[5G NR] #4. 5G Spectrum and mmWave

5G NR Spectrum

• User density might prove to be problematic for unlicensed spectrum.

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Motivation & Challenges Behind mmWave Deployments

• mmWave signals have to penetrate through the walls to connect your device with a base station.
• As they lose power going in and out of buildings, the user experience might be disrupted.
• mmWave signals can face attenuation by rain, snow, cloudy weather conditions and tree foliage.

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Advantages of mmWave

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mmWave Deployment Opportunities Overview

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mmWave for Urban & Suburban Deployments

• Commercial and downtown area require extremely high throughput due to user density.
• Many users can be located indoors in tall buildings, asking for network resources.

• It might take weeks for an ISP to wire coax cables to a new household or an area.
• The wiring process might prove to be costly and this cost will be reflected on the end user.
• 5G mmWave makes it seamless cost effective experience to add a new subscriber.

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mmWave for Rural Deployments

• Households in rural areas are typically separated from each other by some distance.
• Due to infrastructural costs, broadband services have become scarce and sometimes unavailable in these areas.

• Given that mmWave signals can travel up to 5-6 miles, this solution can be truly wireless for rural deployments.
• mmWave base stations don’t have to be rooted on the ground. They can be placed on trucks to provide mobility & flexibility.

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mmWave for Fixed Wireless Access

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Indoor & Venue Deployment of mmWave

• Event venues such as stadiums and concert halls provide networks with extreme user density.
• Users in enterprise environments are split all around the buildings on every floor.
• These areas come with various propagation challenges as the mmWave signal would need to penetrate through the walls.
• Similar to event venues, transportation hubs have high user density.
• Transportation hubs also pose architectural challenges for mmWave deployments. (Metal buildings, underground stations etc.)

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Real-life mmWave Case Studies

• Productivity during long wait times can be affected by sub-par network quality.
• Such mmWave deployment in a transportation hub can immensely improve network capacity and user experience.