5G challenges — Is 5G useless?

Is 5G useless? —How to solve 5G’s challenges for communication service providers? 

The construction of new infrastructure is of great significance to the country’s economic development. 5G network construction is an important part of the construction of new infrastructure. The combination of 5G with artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, etc., will help promote the development of the digital economy.

5G provides great advances for communications service providers (Operators), but the 5G is still challenging. Operators must rapidly build out dense, low-latency edge networks in affordable, secure, and easily maintainable ways.

Deploying 5G will not be easy. Operators and Communication service providers must figure out ways to deal with the following 5G challenges:

5G challenges:

1. Frequency

Though 4G LTE already operates in established frequency bands below 6GHz, 5G requires frequencies all the way up to 300GHz.

Operators and communication service providers still need to bid for the higher spectrum bands to build and roll out the 5G network.

1.Building cost and Coverage

Due to signal frequency, wavelength, and transmission attenuation, a 2G base station can cover 7km, a 4G base station can cover 1Km, and a 5G base station only can cover 300meters.

There are about five million+ 4G base stations in the world. And building a network is expensive, and Operators will increase package fees to raise money.

The price of the 5G base station is between 30-100thousands dollars. If Operators want to provide 5G service in all existing 4G regions, it needs 5millions *4 = 20millions base stations. The 5G base station replaces the 4G base station four times the density is about 80 thousand dollars, 20millions * 80 thousands=160 million dollars.

  2. 5G power consumption cost.

As we all know, the typical power consumption of a single 5G base station is Huawei 3,500W, ZTE 3,255W, and Datang 4,940W. And 4G system power consumption is only 1,300W, 5G is three times than 4G. If covering the same area requires four times that of a 4G base station, the cost of power consumption per unit area of 5G is 12 times that 4G.

What a vast number.

 3. Access bearer network and transformation expansion project

5G communication is about optical fiber transmission. Do you notice that whether your network can reach the theoretical 100Mbps? Almost can’t; why?

The reason is that many users make the access bearer network unable to handle such a significant traffic demand. As a result, everyone’s rate is generally 30-80Mbps. Then the problem is coming, if our core network and access bearer network remain the same, just replacing 4G base station with 5G base station? The answer is that everyone uses 5G to continue to enjoy the rate of 30-80Mbps. Why?

This is like water transmission, the pipeline in front has a fixed flow rate, and the final water outlet will always have the same amount of water no matter how large it is made. Therefore, access to the bearer network requires a large-scale expansion to cater to the 5G rate.

5G communication can only solve the communication problem of a few hundred meters from mobile phone to base station.

 4. User cost

As Operators need to invest heavily in building 5G, the 5G package usage fee is the most concerning aspect. How can Operators balance the challenges of investment and user recovery costs that require a more humane charging scheme?

And terminal battery life, especially mobile phone battery life. Terminal manufacturers are required to integrate further and optimized, integrated chip solutions.

5.Maintenance cost

Adding the necessary hardware required for the 5G network can significantly increase operating expenses. Networks must be configured, tested, managed, and regularly updated – all things that increase operating costs.

 6. Meeting low-latency requirements

5G networks require ultra-low deterministic latency to function correctly. The key of 5G is not the high-speed rate. Low latency is the key. Legacy networks cannot handle this speed and volume of data.

 7. Security issues

Every new technology comes with new risks. the 5G rollout will have to contend with both standard and sophisticated cybersecurity threats.

Why choose Kingtone to solve 5G challenges?

Kingtone is currently engaged with communication service providers and Operators making the solution of 5G base station– Kingtone 5G Enhance outdoor coverage system.

Kingtone offers open-source, container-based network infrastructures that meet the 5G latency, reliability, and flexibility requirements while being inexpensive to deploy and maintain.

Specification:

Comparison of actual road test data

Kingtone 5G enhance outdoor coverage system offers stability and efficiency solutions to solve the network complexity, expense, latency, and security, etc.