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82 Dec 2015/Jan 2016 | Unmanned Systems Technology PS | 5G networks M any unmanned systems rely on mobile communications networks to operate their onboard systems, navigate, and send and receive information from their operators (writes Stewart Mitchell). There has been growing concern, however, over the global coverage, security and reliability of the current generation of networks, 4G, which could leave vehicles vulnerable to hacking or loss of control in parts of the world without network coverage. It is timely therefore that mobile comms engineers have begun developing the next generation of networks, aptly named 5G, which is designed to address most of these issues. How it will do so comes down fundamentally to using a much wider range of frequency bandwidths than those in 4G. With 4G, these are all under 6 GHz, whereas 5G will use frequencies from less than 1 GHz up to and beyond 40 GHz, allowing far more data to be transferred across each frequency, at a higher speed and much further. In theory at least, it will also provide uninterruptible coverage to more than 99% of the world, with latencies as low as 1 ms. Making the networks secure will be achieved by embedding security codes in each bandwidth of the spectrum. The codes will be allocated to each device using a particular frequency according to their unique IP address. As the codes will be cloud computer-generated, there will be no physical host on the network for hackers to attack, meaning that the comms server will have no software identifier to re-code or interfere with. With its embedded security, overage and capacity, 5G will offer unmanned systems the potential to perform mission-critical services such as autonomous trade of goods and public transport. When countries signal a desire to use autonomous vehicles on a commercial basis and trade with other countries, governing bodies will assign the operating companies a specific frequency on the 5G network to operate their fleet. Each vehicle will have to incorporate software that abides by local laws of the countries in which the vehicles are operating, but this should be a relatively straightforward task. 5G’s development is underway in parts of the world including Asia and Europe, and is set to be implemented worldwide in 2020. So far, trials at a local level have demonstrated a data transfer capacity of up to 1 Tbyte/s at a range of 100 m. 5G will offer unmanned and autonomous vehicles clear advantages in efficiency, security and safety, and it will not be long after its implementation that it will allow some of the world’s largest forms of goods and personnel transport to be completely unmanned. Also, if a bandwidth has been allocated to a company operating a UAV then any other devices such as mobile phones that were on that bandwidth will be automatically moved off it. However, any such devices using 5G will be able to jump automatically between bandwidths, depending on their service supplier, the device’s power and the service requirements of the device. This will determine the allocation per device, but something to consider as well is the tiny amount of data comms devices such as mobile phones actually require. Now, here’s a thing “ ” Security codes will be allocated to each device on a particular frequency according to their unique IP address