What Is 5G Wireless Technology?
Discover 5G: Understand its workings, potential, and risks. Learn about its benefits, real-life applications, future implications, and comparison with 4G.
2025 THREAT LANDSCAPE REPORT5G wireless technology uses radio waves to transmit data, just like 4G and earlier networks. However, 5G operates on higher frequencies, providing more bandwidth.? This allows for faster speeds and lower latency, meaning less delay. 5G also utilizes advanced antenna technology, enabling more devices to connect simultaneously. This technology forms a dense network of small cell towers. This combination of factors makes 5G ideal for data-intensive applications like video streaming and a more responsive user experience..
5G is the 5th generation mobile network. It is a new global wireless standard after 4G networks. 5G enables a new kind of network that is designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together including machines, objects, and devices.
5G wireless technology is meant to deliver higher multi-Gbps peak data speeds,?ultra-low latency, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, and agility. These have the potential to deliver new user experiences and connects new industries.
The advent of 5G technology is a significant leap forward in mobile network technology, building upon the foundations laid by its predecessors. Each generation, from 1G to 4G, brought advancements in speed, capacity, and functionality, paving the way for the transformative capabilities of 5G.
Several key technological advancements made 5G possible:
While 5G offers numerous advantages, its expanded capabilities and complexities also introduce new security challenges that require careful consideration.
Expanded Attack Surface: The massive increase in connected devices and the distributed nature of 5G networks create a larger attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit. Each connected device, from smartphones to IoT sensors, represents a potential entry point for malicious actors.
IoT Device Security: The proliferation of IoT devices, often with limited security capabilities, poses a significant risk. Compromised IoT devices can be used to launch attacks, disrupt networks, or steal sensitive data.
Network Slicing Risks: Network slicing in 5G offers customization and isolates network resources. However, improper implementation can create vulnerabilities, potentially allowing unauthorized access or cross-slice attacks.
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The high reliability and ultra-fast speed of 5G networks enhance the current capabilities of 4G networks, which themselves built on 3G¡¯s application and data technology. However, there are significant differences between 5G and 4G, including:
Explaining 5G relies on understanding the following core components of the technology:
5G delivers the following main enhanced and new capabilities:
5G is the most secure commercial mobile generation and wireless technology, with enhanced authentication, encryption, and overall integrity. 5G is a critical enabler for enterprises' real objectives, which is the deployment and enablement of a great number of use cases that bring value and innovation in products, services, operations, safety, and agility.
These may include such things as closed-loop process automation, real-time logistic management, augmented reality, predictive maintenance, and more. Delivery of such use cases requires the creation, deployment, and management of an interconnected 5G industrial ecosystem, including all related OT/IIoT devices and vendors, industrial applications and tools¡ªboth on-site and on public/partner clouds, and the 5G network itself.
Therefore, the 5G native security capabilities are only part of the story. The 5G ecosystem that interlocks enterprises, providers, and the partners serving their unique business interests creates a distributed attack surface that 5G on its own is unable to defend.
The rise of the sophisticated attacks¡ªranging from Advanced Swarm-Attacks that will leverage 5G-enabled devices to overwhelm defenses, to increasingly sophisticated IoT/IIoT and API-based attacks that can leverage AI to speed delivery and outwit traditional and isolated security systems¡ªwarrants a defense-in-depth approach to security. One that builds on the foundation of native 5G security with additional security layers to protect the entire 5G ecosystem end-to-end to deliver business-critical enterprise use cases.
5G delivers the following main enhanced and new capabilities:
5G is the most secure commercial mobile generation and wireless technology, with enhanced authentication, encryption, and overall integrity. 5G is a critical enabler for enterprises' real objectives, which is the deployment and enablement of a great number of use cases that bring value and innovation in products, services, operations, safety, and agility.
These may include such things as closed-loop process automation, real-time logistic management, augmented reality, predictive maintenance, and more. Delivery of such use cases requires the creation, deployment, and management of an interconnected 5G industrial ecosystem, including all related OT/IIoT devices and vendors, industrial applications and tools¡ªboth on-site and on public/partner clouds, and the 5G network itself.
Therefore, the 5G native security capabilities are only part of the story. The 5G ecosystem that interlocks enterprises, providers, and the partners serving their unique business interests creates a distributed attack surface that 5G on its own is unable to defend.
The rise of the sophisticated attacks¡ªranging from Advanced Swarm-Attacks that will leverage 5G-enabled devices to overwhelm defenses, to increasingly sophisticated IoT/IIoT and API-based attacks that can leverage AI to speed delivery and outwit traditional and isolated security systems¡ªwarrants a defense-in-depth approach to security. One that builds on the foundation of native 5G security with additional security layers to protect the entire 5G ecosystem end-to-end to deliver business-critical enterprise use cases.
5G operates on a new radio interface (5G NR) and a next-generation core network (5G NGC), utilizing advanced technologies like massive MIMO and beamforming to deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity.
5G stands for the fifth generation of cellular network technology. It is the successor to 4G LTE networks and offers significantly faster speeds, lower latency, and the ability to connect many more devices simultaneously.
The key components of 5G include New Radio (the new air interface designed for 5G), wider spectrum bands (including sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave frequencies), Massive MIMO (multiple antennas for improved capacity), Beamforming (directing signals for better strength), Network Slicing, and Edge Computing.
5G offers businesses increased productivity due to faster speeds and lower latency. It enables real-time collaboration and efficient handling of data-intensive tasks. It provides opportunities for innovation such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and the IoT. 5G improves the customer experience through faster, more reliable connectivity, and boosts operational efficiency.
5G speeds significantly outpace 4G, potentially reaching several gigabits per second. While actual speeds depend on various factors, users can expect faster downloads and uploads.
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