- Ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) is a set of features defined by 3GPP 5G-NR Release 15 that provide low latency and very high reliability for mission-critical 5G communications applications such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), smart grids, remote surgery and intelligent transport systems.
- These specifications were defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), which establishes and publishes technical specifications for third (3G), fourth (4G) and fifth (5G) generation mobile communication networks. 3GPP has specified URLLC as a key feature of 5G NR Release 15, in addition to eMBB (enhanced mobile broadband).
- According to 3GPP Release 14, latency in 4G LTE is around 4 milliseconds, but with the introduction of URLLC in Release 15, the target is 1 millisecond.
- URLLC also promises end-to-end security and wireless reliability of up to 99.999 percent.
- 5G communication networks are expected to be able to offer user throughput and maximum throughput 10 and 20 times higher, respectively, than what is currently available (1 Gbps for 4G and 20 Gbps for 5G). The maximum density of connections will be multiplied by 10 and the latency divided by at least 10 (the target point-to-point latency is 1 ms, against 30 to 40 ms today).