5G is an evolving wireless technology that despite its rollout in 2019 won’t be anywhere near 100% functional for several years.
What you can expect is pieces of 5G-driven applications to appear from time to time until the major carriers have built out their 5G infrastructures.
The reason for the extended 5G timeline is that 5G architecture requires completely new working parts than that of its predecessors. It would be like replacing all electric wires with a new technology that is laser-based.
The new 5G infrastructure is expensive as well as complex. For telecom carriers, a substantial 5G infrastructure expense is the construction and placement of small cells – the foundation of future nationwide 5G networks.
Whereas most of today’s cellular data travels between towers and antennas that may rise hundreds of feet, small cells are about the size of a picnic cooler or mini-fridge and could be placed just about anywhere including bus stops, billboards, building corners and light poles.
Small cells are low power, short range wireless transmission systems (base stations) that cover a small geographical area or indoor / outdoor applications. About 20 to 25 small cells are needed for every square mile of coverage.
Small cells are further divided into three major categories based on the coverage area and number of users it can support:
- Femtocells — Small mobile base stations designed to provide extended coverage for residential and enterprise applications.
- Picocells –– For small enterprises applications for extended network coverage and data throughput.
- Microcells — Designed to support slightly larger number of users compared to femtocells and pico cells and suitable for applications like smart cities.
Pure 5G applications need the system of small cell base stations in order to efficiently use the higher band spectrum of millimeter waves – something 4G technology was not able to do.
Want to know more about 5G? Tonex offers 5G fundamentals courses called 5G Wireless Crash Course (4 days), 5G Wireless Training for Non-Engineers (2 days), 5G Wireless Training Technical Fundamentals (3 days) and 5G Wireless Networks Training the Fundamentals (2 days).
Additionally, Tonex offers advanced 5G courses and many specialty 5G courses, including:
LTE Advanced Pro Training (3 days)
5G for Sales and Tech Sales/Support Training (2 days)
5G Cybersecurity Bootcamp (4 days)
5G Wi-Fi Offload Training (2 days)
5G and mmWave Antenna Engineering Training (3 days)L
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.