Sansad TV: The Defenders- 5G for Better Military ISR Capabilities

5G for defence communication:

Working for the Army and Air Force to equip them with the cellular communication systems as been on table.
In the year 2007 secure telephone subscriber units and again in 2016 provision to the Indian Army a unit which is based on 3G.
The 5G, is an excellent alternative as it provides a higher bandwidth, higher data rate as your ultra reliable low latency type of communication for Internet of Things.
This machine-to-machine type of communication also allows us to connect human beings to machines.
There is a programme that is going on which is known as a byte integrated network terminal, which is also based on 4G now.
When 5G comes up, it is going to replace 4G and then there are many programs of Indian army which is called BMS or battlefield management system, future infantry soldier as a system, all these are opportunities where 5G can actually help people to get network with their position with their weapons with their capabilities, whatever the video surveillance systems and so, it pulls up immense opportunities for the entire Indian Defence Forces to be knit together.

Every sensor, every platform, they are becoming smart, they are having some kind of intelligence, so that a lot of data is getting collected and being manipulated for making it smart, so that they can become, to some extent, autonomous in taking decisions also.
From that perspective, this technology, since it can handle very high data rates, it’s a big welcome, even in the military domain, because, another area where it really strikes very well is latency of one millisecond or less.
Command control applications will find a big use, where one can simply give a command to your UAVs, and all that, and they can do the needful.
Technology has great potential for military applications.

Various field Applications of 5G Network:

One of the primary applications of 5G will be implementation of sensor-embedded network that will allow real time relay of information across fields such as manufacturing, consumer durables and agriculture.
5G can also help make transport infrastructure more efficient by making it smart. 5G will enable vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, making driverless cars, among other things, a reality.
Low latency is one of the most important features of 5G technology which is significant for mission critical applications. 5G networks are capable of latency less than a millisecond.
5G will be using new radio millimetre waves for transmission. It has much higher bandwidth compared to lower LTE bands and capable of huge data rate.
5G is the most efficient candidate for Internet of Things due to its flexibility, unused spectrum availability and low-cost solutions for deployment.
IoT applications will collects huge amount of data from millions of devices and sensors. It requires an efficient network for data collection, processing, transmission, control and real-time analytics.
Healthcare industry has to integrate all the operation with use of a powerful network.
5G will power healthcare industry with smart medical devices, Internet of medical things, smart analytics, and high definition medical imaging technologies.

Challenges present to adapt to 5G are:

Frequency allocation: Indian operators have far less spectrum in comparison to international operators. The high investment cost which makes telecom companies unsure about Return on Investment.
We lag behind in technology in comparison.
Network investment: In India, the telecom sector is facing capital augmentation issues which need to be resolved.
Non-availability of funds for investment: Many of the Indian operators are also weighed down by debt.
Regulatory restrictions: Faster rounds of new technology introduction when prior technology investments have not been recouped add further complexity.
Technical Challenges: Designing IT architecture that can be deployed globally, while still allowing for localized technology to cater for different regions is a challenge.

Way forward for India:

Need to align Digital India with 5G technology.
Strengthen our cyber infrastructure.
Incentivize design and manufacture of 5G technologies, products and solutions in India.
Allocate funds and incentivise local technology and telecom firms to develop their internal capacities which would in turn help 5G technology succeed in the country
Promote 5G start-ups that enable this design and manufacturing capabilities.
Promote generation of IPR backing the above designs.
Manufacture of 5G chipsets, this may require massive investments.
Appropriate test-beds and technology platforms to enable and help Indian technical ecosystem to have an edge in 5G.
Accelerated deployment of next generation ubiquitous ultra-high broadband infrastructure with 100% coverage of 10 Gbps across urban India and 1 Gbps across Rural India.
Coverage, reliability, and scalability must be optimized and seamless mobile networks will require a unified management policy to ensure consistent standard.