Transitioning
to a 5G world
By Kelly Hill

JUNE 2016
N OV E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Report Sponsors:

FEATURE REPORTThe telecommunications industry

5G systems, and how those systems

isis barreling toward “5G” at a break-will ultimately function optimallystop they can think of to get theneck pace, with new pre-standard

in order to reach the much-hyped[non-standalone]

tests and trials announced nearlypromise of 5G.

the end of this year.” 5G, he added,

pulling
spec

out

every

ready

by

every week. Network equipment

This report looks at how the

manufacturers, academic research-transition from LTE to 5G is shap-

Analysts have rosy expectations.

ers, carriers and other technology

ing up; the major technology ap-

TechNavio has forecast that thevendors have spent the last few

proaches that will migrate andglobal 5G equipment market will

years preparing for the next gener-

shift from 4G to 5G; and how test

see “tremendous growth and willation of cellular systems, with theequipment and approaches havepost a staggering [compound annu-

aim of ramping up research andto change in order to support 5G,

al growth rate] of more than 32%”

development and early testing andfrom the chipset and device to theuntil 2020. Accenture has estimat-

trials to explore various aspects of

air interface, network architec-

ed that the economic impacts of 5G“5G” technology.

tures and network software.

could be up to $500 billion in Gross

5G is coming even faster thanoriginally expected. In December,“feels a little bit more real.”

Domestic Product growth, includ-

5G trends and expectations

ing 850,000 direct jobs over seven

the first official specification from

Hype is certainly high for 5G, giv-

years of build-out and another 2.2

the Third Generation Partnershipen that the industry is still techni-

million indirect jobs across commu-

Project is expected to be released;cally in a pre-standard phase andnities. According to a recent GSMA

5G New Radio will finally make itsthat standalone 5G systems are still

study, more than 30% of Europe’s

standardized debut – although likesome time off. But the level of inter-

mobile connections are expect-

Long Term Evolution, 5G will con-est, and many of the results of ongo-

ed to be running on 5G networks

tinue to evolve and be refined in

ing tests and trials, are promising.

by 2025 – a forecasted 214 million

the coming years.

Ericsson’s second annual 5G Readi-connections, five years after net-

Some features considered “5G”

ness survey of operators found thatworks are estimated to be turned

technology are being applied to

78% of respondents were involved

up in 2020. SNS Research estimates

LTE even as they are being debatedin 5G trials in 2017, compared to 32%

that for the fixed wireless accessin 3GPP.

last year – and 28% expect to deploy

use case being explored by carri-

5G in 2018.

ers including Verizon and AT&T,

In the lead-up to standardization,industry,“The industry is moving fast-“5G-based FWA subscriptions areuniversity researchers and gov-

er than maybe we thought we’d

expected to account for $1 billion

ernment programs have all been

be able to,” said Saul Einbinder,in service revenue by the end of

involved in an industry-wide effort

VP of venture development for2019 alone” and grow at a CAGR of

to determine what will make up

Spirent

84% between 2019-2025.

companies2

basically

acrosstheCommunications.

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FEATURE REPORTSurveys of 5G awareness anddeployment intentions show keeninterest. A survey of senior executives at service providers andenterprises commissioned by Ixia
earlier this year found that almost
100 percent of the participating organizations intend to leverage “5G”
wireless technologies, with plans

5G Snapshot: Recent News
Nearly every day, it seems, anothercompany announces a new “5G” test, trial
or product. Here is a snapshot of recent
5G-related testing announcements during
the month of October.

to evaluate and/or roll out 5G capabilities in the next 12 months— and 13% say they’ve already deployed 5G networks, despite thetechnology not yet being officiallystandardized. Asked about their
5G exploration and adoption plans,
96% of the organizations said thatthey plan to leverage 5G technologies and that 67% of them “haveevaluated or will evaluate 5G technologies in the next 12 months” —of that 67%, 40% reported that they
had already begun assessing 5G
technologies. While 13% reported
that they had already deployed
5G networks, another 31% said
that they would be deploying a
5G network in the next 12 months.
Overall, 34% said that they would
be releasing a 5G offering publicly
within 12 months.
The Ixia survey found that telecom, tech and financial services
were

4

the

top

three

industries•	
Verizon is working on massive MIMO
with Ericsson. In a test in Irvine, Calif,
the two companies used a 20 megahertz
channel of AWS spectrum to support
16 radios connected to an array of 96
antennas.

architecture, end-to-end network slicing
and 5G overlay architectures. ZTE plansto build a 5G innovation and research
center in L’Aquila, France.
•	South Korean operator LG U+ worked
with Huawei on a field test on 4G/5G
dual-connectivity, which linked a 3.5
GHz base station with a 28 GHz basestation to achieve a downlink rate ofabout 20 Gbps. The tests took place at
an LG U+ 5G testbed in Seoul.

•	Multiple T-Mobile US executives have •	Nokia has signed an agreement withsaid that as the carrier begins to roll out
Russian operator Rostelecom to set up
its newly acquired 600 MHz holdings,
a 5G pilot project zone in the Skolkovo
that the radios will be softwareInnovation Center tech area near Moscow.
upgradable to 5G.
•	
K T recently re-confirmed that it expects•	
The Chinese government has confirmed
to launch commercial 5G services
its plans to complete its second phasein 2019, with a pilot network to beof 5G testing by the end of this year andavailable at the 2018 Olympic games
expects to have prototype products byin PyeongChang. KT has already signed
June 2018. Five companies, including
an infrastructure access agreement
Huawei and ZTE, have built 15 stations forwith Korea Expressway Corp. for
5G testing in Huairou District in Beijing.
access to major roads and facilities
in PyeongChang, and plans to launch•	
ZTE and French telecom group Orange
the trial service network in February
announced a partnership to jointly work
2018 with five months of testing prior
on 5G use case development, including
to launch.
testing a 5G core network, standalone

FEATURE REPORT

behind the interest in 5G, and theare appearing in advanced forms

said that some carriers are even

top three drivers pushing the in-of LTE. As Mike Murphy, CTO of

exploring going beyond official

terest in 5G were identified as theNorth America for Nokia, puts it,

specifications to look at six com-desire for more flexible and scal-

there is a general theme that “aponent carriers. In 5G, the channel

able networks, cited by 59% of thosemain idea starts in 4G and is insti-

widths become dramatically wider

surveyed; customer demand (55%)

tutionalized in 5G.”

but the general idea remains theand market leadership (46%). Mean-

Some of those “main ideas” include:

same. Gigabit LTE is often being

while, a CTIA-sponsored survey ofRadio Access Network tech-achieved with the integration of

more than 500 executives in health-nologies including carrier ag-

unlicensed frequencies. Likewise,care, transportation, energy, andgregationhigher-order/

relatively simply 2x2, 4x4 and 8x8

manufacturing found that most be-massive

Whatstarted

MIMO in LTE scales up in 5G to mas-lieve that wireless is increasinglywith two-component-carrier CA,

sive MIMO implementations. MIMO

important, with 80% indicating thatwith 20 MHz channels, is evolving

represents a 50% to 5x increase inthey think 5G will have a positive

to three, four and five component

network capacity, depending on

impact on their businesses.

carriers in LTE. Adnan Khan, se-whether it is deployed in an FDD

nior business development manag-

or TDD context, according to Pauler for wireless products at Anritsu,

Challoner of Ericsson, speaking at

Gearing up for transition

and

MIMO.

Despite all that hype and hope,
however, 5G isn’t going to spring
into ubiquity overnight. The move
to 5G is a long-term transition, notthe flip of a switch. Much like 2G
networks still exist alongside 3G
and 4G networks, Long Term Evolution is expected to be just that:long term.
“5G will not replace LTE,” Rysavy
Research concluded in an August
Source: Vodafone

report for the GSMA. “In most deployments, the two technologies
will be tightly integrated andco-exist through at least the late2020s.” Many of the capabilities
that will make 5G so effective

Vodafone has its first live trial of 5G massive MIMO at the Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul in June of this year.

5

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FEATURE REPORT

the recent Competitive Carriers

slicing” in 5G aims to fulfill thecustomers, Yamany said, they are

Association conference.

promise that granular “quality ofthinking about network splits andLuke Ibbetson, chief engineer

service” was supposed to achievearchitectures for 5G within an LTE

for group research and develop-

in LTE, but which has ended up

Advanced Pro context.

ment at Vodafone, said that the

being largely limited to prioritiz-“They understand that 5G or nooperatormassiveing voice over LTE traffic. Viavi

5G, how you want to do the densifi-

MIMO “with a view toward 5G,

Solutions CTO Sameh Yamany said

cation of some areas of the network

but it’s being lightly applied backthat Viavi considers some inter-to include virtualization as well as

into 4G as well. We’re able to start

net of things deployments to be

maximizing bandwidth at the sameto get some early and very re-contributing toward architectural

time – you’re going to have to do

al-world experience of how wellchanges via virtualization – somethe split anyhow. 5G or no 5G, themassive MIMO works before we

IoT deployments are being done

split is happening,” Yamany said.

get to 5G, because we can see howwith virtualized Evolved Packet“I can tell you that right now, mostwell it works when it applies toCore elements in order to segmentof the focus, if you talk about theLTE. We’re already starting to get

the traffic, which is essentially

physical network design, is in timea much more calibrated view ofa network slice, he pointed out.

synchronization,” Yamany added.

what … massive MIMO can bring.”

Kalyan Sundhar, VP of mobility,

When functions are being moved

A focus on a software-centric,

virtualization and applications atfrom where they have typicallynet-

Ixia, said that while the move toresided in the network, to anotherwork. The virtualization of thevirtualized networks and MEC isplace, whether there is aggregation

network is well underway, withwell underway, the devil is in theor disaggregation involved, the syn-or without 5G. But the flexibility

details of deployment. For exam-

chronization is key to proper func-

and automation of 5G essentiallyple, he said -- how easy is it to de-tionality. “If you don’t do it right, it

assumes a software-defined, virtu-

ploy virtual nodes, with multiple

will destroy the latency of your ap-

alized network, said Nokia’s Mur-

versions? What are the fault tol-plication,” he said.

phy. Virtualization, Ibbetson said,

erances? What happens when one

ing operators have already started“is happening anyway. It doesn’tgoes down? Those are some of theassessing the qualifications of their

have to be heavily coupled withthings operators are figuring out

circuits to see if they can support

5G.” Automation is going to be key,

now, as they slowly virtualize por-

5G-level latency. He estimated that

he added, but it has many compo-

tions of their networks.

the industry is “about 50% there”

isautomated,

exploringvirtualized

Forward-look-nents: SON, SDN, orchestration andAccess architecture changes,

and that by the end of 2018, he ex-analytics, as well as mobile edge

including fiber proliferation andpects to see “more and more quali-

computing, all of which are being

mobile edge computing. As Viavi

fied networks for 5G.” Right now, he

implemented in LTE.

has talked to its largest operator

added, the focus is not necessarily“Network

7

FEATURE REPORTon reaching 1 millisecond latencies,

particular – network investmentsa chance to see how close to 5G it

but coming close – 2-3 milliseconds

are still focused on 4G. Even in the

can get with 4G in the context ofas a target. Nokia recently demon-

U.S., where AT&T is proceeding

mobile edge computing and low

strated 2 millisecond latency be-with 5G mmwave fixed wirelesslatency, for instance. “We’ve had

tween a base station and a handset

trials, the carrier earlier this year

a very good experience in LTE inin an LTE context, with SK Telecom.

dubbed its project to bring LTE Ad-

terms of it being much more capa-

Kin-Yip Liu, senior director forvanced Pro features to 20 cities by

ble than 3G ever was.”systems engineering and segment

the end of the year “5G Evolution”.

“Although the industry is pre-marketing for Cambium Networks,

Ibbetson of Vodafone said that theparing for 5G, LTE capabilities

agreed that operators are thinking

carrier has been involved withwill continue to improve in LTE

hard about their architectures andindustry and university work to

Advanced Pro through the rest offronthaul options now, with an eye

explore 5G, but it is currently fo-

the decade,” Rysavy wrote. “Manytoward 5G. “This is an area withcused on evolving its network in aof these enhancements will comemultiple options for engineering

number of ways: programmability,

throughand management, as well as forlower latency, reliability and being

investments. Given the scope of

testing to understand the fronthaulable to orchestrate services moreglobaland different split options,” he said.

rapidly across a fully virtualizedmeasured in hundreds of billions“The real trade-off is, what is thecore network, and expand the useof dollars, offering users the mostfronthaul available and what kindof mobile edge computing.

affordable service requires opera-

wireless

network

infrastructure,of services do you plan to support? –“There are actually many things

tors to leverage investments theyand then to see if you can live withthat we’re looking to deliver acrosshave already made. 5G will even-that fronthaul.” If it isn’t up to par,an evolved version of our 4G net-tually play an important role, but

he said, operators will have to makework,” he said. He said that the

it must be timed appropriately sodifferent split choices. Sundhar

addition of narrowband IoT andthat the jump in capability justi-

said that the structures that opera-

LTE-M to Vodafone’s network “al-fies the new investment.”

tors are exploring now, in terms oflows us to start to address some of

MEC and C-RAN, what they put at

the more extreme use cases, thethe edge and in the core, is “a bit atvery, very low-power constraints

Test capabilities for every aspect

a time, slowly moving toward thebut send data over very long dis-of 5G have to be available at costs

ultimate goal of what they want totances or [to objects] buried in thethe market can support, in order to

do in 5G.”

ground. … We’re busy deploying

support operators, network equip-

NB-IOT capability around multiple

ment vendors, chipset and device

markets as we speak.”makers and software vendors as

With all of those areas yet to be
fully realized in LTE, it’s no wonderthat in some regions – Europe in

8incremental

He said that LTE gives the carrier

5G test evolution

they push forward into 5G.

FEATURE REPORT

Accordingto

TechNavio,

thetesting to support a ramp-up of

global marker for general test

manufacturing, network planningequipment is expected to grow aand deployment.

nearly 5% per year until 2021 andJessy Cavazos, industry director

reach $6.58 billion, driven in partwith Frost & Sullivan’s test and mea-by the emergence of 5G systems.

surement practice, disagrees that

With a 4G/5G spec coming soon

5G is an evolution: when it comes toand commercial launches on the

millimeter wave, she said, the tech-horizon, testing capabilities will

nology jump truly is a revolution

need to move from a primary fo-

rather than an incremental step.

cus on research and development

Although mmwave has been usedand small-scale, prototype-basedin aerospace and defense, she added, it has been considered “quite
exotic” for consumer wireless purposes. “Changing that frequency
level, you can’t just push a button
and now a signal analyzer can test
at 60 GHz or handle the bandwidth
required of those signals,” she said.
“It’s a significant challenge aheadof the industry.”“It’s a 10-x change in the frequency – not only in the frequency, but
10x in the bandwidth,” pointed out“It’s a 10-x change in thefrequency – not only in thefrequency, but 10x in the
bandwidth. So test equipment
needs to be made available
to support not only thefrequency, but the bandwidth.”
Jeorge Hurtarte, Product Manager,
Litepoint

Jeorge Hurtarte, product manager at test company LitePoint. “Sotest equipment needs to be made“We’re trying to understand[millimeter wave] for a lotof different reasons, andone of the reasons it to get
the standards right. The
characteristics of millimeterwave can shape how you want
to shape certain aspects of thestandards, which is one of thereasons to start really earlyon it and start the testing andmeasurement of it, so you canunderstand it better.”
Hank Kafka, VP for analytics andaccess architecture, AT&T

available to support not only thearound working in similar, sub-6

frequency, but the bandwidth” – up

GHz bands and adding new fea-

to 2 GHz.

tures to improve efficiency and

Hank Kafka, VP for analytics

speed. 5G, he said, is a much larger

and access architecture for AT&T,

generational leap because it in-pointed out that the jumps fromvolves both new technology and

2G to 3G to 4G revolved largely

new bands at millimeter wave

9

FEATURE REPORT

frequencies. “Millimeter wave has
a lot of interesting characteristics,” he said.
“We’re trying to understandit for a lot of different reasons,and one of the reasons it to get
the standards right,” Kafka said.
“The characteristics of millimeter

Source: YouTube

wave can shape how you want to

An image of AT&T 5G mmwave equipment from a fixed wireless access trial.

shape certain aspects of the standards, which is one of the reasons
to start really early on it and start
the testing and measurement ofit, so you can understand it better. The second reason is to help
understand the best way to use it,
and how to build and design networks and get it out in the realworld. Those have kind of been
the themes behind what we’re doing, starting over a year ago withlab testing of systems.”
Kafka said that AT&T has exploredanumberofpotential

frequency bands in the lab, from
sub-6 GHz all the way up to 73
GHz. Beyond its commercial trials,

Source: NI/AT&T

the carrier has focused its testing

AT&T developed the “Porcupine” antenna with NI to do real-time, detailed 5G channel sounding.

10efforts on filling gaps in knowledge about the mmwave spectrum environment. That has led
to some interesting, custom test
equipment and set-ups. One of the
instruments that AT&T is usingWireless InSite
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FEATURE REPORT

to get better channel visibility

direction of the signal, but the stuff

from the device under test from ain mmwave was its Porcupine 5G

that is going on between the sites

range of 60 centimeters or so, hechannelinso you can see what happens to thesaid, in order to work in the far fieldpartnership with National Instru-

background noise and interference

to see if each antenna is working at

ments. The Porcupine takes very

aspects as well.”the specific power level and phasesounder,developed

fast measurements of multiple

He said that thus far, that test sys-

paths and the delay environment,

tem has yielded information about

Still, a number of features from

Kafka said, likening the instru-

the effect of rain and weather as

LTE will also carry over into 5G

ment to “a high-speed microscope”

well as insights about propagation

test. Those include:that provides detailed insights onin relation to different types ofangle of arrival and reflections.

trees, all of which will be import-

John Smee, VP of engineering for“We saw a need to measure things

ant as 5G networks evolve into

Qualcomm Technologies, said that

faster and in real-time,” he said.

planning phases.

the LTE expansion of band support

that it is supposed to.

Supportformanybands.

AT&T also saw a need to better

Hurtarte sees four specific chal-

to dozens of bands would likely

understand how long-term season-

lenges for test in a 5g context: sup-surprise the tech community of aal changes, such as foliage cover,porting high frequencies with 1-2

decade ago, when a tri-band phonewould impact 5G networks. At one

GHz bandwidth; supporting radiat-

was considered a “world phone”.

of its campuses, the carrier built a

ed, OTA testing for devices whichKT, for example, plans to support

long-term outdoor test system withcannot support cabled test; thetwo different frequencies from thea number of transmitters and re-need to test multi-antenna arrays;

get-go in its 5G network: 3.5 GHz asceivers — some line-of-sight, others

and the need for enclosed OTA test-an anchor with better propaga-

behind trees — so that it had bettering for beamforming. “They’re alltion, complemented by 28 GHz in

insight and data into how weather

related,” he added.

dense areas. Given that networks

events and seasonal changes af-

Hurtarte noted that while theare expected to initially be 4G/5G

military has a long history of us-

networks, testing will have to con-“This gives us the other extreme

ing mmwave frequencies, “it istinue to support LTE alongside 5G.

from the 150-millisecond measure-definitely a recent phenomenon”

Test automation and modular

ments [of the Porcupine],” Kafka

for commercial wireless operators.

equipment. In previous genera-

said. “We’re not getting that detailed

LitePoint has solutions at both 28

tions, testing often relied on tests

view of every ray and reflection,and 39 GHz, two of the bands mostthat had to be walked throughbut we are getting a view of, this is

widely expected to support 5G NR.

one-by-one, with many manual

what is happening in general on the

In order to conduct OTA testing,adjustments and rotations. “Now,signaling, and it’s set up so that we

Litepoint utilizes a horn antenna

it’s automated test cycling throughcan measure not just the intended

that captures the energy coming

a huge number of combinations,”

fected mmwave transmission.

12

FEATURE REPORT

Smee said, particularly when it

the firmware is updated at thealthough “millimeter wave” tends

comes to over-the-air testing inbase station and … as the standard

to be treated as one category, therea millimeter wave context, withmarches forward, you more fully

are significant differences between

beamforming and beam-tracking.

exercise the numbers of scenariosthe“That’s

being

and configurations,” he added. “Soplanning needed at 28 GHz versus

taken to the next level [in 5G],” heone of the important things is …

39 GHz. In addition, although somesaid. This improves the amount of

exercising a relatively full subset

frequencies

time spent on 5G testing, which isof the standard such that to ensure

upon, there are other frequencies

a big concern given the enormousthat the devices will be deployedthat may get the nod for 5G use: 24

increase in the number of scenar-

for a long time and be successful,

GHz in China, possibly 40-43 Ghz

ios that could be tested, versus theeven as the deployment evolves

and possibly even above 70 GHz.

bare minimum that must be tested

and new configurations and more

The next World Radio Conference,

to ensure quality.

dynamic operation comes into play.

which weighs in on the use of glob-“Given the number of anten-“We do pay attention very close-

al frequency bands, isn’t until latenas … things can get out of hand

ly to the efficiency of the testing,2019. “Here we are in late 2017, we’repretty quickly,” he said. “You can’tsuch that we can scale more quick-two years away from the ITU/WRC

haul in a dozen channel emulatorsly,” Smee said. He added that thedecisions – so test equipment provid-– whereas in a 4G context, maybe

very technology evolution thaters need to be very alert to are being

you had one or two. It doesn’t scale

enables 5G, will also enable 5G

considered, with new bandwidth

to support that.”testing. “As the technology moves

that could be possibly the same or

Cavazos said that due to pressures

forward, not only is the data rate

higher than 1 GHz, and be able toon test as a cost center and the needand user experience and latency

be flexible,” Hurtarte said. “Thefor flexible systems, she expects tothat ... the end users are going tosystems need to be flexible and tosee more modular test equipment

feel, but ... what is emerging andquickly respond to the possible newbased on open standards such asprovides that same technologicalfrequencies and bandwidth.”

PXI and xIE.

march forward, is what enables us

Luckily, as Smee of Qualcomm put

to test more scenarios in the fasterit, “As technology marches forward,

period of time.”

it’s not like the test industry is stucksomethingFlexibility

andthat’sefficiency.

Smee of Qualcomm said that while

components

are

and

frequency

widelyagreedthe chipset company is keenly

Flexibility must extend not only

focused on initial 5G support forto the range of future features thatthe features of the standard thatcan be tested, but to the ability toare of most interest to operators,

rapidly adapt to new frequencies

With mmwave 5G systems expect-

5G will evolve in much the samein which 5G NR might be deployed.

ed to start deployment in 2019, theway that LTE has. “Over time, as

Hurtarte of LitePoint noted that

testing focus is rapidly shiftingwith a certain, non-evolving path.”

Out of the lab and into deployment

13

FEATURE REPORT

from one of early trials based on
prototypes, to the question of whatchanges will be necessary for largescale

manufacturing,

networkplanning and network deployment.
Those tools, in many cases, are stillin very early stages or don’t yet exist – or they’ll need to be simplified
so that production workers andfield techs can operate them withminimal training.
Inamanufacturing

environ-ment, several factors in particular stand out for 5G test needs:
lower costs, faster testing capabilities, and the ability to be integrated into production lines without radical changes.
“People aren’t going to re-engineer their manufacturing lines
to have a bunch of 3-meter chambers all over the place,” Einbinder
said. Much of the work is still being conducted in OEM and infrastructure company and carrierlabs; commercial labs will start
becoming

more

involved

once

there is an actual standard andcertification

processes

throughbodies such as the Global Certification Forum and the PTCRB.
Hurtarte noted that OTA testing
will require the use of chambersthat can be closed; are insulated;

14

5G Snapshot:
Emulator Project At New York University
Testing and verifying designs for millimeter- “The bottom line is, you can’t take thewave prototypes is an ongoing challenge for approach for 3G and 4G and simply scale it
the industry as it moves into 5G. Engineers up for the 5G use cases, because of theneed to understand how 5G mmwave increasingly high cost,” he said.
prototypes will behave in a wide range ofchallenge propagation scenarios, which is Dhananjay instead has worked on developing
typically accomplished through an emulation a channel emulation approach in which
beamforming is emulated on both theapproach.
transmit and receive sides, along with theLedbypost-doctoral
fellow
Aditya wireless channel itself. The transmitting andDhananjay, an NYU research team including receiving devices provide their beamforming
professors Sundeep Rangan and Dennis vector information; the transmitting device
Shasha has developed a channel emulator also provides the pre-beam-formed signal,that emulates not only the wireless channel, and the emulator sends the processed signal,
but the multi-antenna front-ends on the modified by the channel conditions, to thedevices themselves. Commercial off-the-shelf receiving device, while supporting more thancomponents for the project were donated by 2 gigahertz of real-time bandwidth and cansupport hundreds of antenna elements on
National Instruments.
devices under test. The 5G channel emulator
Dhananjay is researching a new approach has already been demonstrated with 64to a channel emulator, the box that element devices under test at the Brooklyn
transmits radio frequency signals as if they 5G Summit and NI Week.
had gone out into the real world via
antenna and provide insight into reflections, “Another relatively unknown factor in the 5G
Doppler shifts and other behavior. Channel mmwave space is an understanding ofemulation has always been an important channel dynamics. In other words, whenpart of RF research and development, but blockages take place, how correlated are all
it becomes staggeringly complex in 5G the signal paths between the transmitter andscenarios – particularly in the context of receiver?” NYU Ph.D. student Chris Slezak, hemillimeter-wave phased arrays for massive added, is in the early stages of that
MIMO. Dhananjay said that the cost and exploration and expects much clearer
computational complexity of emulation for understanding of mmwave channel dynamics
5G mmwave systems is increased by a in the near future.
factor of 1,000 and no commercial 5G
mmwave emulators exist on the market
today.

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d 1

11/7/17 12:24 PM

FEATURE REPORTand potentially may need to havechallenged – the red maps and blue

speeds it can receive? This is aother features, such as the ability

maps you see today. Those maps ar-fundamentally different problem

to change temperatures or rotate

en’t going to really have relevancefor service providers than wireline

the device inside. He said that ini-

when it comes to 5G coverage,” heservice. “We had to come up withtial production for 5G is expected

said, because of how localized it willother qualification tools in order tonext year and that scale will ramp

be and how long it is likely to takesee the same picture from the end

up in 2019 and 2020. Part of thisto build out sites. Some necessary

user standpoint, to come back withwill depend on if or when millime-

test and planning tools for mmwave

those predictions,” Thadasina add-

ter wave makes it into large-scale

fixed wireless deployments “areed.

devices such as consumer smart-

not readily available off-the-shelf,”

In the lab, said Paul Denisowski,phones, versus other applications

according to Nivi Thadasina, seniorapplications engineer at Rohde &such as industrial IoT. If they needdirector of engineering, Samsung

Schwarz,chambers, how big will they have

Networks, which has been involved

wide bandwidths and demodulate

to be? Perhaps, he said, testing canin a number of 5G trials for fixed

those signals “is expensive, but it

be shifted to the near-field instead

wireless access. “We had to spend adoes exist. The real challenge is,of the far-field, which could mean

lot of R&D on coming up with tools

how do you do that in the field, or

smaller chambers.

that were able to make the predic-

do you want to do that in the field?”

Field testing for network design,

tions not only in terms of very cre-Jeremy Cline, product manager for

validation and optimization is an

ative channel models, but in themobile test at Rohde & Schwarz, not-entirely different conundrum, asability to do RF planning.” In partic-

ed that field testing gear has longequipment must be portable andular, Thadasina said, “our challenge

had 20 MHz front-ends, so it is a gi-

the short range of mmwave fre-is, how can I go achieve some type

ant jump to go to 100 MHz channels

quencies will impact the efficacy

of [service level agreement] and bein the field. However, he added, theof drive testing.

able to provide the same assurancecompany has learned from its work

“Field testing is going to have tonot only to our customers, but Ver-on Verizon’s 5G TF that “we don’t

get more refined,” Einbinder said.

izon to the end user?” Being able

have to look at the whole signal,”

While drive testing has been used

to come up with tools that could

but that analyzing synchronization

to assess network quality and for

create “zones of the SLAs that we

signals in the middle of the channel

coverage mapping, 5G coverage will

can achieve minimum bit rate guar-

provides sufficient information.

be so localized that “every couple

antees” was important. Anotherhundred feet, the coverage is dif-issue is qualifying neighborhoods,

ferent. ... If we think about how thehe said. Once the planning is done

So all the kinks in those compo-

industry talks about coverage today,

and the base station installed, hownents of 5G will get worked out inI think that mindset is going to bedoes a specific address know that

LTE and the transition will be a16

capabilities to handle

5G’s biggest challenges

Source: Samsung

Source: Samsung

FEATURE REPORTand millimeter-wave frequencies

MHz, it’ll be the same as always.”

are all expected to be used for 5G,

Denisowski also noted that the cells

mmwave presents enormous en-themselves will be very small in 5G.

gineering and network planning“If you see something there that’schallenges. Mmwave provides theinterfering, it’s right there, a dozen

huge bandwidths that are needed

meters from you. It’s not going to be

for fast speeds and high capacity,horribly far away.” So it may mean

but the higher the frequency, theeasier pin-pointing of interference

shorter its range and more suscep-

sources – but it could also potential-

tible it is to being easily blocked

ly mean more sites are affected byand reflected (thus the need fora single interferer.

beamforming in order to focus theDensity of foliage “plays a big

energy more tightly). Seasonal foli-role,” said Thadasina of Samsung,age, energy efficient glass windows

which has been working with awith special coatings, and standard

number of carriers on 5G trials.

housing materials all present effec-“What we found is that for thetive barriers to mmwave reaching

mmwave signal, as it penetrated

indoors to customer premise equip-

through trees, the thickness ofment, operators and vendors havethe trees matters. Initially thefound in their field testing.

impedence offered by foliage isthatlinear, but beyond a certain densi-

fixed wireless is one thing, butty it is no longer linear … it kills

moving objects are another. Ob-

thepiece of cake, right? Not exactly.

struction, not radiating sources

are well-known to play a role in

There are some major challenges

of energy, is likely to be the maintransmission

to the success of 5G, which are allcause of interference in 5G sys-

indoors, he added, but the angle

interrelated: the move to mmwave,

tems: vehicles driving back andof incidence does as well. The dif-the need for ultra-density, and theforth, or even wind farms canference between 30 degrees to 60

question of when the economics ofscatter microwave radiation.

degrees to 90 degrees can create

A Samsung 5G small cell and customer premise
equipment.

Denisowski

pointedout

signal.”Buildingfrommaterials

outdoors

to“It’s things like that, that people

additional impedance, Thadasina

never thought about,” he added.

said, “some of those things makeThe first of those is perhaps the“It is very, very quiet up there” notit challenging in terms of closing

most obvious: the move to higher

filled with baby monitors like oth-the link.” Moisture levels play afrequencies. While low, mid-band,er spectrum. “If they deploy at 600

role as well, he said – tests were

5G will actually work well enoughto take off.

17

FEATURE REPORT

5G Snapshot: The Fiber Predicament
Fiber is fuel for 5G, and its prevalence isincreasing. SNL Kagan found earlier thisyear that global fiber residential investment
increased sharply in 2016, and that fiber
is on track to reach 1 billion subscribers
by 2021. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Vertical
Systems Group reported that 49.6% of
multi-tenant and enterprise buildings hadaccess to fiber last year, compared to only
10% in 2004.
Telecom operators have made fiber
investments a major focus: Verizon, forinstance, spent much of 2017 boosting
its fiber access as part of its One Fiberinitiative. The carrier put $1.8 billion intoacquiring XO Communications’ fiber assets,then followed up with fiber supply deals
with Corning ($1.05 billion over three
years) and Prysmian ($300 million overthree years). CenturyLink recently closed on
its $34 billion acquisition of Level 3, which
will increase CenturyLink’s fiber networkby approximately 200,000 route miles. In
Europe, Vodafone plans to invest $2.39
billion over the next few years in boostinggigabit-capable infrastructure, including
fiber and upgrades to its cable network.
Thomas Neubauer, VP of business development
and innovation at TEOCO, said that fiber is oneof several areas of investments that service
providers are making with 5G in mind, as adirect challenge to the cable industry with fixedwireless access. “That’s going to happen, no
question about it,” he said. “That is a businesscase that will work out for them and soon
become a billion-dollar business.”
Deloitte said earlier this year that it expects to
see $130 billion-$150 billion in “deep fiber”
investment in the U.S. over 5-7 years, due toa combination of broadband competition,
ensuring 5G readiness, and expanding fiber
into new areas.

18

While all that spending sounds encouraging,
there are a number of practical issues thatwill make fiber deployment challenging andunderscore the need for careful considerationof emerging network architectures, according
to Yvon Rouault, technology advisor in theoffice of the CTO at test company EXFO -particularly as network speeds increase.
“Transporting more than 10 Gbps on the fiber… is not easy on very long distances,” he said,
due to phenomena such as dispersion andphase modulation which significantly impact
the bit-error rate. To account for that, Rouault
said, “very probably, we’ll see an explosion ofmini-data centers, or maybe virtual machines
running very close to the antenna site forsome specific use cases.”Complexity isn’t limited to architecture
planning, either. “It’s also the roll-out of theaccess,” Rouault said. Systems designed for10 Gbps speeds, with commensurate bit
error rates, can struggle to deal with radical
increases in speed. He recalled that one
EXFO customer who was moving from 10
Gbps with an excellent BER to 100 Gbps –and once the speed was increased, “there
was no signal at all … The connection wasessentially burning the transmitter and thereceiver didn’t receive anything.”“Backhaul is not ready for 100G, but they
will need it,” Rouault said, while fronthaul
is moving to 10 Gbps and will eventuallyneed to be faster as well, in order to support
expected 5G latency demands -- which willpose issues if fronthaul needs to be morethan 10 km in distance. “People are totally
underestimating this. We’re preaching thisright now to operators, to convince some ofthem not only to accept it but to understandit.” He said that Verizon in particular has
been an operator that understands the future
problems and is already doing dispersion“Very probably, we’ll see
an explosion of mini-data
centers, or maybe virtual
machines running very
close to the antenna site forsome specific use cases.”
Yvon Rouault, Technology
Advisor, EXFO
testing, for example, so that it can confirm
that its network is 5G-ready without the needto re-test later.
In addition, Rouault said, optical fiber
installation is already problematic, withconnectors often not cleaned properly or fiber
quality going untested until problems are
discovered later. “We see people who haveno clue what they’re doing,” he said. “Fiber isjust like an electrical cable for them.” One U.K.
operator, he said, had to go back and re-do aquarter of its new cell sites and delay its launchof LTE-Advanced for several months due to fiber
issues that weren’t discovered until late in the
deployment process – impacting both cost andtime to market. In an even more dense 5G rollout, the need to get fiber deployment right thefirst time will be crucial.

FEATURE REPORT

conducted in New Jersey this past

spectrum, then, denser networks

mmwave. It also means that when

winter during heavy snow in or-

are critical to 5G at the mid-band

operators like T-Mobile US talkder to study the effects on the link

and mmwave. But that presents

about being able to deploy 5G NR

of heavy snowfall – and other sites

an enormous investment in fiber

at 600 MHz, without the need forhappened to be up and operating

and site acquisition (see sidebar:

such intensive densification, “thatduring Hurricane Harvey, he add-

The Fiber Conundrum). Murphy ofhas got to be having a major im-ed, so they tried to get data from

Nokia said that operators should

pact on how the other folks in thethem for observation.

expect that, depending on which

North American market are looking

whichfrequency they deploy in, theyat where they’re going to be a year

carriers like KT are planning towill need 2.5 to 10 times as manyfrom now,” Einbinder said.

use as a better-propagating anchor

sites as they have now. That’s a tall

However, Einbinder thinks thatin a 5G network that utilizes bothorder, especially given that small

some communities will take initia-

3.5 GHz and 28 GHz, will need far

cell sites in cellular frequencies

tive and want to be 5G economic

more sites than macro networks

can take 18 to 24 months to get site

centers. While that’s encouraging

have had to have, to this point

approvals – scaling small cells hasfor operators, it may also mean thatin cellular evolution for outdoor

been hard enough in LTE, with the

5G coverage maps look very differ-coverage. Right now, said Lindsay

market moving much more slow-

ent from the familiar red, blue, yel-

Notwell, VP of carrier and inter-ly than analysts had predicted or

low and magenta maps indicating

national business at Cradlepoint,

carriers would like.

nationwide coverage. “The result-

Even

the

mid-band,the industry is starting to more

“It’s going to take a long time,”

ing coverage maps might have atightly integrate the use of 5 GHz

Einbinder said. “Constructing a

lot more to do with [communities]

in a license-assisted access context.

cell tower is hard. A micro-cellthan any economic or technologi-

CBRS “is nice” at 3.5 GHz, he added,

has a lot of the same issues”: pow-

cal drivers – it’s going to be driven“but that’s still worse than the old

er and fiber and access to a site,

by local preference.”2.4” [GHz] in terms of propagation

which a community may be re-Cord-cutting is helping to drive

characteristics: shorter range, less

luctant to grant – California, forthe momentum of 5G, said Notwell.

ability to penetrate.

instance, recently rejected a mea-

“I truly believe, based on many of“I tell the carriers, you don’t know

sure passed at the state level that

our customer conversations, thatwhat you’re up against [at 3.5 GHz],

would have streamlined process-they can’t wait – because they see

let alone at 26 and 39 GHz,” Notwell

es for small cells.

this as a way to get to market faster,said. “The best space to solve theThat means some major chang-

speed problem is in the worst fromes are going to have to happen in

the spectrum standpoint.”

order to make the numbers work

Given the constraints of thefor widespread 5G deployment at

to give them more flexibility and toactually lower their costs.”
However,

FWA

may

not

be

quite as compelling as originally19

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FEATURE REPORT

expected.

While

early

work

to serving specialized industry

the 4G network is leveraged to theestimated that as many as 40 to 50

segments

maximum extent,” he said.

homes could be covered by a sin-(56%) and consumers (52%).

(58%),

businessusers

Key takeaways:

gle fixed wireless site, according

So the biggest question is whereto Rouault of EXFO, that numbera breakthrough is going to happen•	The industry is moving quick-has turned out to be around fivethat becomes the point at which

ly toward 5G, with momentum

in testing because of the complex-

5G becomes a more attractive in-in testing and trials. The first

ity of beamforming necessary tovestment than LTE. “What can 5G

official 5G specification fromsupport multiple homes. “It’s not

do that other systems can’t? This

3GPP is expected in December,at the point we would say the ver-is where there is no clear answer,”with a protocol-focused release

dict is out,” Rouault added. “Thesaid Hemant Minocha, EVP for de-coming in the spring of 2018.

technology is proven to work, but

vice and IoT at TEOCO. There is no•	Many features and architec-

to make the business case work,

5G requirement for IoT, he points

tures in LTE, particularly giga-

the scale is the problem rightout, and the business case hasn’t

bit LTE, will both underpin fu-

now.” He added that other consid-

yet been proven out for ultra-low

ture 5G networks and provide

erations are also continuing to belatency (not to mention that LTE islessons learned in making 5G

explored, such as the final archi-

capable of lower latency than it has

systems work. These include

tecture of the customer premiseachieved to this point in networks).

dense fiber deployment, high-equipment: from a CPE modem

Network slicing may be of limited

er-order and massive MIMO,

placed inside the house, an inter-use in some regions where net neu-

network slicing, virtualization,

mediate step of an antenna on the

trality restrictions apply. LTE, heand mobile edge computing

outside of the house is connecting

added, “goes quite a long way, and•	The biggest challenge for 5G

to a modem inside the house, rath-some operators are saying, ‘How

lies in a millimeter-wave based

er than just an inside modem.

can we get more out of 4G and de-RAN, with significant challeng-

Ericsson’s 5G readiness survey

lay 5G, because it’s going to be real-es ahead for designing and de-found that between 2016 and 2017,

ly complex in the high bands?’” 5Gploying a workable, optimized

the focus of 5G business planningwill have to prove itself in order toand profitable mmwave net-

shiftedearn investment.

work on a large scale.

fromprimarily

seeingconsumers as the opportunity to“Really, I think the biggest chal-•	Testing equipment is expecteda broader range of business caselenge you have at the moment is

to become more modular, withdrivers. In 2016, 90% of respon-

more about how we smoothly deploy

higher channel bandwidth ca-

dents said that their 5G planning

the network, where we start to build

pabilities and more flexibility

was focused on serving consumers

capabilities and make sure that theto support an evolving 5G eco-directly. In 2017, that had changed

investment we’ve already made insystem.

21

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