There has been a lot of discussion about 5G in the wireless industry, but we could be getting ahead of ourselves a little. To get the types of speeds being talked about, they mention spectrum above 3Ghz. Although alluded to a bit in the article, realistically to get the amount of spectrum needed (1000Mhz) they are probably going to end up in the 60Ghz band. The propagation in that band is very short, so the "densification" mentioned in the article would require a huge number of small cells, far more than is currently envisioned. One big stumbling block for some countries will be various regulatory bodies that would have to sign off on all the fiber trenching and small cell installations. Wireless backhaul is out of the question for C-RAN realistically. I think when it comes (5G) it will be only practical to deploy in dense urban areas in my view.
> it will be only practical to deploy in dense urban areas in my view
Docomo has an eye towards an initial roll-out in time for the 2020 Olympics, and the development of a 'phantom cell' user plane makes a lot of sense given the device density Tokyo. The MIMO beam forming looks like a huge challenge.
Glad to see Docomo moving the goal post forward, though!
I'll welcome any technology that improves wireless speeds in dense urban areas. There are so many people on LTE now, that I only get usable speeds in the suburbs.
For LTE and LTE-A, the densification from C-RAN will help a lot, but most carriers are a long way from deploying it unfortunately. It is very tough to do, if they pull it off it will be a huge accomplishment.
