Investigating the Effect of 5G Technology on the Current Cellular Network

Abstract

The core objective of this project is performance improvement of current networks using 5G technology. 5G is not just an evolutionary upgrade of the previous cellular genera- tion, but it is a revolutionary technology envisioned to eliminate the bounds of access, bandwidth, performance, and latency limitations on connectivity worldwide. The perfor- mance of current technologies is evaluated by considering data rates, latency, availability, coverage, bandwidth per unit area, battery life, number of connected devices per unit area and reduction in network energy usage. However current cellular networks have limitations concerning capacity and coverage especially indoor and urban areas. To improve the performance and meeting the sub- scriber requirements,5G technology is considered as a viable solution since it promises small Base Stations which can easily be deployed in indoor and outdoor areas. Therefore, a system model for hybrid network was created and the performance analyzed. Subsequently, the analytical methods and simulations techniques to evaluate the per- formance of the hybrid network over the current networks are determined basing on the rate, coverage and energy e ciency. The evaluation of the performance improvement that 5G technology can have on current cellular networks, taking Makerere University main campus as a case study area is done using spectral and energy performance metrics. The performance improvement that 5G base station deployment will have on the current cellular deployment is observed. The simulations indicate that the proposed solution outperforms the current network performance thus, improvement in the coverage, rate and energy performance of a hybrid deployment of current and 5G base stations.