How Much of Wireless Rate Can Smartphones Support in 5G Networks?

Due to the higher wireless transmission rates in the fifth generation (5G) cellular networks, higher computation overhead is incurred in smartphones, which can cause the wireless transmission rates to be limited by the computation capability of wireless terminals. In this case, is there a maximum receiving rate for smartphones to maintain stable wireless communications in 5G cellular networks? The main objective of this article is to investigate the maximum receiving rate of smartphones and its influence on 5G cellular networks. Based on Landauer's principle and the safe temperature bound on the smartphone surface, a maximum receiving rate of the smartphone is proposed for 5G cellular networks. Moreover, the impact of the maximum receiving rate of smartphones on the link adaptive transmission schemes has been investigated. Numerical analyses imply that the maximum receiving rate of smartphones cannot always catch up with the downlink rates of future 5G cellular networks. Therefore, the link adaptive transmission scheme for future 5G cellular networks has to take the maximum receiving rate of smartphones into account.