• Publisher-DOI

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are the foundation of growth and development in the modern global economy. They are striving to bring robust connectivity to all corners of the globe, driving both innovation and ways in which technologies can be used to improve economic and social development towards a smart society. New means of connectivity plus enhanced architectures promise improved coverage, greater capacity, higher data rates, more efficient use of spectrum resources, lower latency, higher system reliability, and more flexibility for effective provision of information and communication services. These activities can be summarized under the development of the 5th generation of mobile communication systems (5G). Innovative wireless technologies will be a key component in this development, which allow new applications summarized under the term of Internet of Everything including the Internet of Things (IoT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, smart cities, smart manufacturing, intelligent transportation systems, and inter-connected cars. Key differentiators of 5G to provide future wireless connectivity are: (1) 10-fold decrease in latency down to 1 ms, (2) 10-fold data throughput with multi-Gbps peak rates, and (3) 100-fold traffic capacity, e.g. by network densification with local femto cells. Efficiency is one major aspect within the development of 5G systems with massively deployed new communication nodes. To advance beyond conventional terrestrial 4G communication systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced, groundbreaking disruptive systems and hardware concepts are required to comply with all promises by 5G.

This article belongs to the Special Issue Microwave Liquid Crystal Technology