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Verizon and the world’s leading technology companies are conducting field tests to make 5G a reality, said the company from Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona, Spain.
As part of these tests, the company and its 5G Tech Forum partners – Apple, Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, LG, Nokia, Samsung and Qualcomm -- are aligning on technical requirements and standards. The hallmarks of 5G -- multiple gigabits per second speeds and single-millisecond latency -- will deliver many of the benefits of fiber to wireless.
In addition, 5G will have the ability to handle exponentially more connected devices and accommodate the explosion of the Internet of Things. “Verizon is committed to being the network leader and is driving 5G innovation,” said Thomas Fox, senior vice president of wireless enterprise, Verizon. “The 5G technology being developed now is the foundation of our future connectivity that will enable enterprises to use wireless in much the same way organizations use fiber today.”
Proving the Results Field testing with 5G technology partners covers a wide range of deployment scenarios. Fixed wireless and mobile 5G systems were connected to the Verizon network backbone and signals transferred between outdoor and indoor environments in residential and commercial buildings. These tests mimic real-world scenarios using millimeter wave bands, including bands in the FCC’s Notice for Proposed Rulemaking for 5G spectrum. The propagation characteristics of these bands were stressed across multiple fixed and mobile deployments, providing throughput in the multiple gigabits per second range. Latency was measured in the millisecond range across varied distances, delivering superb video quality. The following elements also are being assessed across all sites:
- Antenna innovation with millimeter and centimeter wave spectrum using various deployment conditions
- Beamforming, beam tracking, massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output), and wideband spectrum (200 MHz – 1 GHz swaths)
- Deployment flexibility and antenna form factors including size with mmWave antennas
“We plan to expand this testing significantly over the next several months. With innovation occurring so rapidly, we want to quickly make some key technical decisions and move rapidly to pre-commercial form factors and testing later this year,” said Adam Koeppe, Vice President Network Technology Planning, who is leading the technical trial efforts. “We are also collaborating closely with our peer operators in the Asian markets as we are very much aligned toward implementing 5G technology in 2017.”
