8 Things You Didn’t Know About 5G

August 23, 2016

August 23, 2015 (Sidebar to The Race to 5G, New Standard is Being Set Now)

5G will instigate a drastic harmonization of the radio spectrum.
5G is likely to integrate the coordination of the various protocols and dispersed frequency bands in order to offer the end-user the expected seamless connection.
Similar to the coordination of protocols, 5G networks will not be based on one single technology, but instead on a combination of several.
Network operators using millimeter-wave bands will require systems capable of providing measurements in those bands.
Because most available wider bandwidths of the RF spectrum are in the higher frequency bands (as high as 100 GHz), a key part of the challenge resides in designing the right antennas.
To ensure interoperability with massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) communications, specification for the baseband algorithm parameters is most likely to be highly complex and detailed.
Because of an anticipated lack of RF connectors or test ports on massive MIMO antennas, over-the-air (OTA) testing may be required.
Future RF device testing will need highly precise instrumentation and flexible testing solutions in order to deal with millimeter-wave transceivers or better intelligence for massive MIMO.

— Nicolas Gross

Since 2009, Nicolas Gross has been applications director at Microwave Vision Group (MVG) in Paris, where he leads the company’s software systems and product development for antenna measurement. He began work at MVG in 2005 as an antenna engineer. In 2007, he headed multiple-probe antenna systems measurement development.