1.4 5G Wireless Communication: An Inflection Point

The 5G era is upon us, ushering in new opportunities for technology innovation across the computing and connectivity landscape. The advent of the Internet of Things has resulted in the generation of massive amount of data, thus creating both challenges and opportunities for industry. Today's networks will not be able to handle the variety and volume of data that is emerging. 5G presents an inflection point where the network will set the stage for data-rich services and sophisticated cloud applications, delivered faster and with lower latency, and where the wireless communication technology is driven by a multitude of applications and expected use cases. Therefore, 5G will optimize not only the network for human-human communication, but it will also deliver a solution for machine-type communications. This paper will review what is 5G and what are its key requirements, and will highlight the disruptive architectures and technology innovations required to make 5G and beyond a reality.