5g : what's required ?

[Seandarcy]

It seems Sprint is going to try to leap frog to 5g, rolling out a year from now. What's actually required for them to do that ? How much is hardware vs software ? For instance, is a b41 antenna all the hardware required , only the software needs to be updated ? Does it require 8T8R antenna ? If an antenna is updated to 5g,  will it still work for 4g or only 5g ?

[Tengen31]

It seems Sprint is going to try to leap frog to 5g, rolling out a year from now. What's actually required for them to do that ? How much is hardware vs software ? For instance, is a b41 antenna all the hardware required , only the software needs to be updated ? Does it require 8T8R antenna ? If an antenna is updated to 5g,  will it still work for 4g or only 5g ?

The equipment will be able to do both. They do have the holdings to do it. There others have to wait ( I think) for spectrum to be approved.

 

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[RAvirani]

The 64T64R equipment that Sprint plans to start deploying this year will be software upgradable to 5G NR. 

[Seandarcy]

So even 8T8R won't work for 5g ? This means none of the existing facilities will work for 5g. Every tower needs new antennas. Wow, that's a lot of money ! I thought they could use some of the existing equipment. Hard to see how Sprint can upgrade and expand 4g, and also add 5g everywhere.

[Flompholph]

8t8r may work with some aspects of 5G but 5G has two points where the towers would need work done on them. 

1) Massive MIMO panels can be 5G. 8t8r is the limit of 4G anything bigger could be labeled 5G capable.

2)8t8r uses B41 meaning they will not include the higher 5G frequencies. (Small cells everywhere due to limited range of freq above 2.5 GHz )

There could be a software update with 5G benefits and marketers labeling that it was a 5G update but it would be a stretch.

[Seandarcy]

B41 includes 2496MHz - 2690MHz. Isn't that all the spectrum Sprint has in the 2.5+ GHz spectrum ? What other spectrum would it be using for 5g ?

[ingenium]

B41 includes 2496MHz - 2690MHz. Isn't that all the spectrum Sprint has in the 2.5+ GHz spectrum ? What other spectrum would it be using for 5g ?

Yes, but they aren't using all of their B41 spectrum for LTE. So they can deploy both in that frequency block.

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[bucdenny]

Does anyone know if the 64T64R is widely available and how much does it cost comparison to the 8T8R antenna? Wondering if Sprint can get 50% of its sites with the 64T64R equipment this year.

[sleet]

I believe Tim mentioned something to that fact that 64T64R will only be deployed where an 8T8R is already maxed out. or at least that was the impression I seem to recall. So rather then just dropping in the 64T64R in any old tower they'll only drop in very few 64T64R units where it's actually going to make a big difference.

 

I believe he stated that they would be pretty rare. Say only a handful of sites in NYC would even be potential upgraded for them at this time. Due to cost, and how much the sites actually needed them etc.

Take that with a grain of salt though

 

-J

[red_dog007]

Yeah, plus a 8T8R "maxed out" should provide a ton of throughput.  4x4MIMO + 256QAM on 4 Carriers is almost 1Gbps for just that single sector.  It might even be way more cost effective to just add additional sectors to the site or toss up another 8T8R antenna. I'd expect 64T64R to be extremely rare, especially if it is really expensive.

[bucdenny]

1 hour ago, red_dog007 said:

Yeah, plus a 8T8R "maxed out" should provide a ton of throughput.  4x4MIMO + 256QAM on 4 Carriers is almost 1Gbps for just that single sector.  It might even be way more cost effective to just add additional sectors to the site or toss up another 8T8R antenna. I'd expect 64T64R to be extremely rare, especially if it is really expensive.

64T64R is 5G capable.  Sprint can smoke it's competitors asap by deploying this antenna.  Will boost its 4G network and ready for 5G.

[IamMrFamous07]

On 2/11/2018 at 11:14 AM, red_dog007 said:

Yeah, plus a 8T8R "maxed out" should provide a ton of throughput.  4x4MIMO + 256QAM on 4 Carriers is almost 1Gbps for just that single sector.  It might even be way more cost effective to just add additional sectors to the site or toss up another 8T8R antenna. I'd expect 64T64R to be extremely rare, especially if it is really expensive.

I think 4 carriers will be 1.2gbps. They accomplished 300mbps on a single b41 carrier. I’m excited to experience this!!! Now hopefully upload can be at least be 15-20mbps lol

[Mercurial1]

64T64R is 5G capable.  Sprint can smoke it's competitors asap by deploying this antenna.  Will boost its 4G network and ready for 5G.

The nice thing about the 64t64r is that it can do both LTE and 5g at the same time. Sprint will be using these as a bridge and dedicating half of the radios to each network at first.

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[Tony21]

Don't forget about the massive doses of radiation from 5G

[greenbastard]

9 hours ago, Tony21 said:

Don't forget about the massive doses of radiation from 5G

Wut?

[vaynenick]

In 5G networks, at higher frequencies it would also make much more sense to use TDD to estimate the channel accurately. This is because the same channel would be used in downlink and uplink so the downlink channel can be estimated accurately based on the uplink channel condition. Due to small transmit time intervals (TTI's), these channel condition estimation would be quite good. Another advantage of this is that the beam could be formed and directed exactly at the user and it would appear as a null to other users.

[vryan44]

On 2/25/2018 at 11:13 AM, greenbastard said:

Wut?

Although I don't think it will be a major issue(crossing my fingers here) there is scientific evidence supporting the claim that higher frequencies emit much higher levels of radiation than lower bands. I hope the science is wrong on this one. 

Disclaimer: I am in no way a Nimby and and looking forward to what 5g has to offer. It's just something to think about.

[ingenium]

Although I don't think it will be a major issue(crossing my fingers here) there is scientific evidence supporting the claim that higher frequencies emit much higher levels of radiation than lower bands. I hope the science is wrong on this one. 

Disclaimer: I am in no way a Nimby and and looking forward to what 5g has to offer. It's just something to think about.

It's non ionizing radiation. All light is technically radiation. Shining a flash light at the back of your head isn't going to cause you any issues whether it's dim or bright (though brighter might warm you up a bit. Like a light bulb giving off heat. It's exactly the same). And that's a much higher frequency than LTE or 5G frequencies.

 

It's only when you get into highly energetic frequencies that they become ionizing (enough energy to strip off electrons basically, thus making atoms/molecules reactive) and dangerous. X rays are an example of ionizing radiation.

 

To put this more into perspective, let's say we're using frequency at 28 GHz for 5G. That is WELL below ionizing. Visible light is 430-770 Thz. Ionizing radiation begins above 770 Thz in the upper ultraviolet range. X rays are 30 petaherz (3*10^16 Hz) to 30 exaherts (3*10^19 Hz). They're not even remotely close.

 

I'll also add that cell phones transmit at a lower power than a flashlight. Even the magic box is outputting less energy than many flashlights.

 

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