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ICT Today Jan/Feb 19

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January/February 2019 I 5 From the President, Jeff Beavers, RCDD, OSP, CFHP I FEEL THE NEED... THE NEED FOR SPEED 2019 marks the return of a couple of classics: Top Gun 2, the sequel to the 1986 action drama Top Gun, and the legendary 2004 Motorola Razr, this time as a folding display "smartphone." To launch the New Year with a bang, the timing of the release of Top Gun 2 coincides with the Closing Keynote of the 2019 BICSI Winter Conference with speaker Admiral Mike "Wizard" McCabe who was one of the original TOPGUN instructors. Naval aviators and naval flight officers selected for TOPGUN learn fighter and strike tactics and techniques for air combat with the "most demanding air combat syllabus found anywhere in the world." 1 Because of this distinction, "top gun" has become a familiar term in the vernacular to mean "the best of the best." As Executive Officer of TOPGUN while the original movie was filmed, Admiral McCabe became a major advisor for the movie's direction and production. Whether it is an FA-18A-F aircraft flying on a mission or the Motorola Razr V4 combating its foldable smartphone rivals, speed is of the essence. 2019 will be another year of explosive technological growth driven by an insatiable broadband appetite and the demand for better customer experiences, faster responses, and endlessly increasing requirements for speed, low-latency and ubiquitous connectivity. This year it is anticipated that internet usage is finally going to surpass TV viewing worldwide. It is estimated that nearly one-quarter of the access to media across the globe will be from mobile devices. 2 5G, the fifth generation of wireless technology, will accelerate this change among mobile services and technologies used for commercial and residential broadband, as well as fixed wireless. Verizon claims that "users will know it as one of the fastest, most robust technologies the world has ever seen. That means quicker downloads, a more powerful network and a massive impact on how we live, work and play." 3 In 5G trials, download speeds were achieved roughly 30-50 times faster than what is possible with 4G. It is purported that feature-length Ultra-HD movies can be downloaded in seconds. Autonomous cars, smart communities, IoT, edge computing, and network slicing will all rely on 5G. Faster data transmission could simplify connected device management, which means 5G could lead to significant growth in the IoT, as the latency in current cellular networks limits many IoT applications. 2019 will continue to challenge the term "wireless." Wireless implies no wires or free from wires. However, it is estimated that over a million miles of optical fiber is required to deliver the next generation of wireless service in the U.S. alone. Exponential growth in technology, the constant change in how we communicate and are able to communicate, coupled with that insatiable broadband appetite, present challenges for service providers and designers. There is a race to get optical fiber in the ground or in the air in an environment that is very fluid. Fiber is being deployed while needs are being defined and/or made known. Density of wireless coverage, fiber strands needed for traditional services, the increase of mobile users, and the potentially multi-millions of connections for IP and IoT enabled devices and sensors that will make autonomous vehicles, smart buildings and cities a low-latency and mass-deployed reality are driving the needed fiber count exponentially. Initial 5G planning requires small cells 200-1,000 feet apart with several strands required per location. Furthermore, 5G could require 60 small cells to cover one square mile. Currently, orders are being placed for cable with 1,728 optical fiber strands, while manufacturers are offering cables with twice that amount at 3,456 strands! Wireless relies on wire and lots of it. A more appropriate term might be "less-wire." At BICSI, we are proud of our members who are "Top Guns" in the advancement of wireless and the many other technologies that will reshape ICT in 2019 and beyond. Be safe; someone is counting on you. REFERENCES: 1 https://www.public.navy.mil/AIRFOR/nawdc/Pages/About.aspx 2 Molla, Rani, Next year, people will spend more time online than they will watching TV. That's a first. Recode, Jun 8, 2018, Vox Media, Inc., https:// www.recode.net/2018/6/8/17441288/internet-time-spent-tv-zenith-data- media 3 https://www.verizon.com/about/our-company/5g/what-5g

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