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5G NEXT-GEN COMMS ARE COMING
5G mobile communications are less than five years away, and the ACMA wants to make sure we’re all ready.
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t has become a truism in recent decades that a new generation of mobile communications has come along every 10 years or so. The current state of the art is 4G, or LTE. But the next step, 5G, is racing towards us, with the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMNA) aiming to have it operational by 2020. According to the NGMNA, 5G networks will provide services far beyond those offered by 4G, and specifically will need to meet the following requirements: • Data rates of tens of megabits per second for tens of thousands of users. • 1 gigabit per second available simultaneously to many workers on the same office floor. • Several hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections to be supported for massive sensor deployments. • Spectral efficiency should be significantly enhanced compared to 4G. • Coverage should be improved over that provided by 4G. • Signalling efficiency should be enhanced. • Latency should be reduced significantly compared to LTE. There are many technological developments in the pipeline that will work together to achieve these goals, including massive MIMO, cognitive (or smart) radio and network virtualisation, to name just a few. In February, ACMA released a discussion paper — 5G and mobile network developments: Emerging issues (acma.gov.au/
theacma/5g-and-mobile-network-developments-emerging-issuesoccasional-paper) — that “looks at 5G mobile developments and the opportunities that this evolution in mobile technology offers to the Australian community through increased use of mobile broadband and machine-to-machine communication”. The paper examines: • the ongoing development of mobile networks in Australia; • expected consumer and business drivers of demand for the next generation of mobile services; • the technological developments that will underpin 5G network deployments; • use cases that will require 5G in order to be deployed; • the existing regulatory arrangements that may be useful in facilitating the next stage of mobile network developments. The ACMA has called for input into the discussion, and has posed the following questions to industry and the wider community: • Are there any additional demand drivers supporting 5G network deployment in Australia not identified in the paper? • Are there any additional significant enablers or major inhibitors to 5G network deployment in Australia that are not identified in this paper? • Are there additional regulatory issues around 5G network deployment, relevant to the ACMA’s responsibilities, which are not discussed in this paper?
This issue is sponsored by — ROHDE & SCHWARZ (AUSTRALIA) PTY LTD — http://www.rohde-schwarz.com.au 33