Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 19 | Page 44

FEATURE: 5G several inhibitors. This includes the cost to install the infrastructure, long timeline for deployment, and preparing for use cases that may not even exist as yet. networks has its drawbacks and limitations. 5G networks will require larger number of transmission sites because of the shorter range of transmission, since they require a more consistent line of sight to the end points. 5G networks using millimetre wave technology will be susceptible to obstructions, bad weather, window pane glass, hard walls, amongst others. There is also concern about congestion in the millimetre wave spectrum band and interference with other devices. 5G relies entirely on the new spectrum, not on overlapping and sharing the frequencies already being used by GSM, 3G or LTE technologies. There are many frequency bands between 3 and 90 GHz being looked at Andrey Koynov, Chief Technology in order to achieve the Officer at InfiNet Wireless performance targets. However, the two bands which are in the On the plus side, usage of millimetre key focus of research including wavelengths in 5G networks, are 3.5-4.2 GHz and 27-31 GHz, have expected to drive the birth of already been utilised by service Gigabit smartphones with much providers for fixed terrestrial and faster data access speeds, richer satellite connectivity across EMEA. applications and user experience, better network connectivity through “Freeing-up the required frequency multiple embedded antennae, and resource will involve a lot of more efficient use of the spectrum. spectrum harmonisation and “One important asset for 5G re-farming work. The radio waves networks is spectrum. High have sufficiently lower penetration bandwidth services are spectrum- from outside into the glass-and- hungry, and 5G opens the door concrete structures common in for using higher frequencies such the Middle East’s biggest cities. as cm-Wave and mm-Wave that To tackle this problem, besides simply cannot be used by LTE,” says the other measures, it is being Nokia’s Ed. proposed to increase the density of the infrastructure and install so- On the negative side, usage of called small cells every few hundred millimetre wavelengths in mobile metres or so. Some of the operators 44 INTELLIGENTCIO One important asset for 5G networks is spectrum. High bandwidth services are spectrum- hungry, and 5G opens the door for using higher frequencies such as cm-Wave and mm-Wave that simply cannot be used by LTE. have expressed doubts, that it might be cost-prohibitive, as they are not only looking at installation and equipment expenses, but also additional costs associated with backhauls, operations and maintenance costs,” continues InfiNet Wireless’ Koynov. Nokia’s Ed points out the operational issues of managing the gains and limitations of the 5G spectrum maybe staggered in the roll-outs. “High frequencies and the available bandwidth provide the ability to offer hyper-local services, but they only have a very short range. Wide area coverage and in-building penetration needs lower frequencies to be opened up, which will come later.” Virtualising the 5G network platform While it is relatively easy to point out that 5G networks should www.intelligentcio.com