THE ROLE OF ENHANCED MOBILE BROADBAND: WHAT IS IT AND WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?
According to the ITU’s IMT 2020 Vision, the need to deliver enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) is one of three distinct 5G use cases. In this vision, eMBB is a natural evolution to the data rates we enjoy today with LTE and will enjoy tomorrow with LTE-A Pro. The ultimate 5G target is to deliver up to 10-Gb/s peak throughput, 1-Gb/s throughput in high mobility, and up to 10,000X total network traffic. Although this target might seem unattainable, it’s more attainable than you might think. In fact, technologies in development today, such as millimeter waves and massive MIMO, will play a critical role in achieving the eMBB goals.
eMBB is important in delivering some of the new market aspects such as:
XR — XR is seen as the sum of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and versions of reality to come. XR gaming with photo-realistic graphics, for example, will only reach its full potential with the seamless internet connectivity of 5G as well as cloud services.
Head-mounted displays — HMDs are primed to deliver AR content to consumers in contexts ranging from meal preparation to cloud gaming.
PCs — If laptops were as connected as smartphones, it would allow an improvement towards creating and editing videos whilst working collaboratively with colleagues.
Video and media consumption — Improvements in speed and capacity pave the way from watching today’s 360-degree, 4K video at 30 frames per second to enjoying tomorrow’s interactive, 3D 8K video at 90 to 120 fps.