Game Changers

Forecasting future trends is inherently challenging, but certain technologies stand out as game changers for 5G: Quantum Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and eXtended Reality.

Quantum Computing

Quantum computing harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics to perform calculations at speeds unobtainable with traditional computers. Traditional computers use bits as the basic unit for information, representing either a 0 or a 1.

Quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits that can exist simultaneously in a superposition of both states. Imagine a spinning coin that’s neither fully heads nor fully tails but a blend of both until observed. That’s the essence of a qubit’s superposition.

Cryptography

One of the most significant impacts of quantum computing lies in the field of cryptography. Within cryptography, we currently utilise two types of encryption approaches:

• Symmetric – utilises the same key for both encrypting and decrypting data.
• Asymmetric – uses different keys to encrypt and decrypt data.

Quantum computers will make asymmetric encryption types vulnerable as they rely on the complexity of factoring large numbers or solving discrete logarithm problems – a task classical computers struggle with. Using supercomputers today, it would take 300 trillion years to break current asymmetric approaches. Using a 10,000-qubit quantum computer would reduce this to just 104 days.

Additional Game Changers

If you want to explore in more detail the additional game changers outlined at the beginning of this blog, please feel free to check our Telecoms Bytes on this topic.