5G: An Overview on Challenges and Key Solutions

The next generation of mobile communications, 5G, is currently being developed and expected to be commercially available by 2020. Unlike the previous generations, 5G will bring massive changes by enabling ultra-reliable communication, ultra-dense deployment, higher data rates, lower latencies and higher spectrum efficiency and energy efficiency. Nonetheless, the today’s hardware structure and technologies used cannot support the requirements proposed for 5G. Therefore, new solutions and key technologies need to be investigated. This article provides an overview on the existing challenges in order to reach the requirements proposed for the next generation, and the key technologies that act as solutions to these challenges.