India is preparing for the edge-powered 5G revolution

5G is the 5th generation mobile network. It is a new global wireless standard after 1G, 2G, 3G, and 4G networks. India is at the cusp of a digital revolution that has the potential to radically transform our daily lives. It enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices. Internet speeds in the high-band spectrum of 5G has been tested to be as high as 20 Gbps, while, in most cases, the maximum internet data speed in 4G has been recorded at 1 Gbps. With the evolution of technology doctors can monitor your health remotely. Imagine AI-enabled drones monitoring agricultural land, construction sites, defense areas, and generating reports in real-time. All this would be enabled through 5G communication.

5G will push us into a world of interconnected networks, devices, and applications where each activity will become a potential attack vector. It will give a strong impetus to new technologies like the Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, etc. 5G will usher a hyper-connected world by connecting billions of IoT inclusive hackable smart devices. The dynamic nature of 5G will expand the potential source points for cyber threats. Low-cost, short-range, small-cell antennas deployed throughout urban areas will become the new hard targets. These cell sites will use 5G’s Dynamic Spectrum Sharing capability in which multiple streams of information share the bandwidth in so-called “slices” with each slice embedding its own varying degree of cyber risk.

The 5G connections in India are likely to touch 88 million by 2025, according to GSMA. With the Indian service providers conducting 5G trials and tests, India is at an exciting point in its journey toward 5G. The country is all set to conduct a 5G spectrum auction in the coming year. A survey reveals, several operators around the world are designing their 5G offerings to incorporate cloud gaming services, which have strict latency and bandwidth requirements for seamless gaming experiences.

Another tech trend that is emerging in India is edge cloud, which promises to not just drive new revenue opportunities for the service providers but also allows the government to provide high-speed connectivity to remote areas of the country by placing content closer to the end-users, where it is created and consumed. Secondly, we can witness heightened investments in edge clouds. Going forward, 5G will push this outward to a web of digital routers spread throughout the network.

What was possible before via physical appliances will now be virtualized to perform software higher-level network functions. Moreover, the network would also be managed by AI-software that could itself be vulnerable and may give the attacker unsolicited control over the network.