Despite the overall maturity of 4G and the fact that CIoT solutions for 4G were introduced some time ago, 4G continues to be very consumer market centric. Yes, this is changing with the proliferation of Private LTE networks and the continued but slow deployment of NB-IoT and LTE-M, but the fact remains that there’s a feeling that 4G could have potentially been monetized more quickly and to greater effect.
Invariably, 5G’s immediate market is the consumer market, which is apparent when you look at the way in which 5G has been rolled out (Non Standalone vs Standalone – see later). However, in the interest of 5G becoming a global success story, it’s important for everyone to appreciate that 5G was never designed simply for the consumer market; eMBB (enhanced Mobile Broadband) is only one of three key capabilities of 5G, with URLLC (Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communication) and MMTC (Massive Machine Time Communication) completing the line-up.
Where eMBB will happily address the needs of the consumer market, URLCC and MMTC are very much designed to address the needs of a wide array of alternative market verticals – industry, healthcare, agriculture, logistics, automotive, utilities, enterprise, the list goes on. With the consumer market a proven market, it’s the logical initial target market for 5G, but as more Standalone networks are rolled out, 5G must gain traction in these market verticals for it to succeed.
At the time of writing, approximately 240 5G networks had been commercially launched. When your typical user sees 5G in the corner of their screen, it’s a fair assumption that the device is using the latest and greatest cellular technology. But how accurate is this assumption?
Well, as it stands today, it’s not very accurate. Of those 240 networks, only about 45 of them (if that) are actually running “Standalone 5G”, which essentially means a full 5G deployment, including all of the 5G radio equipment but also a full 5G core network. In reality, the majority of today’s 5G networks are deployed as “Non Standalone 5G”, which actually means that the only 5G element of the network is a 5G base station (which is controlled by a 4G base station); the core network is all 4G.
So in terms of those three key capabilities of 5G, Non Standalone 5G only delivers eMBB, at least for the moment. Naturally, as we see more Standalone 5G deployed, we’ll also see URLLC and MMTC begin to be deployed in due course.
The easiest way to tackle this one is to take a look at some statistics for last year, compared to 2021. This needs to be in perspective however, since the first Standalone networks were only launched in 2020. So in reality, the most indicative statistics will come from contrasting 2022 and 2023, when rollout rate would be a fairer comparison. That said, Figure 3’s statistics are interesting nonetheless, showing that an additional 32 additional 5G networks were launched in 2022, with 16 networks receiving an upgrade to Standalone operation. The device market for 5G is healthy, with 475 devices launched in 2022 (there’s nearly 23,000 LTE devices available so there’s still some way to go).
As soon as you start talking about coverage, it’s pretty difficult to not start discussing 5G radio, which for many is the cue to skip to Key Fact 5. However, there’s an important change that’s arrived in 5G that we’ve not seen in earlier technologies to date. This is 5G’s ability to operate in “High Band” spectrum, which means that 5G technology utilizes frequencies that start at 24GHz and can potentially go way beyond this.
Why is this important? Well, if we are going to be truly able to deliver the high data throughput and low latency that 5G boasts, there needs to be a lot of capacity in the network. The problem is, where cellular networks currently operate in the spectrum (low band and mid band), there just isn’t enough capacity. Therefore, 5G must push into previously untouched spectrum where there is plenty of capacity available. The downside? These higher frequencies don’t travel as far (we’re talking low hundreds of metres) and don’t penetrate buildings very well – both factors which have a negative effect on 5G coverage. The solution? Cell densification. In a given geographical area, when high frequencies are being used we’re going to see a higher number of 5G base stations – not the huge white panel antennas that we’re used to seeing on top of a mast; these high frequency antennas are much smaller and hence more subtle. This means they can be deployed on top of street lights or traffic signs for instance.
One final aspect to coverage that needs to be pointed out – 5G by no means exclusively uses high frequency; low band and mid band frequencies provide very good coverage so you can expect to see a typical 5G network using a mixture of all bands when they can.
Private 5G, often shortened to P5G, is anticipated to be a very competitive market for those involved in deploying the technology. In essence, P5G is seen as a potential alternative to existing private networking technologies such as Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Despite the fact that technologies like Wi-Fi 6 can compete with 5G in terms of performance, 5G has the potential to offer a wider array of features and capabilities that Ethernet and Wi-Fi cannot (mobility, subscriber management, policy control, feature rich QoS, etc).
The question is, how does P5G differ to the 5G that’s available in the public space, usually offered by mobile service providers? The answer is, not a great deal. Ultimately, P5G is based on the same set of standards as Public 5G, with some tweaks here and there to assist with deployment models, access and security. In fact, a lot of the use cases that are cited for 5G will in reality be supported by P5G networks as opposed to public networks.
There are however some interesting propositions when it comes to the deployment of P5G:
There’s one last point to make on P5G – in reality, to date Private LTE is by far the most prevalent technology around the globe. It’s presently cheaper and more widely understood, but P5G is closing fast.
There’s plenty more to talk about with respect to 5G, so look out for Part 2 of this blog where we’ll walk through some (very slightly) more technical features that complement the operation of 5G networks – Interworking with other technologies, MEC, Network Slicing, Cloud and V2X. If you’re after more than just a thrilling read, our expert instructors provide live classroom and on-demand 5G training courses.