CES 2018: The focus on 5G

The new mobile technology will inspire self-driving cars, connected homes and the Internet of Things. 5G promises reliable high speed, significantly more bandwidth, and extremely low latency.

The CES 2018 will be full of self-driving cars, connected homes and the Internet of Things. 5G as a new mobile technology, however, should be the basis for these and other innovations within the next decade. The fair will take place from January 9th to 12th in Las Vegas.

During last year's show, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf described 5G as the most significant innovation since electrification. This year Intel CEO Brian Krzanich wants to address in his keynote the data-driven future, which allows 5G. Nokia and Ericsson also want to take the opportunity to highlight the benefits of the new network technology.

The 5G networks are scheduled to go into operation in 2019 and will be accessible to 20 percent of the population by 2023. Carrier and other companies such as chipmaker Qualcomm have already carried out a first international interoperability test for 5G. In November, Intel announced the 5G mobile chip XMM 8060. Consumers should thus be able to benefit from the new mobile radio technology from the second half of 2019.

5G delivers more speed, but that's not all. More importantly, achievable speeds are reliable and consistent, even indoors or at busy network areas. The higher bandwidth is supposed to enable a massive increase in connected devices. The latency of retrieving a webpage or video should be reduced to less than a millisecond.

According to Intel, 5G says everything is networked. The processor maker sees itself at the top of the 5G revolution. His strategy will be promoted by Asha Keddy, who is responsible for the Internet of Things (IoT) Intel connected devices and next-generation networks.

"We're not going to connect just six or seven billion people, we're going to connect tens of billions of things," announces Keddy. "It will be phones, lights, cars, buildings, and equipment, look for it." The next wave of gadgets should, therefore, be connected by a "completely reshaped network" with a seamless, invisible and consistent connectivity - no more buffering, no delays, no congested networks. "Something like magic behind the curtain," promises Keddy.

First, the number of connected devices should increase, especially in the smart home. In addition, CES will devote an entire exhibition area to the Smart Cities - including smart energy networks, transport infrastructure, and a networked healthcare system. And the smart city needs smart cars.

Already in recent years, car manufacturers such as Ford, BMW, Hyundai, Audi, and Daimler showed their concepts of autonomous driving at CES. Daimler saw it as a "logical place" for the world premiere of the research vehicle Mercedes F 015 Luxury in Motion because the idea behind it was a constant exchange of information between vehicle, passengers, and the outside world. Automakers are likely to expose 5G this year because they rely on their low latency on their way to the self-driving future - with reliable communication between vehicles within fractions of a second.