The 5th generation mobile network aka 5G is a global wireless standard that is powerful enough to connect virtually everyone and everything, including people, devices, machines and objects.
The article will present the challenges of deploying 5G networks that must be addressed for the technology to deliver its full capacity and capabilities. Samsung Electronics has designed a new radio antenna, One Antenna Radio, which provides simplified infrastructure and helps mobile operators have more efficient 5G deployment.
What is 5G Technology?
5G technology provides advantages when compared with the previous 4G wireless technology. It delivers extremely high Gbps peak data speed with ultralow latency. 5G increases availability and reliability as well as enables massive network capacity. The technology will also provide a faster and more reliable connection and data streaming—potentially a hundred times faster than 4G.
5G technology uses more efficient and improved routers and completely different frequency ranges compared with previous wireless networks. It uses millimeter waves (wavelength 1-10 mm and frequency 30-300 GHz) of the electromagnetic spectrum, which are a similar range to what is used in airport security. The 5G network uses directional phased-array antennas that do not radiate the signal equally in all directions (as was true with previous antennas). Instead, the antennas can target a particular direction of signal radiation. 5G uses electromagnetic radiation in three different parts of the spectrum—the low band (below 1 GHz), mid-band (1-6 GHz) and the high band (24-48 GHz).
The Configuration of 5G Networks
The advanced performance and high efficiency of 5G networks enable customers to explore a variety of new capabilities that can bring new opportunities and connect new industries. A powerful 5G network provides exciting advances and new possibilities for communications service providers (CSPs).
However, the technology’s features and frequency ranges are new for telecommunication systems. Until now, high band frequencies, which utilize millimeter waves, have not been used in telecommunication systems. The reason is the low efficiency of long-range transmission. Those electromagnetic waves do not travel very far and can be blocked and disturbed by walls, trees, and so on. The concept of the 5G network is to use a short-range network made of small cells for the millimeter waves distributed at distances of approximately one hundred meters. The small cells communicate with high-power macrocells that use mid- and low-band antennas that provide long-range transmission. This 5G network concept requires complex infrastructure with challenging deployments as illustrated in the figure below.
Unleashing the full power of 5G technology requires powerful infrastructure. Although there is promising potential, 5G rollout on a massive scale and its installation and setup presents real challenges for CSPs. It requires the rapid building of dense, low-latency edge flexible networks that must be affordable and secure with simple deployment and maintenance.
5G Deployment Challenges
The first challenge is finding a way to simplify the creation of a reliable, complex and dense 5G network. The 5G network requires a much denser network than the previous network technologies, which increases its complexity. 5G radio access network (RAN) hardware, which includes antennas, radio and baseband units, are very powerful but still cover less space than the existing 4G macrocells. This means that more hardware and software are needed to cover a similar space.
The need for bigger infrastructure increases the network’s installation and operating costs. The cost and complexity of work are increased for other needs, including system configuration, testing, management and maintenance of the 5G network. Companies are focused on finding ways to simplify the solution and decrease the costs.
Proper functioning of 5G networks requests ultralow latency. The technology will support the connection of smart devices with a very strict tolerance for delay. They can allow less than a millisecond of delay for communication across the entire network infrastructure. Previously, tolerance for telecom applications has been much higher and the current infrastructure cannot support the new strict requirement for ultralow latency at this scale and for this speed of data.
The great possibilities and features of 5G networks come with new risks, especially as they relate to new security issues. Cybersecurity must be increased to cover the nature of the 5G network where everything is connected.
A New Concept of Radio Antenna
Samsung has developed a new concept of radio antenna called One Antenna Radio, which has a compact design that enables greater deployment efficiency. This was announced at Samsung Networks: Redefined. The One Antenna Radio is an efficient solution to address the challenge of deploying the 5G network. The integrated antennas simplify and speed up 5G installations, enabling consolidation of a 3.5 GHz Massive MIMO radio with low-band and mid-band passive antennas into a single unit. Wonil Roh, senior vice president and head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, explained, “Recognizing that mounting hardware, cabling, crew site time and space limitations are a challenge for most operators, we created a solution to help tackle this issue and expand deployment boundaries.”
Samsung’s One Antenna Radio can be a solution for some of the previously mentioned challenges in 5G deployments. The key advantages of this system are site simplification, simplified installation and lower operating expenses. The integrated new antenna radio has a compact design with reduced cabling and hardware elements that simplifies installation into a municipality’s environment and has reduced visual impact in dense urban areas. Since there is no need to install and connect radios and multiple antennas separately, the installation is significantly simplified. This means faster installation and reduced installation costs. The system requires less space on sites or towers, thus the expense of operation, including rental and maintenance, will be decreased.
Samsung’s One Antenna Radio integrated feature provides significant improvements in 5G deployment, site simplification, simplified installation and operating expenses (OPEX) savings:
- Site simplification: The streamlined solution uses compact hardware to blend into a municipality’s environment and reduces cabling and hardware elements to minimize visual impact in dense urban areas.
- Simplified installation: Deployment is made simple by eliminating the need to install and connect radios and multiple antennas separately, accelerating the installation and reducing labor costs.
- OPEX savings: By requiring less space on sites or towers—and with a smaller footprint—operators can save on expenses, including rental and maintenance costs.
An important part of the system is Massive MIMO radios, which significantly increase its capacity, performance and power efficiency. They increase gigabit speeds and capacity and enable a 5G mobile network using its 2.5GHz TDD-LTE spectrum. The MIMO radios use beamforming technology that focuses radio signals on specific end devices, which improve the signal quality and reduce interference.
Rather than broadcasting in all directions, the beamforming technique uses an array of antennas that direct and focus a signal only where it is required. MIMO radios have multiple-input, multiple-output antennas that enable the simultaneous transmission of multiple data signals by using the same wireless channel. This creates multiple input and output paths between the base station and the end device. This feature improves spectral efficiency per cell and the number of users that can be served simultaneously.
5G Enables New Opportunities
The 5G network is far beyond traditional telecommunication networks. It enables numerous technological opportunities and applications. Robotics and industrial technologies, for instance, are areas where 5G will open new possibilities and allow industries and robots to have completely autonomous operations.
5G provides the tools for the future of industrial manufacturing, smart factories and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Robots can be connected and communicate with extremely low latency, making them able to react even to visual inputs. The automotive industry is where 5G will likely make a huge impact. Autonomous vehicles are more reliable with 5G, enabling the automotive industry to envision Level 4 autonomous vehicles, where the vehicles can operate with no human driver in certain situations. Aerospace and defense are the industries where the greatest impact and application of 5G network is expected—where it will improve global defense communications and initiate urban air mobility (UAM) technology, including small drones, electric aircraft and automated air traffic management.