With the deployment of 5G networks, the main aim of every Mobile Carrier is to offer reliable, secure, and competitive services to a broad range of customers, end-users, and businesses. This means that the 5G network should support sufficient data rates, indoor and outdoor coverage, and, of course, the adequate availability. All the above should also come at a reasonable cost since the Operators need to follow a competitive pricing policy to sustain profitability growth.
This means that in a 5G network deployment strategy, legacy technologies should not be neglected. Smooth migration is the key until proper 5G development with high 5G penetration and demand of the more advanced 5G technologies is reached. Adaptability is also an essential factor since the network should be able to efficiently support the rapidly increasing diversity of terminal types and, at the same time, be prepared to enable new services through network slicing according to user needs and service differentiation.
Automation and power consumption improvement is also an area which can reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and give a competitive edge to support the rapid traffic growth as far as it is economically feasible. This can be achieved by using new advanced capacity-boost techniques such as multi-antenna systems, MIMO, and selectively using new spectrum in the millimeter-wave region or re-farming existing resources whenever possible, taking advantage of unlicensed bands such as in the sub6GHz or 60GHz area.
The revenues in the following years through the expansion of 5G data networks are not expected to increase rapidly. Therefore, any future network investment needs to be well structured and targeted. That is why the operators should adopt the new technologies that fit their needs to transform their business accordingly. Most Carriers have already targeting fiber penetration and converged fixed and mobile networks. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in areas of disaggregation, CU-DU split architectures, using more centralized and virtualized networks, and developing a multi-vendor open environment.
5G RAN deployment
Spectrum above 6 GHz becomes important for 5G networks since these frequencies are suitable for ultra-high data rates. Primarily millimeter-waves will provide large blocks of spectrum, with extremely high throughput and capacity. On the other hand, millimeter-waves cannot cover a wide range of population due to their sensitivity to physical obstacles and their inability to effectively penetrate walls. That is why lower frequencies will still be used to provide adequate coverage. Millimeter-waves can be initially deployed on targeted areas of high traffic demand to expand network capacities (e.g., up to 20 Gbps, which is the target value according to IMT2020) and support ultra-high-density network connections. Next to the technology evolution, the readiness of each economy to adopt these new use cases will also depend on each country’s regulation to support mmWave spectrum usage per country.
5G early deployment will focus mainly on 3.5 GHz NR in limited areas with high future traffic demand. 5G coverage will be complemented by the use of existing bands and re-farming resources, e.g. 2.1 GHz spectrum from 3G. At the same time, wireless technologies such as FWA will complement fiber deployments in areas where fiber is either difficult or too costly to deploy. Most Operators plan to immediately modernize their networks and reach the 5G growth phase, by up to the mid of the decade, where NR will be used widely in millimeter-wave bands. By the 2nd half of the decade, 5G will have expanded everywhere, with full urban, residential, road/rail coverage, including indoor solutions for offices & enterprise buildings.
5G Network Architecture deployment
Edge cloud is an architecture that will significantly reduce latency by bringing the relevant services physically closer to the end-user. Edge cloud enables real-time processing to compute with less than 10 milliseconds roundtrip delay. In today’s systems, a typical roundtrip delay is up to about at least 20ms. Thanks to 5G and edge cloud, this delay can be reduced to less than 10 ms to support high-quality real-time applications. According to IMT2020, for Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications (URLLC), this delay should be down to just 1ms for some specific demanding low-latency services.
5G architecture should become more disaggregated than existing networks. RAN functions can be centralized to a shared Edge Cloud. CU/DU split is preferred, while C-RAN can be used in selective locations such as dense urban environments to support small cells or specific sports arena areas. Network slicing is another critical enabler to deliver various different demands and services to the end customer. Open interfaces should be used to support a multi-vendor environment. Hyper-scale operators like Google, Facebook, Microsoft Azure have already successfully created an agile and flexible ecosystem. In a typical major Telco environment, there is usually a lack of scalability and a lack of in-house open source developers. At the same time, Open Source is, at the time, operated by SLAs with 3rd party companies to support specific projects. However, moving to an Open Source environment cannot happen overnight. This will require an investment and a different way of working using agile methodologies, with open source developers, and an advanced DevOps approach.
Technology Collaboration
The need has come for extensive collaboration between all Telecom Industry parties, vendors, operators, and partners. This means that most parties should actively participate in common foundations and consortiums to commonly define standards and collaborate on new technologies and business approaches. For example, Open Source cannot become a reality and steered effectively by vendors alone. The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), the Open RAN (O-RAN) Alliance, and the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) are some examples of this kind of organizations working towards that goal. Telecom Operators need to also contribute to these key organizations. It is now more than evident that telecom resources are not infinite, so everyone should avoid overlap work and re-invention of wheels. All parties should effectively work together to elaborate on new technologies that will transform businesses and societies altogether.
