Enabling 5G Communication Systems to Support Vertical Industries

Preface

Recent technological advances have resulted in the creation of vertical industries that provide niche services that were hitherto non‐existent only a decade ago. These industries are highly dependent on the availability and reliable exchange of data between multiple locations. As such, there is a consensus among analysts and opinion leaders that data will be the key driver in the fourth industrial revolution. Given the scale of devices to be connected in each vertical industry and the vast amount of data to be exchanged between multiple points, it is obvious that wireless communication is the leading enabler of the services envisioned by these industries. However, the current wireless communication systems have several technical limitations that would inhibit the actualization of the targets of these vertical industries. Hence, it is paramount to redesign wireless communication systems to take into account the holistic operational requirements of the vertical industries to enable them to reach the new productivity domains.

Mobile communication devices have rapidly evolved to become ubiquitous in our everyday lives. Although they were generally used for voice communication in the early days of the mobile communication system, steady advancement in research has paved the way for a significant increase in Spectral Efficiency (SE), which resulted in a paradigm shift towards wireless data communication. This transition has led to an increase in data rate from 50 kbps ...