5G Vision and Requirements for Next Generation Mobile ...

5G Vision and Requirements for Next Generation Mobile Systems

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25G Vision and Requirements for Next Generation Mobile Systems I More on www.awtg.co.ukAWTG 2019. This document is issued by AWTG in confidence and is not to be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written permission of AWTG.

5G Vision and Requirements for Next Generation Mobile Systems

Abstract: The rapidly changing world of wireless and mobile communications has brought about innovative technology standards, solutions and services leading to a major paradigm shift in the way humans communicate, access information and do business. While the first three generations of mobile technology were mainly voice-centric, the design, adoption and proliferation of fourth generation mobile networks indicated a pivot towards a more content-centric mobile communications infrastructure, influenced mainly by the mass uptake of bandwidth hungry applications and multimedia service offerings across a very wide range of communication platforms. This transformation and evolution of the mobile communication industry has been a major impetus that is driving business innovation as well as economic and societal growth. The technological evolution has now shifted from 4G and much activity is underway regarding vision and requirements setting, research, standardisation, product development and roll-out of future 5G wireless networks beginning from 2020. This whitepaper presents the 5G vision and requirements, drivers, design considerations and challenges as well as the enabling technologies and network operator implications.

5G Vision and Requirements

With 5G development in its embryonic stage, there is currently no universally accepted definition of 5G. However, broadly speaking, 5G is envisioned to be a ubiquitous communications platform capable of offering virtually everything to everybody. This therefore presents a unique opportunity to define and design a new network that embraces major wireless technology advancements capable of increasing wireless capacity, data rates, service provisioning and network deployment flexibility in orders of magnitude.

The 5G network infrastructure is likely to shift from the purpose-built mobile broadband legacy network towards a hyper-connected system that will support the massive, ultra-high speed and ultra-low delay connectivity required to create the enabling platform for new and innovative service offerings(1).The overarching requirement of what 5G will or should be presents both opportunities and challenges. AWTG believes that one of the major challenges facing the design considerations of 5G is that different use cases of next generation networks will place disparate network demands on the infrastructure and therefore the need to amalgamate the various enabling technologies into a coherent, flexible and efficient end to end ecosystem is critical.

I. Context II. 5G Vision

(1) 5G services and use-cases currently under consideration include massive IoT/M2M applications, virtual and augmented reality, tactile internet, pervasive video, smart city systems, E-Health, broadband access everywhere etc.

AWTG believes that the path to a fully-fledged 5G technology will follow both evolutionary and revolutionary technology elements. The evolutionary path will incorporate current wireless network technologies such as Wi-Fi and LTE-A and their logical advancements towards higher peak data rates, better spectral efficiency and interference mitigation. Going by current advances in the wireless industry, 5G is also uniquely poised to be a communications platform that integrates revolutionary new technologies that will push the boundaries far beyond what is currently conceivable. Exciting innovations in antenna technology, novel multiple access technologies, machine type communications, edge and cloud computing etc. will be fodder for a revolutionary communications architecture with unique network and service capabilities that will usher in a truly mobile and connected world. Figure 2 below provides a brief description of the path to 5G.

The path to 5G

Figure 1: High-level 5G System Structure [1]

EVOLUTIONARY

802.11a/b

LTE-ALTE R12 R13 Further evolution of LTE/LTE-A

802.11g 802.11n 802.11ac Next generation WLAN (HEW)

REVOLUTIONARY 2G:FDMA/TDMA 3G: CDMA 4G:OFDM Revolutionary

new technologies?

5G

Figure 2: The path to 5G [2]

The two main drivers fuelling the need for the development of future wireless technologies such as 5G are the exponential increase in the volume of mobile data traffic generated and the rapid growth in the number of inter-connected devices.

Cisco’s Visual Networking Index estimates that the mobile data traffic will likely surpass 24.3 Exabyte per month by 2019(2) [3]. In addition, new research and innovative services being offered across a range of vertical industries that aim to optimise the connection of anything anywhere with efficient low cost communications paints a very exciting picture of the smart future and precipitates the need for a ubiquitous communications platform capable of offering the pervasive connectivity and varied performance requirements of each particular scenario. According to [4], the number of inter- connected devices and autonomous communicating machines is estimated to reach 50 billion by 2020.

5G Drivers

(2) By 2020, monthly mobile traffic is expected to hit 30.6 Exabyte per month with 75% of the world’s mobile data traffic generated from video.


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Industry giant Samsung holds the view that the resultant effect on cell capacity and data rate requirement due to new services such as Ultra-High Definition multimedia streaming and the low latency requirements of cloud computing, critical communication services and device to device communications will be too taxing for the current 4G mobile infrastructure, which is already stretched towards its performance limits despite Wi-Fi offloading, to deliver the required quality of user experience.

5G technology will accelerate the realization of a total, immersive and integrated ICT infrastructure with mobile at its core. The overall goal is a platform for any mobile application, device and service to have the capability to connect to anything, anywhere irrespective of space and time. Humans, machines, things, processes and information will be highly connected with the ability to communicate and transfer data in a flexible, efficient and secure way. The overall vision of 5G is therefore to expand the capabilities of mobile networks and push the boundary of what services they can deliver [7].

• 5G is expected to provide end-users with fibre-grade throughput and data rates as well as near 1ms latency user experience.

• 5G should be capable of handling ultra-dense device connections in excess of 100 billion devices.

• 5G needs to deliver a consistent user experience across a myriad of scenarios and use-cases.

• The 5G system will have the capability to intelligently self-optimise based on the services and user requirements.

• 5G must be a green mobile technology that will improve energy, cost and operational efficiency.

Figure 5 below presents an overall vision of 5G and the corresponding usage scenarios.

Figure 3: Mobile data traffic and Inter-connected devices growth predictions [5]

5G technology is therefore needed to ensure that user experience is not diminished in challenging situations or terrains such as in high speed scenarios, ultra-high traffic volume and ultra-high connection density environments.

Furthermore, 5G technology will power the internet of things by providing the right platform to support the inter-connection of a huge amount of sensors, actuators and devices with varied transmission requirements and stringent energy needs.

Public safety and emergency services networks which currently are handled by different communications technologies and infrastructures will be supported by a unified 5G system. 5G technology will cost-effectively provide these mission critical services the needed reliability, coverage, low latency and high security. Figure 4 below depicts the 5G triad driving the need for its development.

MASSIVE IOTLarge number of connections with Low Power, Low Cost

10 year battery 10-100x more devices

5GENHANCED

BROADBANDThroughput Capacity

100Mbps reliably >10Gbps peak

CRITICAL COMMUNCATIONS

Low-Latency, High-Reliability<1ms radio latency

10 error rate-9

Figure 4: 5G Triangle – the motivation for 5G [6]

Figure 5: 5G Overall vision [2]

5G Technology Vision

To achieve the 5G vision, the key performance criteria of 5G mobile systems need to be outlined. These KPIs are mapped against a set of likely 5G service scenarios with varied functional requirements and network performance needs. Initial values have already been attached to some of these parameters to provide functional performance criteria for 5G systems. Interestingly, the difference of opinion between network operators and equipment vendors regarding the most important defining performance criteria for 5G is telling. Some operators hold the view thatnetworks need to deliver against all the performance criteria to be truly considered 5G. Other industry partners have a more relaxed approach about meeting all the required parameter thresholds [8]. Tables 1 and 2 below summarises the 5G performance and efficiency indicators. Table 3 provides initial thresholds for some of the parameters. Table 4 advises on the technology research and development efforts being employed to address the 5G performance requirements.

5G Key Functional Performance KPIs:


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Performance Indicators

Table 1: 5G Key performance indicators

User exxperience data rate (bps)

Definition

The minimum achievable data rate for a user in real network environment

Connection density (/Km )2

End-to-end latency (ms)

The total number of connected devices per unit area

The duration between the transmission of a data packet from the source node and the successful reception at desitination node

The total data rate of all users per unit area

Traffic volume density (bps/Km )2

The relative speed between receiver and transmitter under certain performance requirement

Mobility (Km/h)

The maximum achievable data rate per userPeak date rate (bps)

Efficiency Indicators

Spectrum efficiency (bps/Hz/cell or bps/Hz/Km )

Definition

The data throughput per unit of spectrum resource per cell (or per unit area)

Energy efficiency (bit/J)

Cost efficiency (bit/Y)

The number of bits that can be transmitted per joule of energy

The number of bits that can be transmitted per unit cost

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Table 2: 5G Key efficiency indicators

Parameter Value

Latency in the air link <1ms

Latency end-to-end (device to core) <10ms

Connection density 1 million connections/km2

Traffic volume density 1Tbit/s/km2

System spectrum efficiency 10bit/s/Hz/cell

Peak data rate per connection 1 Gbit/s with 100 MHz band below 6 GHz frequency band

Energy efficiency >90% improvement over LTE

Table 3: 5G Functional performance criteria [8]

5G technology is expected to drive new and innovative services and uses cases. The technology will provide a platform to support emerging use cases with a huge variety of service offerings and their performance requirements. Some uses cases may need a multiplicity of characteristic features and performance needs. Other use cases may require only one specific performance criteria. A key challenge for 5G will be how to meet this diverse set of use cases under one technology platform reliably, cost effectively and in a flexible manner.

Emerging applications are incorporating major technological advances in various fields such as robotics, virtual and augmented reality, health care, automation etc. In a hyper-connected view of the next wave of digital society, most of these applications and uses cases will have components that require autonomous communication between devices. These devices may be elements of smart city infrastructure, smart home and entertainment systems, transportation and vehicular communications infrastructure, smart energy and industrial systems etc. Each component of this highly connected infrastructure will have its own network requirements such as latency, bandwidth, throughput, device power etc. Figure 6 below presents the potential bandwidth and latency requirements of some of the uses cases of 5G.

The broad range of 5G use cases will cover human-to-human, human-to-machine and machine-to- machine communications which will drive the underlying infrastructure to provide an all- encompassing smart connectivity [9]. Outlined below are five broad 5G use cases across different industry segments within which specific uses and service scenarios can be identified and implemented.

5G Use-Case Scenarios

Parameter Technology Efforts

Latency in the air link New multiplexing and coding schemes, shorter transmit time

interval (TTI)

Latency end-to-end (device to core)

New network architectures

Connection density New multiplexing and coding schemes

Area capacity densityHigher frequency bands, beam-

forming antennas, advanced MIMO antennas

System spectrum efficiencyNew multiplexing and coding

schemes, advanced MIMO antennas

Peak throughput (downlink) per connection

Beam-forming antennas, higher frequency bands, advanced MIMO

antennas

Energy efficiencyNew multiplexing and coding

schemes, new control channel structures

Table 4: Technology efforts to address 5G performance requirements [8]


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Analysys Mason predicts that 89% of new cars sold by 2024 will have embedded connectivity of some sort(3). This represents a considerable opportunity for wireless network operators to tap into this emerging market sector. 5G is a viable technology candidate to support the very low latency and ultra-high reliability required by Vehicle-to-Vehicle communications and autonomous driving systems. Next generation driverless cars will avoid possible collisions through Vehicle-to-Vehicle and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure information exchange which provides safety hints to drivers or warnings about traffic situations.

The early warning systems, collision avoidance technology and the integrated real-time safety systems of next generation driverless cars will require 1ms round trip latency, and a very challenging 99.99999% reliability (compared to the traditional 99.999% reliability of legacy networks, which equates to about 5 minutes of downtime per year per exchange) in order to effectively exchange data with other vehicles and fixed infrastructure around them. These vehicles will be concentrated in dense urban environments, so the connection density of connected vehicles will be an important design consideration for 5G infrastructure dimensioning [11].

Autonomous Driving

5G will play a major role in the realisation of the smart society. With a dense distribution of wireless sensor networks, smart cities and homes will use 5G wireless connectivity to pull data from multiple domains such as transportation, emergency services, weather etc. to provide real time information, control, automation and maintenance. These sensor networks will invariably be low power and low cost and may require low data rates. Therefore, 5G networks with its energy efficient design consideration will be specifically suited to support large scale interconnection of devices, sensor networks and things. A major requirement for 5G will be to facilitate the integration and management of these very diverse connected devices. 5G will also capacitate these devices and the underlying sensor networks to communicate and exchange data autonomously in the background with the required resources available on demand and in a scalable way. This ubiquitous connectivity provided by the 5G infrastructure will truly enable and scale IoT services.

Massive Internet of Things

Figure 6: Bandwidth and latency requirements of potential 5G use cases [10]

(3) http://www.analysysmason.com/Research/Content/Reports/connected-cars-forecast-Jun2014-RDME0/

Figure 7: Connected Cars - 5G use case [1]

5G will be used to power up virtual and augmented reality services which will potentially revolutionise gaming, entertainment, healthcare, education etc. These services will require very high bandwidth and ultra-low latency to provide an immersive experience where users can proactively interact with simulated elements. In addition, context-aware applications will provide real-time information that can be graphically augmented to a user’s display. AR and VR services present a major opportunity for operators in the 5G era. CCS Insight estimates that the market segment for augmented reality wearables and devices will reach 1 billion dollars by 2017 with shipments of AR and VR headsets forecasted to reach 96 million devices by 2020 at a value of 14.5 billion dollars [8].

Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Tactile Internet


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The healthcare industry is another sector that has many potential use cases and applications for 5G technology. 5G technology and services will enable telemedicine and remote healthcare by bridging the distance gap between healthcare providers and the communities that need their services. For example, a surgeon could remotely perform an operation by controlling a robot on the other side of the world. This will all be made possible by the reliable hyper-connectivity and near-zero latency provided by 5G networks [5]. The ubiquitous nature and expected ultra-reliability of the 5G infrastructure will also make it a prime technology for use by mission critical services in critical care and emergency situations. Applications for monitoring and remote sensing of vital patient parameters such as temperature, heart rate and blood pressure can be deployed through sensor networks powered by 5G wireless connectivity.

Healthcare

A major use case of 5 technology will be to support the continued growth of established mobile broadband services. Ultra-High definition 3D video, cloud computing and storage and other emerging applications and services will push the boundary of data rate and capacity beyond what the current mobile networks can deliver. The spike in data activity as a result of these services will require fibre-grade data rates and consumers will expect a consistent user-experience across different usage scenarios such as in ultra-dense stadium hotspots and fast moving train and subway environments. For example, a capacity of 10 Tb/s/km2 will be required for a stadium with 30,000 devices and reduced end-to-end latencies of the order of 5ms will be needed to support interactive and ultra-responsive mobile cloud-services [9].

Enhanced Mobile Broadband

Figure 8: Use cases for Enhanced Mobile Broadband [12]

II. 5G Requirements

To fully achieve the 5G Vision, 5G technology will need to satisfy a set of key requirements and design constraints. Figure 9 provides a summary of the key requirements outlined below.

• 5G systems will be required to meet extreme cell capacities, per-user data rates and coverage scenarios while keeping network complexity to a minimum.

• Flexibility and scalability are key network requirements for 5G in order to cater for the wide range of performance needs of its underlying applications and services.

• 5G technology must achieve a high level of cost, energy and operational efficiency meaning that its design consideration should include low-cost network equipment, minimal network deployment costs, advanced power saving capability and minimum total cost of ownership. The system is required to meet its efficiency targets without impacting on its performance specifications [13].

Key Requirements

• 5G technology must have deep overall awareness in order to make intelligent optimization decisions based on user behavior, network state and service requirements.

• 5G technology will be required to efficiently handle a high variety of user mobility scenarios and allocate required resources based on users’ needs.

• Advanced device connection architectures will be required especially at the access layer to cope with the dense and simultaneous connectivity requirements as a result of massive IoT devices.

• 5G technology will need to have efficient spectrum usage capabilities. Various spectrum resources will be employed to provide the huge bandwidth requirements. High and low frequency bands (microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies), licensed and unlicensed bands and paired and unpaired spectrum should all be made available for use by the heterogeneous 5G technologies.


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• 5G systems should have the ability to actualise multi-tenancy and network sharing schemes to enable flexible business models such as the separation of the commercial and operational aspects of the mobile infrastructure from the service layers [14]. 5G infrastructure sharing will enable mobile operators to accelerate network roll-outs and offer services with reduced costs. Infrastructure sharing will also facilitate network densification for flexible increase of capacity during peak periods.

• Due to the sensitive nature of some of the applications and use-cases, 5G technology will need to be designed with strong data security and privacy solutions to meet the connectivity and storage needs of different devices, services and IoT applications.

Figure 9: Key technology requirements to support the 5G Vision [12]

This section provides a brief overview of some of the emerging technologies which will be crucial for achieving the requirements of 5G technology.

Enabling Technologies

A very promising area that has great potential for use in 5G systems is array antenna technology. MIMO systems use multiple antennas to transmit and receive information using a technique known as Multiple Input Multiple Output. Massive MIMO systems are specifically designed to mitigate against inter-user and inter-cell interference resulting in higher throughput and increased reliability. 3D beamforming facilitates high speed transmissions in an RF environment by creating and controlling multiple focused beams in the azimuth and elevation planes.

Massive MIMO & 3D Beamforming

Available spectrum will be critical for the success of 5G. The mmWave bands have at least 10 times more bandwidth than 4G cellular bands and can therefore support the massive data rates required for 5G. The above 6 GHz bands being looked at that hold very good promise include the 28 GHz and 38 GHz frequencies [15]. Signals in these frequency ranges are however easily blocked by obstacles especially in dense urban environments and their propagation can easily be affected by atmospheric conditions such as rainfall. To mitigate against this, a high density of small cells is required in 5G to increase area spectral efficiency through frequency re-use techniques. In addition, by reducing the size of the 5G cell, the transmit power employed can be reduced which means that the power lost through propagation will be lower. Low powered 5G femtocells can be deployed for use in residential and enterprise scenarios while higher powered Pico cells can be deployed for filling the coverage holes of the wider macro cells [16].

Millimetre wave systems & Ultra-dense small cells


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Figure 10: Emerging technologies to enable 5G [2]

Device to device communications is a great technology for improving the spectral efficiency and reducing the end-to-end latency of 5G. Each terminal in a device to device scenario will be able to communicate directly with other devices to either share their radio access resources or directly exchange data when in close proximity. D2D technology can therefore be used to minimise the signalling requirements of 5G by limiting the need for all communications to be routed to the base station and core network for devices that are in close proximity. Nearby devices can therefore form ad-hoc networks and communicate with minimal control from the base station which significantly reduces the signalling load. This will particularly be useful for Machine to Machine communications where the number of connected devices will be very high. Reducing the signalling profile and requirements in machine-type communications will also help to reduce the power consumption of devices.

Device to Device Communication

5G infrastructure will largely be software based to support the flat architecture required for flexible and scalable network operations and service provisioning. Recent advances in traditional networking techniques such as Network Functions Virtualization in which abstractions of standard hardware are created and used in a cloud-based infrastructure to operate a range of network functions will need to be adopted and integrated in 5G systems (4). With SDN and NFV functionality, the network architecture can be virtually and programmatically implemented to create network slices that can be customised to suit a particular service offering and scale, which introduces the notion of the Network as a Service. The adoption of Software Define Networking and Network Functions Virtualization by 5G operators will be also be one of the key strategies for reducing their CAPEX and OPEX and also facilitate future upgrading of their networks.

Software Defined Networking and Network Functions

(4) Software defined radio, cloud-based computing, virtualised RAN, self-optimising networks and big data analytics are some of the software based technologies that will facilitate 5G technology.

II. Implications for operatorsMost operators have already forecasted the capacity crunch that is likely to unfold in the next decade and almost all agree on the need to deploy emerging technologies in order to maintain service levels. Although there is currently no 5G standards in place, operators are however keen to understand what 5G will potentially look like and what it will mean for them and their business models.

Some operators and industry partners have already started deploying 5G test-beds and making field trials in order to get first mover advantage and position themselves well in order to gain from the envisioned disruptive nature of 5G. Indeed, this is very pertinent as 5G will present a glorious opportunity to reverse the widening revenue gap between network operators and over the top service providers. The service models and use-case scenarios that operators will choose to implement with 5G capability will be critical. Table 5 below show some of the operators that have already outlined their 5G test plans and deployment estimates.

5G spectrum allocation and ownership issues, network and infrastructure sharing models, flexible policy and regulatory frameworks, 5G backward compatibility with legacy networks and developing synergies with vertical markets such as the automotive industry and the IoT sector are some of the major action areas that operators will need to have implicit inputs on if they are to reap the full benefits and potentials of 5G technology.


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Megafon Russia

AWTG has extensive experience working on next generation cutting-edge technologies and is proud that it designed, installed and delivered the first in the world dedicated 5G innovation facility at the University of Surrey of which we are also an active associate member. AWTG designed and deployed a 44 site complete end to end self-contained network with all the elements and functionality of a commercial network. The facility is dedicated to defining and implementing innovative 5G technologies as well as the development of 5G use cases in areas such as telehealth, location based services, IoT (Internet of Things) and M2M (Machine to Machine) communications.

The 5G innovation centre is designed and equipped with state of the art infrastructure that is enabling researchers and academics to help develop and define the 5G specifications and standards that are required for the provision of future innovative services and applications. In addition to the full deployment of the 5G infrastructure, AWTG is also a key partner in the establishment, maintenance and ongoing operation of the 5G innovation centre covering fix-break, monitoring, resolution and configuration for multiple test scenarios.

Through our research partnerships, AWTG is also actively working on 5G use cases and infrastructure requirements in collaboration with the 5G Research Team at the Centre for Telecommunications Research, King’s College in London.

AWTG 5G Experience

Trial 5G networks for eleven cities hosting the FIFA 2018 World Cup.Trial involving M2M and human users

KT, SKT, LG South Korea The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning plans to invest up to KRW 68.2 billion to ensure the roll out of a fully commercial 5G service by 2020. Trial services are planned from 2017, with launch of some limited

demonstrator services at the Pyeong Chang 2018 Winter Olympics

NTT DoCoMo Japan Field trials underway. Commercial launch of 5G for summer Olympic Games in 2020 as first phase (serving stadia and other areas); second phase focused on latency and higher frequencies to follow, potential in

2022/2023 timeframe

Orange France Trials in Belfort to end 2016

Verizon United States Lab trials underway. Technology field trials initiated in 2016. Possible 5G commercial launch within 2017

Deutsche Telekom Germany 5G:haus innovation lab launched in March 2015, working with multiple partners

Telstra Australia Field trials, proofs of concept and radio test bed initiated in March2015

Table 5: 5G operator commitments and trials [8]

Figure 11: AWTG delivering first in the world dedicated 5G innovation facility at the University Of Surrey, UK


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II. Implications for operators5G will be a revolutionary mobile communications system with a major potential to re-define the way we interact and communicate, get entertained and provide services across key verticals of the economy. With increased system capacity and real-time responsiveness, 5G technology will enable ground-breaking services and provide users with a truly immersive and rich experience.

The overall vision of 5G technology is very profound and its realization will be challenging given the very diverse set of constraints and requirements. It is essential that key requirements which include flexibility and scalability of the system, operation and sustainability, energy and cost efficiency as well as the reliability, mobility, latency and throughput performance be fully consolidated, integrated and adopted in the overall 5G architecture.New and emerging services and applications will be dependent on 5G technologies to fulfill these requirements in order to scale up and achieve their full potentials. Massive Internet of Things, mission-critical communications and enhanced mobile broadband services will be augmented by 5G with the potential for new service models, business to business opportunities and synergy building across diverse markets such as manufacturing, oil and gas, robotics etc.

To actualize the 5G vision, there is a strong requirement for cost reduction by harnessing advances in key technology areas such as Network Functions Virtualization which removes the dependency on proprietary hardware solutions and facilitates a scalable software-based architecture. Small cells densification and heterogeneous network infrastructures, of which AWTG has immense experience and is a key player in, will also be major enabling technologies of 5G. This will further be facilitated by spectrum availability and harmonization, advances in antenna technology such as MIMO and 3D beamforming as well as millimeter-wave technologies.

This therefore calls for the entire 5G ecosystem including stakeholders from Academia, Industry and Government to work together to ensure that the barriers to 5G deployment such as standardisation, technology development, infrastructure availability and cost reduction are adequately addressed.

For more information about AWTG’s Consulting Services and other AWTG solutions and products, visit http://awtg.co.uk/.

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