5G Americas announced the publication of "LTE to 5G: Cellular and Broadband Innovation," a comprehensive 5G Americas technology white paper authored by Rysavy Research outlining industry advances in LTE and 5G. The paper provides detailed descriptions and analysis of the transformational nature of LTE and 5G networks. Although in early stages of standards development and completion at the current time, 5G could be deployed in the “non-standalone” version as early as 2019.
“The future of mobile broadband, including both LTE-Advanced and 5G, is bright, with no end in sight for continued growth in capability,” commented Chris Pearson, president, 5G Americas. ”5G standards, research and development efforts have accelerated making 5G a commercial reality sooner rather than later. LTE is forecast to have 4.7 billion connections in 2021 (WCIS, Ovum) with the expectation that LTE and 5G will be tightly integrated and co-existing through at least the late 2020s.”
For the 530 global commercial LTE networks (GlobalComms, TeleGeography), there are many opportunities for operators to continue to invest in many technological innovations such as Voice-over-LTE, higher-order Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Carrier Aggregation, Licensed Assisted Access/LWA/LWIP, Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities in Narrowband-IoT and Category M-1, Vehicle to Everything (V2X) Communications, Small Cell Support, Self-Organizing Networks, Dual Connectivity—all capabilities that will improve performance, efficiency and capacity, while also enabling support for new vertical industries.
3GPP has implemented a 5G standardization process that began in Release 14 with a study of New Radio (NR), continues now with a first phase of specifications in Release 15 that provides both non-standalone and standalone options, then moves ahead with a second phase of complete specifications in Release 16. The first phase 5G New Radio (NR) Non-Standalone option for Enhanced Mobile Broadband is expected to be finalized by 3GPP by March of 2018. Standardization processes for 5G will continue through 2020 with ongoing enhancements continuing during the next decade.
5G Americas whitepaper "LTE to 5G: Cellular and Broadband Innovation" captures the scope of the most important wireless developments in 2017, such as:
- 5G research and development acceleration
- 5G New Radio (NR) being defined
- LTE as the global cellular standard
- LTE-Advanced providing dramatic advantages
- IoT poised for massive adoption with new Cellular IoT capabilities in 3GPP Release 13
- Unlicensed spectrum becoming more tightly integrated with cellular
- Importance of low, mid and high band spectrum for 5G
- New spectrum models that include licensed, shared and unlicensed spectrum
- Progress of small cells
- Emergence of Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
- 3GPP timeline for 5G and LTE standards development
The report explains the transformation of broadband and the path to 5G including planned and expected capabilities of both LTE and 5G wireless technologies. Peter Rysavy, the paper’s author, said, “As the paper explains, 5G, by being designed to address a wide range of use cases and to operate in multiple frequency bands, will have a dramatic and positive effect on mobile communications, broadband and the IoT.”
"LTE to 5G: Cellular and Broadband Innovation" was written as a collaboration project between Peter Rysavy of Rysavy Research and 5G Americas member companies. The whitepaper is available for free download along with a PowerPoint presentation on the 5G Americas website.