a reliability of 99.9999 per cent with an end-to-end latency of 50 ms, and says in terms that this "is provided in particular through the Edge Computing capability". A standards body naming edge computing as the mechanism by which its own latency requirement is met settles item 2 on its own. (3) Network Slicing: 3GPP defines slicing as the ability to deploy and use simultaneously different core networks, each specialised for a given set of services or subscribers — one slice for an operator's ordinary subscribers, another for a virtual operator's, a third for a machine-to-machine service such as tracking containers. It is not an add-on: the 5G core carries a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) as one of its standard network functions, and 4G's Evolved Packet Core had no standardised equivalent. No item in the list can be rejected, so the answer is the whole set.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Drops network slicing, usually because a candidate files it under data-centre virtualisation borrowed from IT rather than treating it as a telecom feature. The opposite is true. 3GPP names slicing among the key new technologies the 5G network introduces, defines it as running several specialised core networks simultaneously over shared infrastructure, and gives the 5G core a dedicated Network Slice Selection Function whose job is to steer each device onto the right slice. 4G's Evolved Packet Core had no standardised equivalent, and the full 5G feature set — slicing included — is available only in the Stand Alone deployment, where the New Radio connects to the 5G core rather than riding on the 4G one.  (b) Drops the Internet of Things, on the reasoning that IoT already existed on 4G through NB-IoT and LTE-M, both introduced in 3GPP Release 13, and therefore cannot be "enabled by" 5G. But the stem asks what 5G enables, not what 5G invented. Massive machine-type communication is one of the three IMT-2020 usage scenarios set out in Recommendation ITU-R M.2083, and "Massive Internet of Things" is one of the four axes on which 3GPP's own overview says 5G improves on 4G. The scale is the point: 4G was never required to carry a million devices in a square kilometre, and IMT-2020 is.  (c) Drops edge computing, mistaking it for ordinary cloud computing and therefore for something a mobile network does not provide. 3GPP names "EDGE computing" explicitly as one of 5G's key new technologies, describes it as introducing local replications of a main server as close to the end-user as possible, and identifies it as the capability through which the critical-communications targets — 99.9999 per cent reliability at 50 ms end-to-end — are actually met. The 5G core supports it architecturally by letting the User Plane Function be placed locally, so traffic breaks out near the user instead of crossing the backbone to a distant data centre.

Concept: 5G is not simply a faster 4G. The ITU set the target in Recommendation ITU-R M.2083 under the name IMT-2020, and it defined three quite different usage scenarios rather than one: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) for very high data rates, ultra-reliable and low-latency communications (URLLC) for control-grade applications, and massive machine-type communications (mMTC) for enormous numbers of low-power devices. 3GPP then specified the system — Release 15 is 5G phase 1, functionally frozen in June 2018 and fully specified by September 2019 — and describes it across more than a thousand Technical Reports and Technical Specifications. The design consequence is that one physical network must serve mutually contradictory demands at once, and the answer to that is architectural rather than radio. The 5G core abandons fixed network entities for a Service-Based Architecture: a set of software network functions — AMF, SMF, UPF, PCF, UDM, NRF, NEF, AUSF and NSSF — that offer their services to one another through a common interface and can therefore be located anywhere. Slicing carves that single infrastructure into several logical networks; edge computing moves processing outwards towards the user; and on the radio side the spectrum itself is divided by job, with sub-1 GHz for rural reach, 1 to 6 GHz for urban and sub-urban deployment, and above 6 GHz for dense hot-spots. 3GPP frames the whole exercise around "verticals" — automotive, rail and maritime, transport and logistics, discrete automation, electricity distribution, public safety, health, smart cities and media. IoT, edge computing and slicing are therefore not accessories bolted onto 5G; they are the shape 5G takes.

State PCS 2023 Q1 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2023 Q1 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer