The rapid increase in data traffic caused by the proliferation of smart devices has spurred the demand for extremely large-capacity wireless networks. Thus, faster data transmission rates and greater spectral efficiency have become critical requirements in modern-day networks. The ubiquitous 5G is an end-to-end network capable of accommodating billions of linked devices and offering high-performance broadcast services due to its several enabling technologies. However, the existing review works on 5G wireless systems examined only a subset of these enabling technologies by providing a limited coverage of the system model, performance analysis, technology advancements, and critical design issues, thus requiring further research directions. In order to fill this gap and fully grasp the potential of 5G, this study comprehensively examines various aspects of 5G technology. Specifically, a systematic and all-encompassing evaluation of the candidate 5G enabling technologies was conducted. The evolution of 5G, the progression of wireless mobile networks, potential use cases, channel models, applications, frequency standardization, key research issues, and prospects are discussed extensively. Key findings from the elaborate review reveal that these enabling technologies are critical to developing robust, flexible, dependable, and scalable 5G and future wireless communication systems. Overall, this review is useful as a resource for wireless communication researchers and specialists.

Radio waves are attenuated by atmospheric phenomena such as snow, rain, dust, clouds, and ice, which absorb radio signals. Signal attenuation becomes more severe at extremely high frequencies, usually above 10 GHz. In typical equatorial and tropical locations, rain attenuation is more prevalent. Some established research works have attempted to provide state-of-the-art reviews on modeling and analysis of rain attenuation in the context of extremely high frequencies. However, the existing review works conducted over three decades (1990 to 2022), have not adequately provided comprehensive taxonomies for each method of rain attenuation modeling to expose the trends and possible future research directions. Also, taxonomies of the methods of model validation and regional developmental efforts on rain attenuation modeling have not been explicitly highlighted in the literature. To address these gaps, this paper conducted an extensive literature survey on rain attenuation modeling, methods of analyses, and model validation techniques, leveraging the ITU-R regional categorizations. Specifically, taxonomies in different rain attenuation modeling and analysis areas are extensively discussed. Key findings from the detailed survey have shown that many open research questions, challenges, and applications could open up new research frontiers, leading to novel findings in rain attenuation. Finally, this study is expected to be reference material for the design and analysis of rain attenuation.

This paper reviews the state-of-the art technologies and techniques for integrating satellite and terrestrial networks within a 5G and Beyond Networks (5GBYNs). It highlights key limitations in existing architectures, particularly in addressing interoperability, resilience, and Quality of Service (QoS) for real-time applications. In response, this work proposes a novel Software-Defined Networking (SDN)-based framework for reliable satellite–terrestrial integration. The proposed framework leverages intelligent traffic steering and dynamic access network selection to optimise real-time communications. By addressing gaps in the literature with a distributed SDN control approach spanning terrestrial and space domains, the framework enhances resilience against disruptions, such as natural disasters, while maintaining low latency and jitter. Future research directions are outlined to refine the design and explore its application in 6G systems.

Fibreless optics or free space optical communications (FSOC) has been at the forefront of many academic research in telecommunications due to its numerous benefits of large spectrum, high-speed data transmission, security, low transmit power, unlicensed spectrum and non-interfering links. Among the technical challenges of dense deployment of small cells in heterogeneous networks (HetNet) is a flexible and cost-effective backhaul link. This paper proposes, designs, simulates and evaluates the performance of a 350 m FSOC link under different atmospheric impairments for picocell to macrocell backhauling applications. The performance of the FSOC link is assessed by evaluating bit error rate (BER), eye diagram and quality factor (Q-factor). Results obtained recommend the FSOC link deployment for pico-macrocell backhauling under the weather conditions of clear sky with/without turbulence, heavy rain, heavy haze, heavy fog and wet snow.

This paper presents the model analysis of ballon-sphere system by considering the effect of friction. The ball-on-sphere system is modelled using bond graph technique. In the bond graph modelling procedures of the system, the various subsystems, storage elements, junction structures, transformer elements, dissipating element with appropriate causality assignments and energy exchange that make up the ball-on-sphere system were identified and modelled. In the model analysis of the ball-on-sphere system, the developed model with effect of friction had time of angular position response of the ball () achieved at 0.5253s while in the system model without effect of friction, time of 0.5408s was achieved for the angular position response of the ball (). This shows 2.9% improvement of the angular position response of the ball considering frictional effect in the developed bond graph model of the system.

The two dimensional monolithic microwave integrated circuits (2D MMIC) are mainly implemented in a planar fashion and use microstrip design based technology. At microwave frequency and above, they would require a large amount of passive circuitry therefore occupying a great deal of space (area). Furthermore the 2D MMIC is associated with some disadvantages ranging from the use of very thin substrate which makes it less reliable, to very delicate substrate due to the use of via-hole technology, coupling issue and high cost due to large area it occupies. To solve these problems a three-dimensional multilayer technique 3D MMIC was used. The design of the 3D MMIC is based on coplanar waveguide (CPW), in this design the signal is protected by the two grounds on both side, the circuit becomes more compact, cost-effective and with improved performance. This research work was aimed at the design, modelling and investigation of a GaAs based multilayer compact 3D MMIC transmission line. Different transmission lines were designed and modelled using Agilent’s Advanced Design System (ADS) and their Sparameters were extracted using Electromagnetic (EM) simulator momentum.