Fixed wireless access:

The first phase of 5G

By Sean Kinney

J U LY 2 0 1 7

Report Sponsors: Supplier Guide Sponsor: Featured Analysts

Berge Ayvazian Senior Industry Analyst,

Wireless 20/20
David Wolte AVP Radio Technology and
Strategy, AT&T Labs
 FEATURE REPORT
Operators around the world, as
well as the entire ecosystem of ven-
dors, system integrators, and other
telecom value chain stakeholders,
are eager to launch--and mone-
tize--commercial 5G services. Cur-
rent growth trajectories associated
with the demand for data from con-
sumers, enterprises, and, increas-
ingly, the smart devices comprising
the internet of things, will ulti-
mately surpass the abilities of LTE.
Therein are the three key use cases
of 5G: enhanced mobile broadband,
support for massive machine com-
munications and mission critical
services that will depend on ultra
high capacity and ultra low latency.
Notice that among those use cases,
fixed wireless access to broadband
is missing.
Despite that, 5G fixed wireless
access has emerged, particularly in
the United States, as the likely first
phase of commercial 5G services.
This presents operators with the
opportunity to offer 5G services as
3GPP continues to standardize the
technological aspects of 5G, while
gaining better insight into the char-
acteristics of mobile 5G, especially
as it relates to tapping into high ca-
pacity millimeter wave spectrum.
Another key factor underpinning
2
the interest in fixed wireless 5G
relates to the business case, in that a
gigabit per second signal can be de-
livered without the costly and time
consuming process of running fiber
to every home, apartment or busi-
ness, effectively addressing the lin-
gering last mile problem with fiber.
Why fixed wireless is poised to lead
commercial 5G deployments
5G is widely considered a mobile
When you take away mobility,
technology that wont be available
you create a lot of simplicity, a
until perhaps 2020 or 2021, and even
lot of ease of deployment. You
then, not widely. So, as it relates
streamline the process, and you
to the fixed wireless variant of
allow for non-standards-based
5G, Whats going on here? Berge
technologies to be developed
Ayvazian, principal consultant for and to be experimented with.
firm Wireless 20/20, asked during a
Berge Ayvazian, Wireless 20/20
recent discussion of the topic host-
ed at Arden Medias Enterprise IoT While that might seem reductive,
Summit. The answer is, its really its spot on. Mobile 5G is enormously
not a worldwide phenomenon at complex, and given the primacy of
all. In the U.S., theres an effort to millimeter waves and the challeng-
become the first 5G deployments ing propagation characteristics
in the world, to do that on a system that come with those high frequen-
thats pre-standard, and to do that in cies, theres a lot of work still to be
a way that is not mobile. When you done before you can have an im-
take away mobility, you create a lot mersive virtual reality experience
of simplicity, a lot of ease of deploy- while traveling on a high speed
ment. You streamline the process, train, for instance.
and you allow for non-standards- Farooq Khan, former president
based technologies to be developed of Samsung Research America and
and to be experimented with. founder and CEO of Phazr, which
 INNOVATE FASTER
WITH FIELD-DEPLOYED 5G PROOF-OF-CONCEPT SYSTEMS

In the race to design next-generation wireless technologies, research

teams must rely on platforms and tools that accelerate productivity.
And whether youre working in the lab or deploying solutions for
field trial test, NI software defined radio hardware and LabVIEW
Communications software can help you innovate faster and build 5G
proof-of-concept systems to demonstrate new technologies first.

Accelerate your innovation at ni.com/5g.

2017 National Instruments. All rights reserved. LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, and ni.com are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies. 28846
 FEATURE REPORT
focuses on gigabit per second mo-
bile and fixed access solutions for
millimeter wave systems, explained
that fixed wireless is just natural,
analogizing that as cellular re-
placed cordless phones, 5G is going
to the same thing for data. What 5G
is doing is making the last hundreds
of meters wireless. Theres not go-
ing to be any DSL, copper or fiber.
Posed with the same question-
-why fixed wireless as the first
phase of 5G?-- Dave Wolter, AT&T
Labs assistant vice president of ra-
dio technology and strategy, gave a
similar response.
What 5G is doing is making
the last hundreds of meters
wireless. Theres not going to
be any DSL, copper or fiber.
Farooq Khan, Phazr
4
One reason that people are
focusing on the fixed wireless,
Wolter said, is, in part, because as
you mature this technology, itll
be easier to do that first because
the equipment can be larger, more
power hungry and so forth, and still
useful in that application. If you
look at how we provide access to our
customers, its a mix of technology,
including fiber optic cable, coaxial
cable, and hybrid approaches like
fiber to the node, then copper from
the node to the home or premises. If
you think about that area where you
go from fiber to some other technol-
ogy...there may be a place where you
can provide higher data speeds than
are currently available in a cost ef-
fective way. Its sort of the right tool
for the right place. We think there is
probably a segment of the market,
driven by density of users and how
densely you can deploy the base
stations and kind of traffic theyre
looking for, thats an economically
viable deployment. Theres no one
size fits all. Its going to be the right
tool at the right time. We think milli-
meter wave fixed wireless is anoth-
er one of those tools.
Ian Gresham is a distinguished
fellow of technology at integrated
circuit firm Anokiwave, which
produces highly integrated silicon
core IC solutions and silicon front
end for millimeter wave applica-
tions, and also partners with Ball
Aerospace on the production of
phased array antennas. Gresham
agreed that, compared to mobile, de-
livering fixed wireless over millime-
ter wave frequencies is a relatively
static problem. My base station is
fixed, its at the top of a pole; I just
have to send data to these 14 houses.
The first point is from a practical
point of view. The second point of
view is coming from a business case
point of view. I think the infrastruc-
ture roll out for mobile connectivity
is going to be a lot more complex.
But, from a Verizon or AT&T per-
spective, one of the main costs is the
process of laying cable and feeding
fixed infrastructure to all the hous-
es. If you can do that wirelessly and
increase the customer base, that can
save them a lot of money.
Understanding the business case and
solving for the last mile
Alphabet subsidiary Google Fiber,
part of one of the largest, most lu-
crative, well-funded, technological-
ly advanced companies in human
history, had grand plans for deploy-
ing fiber-to-the-home and offering

consumers gigabit per second broad-
band as well as a television offering
when it started in 2010. After an
ambitious expansion plan gave way
to very slow deployment and activa-
tions in early markets, the company
scaled back and put a pause on new
market entries to regroup.
When this happened last year,
Scott Cleland, president of consul-
tancy Precursor and former deputy
U.S. coordinator of communica-
tions and information policy for
President George H.W. Bush, called
Google Fibers FTTH approach a
dead business model walking.
He forecasted a shift in marketing
away from an emphasis on the fi-
ber aspect. To that point, Google ac-
quired a relatively small, San Fran-
cisco-based service provider called
WebPass in October.
Boris Maysel, director of business
development for Siklu, said of Web-
Pass, Id say that 80%, maybe more,
of their network is based on our
equipment. The way we position
that is fixed wireless access extends
fiber. This hybrid fiber/wireless
approach is what drives this [fixed
wireless] application. The tech-
nology is cost effective enough to
serve single family homes, where-
as FTTH is not. Fixed wireless
FEATURE REPORT
access, he said, this is something problem is, you bring it to each home
real. This is something our custom- then only 25% of homes sign up for
ers are doing. The business case for the service. With wireless you are
fixed wireless access will work. The not bringing any wire to the home,
price point, of course, makes the so you are never going to invest in
business case work. This technolo- customers who are not going to sign
gy allows [smaller service providers up for your service. You will only
like WebPass] to challenge the big send the CPE [customer-premises
carriers, the big service providers, equipment] to a home or a business
with a service, that in some cases, who signs up for the 5G service.
outperforms the service that is de- Maysel summed up the economics
livered by big carriers in a fraction of delivering fixed gigabit service
of the time. in millimeter wave spectrum. We
Timing--another major driver of
the business case behind 5G fixed
wireless access. Khan called the
speed of deployment the most im-
portant thing. The idea is, of course,
there is going to be some cost advan-
tage, but assuming theres no cost
advantage over fiber, the biggest
advantage is youre going to light up
these 5G base stations and instantly
cover the neighborhoods. Fiber, if
you want to bring it to 100% of the
population, it might take a century.
This is the greatest advantage 5G is Fixed wireless access, this
going to bring over fiber.
is something real. This is
something our customers are
He continued, stressing that
doing. The business case for fixed
fixed wireless access is ideal when
wireless access will work. The
residential density hits around
price point, of course, makes the
1,000 households per square mile.
business case work.
Wireless is a shared resource, he
Boris Maysel, Siklu
said. With fiber-to-the-home, The
5
Each evolution in network technology brings new
opportunities and new user experiences. 5G is shifting
from an industry vision to a tangible, next generation
technology. CommScope connects people and technology
through every evolution. Together, well prepare and
discover the potential for 5G technology.

Visit CommScope.com/5G

commscope.com

2017 CommScope, Inc. All rights reserved. AD-110637-EN


have installations of one, two, three
miles of coverage. This is really
the last mile kind of solution. The
use case for that is either MDUs or
businesses where the business case
is pretty obvious. The challenge is
when you go and try to target the
single family home markets. The
challenge is not to be lower cost or
cheaper than fiber, the challenge
is to make the business case work
from the consumer perspective.
Ayvazian pointed to the 5G fixed
wireless access testing being con-
ducted by AT&T--more on that later-
-to illustrate the business advantage
of using wireless, rather than fiber,
for the last mile. Theyre starting on
the towers where they already have
their base stations. They want to get
the signal as close to the households
theyre trying to serve, and as effi-
ciently as possible, without having
to deploy a bunch of fiber.
The trials we are doing, Wolter of
AT&T said, is going to help us pro-
vide data for that business model
to see under what conditions does
it make sense to do this. In these
areas, lets consider going out and
doing that.
Now, lets take a closer look at
the trial work being conducted by
AT&T and Verizon.
FEATURE REPORT
What are the carriers doing? customer then had the device, which
AT&T and AT&T Labs have a big terminated the 28 GHz 5G signal,
presence in Austin, Texas, where the then we distributed that to multiple
telco offers gigabit-speed home and users via Wi-Fi. We gave it a workout
business fiber broadband, as well as to what an enterprise would need
as its 5G Evolution service, which from that kind of a system and let
uses three channel carrier aggrega- the employees of the enterprise use
tion, multiple-input, multiple-output it. We are, in fact, continuing that
(MIMO) and 256 QAM to double the
speeds of its regular LTE speeds and
is only available on Samsung Gal-
axy S8 and S8+ devices. In addition
to these mobile-related initiatives,
AT&T is using Austin as a testbed for
its 5G fixed wireless access services.
In partnership with Ericsson and
Intel, AT&T last year used millime-
ter wave spectrum in the 15 GHz
and 28 GHz bands, to test enterprise
5G applications at one of Intels lo-
cal offices. That trial pushed more
than a gigabit per second in sup- We want to make sure that the
port of enterprise apps including infrastructure we deploy can
internet access, virtual private net- provide both mobile and fixed
work connections, 4K video stream- services. Youre not going to
ing, delivery of DirecTV and VoIP. want to have separate networks
The field trial extended lab testing
for those two things. As you
move toward a software-defined
in several frequency bands and in-
network, network functions
volved not only Ericsson, but also
virtualization and network
Samsung and Nokia.
slicing, thatll help us optimize
Wolter, AT&T Labs AVP of radio
the service. Were really in
technology and strategy, said the
learning mode right now.
trial at Intels office had a range of
David Wolter, AT&T Labs
about 250 meters. The enterprise
7
 FEATURE REPORT

work, but what weve done now is to device in the customers premise have to start getting into those
extend that to a friendly user trial behind a window pointing out to- questions and simulate the system,
that involves residential and small wards our base stations. In addition including all the scheduling behav-
business users. to generally putting the technol- ior to see what that all looks like.
That trial, also in Austin, uses Er- ogy through its paces, Wolter said That one is a little tough to answer
icssons 5G RAN (radio access net- the operator is studying millimeter as were a little early in the day.
work) and Intels 5G Mobile Trial wave propagation characteristics He explained that for this expand-
Platform. Ericsson AIR 6468 is billed in both line-of-sight and non-line- ed 5G fixed wireless access trial,
by the Swedish infrastructure giant of-sight conditions. Weve run fiber from our lab out to
as the industrys first 5G NR-capa- As to the number of devices that two telephone poles we have a little
ble radio; it has 64 transmit and 64 can be served, he continued, thats less than a mile from the building
receive antennas for massive MIMO going to depend on the ability of were using. We have the baseband
and multi-user MIMO, as well as ad- the software. What is gets down to units in our lab. Whats out at these
vanced beamforming enabled by a eventually is what does the traffic poles are the radio heads. One of
split cloud RAN architecture, and load look like, what is the demand? our apartments is behind proba-
is meant to support LTE and evolve When you talk about capacity, you bly 20 meters of foliage between
to the coming 5G standard. Intels
Mobile Trial Platform, the second
generation of which was unveiled
at Mobile World Congress earlier
this year, features a 28 GHz radio
frequency front end and 4x4 and
8x8 millimeter wave arrays. This
trial extends functionality from an
enterprise setting to include resi-
dential and small business custom-
ers, and delivers DirecTV NOW over
a fixed wireless signal.
What weve been looking at
there, Wolter said, is adding ad-
Source: AT&T

ditional base stations, antennas,

as well as additional customers.
We started out with small business
users and here were putting the AT&T is testing 5G fixed wireless access in Austin, Texas, using spectrum in the 28 GHz band.

8

the antennas and the window this
unit is in. As you would, given the
beamforming capability, it has ac-
tually found a bounced signal that
is stronger than the main signal. It
is getting around some of the ... fo-
liage by bouncing around that. Oth-
ers are direct line of sight.
Another major factor, particu-
larly given modern construction
techniques, is window attenuation,
Wolter said. You cant just say, Ill
put this 5G modem in the closet and
connect my internet. Thats not go-
ing to work. Right now everything
is mounted in a window facing the
base station. Reflective window
coatings are a major hindrance;
Wolter said AT&T had to replace
infrared reflective glass with more
traditional dual pane glass. Thats
going to be a concern that people
have to think about if youre trying
to do any kind of indoor deployment.
The equipment is not ready to do
that just yet. And, while Wolter said
AT&T has verified beamforming,
beam tracking, beam acquisition,
higher throughput and lower laten-
cy-- all the things youd hope to find
in a millimeter wave system,--but,
at the end of the day, Everything is
dependent on environment.
According to materials provided
by AT&T, use cases for 5G fixed
wireless access could include a cus-
tomer going to a dentists office and
using connectivity that allows cus-
tomers to do things like immerse
in augmented or virtual reality as
they pass the time...A hometown re-
tail shop can utilize the enhanced
reliability to enable an all mobile
checkout experience.
Verizon is in the process of expand-
ing a 5G fixed wireless access pilot network planning and strategy op-
project to 11 U.S. markets, which
the company said will include
several hundred cell sites that
cover several thousand customer
locations, in Ann Arbor, Mich.,
Atlanta, Ga., Bernardsville, N.J.,
Brockton, Mass., Dallas and Hous-
ton, Texas, Miami, Fla., Sacramen-
to, Calif., Seattle, Wash., and Wash-
ington D.C. In May, Verizon shared
some details of its testing in Mich-
igan, which involved a Samsung
virtual RAN solution, base station
and home router equipment, while
Cisco provided a virtual packet
core. The companies focused on
interoperability between the core
and radio networks and user devic-
es. Adam Koppe, vice president of
network planning, said, Interop-
erability, a key milestone towards
5G commercialization, allows for
FEATURE REPORT
highly flexible network design to
meet emerging 5G use cases.
Like AT&T, Verizon is also scru-
tinizing the propagation charac-
teristics of millimeter wave trans-
missions in various deployment
scenarios. At the 5G Innovation
Summit, held in May and hosted by
test and measurement firm Rohde &
Schwarz, Krishnamurthy Sreenath
and Howard Tang of Verizons 5G
erations, pointed to the work that
Verizon has done through establish-
ing its 5G Technical Forum to work
with vendors on developing a plat-
form for fixed wireless trials using
millimeter wave spectrum. Verizon
would like to see the ecosystem
grow, Sreenath said, and the soft-
ware-centric environment of 5G
means that new vendors have the
opportunity for easier and faster
integration with new systems.
Tang described a set-up of struc-
tured and systematic outdoor-to-in-
door testing in the field that
involves three to four clusters of
endpoints to create small areas of
coverage and assess coverage con-
ditions with targeted single fam-
ily homes or multi-dwelling units
across varying topographies. He
noted that since the trials involved
9
 mmW Solutions. Enabling a new world

Worlds First mmW Commercially Available

5G Phased Array Active Antenna
AWMF-0129 28-GHz Phased Array Innovator Kit
Demonstrating planar antenna and analog RF beamforming
with high power efficiency and low latency beam steeringTM
for OTA link and channel measurements

C
27.5 - 30 GHz operation
M
>50 dBmi Tx EIRP
>-7 dB/K G/T Rx sensitivity
Y

Y
+/- 60 2D electronic beam scan
Programmable beam width and taper
Y

MY

K
Scalable for hybrid beamforming MU-MIMO

mmW Si Active Antenna mmW

Core ICs ASICs Front End ICs
www.anokiwave.com | innovation@anokiwave.com

fixed wireless, they have a simpler
architecture because they do not
require full mobility or tracking
error updates. If you put devic-
es behind a regular wall, you can
still get some promising coverage,
Tang said. However, he added that
low emissivity glass (often used
in high-efficiency windows) is
basically a killer. You dont want
to put devices behind it. As long
as you have good penetration and
good coverage, we can get to gigabit
throughput, Tang said.
In one 28 GHz trial, Tang said, Ver-
izon set up a base station antenna
separated from equipment in an
apartment by about 20 meters with
trees in the way. Its not a mission
impossible, he said, adding that
there is a lot of penetration loss...
and also vegetation loss is a big
challenge. The throughput is prom-
ising. We can get gigabit through-
put. Were looking for 5G thats a big
G, not a small g. We are looking for
true 5G. Testing 5G building blocks
like beamforming and millimeter
wave is very essential, he said.
Ayvazian gave his take: The
wireless carriers are treating their
wireline parent companies as a
customer. Theyre building fixed
wireless 5G networks on behalf
of their wireline customers to cre-
ate a means to extend high speed
FEATURE REPORT
broadband...beyond the reach of
fiber optic networks. Verizons 5G
efforts are more concentrated on
developing a fixed wireless prod-
uct that will deliver a competitive
advantage and near-term return on
investment. Verizon wants to use
5G FWA to reduce the capital cost
of extending the reach of FiOS ser-
vices via fixed wireless to more U.S.
households in select metros.
Sprint and T-Mobile U.S. arent
focusing on fixed wireless access
in their 5G plans, with T-Mobile US
CTO Neville Ray going so far as to
call fixed 5G fake in a May 2 blog
post. Earlier this year T-Mobile US
announced its plans to deploy na-
tionwide, mobile 5G in 2020 using
its 600 MHz spectrum holdings. Ray
noted that 5G is not exclusive to
millimeter wave frequencies. You
can deploy 5G on any frequency,
and in the future, all spectrum will
be 5G spectrum. 2G, 3G and 4G are
available across low-, mid- and high-
band. Why would 5G be any differ-
ent? It wont. Referencing Verizon
and AT&T plans for fixed access,
Ray wrote that means theyll build
a scattershot 5G network like a se-
ries of hot spots in select cities and
your 5G phone will lose 5G as soon
as you leave that limited area.
11
 FEATURE REPORT
T-Mobile, in usual fashion,
blasting its competitors 5G efforts,
while making big promises of its
own; namely, the so-called Un-car-
rier is targeting 2020 for a nation-
wide 5G deployment using its 600
MHz spectrum. Mobile 5G will cover
you wherever you go. Thats real 5G,
not fake 5G! And thats nationwide
mobile 5G, not fixed 5G, Ray wrote.
In May, following T-Mobiles an-
nouncement of nationwide mobile
5G by 2020, Sprint, along with Qual-
comm and parent company Soft-
Bank, gave a few details, saying the
goal is to provide commercial ser-
vices and devices in late 2019. Sprint
is targeting its 2.5 GHz holdings for
5G, with CFO Tarek Robbiati saying
in 2016 that, In our mind, 2.5 GHz is
going to be to 5G what 800 [MHz] is
to the 4G world. Sprint is also work-
ing with Nokia on testing 5G in the
73 GHz band, and with Ericsson in
the 15 GHz band.
Developing antennas and testing
millimeter wave systems
Phased array antennas, tradition-
ally used in aeronautics, defense
and satellite communications set-
tings, transmit a signal to a series of
coordinated antennas which work
together to increase signal strength
12
is in a particular direction. Now, the architecture would be for a TDD 5G
technology is being adapted to system and converged them at 28
meet the needs of service providers. GHz. It was an educated guess and a
Anokiwave is at the forefront of gamble, but weve had an extreme-
this evolution, Gresham explained, ly strong pull from the marketplace
noting the company has decades for those products. Anokiwave has
of experience working in A&D and also recently released products for
satellite communications, but, in the 39 GHz band, which along with
that type of application, he said a 28 GHz is of major interest to AT&T
single piece of equipments cost a and Verizon.
few million dollars, which limits
the potential market. There was
this pent up demand, so if we can
drive the cost out of them and make
them order of magnitude cheaper,
theres this new market and set of
applications we can open up.
Gresham said initial interest was
in the 60 GHz WiGig space. Our
thought process was, if we can make
phased arrays for commercial and
consumer products at 60 GHz, then
its applicable also for 5G. That was Phased arrays are a completely
our initial starting point. What has
new technology for operators,
and the higher the frequency you
been surprising to us is how fast the
go, the more problems you have.
market has accelerated and how
We wanted to give them a helping
quickly demand has accelerated. hand up the ladder by putting our
We started developing products for hands on the table and saying
5G about 18 months ago. We knew this is not intended to be your
the 5G bands were likely going to end solution or a field deployable
be somewhere in the 20 GHz to 40
thing, but itll help you figure out
what all those problems you need
GHz space. We took some of our sat-
to figure out are.
com products at 30 GHz and took
Ian Gresham, Anokiwave
our best guess at what the likely

Anokiwave partners with Ball
Aerospace to put its IC technology
into planar phased array antennas.
Gresham said the companys long
history with millimeter wave tech-
nology, coupled with its product
portfolio, is meant to provide oper-
ators with a reference design that
can be used to develop a field prod-
uct. Our value proposition as a com-
pany is we dont just sell you the IC.
Well work with you to understand
your system problems and tailor
the IP and the system architecture.
Phased arrays are a completely new
technology for operators, and the
higher the frequency you go, the
more problems you have. We wanted
to give them a helping hand up the
ladder by putting our hands on the
table and saying this is not intend-
ed to be your end solution or a field
deployable thing, but itll help you
figure out what all those problems
you need to figure out are.
Earlier this year National Instru-
ments used Anokiwaves 28 GHz
phase array antenna to demon-
strate a real-time, over-the-air
prototype system aligned with
Verizons 5G Technology Forum
specification. That test system,
showcased at the IEEE Wireless
Communications and Networking
Conference in San Francisco, used
OFDM with eight component car-
riers in a 2x2 downlink MU-MIMO
configuration resulting in a 5 Gbps
throughput, scalable to 20 Gbps
with eight MIMO streams, accord-
ing to National Instruments.
NI actually has been involved a
lot with some of the industry and
academic researchers that are ac-
tually leading and defining the 5G
standards through 3GPP, Furea
Shirai, National Instruments prod-
uct marketing manager, said. As
companies develop and test 5G
systems, National Instruments pro-
vides both hardware and software
solutions that allow for real world
simulations. Relative to millimeter
wave systems, NI offers prototyp-
ing tools for waveforms in the 71
GHz to 76 GHz range, as well as in
the 27 GHz to 29 GHz range.
Shirai also discussed the role of
software-defined radios (SDRs) in
prototyping. SDRs essentially move
Source: Anokiwave
Anokiwave is developing phased array antennas
for use in 5G telecommunications systems.
FEATURE REPORT
hardware components of a radio
like filters, amplifiers, modulators,
etc...onto a software system to facil-
itate rapid reconfiguration. What
the SDR allows users to do, Shirai
said, is to prototype these wireless
communications systems using
real-world, over-the-air signals to
define waveform and modulation
characteristics. We are actually tak-
ing this whole SDR approach from
the hardware and the software
perspectives. This flexibility in the
prototyping business is really the
key to quickly build a prototype.
National Instruments LabVIEW is
the systems engineering software
used to test, measure and control
prototyping hardware.
Nokia worked with National
Instruments to study millimeter
wave systems, using the companys
software solutions to facilitate a
unified design flow through the de-
velopment process, so [Nokia] could
rapidly prototype its its ideas for
millimeter wave mobile access in a
fraction of the time of convention-
al design approaches.
I think everybody is eager to get
going on 5G, Shirai said. We want
to see 5G standards fixed by now, but
theyre not. Relative to fixed wire-
less 5G systems, she said delivering
13
 Featured Companies
FEATURE REPORT
Especially with the millimeter
waves, theres still a lot of
research that needs to be done on
different deployment situations.
Fixed isnt probably going to
answer all the 5G use cases, but
itll be applicable to some.
Furea Shirai, National Instruments
a potentially monetizable service
while further studying high fre-
quency transmission schemes seems
to be the guiding logic. Especially
with the millimeter waves, theres
still a lot of research that needs to be
done on different deployment situ-
ations. Fixed isnt probably going to
answer all the 5G use cases, but itll
be applicable to some.
From fixed to mobile 5G
With carrier interest, and ecosys-
tem support, for 5G fixed wireless
14
access in place, commercial services
are expected to hit the market pri-
or to standardization of the full 5G
spec by 3GPP. And, just as key learn-
ings from fixed testing are being
used to inform the standards-setting
process, fixed wireless and the at-
tendant use of millimeter wave will
serve to inform the ultimate transi-
tion to full-blown mobile 5G.
The physics are the same, Wolter
said. All the work we do on propa-
gation, the impacts to propagation
and how you deploy the base sta-
tion, the core network, the trans-
port, all those things are translat-
able into the mobile environment.
In fact, he said current testing in-
volves putting a fixed wireless end
user device in a truck and driving it
around to test mobile connectivity.
Were constantly testing the limits
of the equipment.
As to the physical infrastructure
needed to deliver fixed wireless ac-
cess, Wolter said, We want to make
sure that the infrastructure we de-
ploy can provide both mobile and
fixed services. Youre not going to
want to have separate networks for
those two things. As you move to-
ward a software-defined network,
network functions virtualization
and network slicing, thatll help us
optimize the service for fixed and
mobile 5G services. Were really in
learning mode right now.
Gresham said theres still a lot
of problems that need to be solved
with a mobile solution on two levels,
one of which is having...32 or 64 an-
tenna elements on top of a pole is a
lot more tangible than having those
on the back of a phone. Theres just
practical problems associated with
a mobile application as opposed to
a fixed position where you have a
base station that talks to a CEP on
all the houses on a block.
Gresham did note that some deploy-
ment scenarios--he gave the example
of deployments planned for the 2018
Olympic Games in PyeongChang,
Korea--will serve as a bridge from
fixed wireless access to limited mo-
bility. You have thousands of people
moving around in a stadium environ-
ment, so, yes, its a mobile situation,
but its limited mobility and youre
moving at a slow rate. Its not going to
be solved in one day. Itll be a step lad-
der function. We solve the fixed case,
we understand what a lot of those
beam acquisition problems are going
to be, then we solve for MIMO, then
limited mobility, and then vehicles
moving in an urban environment. Its
going to be an evolution.
Featured Companies

National Instruments
National Instruments provides platform-based systems that enable engineers and
scientists to solve the worlds greatest engineering challenges. NIs flexible platform
is used by researchers in both industry and academia to help usher in the next
generation of 5G wireless communications, including advancements in mmWave and
Massive MIMO as candidate technologies for 5G.

CommScope
CommScope (NASDAQ: COMM) helps companies around the world design, build
and manage their wired and wireless networks. Our network infrastructure solutions
help customers increase bandwidth; maximize existing capacity; improve network
performance and availability; increase energy efficiency; and simplify technology
migration. You will find our solutions in the largest buildings, venues and outdoor
spaces; in data centers and buildings of all shapes, sizes and complexity; at wireless
cell sites and in cable headends; and in airports, trains, and tunnels. Vital networks
around the world run on CommScope solutions.

Anokiwave
Pioneering the mmW revolution, we are a fabless semiconductor company providing
highly integrated silicon IC solutions for mmW 5G, RADAR, and SATCOM markets. As
the mmW Active Array IC Solutions market leader, our customers get the fastest-time-
to-market with expert systems engineering and optimal technology solutions..

Huawei
Huawei is a leading global ICT solutions provider. We are committed to creating
maximum value for telecom operators, enterprises and consumers by providing
competitive solutions and services. Our products and solutions have been deployed
in over 170 countries, serving more than one-third of the worlds population. More
information visit: www.huawei.com/us/

15
 UPCOMING 2017
E D I T O R I A L P R O G R A M S I N C L U D E :

AUGUST 2017

Test & Measurement Series:

Testing and analyzing spectrum interference

Industrial IoT Series:

Smart city analytics

Need guaranteed leads?

Thought leadership?  SEPTEMBER 2017

Incremental content 
Wireless Infrastructure Series:
Reducing opex through infrastructure

marketing opportunities? Analyst Angle Series with Senza Fili:

Enterprise: evolving role and needs, a growing
Sponsor an RCR Wireless News multi-platform, editorial program and receive opportunity for mobile operators
the following benefits:

Editorial Webinar sponsorship includes 250 guaranteed leads, participa-

tion as sponsored guest and recognition as sponsor in all promotional materials. OCTOBER 2017
Sponsors will receive webinar registration and attendee list, responses to pre
and post surveys and polling responses gathered during webinar. Analyst Angle Series with ACG Research:
Meeting latency + reliability objectives for 5G
Editorial Feature Report in addition to recognition as sponsor in services in fronthaul, backhaul
program promotion, sponsorship includes 250 guaranteed leads, distinct from
webinar leads, 2-page ad spread or advertorial in feature report, and responses Wireless Infrastructure Series:
to lead capture survey questions. Wireless and wireline convergence

For information contact 25% discount NOVEMBER 2017

sales@rcrwireless.com When you sponsor 2 or more programs
Test & Measurement Series:
Optimization in a 5G world: How testing is evolving
to meet operator needs
Fast facts about RCR Wireless News digital network (October 2015) Analyst Angle Series with Senza Fili:
IoT: How the infrastructure will have to change
372,863 monthly page views
262,599 unique monthly visitors to websites
76,000+ opt in newsletter subscribers DECEMBER 2017

269,957 monthly video minutes viewed on RCR Wireless News Youtube channel Industrial IoT Series:
68,522 monthly videos viewed on RCR Wireless News Youtube channel IIoT manufacturing and smart metering

Industry leading demand generation programs and results Telecom Software Series:
Management and orchestration in hybrid network
architectures

Each program is limited to three (3) sponsors

http://www.rcrwireless.com/category/free-reports