IEEE Future Networks Tech Focus
Volume 3, Number 3, November 2019 

In This Issue

• Seamless Networks for Beyond 5G
• Overcoming 5G Millimeter Wave Black Holes
• Photonic Payloads for Next Generation 5G Satellite Networks

 

Seamless Networks for Beyond 5G

Tetsuya Kawanishi, Waseda University

Various types of transmission media including optical fibers, millimeter-wave links and THz links will be required in future mobile networks to offer high-speed and low-latency wireless transmission for many terminals. To mitigate congestion of radio spectrum, traffic over microwave bands should be minimized by using seamless networks where waveforms for radio services to connect end-users are transferred over optical fibers, millimeter-waves, THz-waves, etc. This article provides overviews of the seamless networks comprised of various types of transmission media with direct signal conversion.

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Overcoming 5G Millimeter Wave Black Holes

Dushmantha N.P. Thalakotuna (IEEE Member), School of Engineering, Macquarie University, Australia, Karu P. Esselle (IEEE Fellow), School of Electrical and Data Engineering, University of Technology Sydney, Australia.

Millimeter wave frequency bands are expected to play a significant role in providing higher data rates for 5G users. One of the main drawbacks of millimeter wave spectrum is the building blockages or penetration losses (in walls or glass windows) to indoor environment. Hence 5G outdoor base stations or otherwise known as gNodeBs (gNB) can fail to provide the required capacity for indoor users unless indoor base stations are in use. Deployment of indoor base stations such as femto or pico cells and connecting them into backbone network using cables can be expensive and time consuming. Thus, an inexpensive and rapidly deployable solution that can provide excellent indoor coverage will greatly benefit indoor users as well as operators. In this paper, we present and discuss such a solution referred to hereafter as a 5G extender. The concept of operation and system level architecture of the 5G extender is discussed with a main focus on highlighting challenges associated with antenna technologies to be used in this system.

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Photonic Payloads for Next Generation 5G Satellite Networks

V. Polo, M.A. Piqueras, J. Martí, DAS Photonics, Valencia, Spain

This paper describes photonic payloads for communication satellites employing microwave-photonics including first in-orbit demonstrations. Due to the characteristics of photonics, such as high flexibility and broad bandwidth, payloads can be designed achieving a significant size, weight and power (SWaP) reduction regarding traditional RF technologies. This combined with the intrinsic low transmission losses and latencies of photonic components and optical fibers make photonics an ideal technology for next generation fiber-in-the-space network architectures for providing 5G global coverage. 

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