WIRELESS NETWORKS
By Ken Karnofsky, Senior
Strategist for Signal Processing
Applications, MathWorks
With the rollout of 5G networks starting in 2019, what
can we expect to see in the short and medium term?
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The new 5G standards have arrived and the corresponding
networks are predicted to rollout across the UK in late
2019. It’s crucial to remember that the upgrade from 4G
is dramatic and will require an overhaul of a lot of systems
currently in place, so what can we expect in the lead-up to
ubiquitous 5G?
Standards keep on evolving
The new 5G standards aren’t set in stone and will continue
to evolve over the next few years. This is primarily down to
the fact that 5G itself is defined by 3GPP – a global wireless
standard committee – whose members include companies,
government agencies and academics. They define the
research options and targets, so it’s up to them to move
the goalposts if required. Furthermore, as new technologies
develop, such as virtual reality and connected self-driving
cars, the 5G standard will have to accommodate additional
requirements. Those in the industry will need to anticipate
the further evolution of 5G in the coming years.
Ready, steady, go!
Due to the appetite for new technologies, wireless design
teams will now be expected to move even faster from R&D
into the market-ready stage. But these engineers will need
to overcome a major design challenge. Adopting 5G requires
them to verify that their product designs can conform to
or coexist with the new, complex standard. In addition,
technologies that enable 5G to function can drive up the
cost of development and create a strong incentive to get the
implementation right the first time.
To successfully transition from 4G to 5G and create a new
mobile network, it’s crucial that R&D teams swiftly educate
themselves on the new requirements and realise that there’s
a steep learning curve that will take time and must be built
into their development plans. Fortunately, there are new
modelling tools that facilitate the design and testing of new
5G systems, so engineering teams can be assured that their
product designs work, reducing the need for extremely costly
testing processes.
Transformation tech for design teams
Since 5G is so new, very few companies have adequate
resources or in-house expertise to understand and
implement a 5G-compliant design. This is even more true
for newer players in the market who haven’t necessarily had
prior experience of wireless technologies, for example, those
producing IoT devices. Fortunately, 2019 will see an influx of
technology for design teams to help them. Designers will be
able to get an early start on predicting and customising the
performance of their systems with designs and algorithms
that meet and exceed 5G standards specifications.
Reinvention of RF and antennas
Companies that make RF components or antennas cannot
ignore the new 5G standards and will need to understand
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how their products will fit in with new networks. Some
engineering organisations that have separate workflows for
doing baseband, RF front end, and antenna design will likely
struggle to keep pace with their peers. Having an approach
that’s too siloed with different methodologies and different
teams will cause issues further down the line. However, new
5G modelling software will help them to test designs and
simulations to avoid unwanted costs in the future.
Dawn of new design modelling
Next year we will see an overhaul of the testing and
validation stage. For example, in the past, the digital parts of
RF systems were designed in isolation and then tested in the
field, but because 5G operates at a higher frequency, this
practice just won’t work anymore. New modelling tools for
engineers will be used to overcome this problem, meaning
testing and validation periods will be kept shorter and
cheaper. In fact, companies with siloed tools for RF, antenna,
and baseband design, limited experience with MIMO
technologies, or that lack automation from simulation to
prototyping can now rely on the latest modelling tools to
create a common environment for simulation, over-the-air-
testing, and rapid prototyping.
The road ahead
Overall, 5G modelling tools will become indispensable in the
research, design and implementation of this technology.
As we creep closer to 2020, and further iterations of 5G
standards, it will be interesting to see the pace at which
engineers have made upgrades until that point. n
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