Now, `5G' has finally arrived - or the IMT for 2020 and beyond as the fifth generation of mobile telecommunication technology is called officially by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) - International Mobile Telecommunication, to be precise. The promises made even in official IMT-2020 standards - which one would expect to be conservative in their approach - are high. The promises most relevant to shipping are summarised here in 2-fold angles of perspective as follows: Enhanced mobile broadband; Ultra-reliable and low-latency communications; Massive machine-type communications (MTCs); Peak data rate User-experienced data rate; Latency; Mobility; Connection density; and Area traffic capacity.

Chapter Contents:

• 7.1 '5G' has it all for society – has it?
• 7.2 The relevance of IMT-2020 for maritime applications and its advantages for shipping
• 7.3 The availability challenge to IMT-2020 when applied to the maritime domain, and mitigation options
• 7.3.1 Weaknesses of the default terrestrial IMT-2020 RAN when applied to the maritime domain
• 7.3.2 A composite scenario for the application of IMT-2020 to the maritime domain
• 7.4 Candidate Maritime RATs to supplement terrestrial component of IMT-2020
• 7.4.1 Overview on non-voice Maritime RATs
• 7.4.1.1 The VHF data exchange system and the NAVDAT system
• 7.4.1.2 LTE-Maritime
• 7.4.1.3 Terrestrial short-range RATs potentially applied to the maritime domain
• 7.4.2 Overcoming the 'voice gap'
• 7.4.3 Intermediate conclusion for Maritime RATs
• 7.5 Satellite component
• 7.6 Shipboard equipment and shore-based deployment – the touchstone for any real application
• 7.7 Conclusions
• 7.8 Some afterthoughts
• References

Inspec keywords: telecommunication traffic; broadband networks; quality of experience; mobility management (mobile radio); 5G mobile communication; marine communication; telecommunication network reliability; machine-to-machine communication; telecommunication standards

Other keywords: connection density; ITU; ultra-reliable communications; radio communication technologies; ports digitalisation; massive MTC; International Telecommunication Union; International Mobile Telecommunication; peak data rate; mobility; area traffic capacity; low-latency communications; enhanced mobile broadband; machine-type communications; critical evaluation; IMT-2020 standards; shipping digitalisation; 5G mobile telecommunication technology; ICT solutions; maritime domain; fifth generation mobile telecommunication technology; user-experienced data rate

Subjects: Network management; Reliability; Mobile radio systems