IEEE Future Networks Tech Focus
Volume 4, Number 1, November 2020
In This Issue
- Rural Neutral Host Network Demonstration in Orkney, Scotland
- Delivering on 5G’s Foundational Control Requirements
- An Overview of 3D Printed Antennas for 5G Communications and Beyond
- Progress and Challenges in the Cellular Industry and 5G
Rural Neutral Host Network Demonstration in Orkney, Scotland
November 2020
Greig Paul, Kenneth Barlee, Ross McPherson, Dani Anderson, David Crawford, James Irvine, Robert Stewart, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
While much of the focus of 5G deployment has been around higher frequencies supporting greater bit rates, the 700MHz spectrum allocation for 5G offers the opportunity of wide area coverage of rural areas. However, even at these lower frequencies, rural deployments face economic challenges. An existing market driven approach has not provided good coverage, nor have regulatory interventions via coverage obligations. In Scotland, the government intervention aimed to provide shared masts to help solve the connectivity problem; however, 56% of the originally proposed sites have now been dropped due to lack of mobile operator interest, and only a single ‘infill’ site is currently operational.
Delivering on 5G’s Foundational Control Requirements
November 2020
Jim Ross, MIPI RF Front-End Control Working Group chair
5G will bring great changes to wireless communications—and, by extension, the Internet of Things and all of the industrial, automotive and other application areas that rely on the technology. Control for the Radio Frequency Front-End of the wireless components that enable these application areas is an important element to bring order to the 5G story. The MIPI Alliance, an international organization that develops interface specifications for mobile and mobile-influenced industries, recently updated its MIPI RF Front-End Control Interface—MIPI RFFE—with emphasis on supporting the next wave of 5G applications around the world.
An Overview of 3D Printed Antennas for 5G Communications and Beyond
November 2020
Henry Giddens, and Yang Hao, Queen Mary University of London
5G communication systems will once again revolutionize the ways that people connect and communicate with each other. Future mobile networks will also span new frequency bands in mm-wave and THz bands. The combination of the need to wirelessly connect everyday consumer devices to the internet, and the range of new frequency bands on offer, has necessitated research into new antenna systems. One technology that is enabling the realization of a new class of antennas is 3D printing. This has been fueled in part by the rise of new antenna design techniques such as transformation optics and topological optimization, whilst further developments in new filament materials designed specifically for electromagnetic applications means complex antenna geometries can now be easily realized. This article presents an overview of the ways in which additive manufacturing is enabling the development of novel antennas for 5G wireless networks and beyond.
Progress and Challenges in the Cellular Industry and 5G
November 2020
Qi Bi, China Telecom
When compared with the 4G-LTE, 5G has made impressive progress in many technological areas including the spectral efficiency, user data rate, and transmission delay. It promises to support mMTC and uRLLC in addition to the traditional eMBB. However, by examining the 5G system operating in the field, this paper intends to provide insights that show different sides of 5G that we have not seen, and uncover issues that need to be addressed in the future.
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IEEE Future Networks Tech Focus Editorial Board
Rod Waterhouse, Editor-in-Chief
Amine Maaref, Managing Editor
Sen Wang, Assoc. Managing Editor
Imran Shafique Ansari
Anwer Al-Dulaimi
Stefano Buzzi
Yunlong Cai
Zhi Ning Chen
Panagiotis Demestichas
Ashutosh Dutta
Yang Hao
Gerry Hayes
Chih-Lin I
James Irvine
Meng Lu
Thas Nirmalathas
Sen Wang
Shugong Xu
Haijun Zhang