What will the 5G network, which is expected
to be standardized around 2020, look like? It is
now too early to define this with any certainty.
However, it is widely agreed that compared to
the 4G network, the 5G network should achieve
1000 times the system capacity, 10 times the
spectral efficiency, energy efficiency and data
rate (i.e., peak data rate of 10 Gb/s for low
mobility and peak data rate of 1 Gb/s for high
mobility), and 25 times the average cell throughput.
The aim is to connect the entire world, and
achieve seamless and ubiquitous communications
between anybody (people to people), anything
(people to machine, machine to machine),
wherever they are (anywhere), whenever they
need (anytime), by whatever electronic
devices/services/networks they wish (anyhow).
This means that 5G networks should be able to
support communications for some special scenarios
not supported by 4G networks (e.g., for
high-speed train users). High-speed trains can
easily reach 350 up to 500 km/h, while 4G networks
can only support communication scenarios
up to 250 km/h. In this article, we propose a
potential 5G cellular architecture and discuss
some promising technologies that can be
deployed to deliver the 5G requirements.