What is 5G cellular?
5G cellular is the fifth generation of mobile communication systems. It is the end-to-end network used to connect user devices such as phones, modems, sensors, and industrial equipment to packet data services with higher capacity, lower latency, and better support for large numbers of devices than earlier generations.
At a high level, a 5G cellular network is mainly made of two major parts:
Two Main Components
Radio Access Network (RAN)
The RAN is the radio-facing part of the 5G system. It connects user equipment to the operator network over the air interface. In practice, the RAN includes base stations such as gNBs, antennas, radio units, and the processing elements that handle scheduling, radio signaling, and transport toward the core.
The RAN is responsible for:
- radio transmission and reception
- mobility at the radio edge
- scheduling shared wireless resources
- carrying user and control traffic toward the core
5G Core (5GC)
The 5G Core is the service and control backbone of the network. It handles registration, authentication, session setup, policy, mobility management, and user-plane forwarding between subscribers and external data networks.
The core is responsible for:
- subscriber authentication and identity management
- session establishment and policy control
- routing user traffic to data networks
- exposing network services through service-based interfaces
How They Fit Together
In a simplified view, a user device first reaches the network through the RAN. The RAN then connects to the 5G Core, which decides whether the device can register, what policies apply, and how user traffic should be forwarded.
That means:
- the RAN provides wireless access
- the core provides control, session logic, and connectivity to services