If 5G provides a new platform for all walks of life, 5G millimeter wave is the key to further enhance the height and breadth of this platform and increase the value of this platform.
To put it simply, 5G millimeter waves use higher frequencies, achieve faster speeds, and have larger system capacity and stronger business capabilities. As a result, as business demands for bandwidth continue to increase, the communication spectrum continues to extend to higher frequency spectrums , and 5G millimeter waves with abundant frequency resources will be the inevitable direction of mobile communication technology evolution .
With the latest "5G Millimeter Wave Technology White Paper" released by GSMA, which has attracted the attention of the industry , let's take a look today about what exactly 5G millimeter wave is? And its 8 major landing cases!
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What is 5G millimeter wave?
Millimeter wave, as the name implies, is an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength of millimeter level. It usually refers to a frequency band of 30-300 GHz, and often includes frequency bands above 24 GHz.
5G needs to support higher speeds and lower latency, and provide unprecedented support for various new applications. Compared with 4G, a key improvement is the ability to use more spectrum resources to meet different types of business needs, including the use of millimeter wave frequency band resources to achieve extremely high bandwidth and extremely low latency .
As one of the core enabling technologies in high-speed access, industrial automation, medical and health, intelligent transportation, virtual reality, etc., 5G millimeter wave is expected to contribute US$565 billion to global GDP by 2035 , accounting for the total contribution of 5G The economic benefit of using 5G millimeter wave frequency bands in China will reach approximately US$104 billion by 2034 .
Previously, the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2019 determined that the millimeter wave frequency band between 24 GHz and 86 GHz will be used for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT), of which 24.25-27.5 GHz, 37 The -43.5GHz and 66-71GHz frequency bands are globally integrated IMT frequency bands.
At present, some countries and regions have successively completed the division, allocation or auction of 5G millimeter wave spectrum.
Among them, the United States completed the auction of the 28 GHz and 24 GHz frequency bands in January and May 2019, and further completed the auction of the 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz frequency bands in March 2020.
The European Commission passed an implementation decision in May 2019 to unify the radio spectrum of the 26 GHz frequency band, enabling member states to set common technical conditions for the use of the frequency band and open it to use. Currently, Italy, Finland, and Norway have completed some of the spectrum Distribution or auction.
In Asia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan have completed the allocation or auction of part of the 26 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum.
As of June 2020, 79 operators in 17 countries and regions already have frequency licenses for deploying 5G millimeter waves at 24.25 ~ 29.5 GHz .
Advantages of 5G millimeter wave technology
5G millimeter wave has six major advantages, the details are as follows:
1. Abundant frequency resources and huge bandwidth
The reason why 5G millimeter wave is valued is that it has richer spectrum resources than the 5G Sub-6 GHz frequency band (FR1) (as shown in the figure below). It is the main way for 5G networks to provide gigabit connectivity. A strong guarantee for the initial vision of 5G. It is no exaggeration to say that in order to achieve the highest 5G speed requirements, 5G millimeter waves must be used.
2. Easy to combine with beamforming technology
The high frequency band and short wavelength of 5G millimeter wave are very suitable for combining with beamforming technology to enhance performance and reduce interference.
Due to the short wavelength, the antenna array of 5G millimeter wave devices can place more antenna elements in a limited space, especially the number of antenna elements of 5G millimeter wave base stations can reach 256, 512 or more, so both uplink and downlink can be obtained Great beamforming gain.
In a typical antenna array configuration, assuming that the base station has 256 antenna elements and the terminal has 8 antennas, the theoretical beamforming gain that 5G millimeter waves can obtain at this time (as shown in the figure below)
Benefiting from beamforming technology, 5G millimeter wave signal communication distance is greatly enhanced, and it can be used in more scenarios beyond short-distance transmission and indoor hotspot coverage.
For example, when 5G millimeter wave base stations are used for outdoor coverage, the coverage radius can reach hundreds of meters or several kilometers. In many cases, they can be co-located with existing 4G and 5G low- and medium-frequency small base stations .
The following figure compares and analyzes the downlink coverage of 5G millimeter wave base stations and 4G LTE base stations (working in Band2 and Band4) when deployed together.
The figure compares the deployment of two millimeter wave base stations at 28 GHz and 39 GHz based on the results of field measurements in a 0.8 square kilometer area in a large city. The baseline deployment density of 4G LTE base stations is 73 stations per square kilometer. It can be seen from the figure that during outdoor coverage, if 5G millimeter wave base stations and 4G LTE base stations are deployed on the same site, and the numbers are equal, the downlink coverage rate of the 5G millimeter wave network can reach 77%. If the number of 5G millimeter wave base stations is slightly increased, the downlink coverage rate of the 5G millimeter wave network can reach 95%.
3. Extremely low latency can be achieved
Generally speaking, 5G networks schedule data in units of time slots. The shorter the length of the air-interface time slot, the smaller the latency of the 5G network at the physical layer. As shown in the figure below, the air interface time slot length of the 5G millimeter wave system can be as small as 0.125ms, which is 1/4 of the current mainstream 5G medium and low frequency system. If mini slot scheduling is used, the air interface delay will be even smaller.
Four, can support dense cell deployment
Different from 5G medium and low frequency systems, 5G millimeter wave systems can not only increase the signal gain of the target object through beamforming technology, but also use the characteristics of beam orientation to focus the signal energy in a specific direction to reduce interference to other non-target objects. , To ensure the communication quality of neighboring links or neighboring cells. Therefore, compared with 5G mid- and low-frequency systems, 5G millimeter wave systems are easier to implement dense cell deployment.
Five, high-precision positioning equipment can be highly integrated
The 5G millimeter wave has a narrow beam, good directivity, and extremely high spatial resolution; at the same time, due to the small signal transmission period and high time accuracy, 5G millimeter wave is expected to achieve centimeter-level positioning, even when compared with global satellite positioning and navigation systems. And speed advantage.
Six, high equipment integration
Compared with Sub-6 GHz, the size of 5G millimeter wave components is much smaller, and 5G millimeter wave devices are easier to miniaturize and miniaturize. When 5G millimeter wave is commercialized on a large scale, the cost of related components will be greatly reduced. The high integration of 5G millimeter wave in the fields of professional equipment, wearable devices, and smart parts means broad application prospects. In addition, 5G millimeter wave base stations also have the advantages of small size, light weight, and easy installation, which is conducive to creating a green, efficient and convenient deployment of 5G millimeter wave networks.
Application scenarios and successful cases of 5G millimeter wave
Application scenarios:
Indoor and outdoor transportation hubs, venues and other hot spots
Industry applications (especially the Industrial Internet)
Wireless broadband access (FWA) for homes and office buildings
8 successful cases:
1. 5G millimeter wave coverage simulation of a large subway station in China
2. 5G millimeter wave network at Super Bowl Stadium in the United States
3. 5G millimeter wave network at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis
4. Coverage of 5G millimeter wave network in downtown Chicago
5. Ericsson and Audi will apply 5G millimeter wave to the Industrial Internet
6. Simulation of home wireless broadband access in a dense urban area of a large city in South America
7. Wireless broadband access test in corporate office buildings
8. Rural fixed wireless access test
Part of the content is as follows:
Edit | Chen Jinglan
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