Reading the signs: 5G is coming | EDN

https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4458951/Reading-the-signs–5G-is-coming?utm_content=buffer9759f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

One in 10 communications companies claim to have deployed 5G technology already, according to a recent survey (see: With 5G technology, the time is now).

Some parts of the 5G standard are close to being finalized, but nothing has been ratified yet. 

Furthermore, many of the constituent technologies (e.g., mmWave RF, beamforming, MIMO, etc.) are either new or not commonly used. SDN and NFV are considered critical enablers of the heightened utility and expanded flexibility that will be hallmarks of 5G networks.

The industry has a learning curve to climb. The recent set of announcements can be considered an indicator that the industry is beginning to surge up that slope. 

389 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Juniper Networks unveils MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform
    https://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/06/juniper-networks-unveils-mx-series-5g-universal-routing-platform.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_enabling_technologies_2018-06-14&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2140542

    Juniper Networks has extended the capabilities of its MX Series router line with the MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform. The technology, which leverages the new Juniper Penta Silicon packet forwarding engine along with 5G mobile focused software, will reach the field in the form of new line cards for the MX960, MX480 and MX240 routers as well as the equally new MX10008 and MX10016 Universal Chassis.

    The MX Series 5G Universal Routing Platform addresses the increased complexity and resource intensity secure software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) and upcoming Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G mobile services will create

    Much of the new capabilities come from the Juniper Penta Silicon packet forwarding engine. The programmable 16-nm device enables a 50% improvement in power efficiency (0.5 W per gigabit) versus the company’s Junos Trio chipset, which will mean a 3X increase in bandwidth capacity for the MX960, MX480, and MX240 routers. The Juniper Penta Silicon also will support both MACsec and IPsec natively for enhanced transmission security. The device also will offer Flexible Ethernet (FlexE) capabilities.

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    5G wireless infrastructure seen pushing high-speed SerDes protocols
    https://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2018/06/5g-wireless-infrastructure-seen-pushing-high-speed-serdes-protocols.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-06-18&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2143101

    “All major wireless carriers (Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T) have announced their intentions to begin 5G rollout in the US by the end of this year. Although this may appear to be a “simple” incremental generation advancement, 5G actually requires significant investments and potential changes in infrastructure compared to previous generations. These changes for 5G, as any other infrastructure that relies on high-speed transfer of data, processing and re-distribution of processed data, rely heavily on ultra-high speed and low latency ­serial data communication…As the push to 5G brings more complexity to fronthaul network infrastructure, with increased bandwidth and data processing, ASIC interfaces must keep up.

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The 5G standard was completed on schedule

    3GPP has completed 5G technology to define the Release 15 standard. Prepared at an association meeting in La Jolla, California, with more than 800 experts. The new configuration does not include any old LTE technology, so in practice the 5G standard is now complete.

    In December, 3GPP accepted the 5G NR radio standard. Release 15 defines 5G standalone definitions, so on that basis, a 5G network can start designing an operator that does not have previous mobile networks.

    When the standard is completed, operators are now expected to accelerate the introduction of 5G networks to their subscribers. In the US, AT & T and Verizon are expected to begin this year, Sprint is expected to begin next year and T-Mobile in 2020.

    On the other hand, it is difficult to say exactly when consumers would have 5G handsets.

    The 5G standard has been worked out for over three years. The result of the 3GPP workgroups is significant, given the 5G requirements. The goal was to provide data gigabytes of up to 20 gigabytes of data from the network to the terminal, a million units of service per square kilometer, and latency shrinking to 4G compared to a fifth. Practical data rates should always and everywhere be 100 megabits per second.

    Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8145-5g-standardi-valmistui-aikataulussa

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Ericsson: 5G comes this year

    According to the Ericsson Mobility Report, which will be published twice a year in the future of mobile networks, five years later, ie by 2023, 3.5 billion IoT devices will be available on mobile networks and around 20% of global mobile network traffic will run on 5G networks. The first 5G networks will be launched this year.

    Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8142&via=n&datum=2018-06-21_11:33:49&mottagare=31202

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The week that QoS in networking, aka WAN, RAN, thank you ma’am
    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/24/networking_roundup_june_21/

    Nokia has claimed a first by demonstrating a cloud-based radio access network (RAN) running on an operational carrier network.

    The demonstration was on the Orange network in Poland.

    The March – May 2018 trial used Nokia’s AirScale Cloud RAN, and was designed to help both carrier and vendor get ready for 5G deployments. The demo connected radio sites in the Polish city of Chelm to a virtualised baseband infrastructure running in a data centre 70 km away in Lublin.

    The AirScale base station provided equivalent network performance both on Nokia’s reference infrastructure and the Orange cloud environment, Nokia said.

    In the demonstration, only time-critical functions remained at the base stations. Ethernet carried over the Orange network allowed non-real-time operations to be hosted at the data centre.

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    5G Testing and Conformance Bring New Challenges
    https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333402

    EE Times asks Meik Kottkamp, principal technology manager within the test and measurement division of Rohde & Schwarz, about the latest test challenges that are likely from 5G and IoT, which will bring new standards for testing and conformance.

    EE Times: With technology moving so fast, is it even possible to test for the right things?

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Huawei calls Australian security fears ‘ill-informed and not based on facts’
    https://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/06/huawei-calls-australian-security-fears-illinformed-and-not-based-on-facts.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_friday_5_2018-06-22&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2150702

    Facing the prospect of being banned from bidding on Australia’s national 5G mobile services roll out, the senior leadership of Huawei Australia issued an open letter to members of the country’s Parliament stating that suggestions the company is an agent of the Chinese Government, and therefore a national security threat, are “ill-informed and not based on facts.”

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Micro-operators to Drive 5G Adoption
    https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333437

    Why would mobile operators invest in new network infrastructure when they are only just trying to recoup their investments in existing infrastructure?

    With 4G, the business case was easy for operators: Sell faster network speeds and more bandwidth, and the user will want it. “Build it and they will come” was the mantra.

    But now, with the diversity of applications for 5G, would it be commercially viable to invest in new infrastructure? A common theme I have been hearing is that the operators of those new networks might not necessarily be the traditional network operators but more likely to be “micro-operators.”

    The latest developments in Finland, both commercially and in research, may provide a pointer to the future for 5G (and even 6G).

    On the commercial side, Elisa, a telecom operator with networks in Finland and Estonia, said this week that it launched the world’s first commercial 5G networks — in Tampere in Finland and Tallinn in Estonia — and has started selling 5G subscriptions. The first person to use this 5G network was Anne Berner, Minister of Transport and Communications, who made a video call to Kadri Simson, Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure in Estonia. It used commercially available 5G terminal devices from Huawei to make the call. Elisa said that the first GSM telephone call in the world was also made using its network.

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Home> Community > Blogs > 5G Waves
    5G roundup: hunkered down to get it done
    Brian Santo -June 26, 2018
    https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4460784/5G-roundup–hunkered-down-to-get-it-done?utm_source=Aspencore&utm_medium=EDN&utm_campaign=social

    The major wireless carriers and their vendors have deadlines for deploying upgraded 4G and true 5G services in mere months. They are all mostly hunkered down, working feverishly to hit those deadlines, so understandably they’ve had less time in recent weeks to perpetuate the relentless 5G marketing/public-relations campaign of the preceding few years. Activity has largely been about tests, trials, new products, and preparing to make spectrum available for future services. It was simple coincidence that there was significant news on the regulatory front in all three of North America’s largest countries.

    US Federal Communications Commission adopted some regulations regarding the use of 24 GHz spectrum

    The FCC wants to auction licenses to spectrum in the 24 GHz band for 5G.

    47 GHz band. The commission proposed to similarly eliminate the pre-auction limit of 1250 MHz for the 28 GHz, 37 GHz, and 39 GHz bands.

    There next auction of bandwidth in the US is for the 28 GHz band; it is scheduled to commence this November

    Canada plans to auction off 600 MHz spectrum for 5G in 2019, 3.5 GHz spectrum in 2020, and mmWave spectrum (at an as-yet unspecified frequency or frequencies) in 2021.

    Nokia and T-Mobile just announced they’d accomplished what appears to be the first bi-directional, over-the-air, 5G data session on a 3GPP-compliant 5G New Radio (NR) system. Recall that 5G NR can reasonably be considered turbo-charged 4G, and not true 5G.

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Terrestrial broadcasters get on the 5G roadmap
    https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4460834/Terrestrial-broadcasters-get-on-the-5G-roadmap

    The non-standalone version of 5G New Radio (NSA 5G NR) was finalized last December, and more recently the standalone version (SA 5G NR) in mid-June (the former is a subset, or a special case, of the latter). We know that’s not the end of the 5G standards, though. So, what’s next? Creating specifications for use cases other than mobile broadband, which include terrestrial and satellite broadcasting.

    With these standards, network service providers can start trialing 5G broadband. As they proceed, the industry will undoubtedly find “bits and pieces to finish, things to correct,” said vice president of technical standards at Qualcomm, Lorenzo Casaccia in an interview with EDN. “The core technology is there, and that’s what you need to move into trials.”

    Defining a 5G specification for each use case or industry vertical, Casaccia explained, involves looking at the requirements of the application, and figuring out what capabilities already inherent in 5G match those criteria and using them, and adding capabilities that are required if they aren’t currently in the 5G spec.

    “We look at what we can do with both 5G and evolved LTE – LTE is effectively part of 5G in this whole discussion,” Casaccia said. “Then the exercise becomes, let’s take what we have, and how can we stretch it to meet those requirements? What should we remove, and what can we add? So through addition or subtraction from core capabilities we can address a vertical industry.”

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    5G roundup: hunkered down to get it done
    https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4460784/5G-roundup–hunkered-down-to-get-it-done

    Late last week, the US Federal Communications Commission adopted some regulations regarding the use of 24 GHz spectrum that are certainly arcane, but no less consequential for their obscurity.

    Until relatively recently, only part of the 24 GHz spectrum would have been available to be repurposed for 5G because a good portion of that band has been used for radar. For technological reasons, radar is shifting to 77 GHz (see “Moving from 24 GHz to 77 GHz radar”). It looks to be a gradual move, but eventually, much more of the 24 GHz band will be available for other uses.

    The FCC wants to auction licenses to spectrum in the 24 GHz band for 5G. The agency assumes – almost certainly correctly – that the more bandwidth that is available in that band, the more valuable the licenses are likely to be, and the higher the bids they will likely fetch.

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Shara Tibken / CNET:
    Qualcomm unveils first mmWave 5G and sub-6GHz antenna modules for 5G smartphones and mobile hotspots in 2019 — Qualcomm has solved a big problem for a certain variation of 5G: getting the chips small enough to fit in handheld devices. — On Monday, Qualcomm unveiled its new QTM052 millimeter wave …

    Qualcomm’s new chips fix a major problem for 5G phones
    https://www.cnet.com/news/qualcomms-new-chips-fix-a-major-problem-for-5g-phones/

    The chipmaker has managed to shrink its superfast network technology down enough to fit in smartphones.

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Scott Moritz / Bloomberg:
    Source: Verizon is seeking to partner with Google or Apple to provide a TV service when it launches 5G to homes in LA and Sacramento later this year — – First wireless broadband service with video launches this year — Live, online TV to be part of showcase for superfast network

    Verizon Is Seeking Google or Apple as 5G TV Provider
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-07-23/verizon-is-said-to-seek-google-or-apple-as-5g-tv-provider

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
    UK sets out plan for full fiber broadband coverage by 2033 and 5G mobile network coverage for the majority of the population by 2025

    UK sets out plan to spend billions on fiber and 5G broadband for all
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/23/uk-sets-out-plan-to-spend-billions-on-fiber-and-5g-broadband-for-all/

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Eric Auchard / Reuters:
    T-Mobile US picks Nokia to supply it with $3.5B in next-generation 5G network gear, marking the world’s largest 5G deal so far

    Nokia, T-Mobile US agree $3.5 billion deal, world’s first big 5G award
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-telecoms-5g-nokia-t-mobile-us/nokia-t-mobile-us-agree-3-5-billion-deal-worlds-first-big-5g-award-idUSKBN1KK1IK

    T-Mobile US (TMUS.O) named Nokia (NOKIA.HE) to supply it with $3.5 billion in next-generation 5G network gear, the firms said on Monday, marking the world’s largest 5G deal so far and concrete evidence of a new wireless upgrade cycle taking root.

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/03/network_roundup/

    NEC’s traffic management adds 5G

    NEC has announced that its Traffic Management Solution (TMS) now supports 5G. The company said this capability will be important when carriers start operating mixed 4G/5G networks and need to ensure smooth hand-off when a handset moves between different network types.

    The software has also been enhanced to make its analytics faster and more accurate, and its Dynamic TCP Optimisation is upgraded to support stations communicating at 5 Gbps or more.

    https://www.nec.com/en/press/201808/global_20180801_01.html

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Motorola strap-on packs a 2,000mAh battery to appease the 5G gods
    Baby steps, now
    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/08/06/motorola_5g_mod/

    With the standalone 5G spec (3GPP Release 15) nailed down in June, it was only a matter of time before the first phone was formally announced. And as expected, it isn’t a phone at all, but an addon that clamps to the back of an expandable Motorola phone.

    Verizon has earned the bragging rights to be the first to deliver commercially available 5G by becoming the exclusive launch vendor of the Moto 5G Mod, which will be available, presumably with supporting network coverage in demo locations, in “early 2019″. Huawei has promised an integrated 5G phone for “2H 2019″.

    But Lenovo’s Motorola division conspicuously doesn’t make any promises about speed other than a promise that it’s “10 times faster than today’s wireless technology”.

    That might not be true once networks deploy Gigabit LTE, a precursor to 5G. As with the leap from 3G to 4G, networks can get plenty of mileage from faster iterations of the previous generation for some considerable time. In the case of 3G, HSDPA+ offered fairly similar speeds.

    “Right now the latest version of 3G and the early versions of LTE are not dramatically different,”

    At a minimum, a 5G phone can take advantage of new spectrum allocated for 5G networks – if not much else at this stage. Devices like a Mod-ified Moto are really a stepping stone over from the stepping stone that is Release 14, or Gigabit LTE. The latter supports devices with many more antennas, carrier aggregation, and higher order modulation rates that’s part of the Release 15 (5G) spec. Telstra and T-Mobile (USA) have deployed the stepping stone technology.

    The inclusion of a 2,000mAh battery in the 5G Mod – complimenting whatever is in the phone – confirms that 5G is expected to be a power guzzler.

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    T-Mobile cuts $3.5B deal with Nokia to build out 5G wireless network
    https://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2018/07/t-mobile-cuts-3-5b-deal-with-nokia-to-build-out-5g-wireless-network.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-08-06&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2195102

    T-Mobile US named Nokia to supply it with $3.5 billion in next-generation 5G network gear, the firms said on Monday [July 30], marking the world’s largest 5G deal so far and concrete evidence of a new wireless upgrade cycle taking root.

    No.3 U.S. mobile carrier T-Mobile – which in April agreed to a merger with Sprint to create a more formidable rival to U.S. telecom giants Verizon and AT&T – said the multiyear supply deal with Nokia will deliver the first nationwide 5G services.

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    5G roundup: hunkered down to get it done
    https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4460784/5G-roundup–hunkered-down-to-get-it-done

    The major wireless carriers and their vendors have deadlines for deploying upgraded 4G and true 5G services in mere months. They are all mostly hunkered down, working feverishly to hit those deadlines, so understandably they’ve had less time in recent weeks to perpetuate the relentless 5G marketing/public-relations campaign of the preceding few years. Activity has largely been about tests, trials, new products, and preparing to make spectrum available for future services. It was simple coincidence that there was significant news on the regulatory front in all three of North America’s largest countries.

    Late last week, the US Federal Communications Commission adopted some regulations regarding the use of 24 GHz spectrum that are certainly arcane, but no less consequential for their obscurity.

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Why Waiting for 5G is the Wrong Metro Network Strategy
    https://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2018/05/why-waiting-for-5g-is-the-wrong-metro-network-strategy.html?cmpid=enl_lightwave_lightwave_service_providers_2018-07-16&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2173729

    Today’s metro networks are rapidly evolving and have carriers in a conundrum. Pressured by exploding mobility, major initiatives to move to the cloud, and skyrocketing consumption of high-bandwidth services on one end and the promise of 5G right around the corner, most are deciding between spending now to meet today’s demand or waiting to put the investment towards 5G when the time is right. Is there a right answer? In short, there is – if implemented intelligently.

    Tier 1 service providers are making plenty of noise around the build towards 5G, with AT&T and Verizon aiming to light up 5G in some U.S. markets in 2018. Currently, it appears we’ll see 5G networks arrive for major markets around the world in late 2019 or 2020.

    But can we wait until then to upgrade? The demands on the metro network are out of control. Metro infrastructure is tasked with constantly consolidating a massive amount of traffic from mobile, residential, and business services, acting as the critical bridge between the service provider core and end-user access. As a result, when demand for connectivity expands due to bandwidth-hungry services such as video streaming, gaming, cloud-based business services, and virtual and augmented reality, it is the metro network that primarily meets the need.

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    5G: The Conspiracy Theories
    https://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1333537

    There are plenty of people out there who are convinced that 5G is going to be used to control our lives and make us sterile.

    Last week, while searching YouTube for 5G tutorial videos, I came across the search term “5G technology dangerous.” Curious as to what people are theorizing about this undeployed technology, I began watching. What I found makes little sense, but as we’ve seen, if people hear false statements frequently enough, they begin to believe what they’re told.

    Conspiracy theories have been around for as long as anyone can remember. 5G is just a new one. People also claim the same conspiracies about Wi-Fi. So what are they saying? Well, two things: health issues and deliberate population control and reduction.

    We’ve heard a lot about mmWaves being used for 5G, which range from roughly 24 GHz to perhaps 90 GHz. The conspiracy theorists claim that, because of the high frequencies and the fact that they have short ranges, we’re going to need small cells everywhere to get the coverage that people want. That, they claim, will lead to higher radiation levels and higher rates of cancer. Some claim that there will be no escaping these signals. I haven’t heard this yet, but I can imagine people claiming that houses painted with lead-based paint will be better for you than those without.

    Next, the conspiracy theorists argue that 5G will lead to many more wireless devices everywhere — what we call IoT.

    Then there’s MIMO and beam steering. I don’t think the conspiracy theorists have grasped that yet, so let’s extrapolate what might happen. The small cells that will supposedly be everywhere will have phased-array antennas capable of concentrating their transmit power into small beams. Will that make things better or worse for your health?

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Terrestrial broadcasters get on the 5G roadmap
    https://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/5g-waves/4460834/Terrestrial-broadcasters-get-on-the-5G-roadmap

    The non-standalone version of 5G New Radio (NSA 5G NR) was finalized last December, and more recently the standalone version (SA 5G NR) in mid-June (the former is a subset, or a special case, of the latter). We know that’s not the end of the 5G standards, though. So, what’s next? Creating specifications for use cases other than mobile broadband, which include terrestrial and satellite broadcasting.

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    US lags behind China in race to build out 5G wireless networks: Deloitte
    https://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2018/08/us-lags-behind-china-in-race-to-build-out-5g-wireless-networks-deloitte.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cim_data_center_newsletter_2018-08-13&pwhid=6b9badc08db25d04d04ee00b499089ffc280910702f8ef99951bdbdad3175f54dcae8b7ad9fa2c1f5697ffa19d05535df56b8dc1e6f75b7b6f6f8c7461ce0b24&eid=289644432&bid=2201969

    The United States is being outspent by China in the race to build the next generation of wireless communication, known as 5G, and it risks losing out on the potential economic benefits, according to a report by consultants Deloitte published on Tuesday…The first countries to adopt the next generation of wireless communications will experience ‘disproportionate gains,’ as 5G brings an ‘era of untapped economic potential’, the report said. China has outspent the United States by $24 billion since 2015 and has built 3,50,000 new cell phone tower sites, while the US built less than 30,000.

    United States lags behind China in the race to build 5G wireless networks: Report
    https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/united-states-lags-behind-china-in-the-race-to-build-5g-wireless-networks-report-4909811.html

    The United States is being outspent by China in the race to build the next generation of wireless communication, known as 5G, and it risks losing out on the potential economic benefits, according to a report by consultants Deloitte published on Tuesday.

    China currently has ten times more sites to support 5G communications than the United States. In just three months of 2017, Chinese cell phone tower companies and carriers added more sites than the US had done in the previous three years, the Deloitte Consulting report found.

    The first countries to adopt the next generation of wireless communications will experience “disproportionate gains,” as 5G brings an “era of untapped economic potential”, the report said.

    China has outspent the United States by $24 billion since 2015 and has built 3,50,000 new cell phone tower sites, while the US built less than 30,000.

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Rising Cost Of 5G
    https://semiengineering.com/the-rising-cost-of-5g/

    Experts at the table, part 3: Big increases in power consumption and uncertainty about how to test these devices have yet to be resolved.

    SE: Is the goal to have everything eventually hanging off a 5G network?

    Yost: Not everything needs that complexity. So the key is how we design to that capability, but also have the ability to scale back so we can deploy smartly and just have the pieces we need for different applications. You will never need that much bandwidth on your cell phone. You don’t need a 4K video because your eyes can’t see the difference. But your car does need that higher bandwidth to communicate with the cloud. So knowing when to make those tradeoffs and using the critical parts in the right way will be important. Machine learning will come in big there, as well, with automated network slicing and things like that.

    Fitton: Vertical slicing of a network is really interesting for when you need that processing at the edge.

    Yost: And how we dynamically do that so a human doesn’t have to be involved in switching.

    Fitton: Yes.

    SE: Is this technology only for urban areas?

    Koutsoyannopoulos: One of the biggest problems today is to build new models in urban areas. It’s a work in progress.

    Fitton: I agree from a radio wave propagation point of view. It’s going to be extremely complicated to build up in a true urban environment. That’s where the money is.

    Yost: One of the key benefits being touted for 5G is the ability to add more users per unit of area. You don’t need that in a rural area. There won’t be 100,000 people crammed into a tiny area.

    SE: However, farmers do want 5G.

    Yost: That’s more of an IIoT application. Farmers or a factory are similar in that you have hundreds of towers. But you don’t need the infrastructure from one ranch to another to support that kind of density. You can have it spread out. Maybe you have just one base station and it can service all of them. But in a city, where you have millions of people, you have very different needs. You can serve farmers with one tower in a way that you couldn’t serve an entire city with one tower.

    Vel: Simulating these infrastructures in different environments, like an urban versus a rural environment, is completely different. In urbanized environments you have to account for so many different aspects because when you’re talking about millimeter wave it’s line-of-sight.

    SE: It won’t even go through a window.

    Vel: Yes, and the technologies we’re going to use to build these products have to withstand all of these different conditions. One of the things we’re wrestling with is how you simulate them in an ideal world and non-ideal. When you build the product, you’re building it in an ideal situation. But the minute you install that product on a tower, you automatically have deflections, ambient conditions like rain, temperature and humidity, and all of these are going to change.

    SE: Is latency higher on 5G than 4G?

    Koutsoyannopoulos: The applications we have today will exploit the higher bandwidth. But many of the applications we envision will need significantly lower latency. So we have to deal with that from a system point of view. It’s not about connectivity between a base station and a mobile device. It’s the whole system, end-to-end.

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Australia bans Huawei and ZTE from supplying technology for its 5G network
    https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/22/australia-bans-huawei-and-zte-from-supplying-technology-for-its-5g-network/?sr_share=facebook&utm_source=tcfbpage

    Australia has blocked Huawei and ZTE from providing equipment for its 5G network, which is set to launch commercially next year. In a tweet, Huawei stated that the Australian government told the company that both it and ZTE are banned from supplying 5G technology to the country, despite Huawei’s assurances that it does not pose a threat to national security.

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  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/8344-tasta-ei-puhuta-5g-signaali-ei-paase-kiinteiston-sisaan

    Sisäkuuluvuus on ongelma, joka tulee vain pahenemaan 5G-verkkojen myötä. Ensimmäisenä jakoon tulevat 5G-signaalit kulkee 3,5 gigahertsin alueella ja vaikka niissä ongelmat eivät vielä ole katastrofaalisia, taajuuden kasvaessa ongelmat pahenevat. – 28 gigahertsin signaali ei enää mene läpi mistään, Lepistö karrikoi.

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