ON THE CUSP OF A REVOLUTION

With standards in place and industry and academia working to deliver a new
generation of systems and architectures, could 2019 be the year of 5G?

talk to analysts, academics,
industry bodies and those in the
commercial space, and 2019
looks set to see the arrival of 5G.
But whether the commercial roll outs planned
for next year prove successful, or not, it is
now possible to see 5G becoming a reality.
And, as such, it brings with it enormous
commercial implications and opportunities.
The first 5G New Radio (NR)
specifications were approved earlier this
year and a number of countries have started
the process of allocating spectrum – in April
this year the UK’s biggest operators spent
£1.4billion to secure spectrum to launch next
generation 5G services.
For operators, 5G is seen as becoming an
economic and financial necessity, especially
as a growing number of countries look to roll
out 5G services over the coming decade.
So, with the appetite for the connectivity,
bandwidth and advanced high-speed and low
latency networks growing rapidly, the race to
start delivering next generation 5G services
has started in earnest.
5G will deliver communications systems
which will be fast - up to 100 times faster
than 4G and 10 times faster than the
average broadband connection. At the same
time, they will be supporting the next wave of
technological innovation.
The first 5G phones are expected to
appear in 2019 with Samsung and Apple
expected to lead the way – Apple engineers
are said to be ‘engaging’ with Intel as they
look at adding 5G capabilities into a future
iPhone – and new 5G-enabled models are
likely to start appearing at next year’s Mobile
World Congress in Barcelona.
Recent months have certainly seen
increased activity on the device side
and there have been significant new
developments around the issue of
interoperability, which will be crucial if
phones and 5G enabled technology are to
operate with different infrastructure network
platforms.
The finalising of the 5G new radio (NR)
standard has been crucial in establishing an
interoperability framework.
When it comes to the technological
requirements, 5G will use different kinds
of antennas, operate on different radio
spectrum frequencies, connect many
more devices to the internet and deliver
ultra-fast speeds, so these latest standard
specifications will present some significant
challenges for the designers of 5G systems.
Because 5G uses higher frequencies it
will introduce new complexity that will require
different baseband algorithms and radio
architectures.
While developments are ongoing real
devices can actually be found in factories
and are being tested – in fact numerous trials
are already underway around the world to
test 5G.
One important issue that rollout brings is
where about on the spectrum 5G will sit.
While 4G occupies 5MHz to 20MHz when
it comes to Korea, the US and Japan the
optimum frequency to support 5G is thought
to be 28GHz; in Europe it’s seen as between
24GHz and 27GHz.
As a result, companies will need to
incorporate the entire range into their
new chipsets so that 5G is able to work in
different countries.
Another issue is the cost of deploying 5G.
Because of the higher frequencies required to
support 5G, signals will not be able to travel
as far which will mean that more antennas
will be required, which will raise the cost of
implementation as the network is rolled out.
Despite the technological challenges
associated with 5G, it is expected to account
for as many as 1.4billion connections by
2025 according to the GSM Association
which suggests that 5G networks are likely