How to reduce latency: the key enablers
It is possible to identify different technological enablers called upon to speed up the communication process.
First of all, the 5G standard allows excellent latency performance on the radio access link, providing a flexible framework to support different services and QoS requirements: scalable transmission slot duration, mini-slot and slot aggregation, self-contained slot structure, i.e. transmission slots containing both downlink and uplink data, traffic preemption and so on. In summary, different transmission patterns can be shaped for different services.
Another important feature, is the deployment of fiber-based backhaul systems: traditionally, 2G and 3G mobile networks often used copper-based circuits to connect cell sites to the Mobile Backhaul (MBH) network. This legacy MBH architecture has quickly shown its age with the advent of 4G. MBH upgrades are taking place all over the world converting legacy copper-based MBH serving cell sites to packet-based transport over fiber, which enables far higher capacities to best future-proof MBH networks. These technological upgrades will be leveraged by future 5G networks, given the almost unlimited bandwidth that fiber-based networks offer.
However, while the type of connection is a key consideration (for example, fiber optic cables allow much faster data transmission), distance remains one of the key factors in determining latency: the larger the distance that data must physically cover, the longer the communication delay, independently of the connection speed. This is the reason why the real playmaker in this technological revolution is edge computing, i.e. the idea of moving as many resources as possible to the edge of the network, next to the end user.