Revolutionizing Wearables for 5G

Wearable devices present an increasingly attractive solution for numerous applications in sectors ranging from the military to medicine to consumer electronics. They will also play an integral role in the imminent fifth-generation (5G) networks, which are expected to operate with higher bit rates and lower outage probabilities in smaller microcells and picocells covering broader areas than fourth-generation (4G) or older technologies. In addition, beam reconfigurability and beamforming are expected to facilitate spectral and energy efficiencies at both the mobile device and base station levels. In overcoming the limitations of current 4G systems, the new features and capabilities envisioned for 5G networks will radically change applications in transportation, health care, smart homes, and wireless robots, among many others [1], [2]. © 2017 IEEE.