Written by Mike Wolfe, CTO, Outdoor Wireless Networks, CommScope
There is no getting around the fact that the recent global economic slowdown has slowed 5G efforts and deployments. The timing and scope of several unforeseen events are posing one hurdle after another for his ambitious 5G rollout plans. First of all, it’s a global pandemic. Then the shutdowns that disrupted supply chains. Second, rapid inflationary pressures. Second, the United States is concerned about the possibility of interference with aircraft radar systems. After that, energy costs skyrocketed, partly due to the war in Ukraine.
Deploying 5G requires significant capital and requires significant power consumption to operate. In an average global economy, these costs could be recovered through increased performance premiums from subscribers, but as we all know, this is not an average economy and subscribers also face pressure to cut costs. .
As a result, there has been a steady stream of articles explaining delays in 5G rollout and scaled back plans by mobile network operators. But I’m not here to mention the negative aspects that everyone is familiar with. Because what we’ll see with 5G over the next year gives me great reason to be optimistic.
5G is delayed but not derailed
Two important developments already underway (and likely to gain momentum in 2024) are cost-reducing simplification of 5G sites and innovative new developments that take advantage of the unique capabilities available from 5G networks. The emergence of business use cases.
Together, these two factors have the potential to bring new energy and enthusiasm to a technology that will remain the bedrock of wireless connectivity for at least the next decade, and even 20 years. So I think next year we’ll see confirmation that 5G may be delayed, but it’s definitely not derailed.
Simplify and reduce costs
The first phase of 5G deployment supported non-standalone (NSA) networks that could leverage existing LTE networks for mobility and signaling, taking advantage of the deployment acceleration offered by this approach. However, this also increased the complexity associated with site design. In wireless networks, “complexity” is just another word for “cost.”
The overlaid NSA network architecture forced compromises that prevented the technology from living up to the considerable hype upon its debut. In the future, MNOs will no longer be able to rely on previous network technology designs to truly streamline and simplify their network architecture. Thanks to some recent innovations in the industry, that won’t be necessary. Measures to reduce complexity and cost include:
The new antenna design combines active and passive RF technologies in a streamlined turnkey form factor. Such antennas allow both 5G and LTE networks to operate in parallel with little or no performance impact, reducing the bulk and weight of tower-top deployments and providing network design flexibility for MNOs. Increase. These integrated designs also reduce wind loads on the top of the tower, potentially eliminating the need for expensive structural upgrades to support additional 5G components, resulting in site-by-site upgrades. Costs could be reduced by tens of thousands of dollars.
As MNOs switch from the most expensive and highest performing 64T64R M-MIMO solution for macro sites to the more economical 32T32R M-MIMO, right-sizing 5G builds provide a better balance between cost and revenue, which is currently sought after. Deployment costs are reduced without compromising 5G services. We also take these savings even further with an optimized 8T8R passive solution as a practical alternative to M-MIMO used in 64T64R and 32T32R at the macro level and 16T16R used in small cell deployments. It is also possible.
With the proliferation of 5G devices and the emergence of high-value use cases, there is an increasing movement to migrate 5G networks from NSA architectures to standalone (SA) architectures. This moves the network toward cloud-native implementation and reduces equipment costs at each site. It also enables AI-based improvements in network power consumption and service delivery (e.g., through the implementation of network slicing).
Together, these new improvements aim to directly address the challenge of 5G deployment costs, making it easier for MNOs to start, restart, and accelerate deployments.
Of course, smarter, more modest capital investments are not justified if the market does not bear the cost of introducing new features. Fortunately, his second key factor surfacing in 2024 could also help solve that side of the equation.
New 5G Business Use Cases – Private Networks
There are many unique performance characteristics of 5G. First of all, its incredible speed, massive capacity, and ultra-low latency. But in some ways, 5G’s performance appears to have managed to outpace some of the demand it meets. 1ms latency is an impressive spec, but there are currently very few applications that really need it. There is no doubt that high performance is driving high-demand applications, and it will take time for those applications to come to market.
Still, there are now new business use cases where 5G is preferable and essential as a technology platform, even if you don’t need 1ms of latency. For example, given the growing interest in private wireless networks in businesses, large public venues, travel hubs, and other high-visibility indoor, outdoor, and combined indoor-outdoor locations with high levels of network traffic. Let’s look at.
5G deployments offer capacity and throughput advantages over LTE by using a combination of higher frequency spectrum and more capable radios (M-MIMO). It is no coincidence that his first 5G installations were aimed at urban environments, where networks best cope with high traffic densities. However, link budget constraints in 5G make it difficult to connect outdoor macro sites to subscribers indoors, where most of the traffic occurs. Indoor small cell and DAS solutions can overcome this problem by backhauling indoor traffic to the core network, but another type of separate 5G network is also emerging: private 5G networks.
On-premises 5G networks allow businesses (airports, hospitals, stadiums) to offer 5G connectivity with security and privacy beyond regular Wi-Fi®. Users can enjoy 5G speeds and capacity while leveraging the security of end-to-end encryption for voice, email, text, and online activity on connected devices, even indoors where it is difficult to guarantee 5G speeds and capacity. can be utilized.
The security benefits of private 5G networks will only improve in the coming years. Looking ahead to 2024, quantum secure cryptography (QSC) will immeasurably improve the strength of encryption while rendering current encryption methods obsolete, perhaps in 5 or 10 years. To this end, the GSMA established the Quantum Secure Communications Networks Task Force last year, with the aim of establishing strong regulatory standards for the use of such encryption in the future.
Private 5G networks are poised to be one of the most exciting new business use cases for 5G, but the market is still in its infancy. There is no doubt that 2024 will see a significant increase in interest and investment in this secure and high-performance technology.
Towards a brighter year for 5G
An unexpected combination of global economic and political turmoil may have delayed the rollout of 5G, but it hasn’t stopped it. This technology has too many promises and too many benefits to be held back for long. This year, lower site architecture costs and increased interest in private 5G networks will help bring these networks to market.
