What is 5G?
A recent poster on this forum was trying to get a 5G connection. I mentioned CB antennas but I was wrong. The following post is a composite of my research with this StartPage search: "how is 5G progressing?", and info from several webpages with my commentary sprinkled in.
What is 5G and why do we want it?
5G stands for "5th Generation". The current mobile network is 4G (with LTE variations). Previous mobile networks were given lower numbered names.
The FCC has opened up portions of the 28GHz, 30Ghz, 60Ghz and 70Ghz radio frequency bandwidths for 5G use. The RF region between 3GHz and 300GHz are also called "millimeter waves", because their wave length is between 100 mm and 1 mm. Or, for 5G:
28Ghz = 10.7 mm (was formerly allocated to Ham radio)
30GHz = 10.0 mm
60GHz = 5.0 mm
70GHz = 4.29 mm
Engineers have demonstrated mobile data speeds higher than 1 gigabit per second on millimeter-wave frequencies I listed above. Engineers have also been able to put 64 antennas into an area the size of a "Post-it" note which, according to my ruler, is 3 inches square. That makes 5G MIMO capable.
5G also has full duplex D2D capability without needing a "base" station. Imagine your Post-It note size wifi antenna linking directly with 64 other 5G wifis. I doubt, however, that governments or ISPs would like their citizens or customers being able to communicate directly with each other without going through an ISP that can be forced to allow gov spying and data trapping. I, for one, would love D2D because it would allow a "web" which was the intent of the original Internet design by DARPA. Wifi's are generally left on 24/7/365. Since my wife and I sold our house in 2012 and moved into this nice apartment our Linksys E2500 has never been turned off, only rebooted. 5G wifi would stay on 24/7/365 too. Any power outages would instantly be circumvented and a local standby power source would allow reconnection to the web regardless of the status of the commercial power companies. It would be like a battery radio. 5G could bypass ISPs and allow sources to connect through the web to consumers without an ISP intervening as a gatekeeper/content filter/fee charger. So, expect to see 5G WIFI boxes with firmware forcing traffic through ISP servers so that services and be metered and monetized.
There are problems. Delivering signals to cars or pedestrians would require constant retargeting of one of the digital antennas in the Post-It note on both the transmitter and receiver. Why not an omni-directional antenna? Power. Focusing radiation reduces power requirements and makes 250 mw seem like 1KW to the receiver, not an inverse square root reduction of the orginal 250 mw. Also, millimeter waves have trouble going through walls, they are more easily absorbed by water and Oxygen in the air. Verizon and AT&T are planning on deploying fixed wireless sytems.. Unlike the networks that connect smartphones, fixed wireless systems send a focused beam to connect one stationary point to another, such as a base station to a rooftop antenna. From there, carriers run Ethernet cables from the antenna to deliver broadband Internet to offices or apartments within a building.So they require more power to travel the same distances as the signals from today’s smartphones. This will put a greater demand on signal processing and the need for a higher density of local 5G stations. Good for my apartment complex, not good for you home owners, farmers and other recluses.
The 5G specifications will not be finalized until 2020, but Verizon and AT&T are going ahead with fixed wireless anyway. If, subsequently, final specifications are not favorable to them or superior technology is developed that is compliant then Verizon and AT&T risk losing their clients and their investment. Their real objective is to try to force the specifications committee (and probably lobby Congress as well) to make their deployments the defacto standard based on their market share. That's how Microsoft won the PC war. That, and bribing the OEMs.
Poe wrote "Be not the first by which the new is tried, or the last by which the old is cast aside". But, if Verizon or AT&T offered a wired connection to my apartment complex that offered 1GB at a reasonable ($60 or less) price, I'll bite. Unless, however, that 1GB is shared with the other 100 apts in this complex. I don't need an expensive 10Mb connection. I already have a too expensive 25Mb connection.
What is 5G and why do we want it?
5G stands for "5th Generation". The current mobile network is 4G (with LTE variations). Previous mobile networks were given lower numbered names.
The FCC has opened up portions of the 28GHz, 30Ghz, 60Ghz and 70Ghz radio frequency bandwidths for 5G use. The RF region between 3GHz and 300GHz are also called "millimeter waves", because their wave length is between 100 mm and 1 mm. Or, for 5G:
28Ghz = 10.7 mm (was formerly allocated to Ham radio)
30GHz = 10.0 mm
60GHz = 5.0 mm
70GHz = 4.29 mm
Engineers have demonstrated mobile data speeds higher than 1 gigabit per second on millimeter-wave frequencies I listed above. Engineers have also been able to put 64 antennas into an area the size of a "Post-it" note which, according to my ruler, is 3 inches square. That makes 5G MIMO capable.
5G also has full duplex D2D capability without needing a "base" station. Imagine your Post-It note size wifi antenna linking directly with 64 other 5G wifis. I doubt, however, that governments or ISPs would like their citizens or customers being able to communicate directly with each other without going through an ISP that can be forced to allow gov spying and data trapping. I, for one, would love D2D because it would allow a "web" which was the intent of the original Internet design by DARPA. Wifi's are generally left on 24/7/365. Since my wife and I sold our house in 2012 and moved into this nice apartment our Linksys E2500 has never been turned off, only rebooted. 5G wifi would stay on 24/7/365 too. Any power outages would instantly be circumvented and a local standby power source would allow reconnection to the web regardless of the status of the commercial power companies. It would be like a battery radio. 5G could bypass ISPs and allow sources to connect through the web to consumers without an ISP intervening as a gatekeeper/content filter/fee charger. So, expect to see 5G WIFI boxes with firmware forcing traffic through ISP servers so that services and be metered and monetized.
There are problems. Delivering signals to cars or pedestrians would require constant retargeting of one of the digital antennas in the Post-It note on both the transmitter and receiver. Why not an omni-directional antenna? Power. Focusing radiation reduces power requirements and makes 250 mw seem like 1KW to the receiver, not an inverse square root reduction of the orginal 250 mw. Also, millimeter waves have trouble going through walls, they are more easily absorbed by water and Oxygen in the air. Verizon and AT&T are planning on deploying fixed wireless sytems.. Unlike the networks that connect smartphones, fixed wireless systems send a focused beam to connect one stationary point to another, such as a base station to a rooftop antenna. From there, carriers run Ethernet cables from the antenna to deliver broadband Internet to offices or apartments within a building.So they require more power to travel the same distances as the signals from today’s smartphones. This will put a greater demand on signal processing and the need for a higher density of local 5G stations. Good for my apartment complex, not good for you home owners, farmers and other recluses.
The 5G specifications will not be finalized until 2020, but Verizon and AT&T are going ahead with fixed wireless anyway. If, subsequently, final specifications are not favorable to them or superior technology is developed that is compliant then Verizon and AT&T risk losing their clients and their investment. Their real objective is to try to force the specifications committee (and probably lobby Congress as well) to make their deployments the defacto standard based on their market share. That's how Microsoft won the PC war. That, and bribing the OEMs.
Poe wrote "Be not the first by which the new is tried, or the last by which the old is cast aside". But, if Verizon or AT&T offered a wired connection to my apartment complex that offered 1GB at a reasonable ($60 or less) price, I'll bite. Unless, however, that 1GB is shared with the other 100 apts in this complex. I don't need an expensive 10Mb connection. I already have a too expensive 25Mb connection.
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