Reza Arefi
Director of Spectrum Strategy
Intel Corporation
As the 5G era approaches, key technical requirements must be met. These include powering mission-critical applications and services with low-latency, wide-area connectivity for reliability and uptime as well as delivering new user experiences through enhanced mobile broadband. The numerous applications envisaged for 5G are so diverse that they have created a challenging situation for the development of standardized radio interface specifications. At the same time, these applications have also presented a great opportunity for growth and expansion.
In order to deliver on these new applications and user experiences, 5G will see the integration of radio access technologies in a homogenous manner, tapping into licensed, licensed shared, and unlicensed spectrum frequency ranges for the first time to increase capacity, performance, and speed. Catering to a variety of new applications would mean that 5G systems and standards need to fulfill a variety of requirements, including those tied to spectrum. 5G will also have to break through the limitations of current spectrum usage with transformational technologies, including massive antenna array, steerable beamforming, and anchor booster architecture designed to optimize operations in a wide range of spectrum. Perhaps most notably, with the emergence of the 5G era and beyond, spectrum will be right-sized to the use case, with specific frequency ranges supporting the expanding Internet of Things or machine-type communications, enhanced mobile broadband, and ultra-reliable, low-latency communications, based on their unique characteristics.
Through collaboration with governments and regulators, the mobile industry is enabling access to new spectrum in a wide range from bands below 1 GHz to mm-wave frequencies and many bands in between, leveraging exclusively licensed, licensed shared, and unlicensed allocations. Around the world, regulators are planning for the introduction of 5G services by designating spectrum for 5G based on their domestic considerations as well as technical requirements.
Given the level of advancements, it is important to optimize all aspects of future networks operations as much as possible for 5G and beyond. Optimizing spectrum designation and use is a foundational aspect of driving successful deployments of next generation technologies.
