5G Future Means Emergence of Such Applications as 'Tactile Internet,' CableLabs Says

Such 5G-enabled applications as the "tactile Internet" -- meaning expanded human-to-machine and machine-to-machine interactions -- "will spawn a myriad of applications in every field of human endeavor," said CableLabs Principal Architect Don Clarke in a blog post Wednesday. "The enabling technologies exist today" for tactile Internet, Clarke said. "They just need to be brought together in the right way with standards that facilitate open innovation." Defining 5G itself is somewhat difficult because it's "a far richer vision than simply an increase in wireless bandwidth or a 5G icon appearing on a smartphone handset," he said. With the existing cable network being "an ideal foundation for 5G" because of its ubiquity and that it already includes millions of Wi-Fi nodes, CableLabs has research and development program underway looking at some of the key enabling technologies for 5G, Clarke said. They include developing end-to-end architectures based on network-function virtualization and software-defined networks, studying the coexistence of wireless technologies, and partnering with such groups as NYU Wireless to evaluate combining millimeter wave region spectrum with cable networks.