The race to develop 5G
Telecom Resilience
There’s been lots of hype around 5G and the possibilities it offers because of its high-speed, low-latency and secure network standard.
Did you know that the 5G standard provides stronger encryption from cyber-attacks and is the first technology standard for broadband cellular networks to protect user identities, making it more resilient than the 4G network right out of the gate?
What has changed over time
In the early days of deploying wireless networks, projected and actual bandwidth demands were small, so 12-40 MHz blocks across multiple low and lower mid-band frequencies seemed more than sufficient and supported the technology standards of the day. In 2001, 3G allowed for a maximum 5 MHz channel. In 2009, the 4G standard raised it to a 20 MHz channel maximum. The 5G standard raised it again…to a 100 MHz channel maximum. This seems great, but it also created a problem because U.S. operators didn’t have 100 MHz blocks of spectrum to allocate to 5G.
A 5G world can’t exist without more spectrum, so governments around the world have been working to increase spectrum availability to create a path to 5G networks. For example, prior to 2018, the three major U.S. carriers held a combined total of approximately 600 MHz of spectrum. Since that time, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has auctioned off more than 5,000 MHz of spectrum, a near tenfold increase…and raised $96 billion in the process! The FCC has already identified another 200 MHz+ of mid-band spectrum for auction as early as the fourth quarter of 2021, with continued releases in 2022 and beyond.
With only approximately 10% of the necessary spectrum deployed, the industry is assessing the work ahead. The approach is also evolving. It’s no longer about who can overlay a network with the latest band or technology the fastest — it’s about design inclusivity and resilience, as well as scale and speed to market. Service providers that offer combined solutions will benefit from the demand.
As we work with clients on current and future 5G network deployments, design inclusion — considering the broad array of network technology and geography — will close the digital divide exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In and of itself, 5G technology offers enhanced capabilities likely to transform the world. We’re thrilled to be engaging with the industry and our clients to deliver it.
"In the movie Jaws, Chief Brody tells Quint, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” The 5G standard is telling network operators, “You’re gonna need more spectrum."
– John Parham Division Vice President and General Manager Communications Telecom Group
"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."
– Alexander Graham Bell
Here are three key areas we’re working on to safeguard resilience in our future 5G networks
1. Comprehensive network design
Although we talked about spectrum quantities, we haven’t addressed that not all bands are created equal, and varying frequencies perform very differently. Spectrum is categorized by low-band (450MHz-1GHz), mid-band (1GHz-6GHz) and high-band, also known as mmWave, (24GHz-300GHz) — the latter only available through a 5G network. Like occupying the entirety of the volume of a vase with rock, pebbles and sand, low-band is your rock, mid-band are your pebbles and high-band is your sand. All three must be layered and integrated with underlying wireline (fiber) networks, for in-building and private networks and unlicensed spectrum (for example, Wi-Fi) to provide a reliable and resilient 5G experience.
2. Evolving network architecture
The physical architecture is changing from a distributed radio access network (dRAN) to a centralized one (cRAN). In doing so, we’ll be relocating digital processing from each and every individual cell site location to centralized data center-like environments. This will help achieve deployment cost efficiency, improve network performance (through virtualization/edge compute) and reduce backhaul traffic. It will also establish infrastructure for critical network components in secure, protected and redundant environments.
3. Civil infrastructure reliability
As existing infrastructure is burdened with an ever-increasing quantity of accessories, it’s critical that we account for severe storm tolerances and future loading in design. As networks become denser, installations will find their way onto street and traffic lights, utility poles, buildings and bridges. Although not as prominent as steel structures, they will number in the tens to hundreds of thousands of locations and require the same rigor in design so that the future network is there for us when we need it most. •