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Forward/reverse channel and features of 5G

Short answer

Forward channel (downlink) is from base station to mobile; reverse channel (uplink) is from mobile to base station. 5G features include up to 20 Gbps data rate, ~1 ms latency, massive MIMO with mmWave bands, network slicing, and support for 10^6 devices/km² for IoT.

Define forward and reverse channel. List out the features of 5G.

Forward and reverse channel

  • Forward channel (downlink): the radio channel used to carry information from the base station to the mobile user. Example: in GSM-900 the forward band is 935–960 MHz.
  • Reverse channel (uplink): the radio channel used to carry information from the mobile user to the base station. Example: in GSM-900 the reverse band is 890–915 MHz.

Both directions contain voice (traffic) channels and control channels. The control channels (forward control channel and reverse control channel) carry call set-up, paging and access messages.

Features of 5G

  • Peak data rate up to 20 Gbps (eMBB) and user-experienced rate ~100 Mbps.
  • Very low latency, about 1 ms (URLLC) for self-driving cars, remote surgery, industrial control.
  • Massive connectivity: about 10⁶ devices/km² for IoT (mMTC).
  • Uses sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands with massive MIMO and beamforming.
  • Network slicing, SDN/NFV and cloud-native service-based core.
  • Flexible numerology, small cells, better energy efficiency, mobility up to 500 km/h.

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

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