5G Americas Report Details Progress on LTE to 5G

BELLEVUE, Wash. – Aug 31, 2016 –5G Americas, a wireless industry trade association, today published a comprehensive report on Mobile Broadband Transformation: LTE to 5G by Rysavy Research, which outlines technology milestones, penetrates the future of 5G and explains the complexities of 5G developments.

Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas commented,

“2020 will be upon us soon with the expected commercial standardized deployments of 5G technology. However, robust technical innovation is definitely taking place in the current year. Enterprise and consumer customers are already reaping the benefits of creative technical solutions in their lives.”

The whitepaper reviews some key milestones in 2016:

• 5G research and development accelerates
• LTE becomes the global cellular standard
• LTE-Advanced provides dramatic advantages
• Internet of Things poised for massive adoption
• Unlicensed spectrum becomes more tightly integrated with cellular
• Spectrum still precious - its value was demonstrated by the recent Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) auction in the United States that achieved record valuations
• Small Cells take baby steps, preparing to stride
• Network Function Virtualization (NFV) emerges

“Many elements are interacting to fuel the transformation of mobile broadband, but the factors playing the most important roles are the emerging capabilities for Internet of Things, radio advances granting access to far more spectrum, small cells about to play a much larger role, new network architectures that leverage network function virtualization and software-defined networking, and new means to employ unlicensed spectrum,” commented the author of the paper, Peter Rysavy of Rysavy Research. “Except for access to high-band spectrum, a 5G objective, these advances apply to both LTE and 5G.”

Among the planning elements are the important regulatory policies that are striving to keep pace, addressing complex issues that include how best to allocate and manage new spectrum, network neutrality, and privacy.

Engineers have demonstrated many of 5G’s expected capabilities, and some operators have stated they will deploy pre-standard networks for fixed applications as early as 2017. 5G will not replace LTE, but in most deployments will co-exist with it through at least the late-2020s with the two technologies tightly integrated in a manner transparent to users.

Pearson summarized, “Recently, the mobile wireless discussion is often on 5G in 2020, while losing sight of the creative technical features that will be part of LTE over the coming decade. Peter Rysavy and the 5G Americas members prepared an excellent white paper of the steps for transformation as we continue marching into the bright future for mobile broadband technology.”

The whitepaper Mobile Broadband Transformation LTE to 5G was written by Rysavy Research in collaboration with members of 5G Americas and is available for free download on the 5G Americas website.