By Benjamin Horvath – Inside Towers Special Correspondent
The past decade’s rapid pace of technological evolution has created an expectant customer base, eager to purchase the industry’s newest gadget. The iPhone 6, for instance, was unveiled less than a year after the iPhone 5s, which also was unveiled less than a year after the iPhone4.
Much is the same with the development of wireless networks. At the turn of the decade, 4G was considered cutting edge, and has been the newest network since. Predictably, however, there are growing murmurs in the industry about 5G technology and what it will bring.
Such talk is exciting, but what exactly does it mean when a carrier advertises 5G technology?
Not really anything, says tech consultant Jake MacLeod, at least not for a few years.
MacLeod, who works as a wireless consultant for Gray Beards Consulting, said it is important to differentiate the term as it is marketed, versus how it’s used in the world of technology, where he works on a daily basis.
“There are specific operational performance targets that are set and standardized both for 4G and 5G that larger companies—like AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon— inevitably jump the gun and call something 4G or 5G when it doesn’t meet the specifications,” MacLeod said.
Indeed, consider this press release AT&T published earlier this year titled, ‘AT&T Unveils 5G Roadmap Including Trials in 2016.’ This makes it seem such technology is imminent, but MacLeod said not to expect actual 5G technology until 2020.
Before then, carriers must go through a lengthy process of testing, reworking, implementing and re-implementing different RF waveforms before the industry comes to a consensus as to what waveform constitutes 5G technology.
“It’s like a horse race and everyone has their favorite horse,” MacLeod said. “[Carriers] spend millions and millions of dollars in research and development on a particular horse, and so everybody is betting, and then finally they turn the horses loose, they race and they see how they perform.”
Currently, there are a number of candidate waveforms being tested by carriers, and after this testing period, the verifies that a certain candidate does, in fact, meet the objectives of 5G technology— which include a high data rate, low latency, fast switching and high energy efficiency.
“It’s a lot like the U.S. Congress,” MacLeod said. “It’s very politically charged at times and finally they come out with agreements and consensus.”
When 5G does make it to market, MacLeod said increased speed and capacity will be the two biggest differences customers will notice. For instance, he said it will be possible to download a full-length movie in 6 seconds instead of the 6 hours it currently takes. 5G will have to support a massive amount of data traffic—MacLeod estimates it eventually will have to support seven trillion wireless devices worldwide.
One of the most innovative features of 5G will be its self-optimizing network feature. These are networks in which RF resources can be taken from a central station and allocated to areas where extra spectrum may be needed at a specific time.
For instance, during the weekday afternoon, when there are tens of thousands of people packed into offices across downtown Indianapolis, spectrum will automatically be pulled from nearby towers and directed toward that specific area. After work, when fewer people are concentrated in that area, the spectrum will return to its sources.
“It’s a dynamic, breathing system,” MacLeod said.
In the future, when 5G technology begins to deploy, MacLeod said he anticipates the process in the Midwest to be much quicker and easier than other regions of the country.
“Instead of the left or right coasts where it’s a nightmare to get anything done, the Midwest is much more accepting to companies that will want to deploy this,” he said.
In the meantime, we will continue to hear the 5G term bantered about the industry, but in the technical sense, the term has to be defined.
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