DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES FierceMarkets Custom Publishing share: DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES Millimeter Wave (aka mmWave) wireless Some analysts believe that rollouts of mmWave for technology for mobile use based on the global mobile will start later than the 2019 time frame. 5G NR (New Radio) standard will be deployed But Qualcomm is resolute that the global 5G NR commercially as early as 2019 to efficiently provide standard, its underlying technology, and standards- needed capacity and bandwidth for smartphones, based devices and infrastructure will come together mobile PC’s, tablets, head-mounted displays such as and indeed be ready, with commercial deployments Virtual Reality headsets, and even vehicles. starting 2019, after interoperability testing and over-the-air field trials in 2018. Thanks to advanced mmWave-related technologies coming with 5G NR, all these devices will be able “We believe there is a big opportunity with 5G to consume and share rich video and media content mmWave for mobile,” and not only fixed wireless that users crave and that service providers are over mmWave, said Matt Branda, director of increasingly eager to supply as a potential revenue Qualcomm’s 5G technology marketing. “Based on generator. our extensive research and testing, we are confident September 2017 1 DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES FierceMarkets Custom Publishing that we will be ready for 5G NR mmWave mobile commercial launches starting 2019 for the smartphone form factor.” “We believe there is a big opportunity with 5G To support these claims, Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon X50 5G modem family that mmWave for mobile.” will support 5G NR mmWave for smartphones and mobile devices. It is being designed to — Matt Branda, director of support operation in the sub-6 GHz and multi- Qualcomm’s 5G technology band mmWave spectrum to provide a unified 5G marketing design for all major spectrum types and bands while addressing a wide range of use cases and deployment scenarios. The challenge with utilizing these mmWave bands Verizon has made a big push for pre-standard fixed in mobile networks is robustness (aka getting a wireless mmWave trials in 11 U.S. cities. AT&T suitable RF signal) due to increased propagation/ also announced trials of streaming their DirectTV path loss and blockage from foliage, light poles, Now video service over a pre-standard 5G mmWave humans, etc. at these high-frequency bands. Lately, fixed wireless connection, but also committed to test 5G Researchers have shown great progress in both mobile and fixed 5G services based on the 5G overcoming some of the challenges with advanced NR standard starting later this year antenna techniques. Outside the U.S., international carriers also seem 5G NR mmWave will utilize these advanced ready to jump on mobile mmWave pilots. A high- antenna techniques to focus a narrow beam of RF profile showcase of the technology by telecom energy (aka beamforming) toward the mobile user, provider KT is slated for the Winter Olympics akin to a spotlight, instead of a floodlight. New being held in February in South Korea. 5G NR technologies will enable mobile devices to quickly and constantly track for the beams (aka HOW 5G MMWAVE WILL beam-tracking), including across multiple base WORK FOR MOBILE stations, with seamless transitions when the primary signal (or beam) is obstructed or too weak. The radio spectrum that is called mmWave spectrum runs from 30 GHz to 300 GHz, although Qualcomm released a compelling real-world the 5G NR mmWave efforts loosely refer to video in February demonstrating that mobile 5G frequencies above 24 GHz, with the first phase mmWave technology can overcome many physical of rollouts to run from 24 GHz to 40 GHz, then obstructions and will work effectively for users eventually up to 100 GHz. inside vehicles and offices, even with non-line of site (NLOS) connections and device mobility. The spectrum gets the name “mmWave” because these high frequency waves are very small—just The over-the-air demonstration, completed utilizing millimeters in size. They stretch over a relatively Qualcomm’s 5G mmWave prototype system, huge swath of the radio spectrum that has very consists of a prototype 5G handset connecting wide bandwidths and isn’t as crowded with mobile/ to prototype 5G base stations in various ways, wireless users like those at lower frequencies. including from inside a vehicle moving at 30 mph Therefore, mmWave is attractive to carriers looking along office park roadways, with a quick connection to efficiently address the ever-increasing global to a second base station when other vehicles demand for mobile data. interfere. Inside a typical office, the user handset’s September 2017 2 DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES FierceMarkets Custom Publishing signal is shown redirecting to a second base station congestion on lower-frequency bands. when a worker in a hallway blocks the wireless pathway to the first base station. Analyst Joe Madden of Mobile Experts has forecast a huge cost savings for carriers that deploy Ozge Koymen, head of Qualcomm’s 5G mmWave 5G mobile broadband, including mmWave. He research said the video shows that the challenges of reasoned that it will cost one-tenth as much per mmWave can be overcome with 5G NR technology gigabyte to transmit mobile data with 5G when innovations known as beam forming and fast beam- compared to earlier generations of wireless. Not tracking. “We’ve actually shown it can work in a by accident, video content is what has prompted handheld in both indoor and outdoor mobility use companies like AT&T and Verizon to seal deals cases in real-world environments,” he said. with DirecTV and AOL. A big payoff will be speed and capacity. Prototypes Madden has projected a 4GB movie file will cost have shown that mmWave can support 5 Gbps $1 to deliver over 5G, a fraction of the cost when speeds when using an 800 MHz channel at the 28 compared to LTE. “By combining the mobile GHz frequency, Koymen said. The ideal maximum network and the video content, mobile operators range for 5G NR mmWave cell sites will be have found a revenue opportunity,” he said. approximately 150 meters. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission It is likely that 5G NR base stations will contain helped advance mmWave in its Spectrum Frontiers hundreds of antenna elements in a phased MIMO unanimous ruling in mid-2016, which opened up 11 array, Koymen said. Mobile devices will likely GHz across multiple mmWave bands incorporate multiple selectable RF sub-arrays, each with multiple antenna elements. Gordon Mansfield, vice president of AT&T’s radio access network and device design, said Meanwhile, low- and mid-band spectrum, below AT&T “certainly has made it clear that we see 5G 6 GHz, will be crucial in the rollouts of mmWave mmWave for beyond fixed…and we are focused on as well. The sub-6GHz bands, already deployed in mobility and fixed.” Mobile apps will be available at many 4G LTE networks, will be used to provide the end of 2018, he added. ubiquitous coverage — seamlessly interworking with 5G NR mmWave. SKEPTICISM OVER MMWAVE WHAT’S DRIVING MMWAVE ROLLOUTS BY YEAR-END 2019 Even with such ambitious plans, several analysts The availability of mmWave frequency bands should said they believe commercial deployments of provide relief to wireless carriers who already see September 2017 3 DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES FierceMarkets Custom Publishing announced a 5G Modem with a baseband chip that “From the technical side, we see no enables both sub-6 GHz and mmWave. real show stoppers” for 5G NR rollouts Other challenges exist, such as provisioning a in 2019.” sufficient number of base stations (or small cells) with power and backhaul to create a useful network. — NYU Wireless Director Sundeep Rangan and post-doctoral researcher Aditya Dhananjay. “The true challenge of mmWave is how to place all these antennas and connect them to the Internet wirelessly or wired, and how to get power to these antennas,” said Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. mmWave for mobile won’t happen as early as 2019. “It’s a huge logistics problem of how to get so many antennas out there.” Michael Thelander, an analyst at Signals Research Group, said that “I believe mmWave is definitely With higher frequencies like mmWave, a signal going to have its time and place, but I’m not looking doesn’t travel as far, which implies more base forward to a handset running on it in 2019.” stations than with LTE. To get ready, carriers are Thelander agrees that the tests done by Qualcomm already densifying their networks with small cell and others show compelling mmWave mobile deployments, which will continue with the advent performance, so he’s optimistic, but on a longer of new technologies like Gigabit LTE with LAA timeline. (Licensed Assisted Access) which also requires densification. Qualcomm believes 5G NR mmWave These concerns come despite an accelerated 5G technologies can be added to those existing small NR stardardization schedule declared by 3GPP. cells and provide good coverage in cities. Release 15 of the 5G NR spec is now on track for early 2018 which wide-scale commercial network “From the technical side, we see no real show deployments starting 2019. stoppers” for 5G NR rollouts in 2019, said NYU Wireless Director Sundeep Rangan and post- Master QualcommQualcomm logo (rgb 0, 51,160) says it is committed to enabling 3GPP- doctoral researcher Aditya Dhananjay. “The compliant 5G NR mobile devices, for both sub-65 question remains with the business case, namely GHz and mmWave, with its Snapdragon X50 5G the timeline for operators to be convinced that l modem family in 2019.