WHILE 4G NETWORKS continue to roll out, U.S. giants AT&T and Verizon say that they are working to make 5G a reality.
In the first of two separate news releases, AT&T said that in addition to working on technologies such as millimeter waves, network function virtualization (NFV), and software-defined networking (SDN), it plans to collaborate with Ericsson and Intel to work on 5G solutions in its labs starting in the second quarter of this year, with outdoor tests and trials over the summer. The company said the field trials will help to guide its 5G standards contributions, and set the stage for widespread commercial and mobile availability once technology standards for 5G are established.
5G is expected to deliver speeds 10-100 times faster than today’s average 4G LTE connections, and speeds will be measured in gigabits per second, not megabits, continued AT&T. 5G will also help to deliver technologies such as virtual reality, self-driving cars, robotics, and smart cities.
In its news release, Verizon said that field tests are underway with partners including Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Samsung Electronics America and Qualcomm, testing the characteristics of 5G technology in real-world environments.
The field testing covered deployment scenarios that included fixed wireless and mobile 5G systems connected to the Verizon network backbone and signals transferred between outdoor and indoor environments. Testing was performed both in residential and commercial buildings, and tests mimicked real world scenarios using millimeter wave bands, including bands in the FCC's Notice for Proposed Rulemaking for 5G spectrum. The propagation characteristics of these bands were stressed across multiple fixed and mobile deployments, providing throughput in the multiple gigabits per second range. Latency was measured in the millisecond range across varied distances, delivering superb video quality.
Multiple gigabits per second speeds and single-millisecond latency will deliver the benefits of fibre to wireless, continues that release. In addition, 5G will have the ability to handle exponentially more connected devices and accommodate the explosion of the Internet of Things.
