Exploring the feasibility of 5G by 2022

5th February 2015

Barney Scott

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‘5G - A Practical Approach’, the Cambridge Wireless event which took place at Deloitte's London office on 3^rd February, asked whether 5G is possible by 2022, and explored the true feasibility of 5G technologies. 5G is another ambitious wireless industry milestone, creating much debate and driving billions of pounds of R&D funding, in the hope of keeping to the rhythm of ten year leaps; 1G in 1981, 2G in 1991, 3G in 2001 and 4G in 2012.

However, will 2022 come too soon for 5G? With field trials announced for specific worldwide events like the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Olympic Winter Games 2018 and Olympic Summer Games, 2020, there is a huge push to meet this deadline.

Specific standards underpinning 5G have not yet been consolidated, and 5G is unlikely to become a single solution to all the industry's challenges. However, if previous leaps forward can be replicated, the potential benefits are numerous. To this end, both industry and academia are approaching the subject from different but mutually beneficial perspectives. While industry initiatives are seeking to cement the requirements, quantify 5G KPIs and consolidate industry standards, academics are looking to define and specify the scale and dimensions of the challenge of delivering 5G.

A consensus is emerging, according to Alain Mourad, Wireless Systems Specialist, InterDigital Europe, regarding the initial requirements and enabling concepts for 5G. Mourad suggests standards including a user experienced data rate of 100Mb/s to 1Gb/s, a peak data rate of 10-50Gb/s, area traffic capacity of 1-10TB/s/Km², latency of 1ms, and spectral and energy efficiencies of 1-15 and 50-100 times 4G, respectively.

At this stage, the practicality of some of the candidate technologies proposed for 5G is unclear, as is the question of how the integration of these technologies will provide the overall answer to 5G. The half day event aimed to shed light on the practical implications of 5G competing candidate technologies, including massive MIMO/beamforming, mm-wave frequencies, cloud-based network architectures, or new air interface technologies and protocols.

Each technology has its advantages, but consolidating the more desirable features of each into a single, ubiquitous network will prove challenging - as will improving the experience of a majority of users who do not have the good fortune to live in a peak capacity area. In a presentation at the event, Keysight's Moray Rumney drew attention to the commercial considerations which must be undertaken, including ensuring a consistent experience for everyone, mature and responsible pricing and educating consumers on what to expect.

Egon Schulz, Director, Wireless Innovation Centre, Huawei, and speaker at the event, commented: “5G will have a significant impact on our quality of life, the way in which we engage through technology and the ICT industry.”

Zahid Ghadialy of Explanotech, CW Small Cells SIG Champion and speaker, added: “This event is the first of a series with the aim to open the discussion and explore the options for network densification, interference management, and energy efficiency between various radio technologies and the degree to which the technologies can inter-operate.”