5G & AI Powered Smart Hospitals

5G Telehealth has been one of the main driving use cases for upgrading the infrastructure. While some use cases definitely make sense, some others like remote surgery will most likely never happen, at least the way it's depicted today.

At the GSMA Mobile 360 APAC - 5G Industry Community Summit, Michael Fung, Chief Information Officer from CHUK Medical Centre presented a nice talk detailing how they see 5G & AI powered hospitals of the future. The video of his talk is embedded at the bottom of this post.

There have also been some other discussions on 5G & healthcare recently. Here are the links if you want to explore this topic further:

• Video: UK5G Presents Health & Social Care Panel Session
• Video: Telecoms Europe 5G 2021 - What can 5G do for healthcare?
• Video: Ericsson - 5G Connected Ambulance
• Video: 5G Healthcare Application for Smart Hospital - Tseung Kwan O Hospital
• Article: Vodafone Germany launches real-time network in the first 5G hospital 

Service Level Agreements for 5G and Beyond: Overview, Challenges and Enablers of 5G-Healthcare Systems - https://t.co/axJ05r2VqX via U.S. FDA (@US_FDA)#Free5Gtraining #5G #5GTechnology #5GUseCases #5GHealthcare #Healthcare #SLA #Cybersecurity #5Gsecurity pic.twitter.com/O9c0GEemt4

— Free 5G Training (@5Gtraining) December 6, 2021

The US FDA recently published a one pager looking at how Service level agreements (SLAs) can enable 5G-enabled medical device use cases by documenting how a medical device communication requirement is met by the unique characteristics of 5G networks and the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved in offering safe and effective 5G-enabled healthcare to patients.

IEEE Access has a detailed paper on this topic by the same authors. Quoting from the abstract:

Service level agreements (SLAs) can enable 5G-enabled medical device use cases by documenting how a medical device communication requirements are met by the unique characteristics of 5G networks and the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders involved in offering safe and effective 5G-enabled healthcare to patients. However, there are gaps in this space that should be addressed to facilitate the efficient implementation of 5G technology in healthcare. Current literature is scarce regarding SLAs for 5G and is absent regarding SLAs for 5G-enabled medical devices. This paper aims to bridge these gaps by identifying key challenges, providing insight, and describing open research questions related to SLAs in 5G and specifically 5G-healthcare systems. This is helpful to network service providers, users, and regulatory authorities in developing, managing, monitoring, and evaluating SLAs in 5G-enabled medical systems.

Here is the video from GSMA 5G Industry Community Summit Part 2:

Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Remote Surgery and Telehealth Solutions
• The 3G4G Blog: Banana and Egg gets 5G Telesurgery
• Operator Watch Blog: Vodafone Deutschland (Germany) Continues 5G Use Cases Innovation
• Operator Watch Blog - China Mobile on The Next Phase of 5G: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities 

3GPP's 5G-Advanced Technology Evolution from a Network Perspective Whitepaper

China Mobile, along with a bunch of other organizations including China Unicom, China Telecom, CAICT, Huawei, Nokia, Ericsson, etc., produced a white paper on what technology evolutions will we see as part of 5G-Advanced. This comes not so long after the 3GPP 5G-Advanced Workshop which a blogged about here.

The abstract of the whitepaper says:

The commercialization of 5G networks is accelerating globally. From the perspective of industry development drivers, 5G communications are considered the key to personal consumption experience upgrades and digital industrial transformation. Major economies around the world require 5G to be an essential part of long-term industrial development. 5G will enter thousands of industries in terms of business, and technically, 5G needs to integrate DOICT (DT - Data Technology, OT - Operational Technology, IT - Information Technology and CT - Communication Technology) and other technologies further. Therefore, this white paper proposes that continuous research on the follow-up evolution of 5G networks—5G-Advanced is required, and full consideration of architecture evolution and function enhancement is needed.

This white paper first analyzes the network evolution architecture of 5G-Advanced and expounds on the technical development direction of 5G-Advanced from the three characteristics of Artificial Intelligence, Convergence, and Enablement. Artificial Intelligence represents network AI, including full use of machine learning, digital twins, recognition and intention network, which can enhance the capabilities of network's intelligent operation and maintenance. Convergence includes 5G and industry network convergence, home network convergence and space-air-ground network convergence, in order to realize the integration development. Enablement provides for the enhancement of 5G interactive communication and deterministic communication capabilities. It enhances existing technologies such as network slicing and positioning to better help the digital transformation of the industry.

The paper can be downloaded from China Mobile's website here or from Huawei's website here. A video of the paper launch is embedded below:

Nokia's Antti Toskala wrote a blog piece providing the first real glimpse of 5G-Advanced, here.

Related Posts: 

• The 3G4G Blog: '5G RAN Release 18 for Industry Verticals' Webinar Highlights
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP's 5G-Advanced Workshop Summary
• Operator Watch Blog: China Mobile on The Next Phase of 5G: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities
• Connectivity Technology Blog: Ericsson Explains Internet of Drones and 3GPP UAV Roadmap
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP RAN Plenary Update and Evolution towards 5G-Advanced
• The 3G4G Blog: Introduction to 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) Devices
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP Standards on Edge Computing
• Connectivity Technology Blog: 5G Drone Cell Towers
• Free 6G Training: Pre-Study of B5G and 6G in China
• Free 6G Training: China's IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group Releases 6G Whitepaper
• The 3G4G Blog: Real-life 5G Use Cases for Verticals from China
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Remote Surgery and Telehealth Solutions
• Free 6G Training: China Mobile on the 5G/6G Connectivity Transformation for Sustainability
• Free 6G Training: Nokia Bell Labs on Augmenting Human Potential in the 6G Era
• Free 6G Training: Huawei talks about Beyond 5G, 5.5G and 6G
• The 3G4G Blog: Nokia veterans Harri Holma and Antti Toskala explain 5G Basics 

Banana and Egg gets 5G Telesurgery

Last year I wrote a detailed post on '5G Remote Surgery and Telehealth Solutions' here. Since then many people with little or no understanding of how the technology works have got in touch with me to educate me about all the 5G remote surgeries taking place. 

I am always prepared to learn new things and looked at both of these surgeries (detailed below) with open mind. I was still unable to see the 5G angle here. In fact in the case of banana, I don't even know if 5G was used.

Back in 2014, a BBC article detailed how a surgeon in Canada has performed over 20 remote surgeries with the help of a robot including colon operations and hernia repairs. The article goes on to ask, "The technology behind long-distance surgery is now mature enough to be used more widely, allowing people to access world-leading expertise and better healthcare without having to travel. Could it become the norm in hospitals?"

The first case is from Aug 2020 as shown in the video above where Doctor Liu Rong from a hospital in Beijing takes on the challenge of remotely controlling a medical robot in distant Qingdao City via the 5G network to finish an egg membrane suture surgery in 90 minutes.

The question here is that where exactly was 5G used and why? Did both the ends have 5G or just one end? Etc. I was unable to find a schematic to show the end-to-end details that would provide credibility to such a scenario.

To explain what I mean, when Vodafone UK launched 5G, they demonstrated low latency by giving an example of Haptic tackle using TeslaSuit. You can read the details and watch the video here. 

As you can see, the end-to-end solution architecture is nicely explained as shown in this picture. I would expect a similar kind of schematic for the surgery scenario. While I can clearly understand the use case for sports outdoor, I am not able to understand the use case for the surgery indoors. Where was the access point? What frequency was used? Was this Standalone or Non-Standalone network? And many other questions like these. 

The second case was a more recent one. The video is embedded below.

Even though the video mentions 5G and many other sites (see this LinkedIn post with nearly 2.5 million views) that have picked this up mention 5G, the original Instagram video does not mention 5G. In all likelihood there is no 5G connection with this one.

Surely there will be a real life 5G remote surgery use case someday that will capture our imagination but not today.

Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Remote Surgery and Telehealth Solutions 
• The 3G4G Blog: Real-life 5G Use Cases for Verticals from China 

5G Remote Surgery and Telehealth Solutions

One of the most controversial 5G use cases is the remote surgery. In this post I want to quickly look at the history and what is possible. Before I go to that, here is a short summary video that I am embedding upfront.



As far as I can recall, Ericsson was the first vendor that started talking about remote surgery. This is a tweet from back in 2017.

With #5G and the tactile internet, doctors can perform remote
surgery on a patient anywhere in the world. https://t.co/U81bayv3ws pic.twitter.com/pSXFg1NCJX

— Ericsson (@ericsson) August 28, 2017

Huawei didn't want to be far behind so they did one at MWC Shanghai in 2018. Their tweet with video is embedded below.

Meet the Remote Surgery Robot. At #MWCS18, Huawei stiches together a vivid picture of how #5G’s reliable connection can save lives: https://t.co/cobykl1KKP #WirelessXLabs pic.twitter.com/Pbme8BmcoT

— Huawei (@Huawei) June 28, 2018

In January 2019, South China Morning Post (SCMP) showed a video of a remote surgery on an animal. While the video and the article didn't provide many details, I am assuming this was done by Huawei as detailed here. The video of the surgery below.



This was followed by Mobile World Congress 2019 demo where a doctor used 5G to direct surgery live from a stage at MWC to Hospital Clinic Barcelona over 3 miles away. The team of doctors was removing a cancerous tumor from a patient's colon. This video from that is embedded below.



Vodafone New Zealand had a silly remote surgery of a dog video but looks like they have removed it.  Nothing can beat this Telecom Italia ad embedded below.



There are some realistic use cases. One of them being that with 5G the number of cables / wires in a hospital can be reduced saving on the disinfection.

NTT Docomo showcased 5G Mobile SCOT (Smart Cyber Operating Theater) which is an Innovative solution to enable advanced medical treatment in diverse environments. You can read more details here.

There are lots of other things going on. Here is a short list:

• April 2020: Because of Coronavirus COVID-19, NT Times has an article on Telemedicine Arrives in the U.K.: ‘10 Years of Change in One Week’ - even though this does not involve 5G, it just shows that we are moving in that direction.
• February 2020: 5G-aided remote CT scans used to diagnose COVID-19 patients in China (link)
• February 2020: Verizon teamed with Emory Healthcare to test new 5G use cases for the medical industry at the latter’s Innovation Hub in Atlanta, in a bid to discover how the technology can be used to improve patient care. The collaboration will explore applications including connected ambulances; remote physical therapy; medical imaging; and use of AR and VR for training. (link)
• February 2020: Vodafone 5G Healthcare – Conference & Experience Day (link)
• November 2019: TIM enables first live remote-surgery consultation using 5G immersive reality (link)
• October 2019: Along with a hospital in Malaga, Telefónica has presented what it claims is the first expert assistance system for medical interventions that runs on 5G. (link and video)
• September 2019: Mobile Future Forward 2019 - World's First Remote VR Surgery Demo conducted on Sept 4th, 2019 in Seattle by Chetan Sharma, James Youngquist, Evie Powell, Nissim Hadar, David Colmenares, and Gabe Jones. (link)

Finally, a nice video on Benefits of 5G for Healthcare Technology by T-Mobile



Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: NTT Docomo's Vision on 5G Evolution and 6G
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G eXtended Reality (5G-XR) in 5G System (5GS)
• The 3G4G Blog: Real-life 5G Use Cases for Verticals from China
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Private and Non-Public Network (NPN)
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G and Industry 4.0
• The 3G4G Blog: Spectrum for 5G NR beyond 52.6 GHz

Spectrum for 5G NR beyond 52.6 GHz

3GPP TR 38.807: Study on requirements for NR beyond 52.6 GHz has recently been revised with all the new information post WRC-19. There is a section that details potential use cases for this new spectrum.

New spectrum above 52.6 GHz – Potential use cases and deployment scenarios from a presentation by Kari Pajukoski, Oskari Tervo and Jari Hulkkonen, Nokia at the #6GSummit https://t.co/BqYPK7xpcz #Free5GTraining pic.twitter.com/6gqz0jCL3A

— 5G Training (@5Gtraining) January 16, 2020

Quoting from the specs:

The relatively underutilized millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum offers excellent opportunities to provide high speed data rate, low latency, and high capacity due to the enormous amount of available contiguous bandwidth. However, operation on bands in frequencies above 52.6GHz will be limited by the performance of devices, for example, poor power amplifier (PA) efficiency and larger phase noise impairment, the increased front-end insertion loss together with the low noise amplifier (LNA) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) noise. In addition, bands in frequencies above 52.6GHz have high propagation and penetration losses challenge. Even so, various use cases are envisioned for NR operating in frequencies between 52.6GHz and 114.25GHz. Some of the use cases are illustrated in Figure 5.1-1 and following section provide detailed description of the uses cases. It should be noted that there is not a 1-to-1 mapping of use cases and wireless interfaces, e.g. Uu, slidelink, etc. Various wireless interfaces could be applicable to various uses cases described.

• High data rate eMBB
• Mobile data offloading
• Short-range high-data rate D2D communications
• Vertical industry factory application
• Broadband distribution network
• Integrated access backhaul (IAB)
• Factory automation/Industrial IoT (IIoT)
• Augmented reality/virtual reality headsets and other high-end wearables
• Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and V2X
• Data Center Inter-rack Connectivity
• Smart grid automation
• Radar/Positioning
• Private Networks
• Critical medical communication

There is quite detailed information for each use case in the document that I am not detailing here.

Getting ready for our 5G training next week - https://t.co/6YXW3YlDvD - this picture summarises the 5G mmWave frequency proposals pre #WRC15, approved for study at WRC-15 and available for IMT post #WRC19#3G4G5G #CWTechTrain #5G #Spectrum #5GTraining @cambwireless @UK_5G pic.twitter.com/KoWEpD89Pz

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) March 3, 2020

It also details information on the allocation within the frequency range 52.6 GHz to 116 GHz in ITU Radio Regulation (see table below). The column with comments contains (a subset of) information on protection requirements for incumbent services. For the full details please refer to the Radio Regulations.

Quoting from the specs:

Within the range 52.6 to 116 GHz, the frequency bands 66-76 GHz (including 66-71 and 71-76 GHz) and 81-86 GHz are being studied under WRC-19 Agenda Item 1.13 for potential IMT identification. Results of sharing and compatibility studies, potential technical and regulatory conditions are included in Draft CPM Report, and the final decisions are to be made in WRC-19 with respect to IMT identification or no IMT identification, along with the corresponding technical and regulatory conditions.

For 66-71 GHz, Studies were carried out for the ISS, MSS (Earth-to-space) indicating that sharing is feasible, with a need for separation distance in the order of few kilometers for the case of MSS (space-to-Earth). The need for studies addressing interference from IMT towards RNS is still under debate. Thus, final conclusions in the regulatory and technical conditions for this band cannot be drawn.

For 71-76 GHz, studies were carried out for the FS, RLS and FSS (space-to-Earth) indicating that sharing with FS and FSS is feasible. However, additional limits of the IMT BS and UE unwanted emissions is needed to protect RLS in the adjacent frequency band 76-81 GHz.

For 81-86 GHz, studies were carried out for the FS, FSS (Earth-to-space), RAS (in band and adjacent band), EESS (passive) and RLS. Studies are not needed for the SRS (passive), as this service is dealing with sensors around other planets and no interference issue is expected. Studies were also not carried out for the MSS. The results of those studies indicate that sharing with FS, FSS and RAS (in band and adjacent band) is feasible. Notice that additional limits of the IMT BS and UE unwanted emissions would be needed to ensure protection of EESS (passive) in the adjacent frequency band 76-81 GHz and RLS in the adjacent frequency band 86-82 GHz.

An interesting paper looking at Waveforms, Numerology, and Phase Noise Challenge for Mobile Communications Beyond 52.6 GHz is available here.


Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: Examples of 5G Use Cases & Applications
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Private and Non-Public Network (NPN)
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) Enhancements in Rel-17
• The 3G4G Blog: What is Industrial IoT (IIoT) and how is it different from IoT?
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G and Industry 4.0
• Connectivity Technology Blog: 5G Indoor Precise Positioning
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G eXtended Reality (5G-XR) in 5G System (5GS)

5G eXtended Reality (5G-XR) in 5G System (5GS)

We have been meaning to make a tutorial on augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and extended reality (XR) for a while but we have only managed to do it. Embedded below is video and slides for the tutorial and also a playlist of different use cases on XR from around the world.

If you are not familiar with the 5G Service Based Architecture (SBA) and 5G Core (5GC), best to check this earlier tutorial before going further. A lot of comments are generally around Wi-Fi instead of 5G being used for indoors and we completely agree. 3GPP 5G architecture is designed to cater for any access in addition to 5G access. We have explained it here and here. This guest post also nicely explains Network Convergence of Mobile, Broadband and Wi-Fi.

Intermediate: 5G and Extended Reality (XR) from 3G4G

XR use cases playlist



A lot of info on this topic is from Qualcomm, GSMA, 3GPP and 5G Americas whitepaper, all of them in the links in the slides.


Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog - Tutorial: Service Based Architecture (SBA) for 5G Core (5GC)
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G and Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC)
• The 3G4G Blog: Introduction to 5G ATSSS - Access Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting
• Guest Post by Ben Toner - Exploring Network Convergence of Mobile, Broadband and Wi-Fi
• Connectivity Technology Blog: 5G Indoor Precise Positioning
• Operator Watch Blog: NTT Docomo presentation on 5G Launch Plans and Use Cases Solutions Partnership
• 3G4G: 3GPP 5G Specifications
• 3G4G: 5G (IMT-2020) Wireless

Real-life 5G Use Cases for Verticals from China

GSMA have recently published a series of reports related to China. This includes the 'The Mobile Economy China' report as well as reports on ‘Impacts of mmWave 5G in China’, ‘5G use cases for verticals China 2020’ and ‘Powered by SA case studies’. They are all available here.

China currently has 1.65bn subscribers (Excluding licensed cellular IoT) which is expected to grow to 1.73bn in 2025. The report quotes 1.20bn unique mobile subscribers that is expected to grow to 1.26bn by 2025. With a population of 1.44 billion, this would be assuming everyone over 10 years has a smartphone. 2G and 3G is being phased out so only 4G and 5G will be around in 2025. This would be different for IoT.

The 5G Use Cases for Verticals China 2020 report is comprised of 15 outstanding examples of 5G-empowered applications for verticals, ranging from industrial manufacturing, transportation, electric power, healthcare, education, to content creation, and zooms into the practical scenarios, technical features, and development opportunities for the next generation technology. Every use case represents the relentless efforts of 5G pioneers who are open, cooperative, and innovative.

1. Flexible Smart Manufacturing with 5G Edge Computing (RoboTechnik, China Mobile, Ericsson)
2. 5G Smart Campus in Haier Tianjin Washing Machine Factory (China Mobile, Haier)
3. Aircraft Surface Inspection with 5G and 8K at Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac, China Unicom, Huawei)
4. Xinfengming Group’s Smart Factory Based on MEC Technology (Xinfengming, China Mobile, ZTE)
5. SANY Heavy Industry 5G and Smart Manufacturing (Sany, China Mobile, China Telecom, ZTE)
6. Xiangtan Iron & Steel's 5G Smart Plant (Xisc, China Mobile, Huawei)
7. The Tianjin 5G Smart Port (Tianjin, China Unicom, ZTE, Trunk)
8. 5G Intelligent Connected Vehicle Pilot in Wuhan (China Mobile, Huawei, et al.)
9. 5G BRT Connected Vehicle-Infrastructure Cooperative System (China Unicom, DTmobile, et al.)
10. 5G for Smart Grid (China Mobile, Huawei, et al.)
11. Migu's "Quick Gaming" Platform (China Mobile, et al.)
12. 5G Cloud VR Demonstration Zone in Honggutan, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province (Besttone, China Telecom, Huawei)
13. 5G Cloud VR Education Application Based on AI QoE (China Telecom, Nokia, et al.)
14. China MOOC Conference: 5G + Remote Virtual Simulation Experiment (China Unicom, Vive HTC, Dell Technologies, et al.)
15. 5G-empowered Hospital Network Architecture Standard (CAICT, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Huawei, et al.)

They are all detailed in the report here.

I have written about 5G Use Cases in a blog post earlier, which also contains a video playlist of use cases from around the world. Not many from China in there at the moment but should be added as and when they are available and I discover them.


Related Posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: China Allocates Shared Spectrum for Indoor Use, CBN gets Third Spectrum for 5G Network
• The 3G4G Blog: Examples of 5G Use Cases & Applications
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Private and Non-Public Network (NPN)
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G and Industry 4.0
• The 3G4G Blog: What is Industrial IoT (IIoT) and how is it different from IoT?
• 3G4G: M2M, MTC & IoT
• Operator Watch Blog: China's Synchronized 5G Launch

5G Private and Non-Public Network (NPN)

Private Networks have been around for a while and really took off after 4G was launched. This is due to the fact that the architecture was simplified due to the removal of CS core and also the advancements in silicon, storage, computation, etc. allowed creation of smaller and more efficient equipment that simplified private networks.

While private networks imply an isolated network for selected devices that are allowed to connect on to the network, Non-Public Networks are much broader in scope. Chief among them is the ability of certain devices to be capable of working on Private as well as Public Network or roaming between them.

I recently ran a workshop on 'Introduction to Private 4G & 5G Networks' with a well known Industry analyst Dean Bubley. One of the sections looked at the Network Architecture based on the 3GPP standards. This tutorial is a part of that particular section. Slides and video embedded below. There are also some interesting videos on YouTube that show how and why Private Networks are needed and some use cases. The playlist is embedded in the end.

Advanced: Private Networks & 5G Non-Public Networks from 3G4G

Playlist of Private Networks Use Cases.



Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: 5G and Industry 4.0
• The 3G4G Blog: What is Industrial IoT (IIoT) and how is it different from IoT?
• 3G4G: M2M, MTC & IoT

Study of Use cases and Communications Involving IoT devices in Emergency Solutions

Came across this presentation by Michelle Wetterwald, IoT & Emergency services Working group, ETSI EMTEL from EENA (European Emergency Number Association. Thanks to Ken Rehbehn's tweet for making me aware of this. The presentation and the relevant part of video is embedded below.

EENA2019: Track2 session4 _Study of use cases and communications involving IoT devices in emergency solutions_Michelle Wetterwald from EENA (European Emergency Number Association)

Related Posts:

• 3GPP Release-16, Release-17 & Beyond...
• Update on UK's Emergency Services Network (ESN) from #BAPCO2019

Examples of 5G Use Cases & Applications

I recently did another 5G training for CW (Cambridge Wireless) & UK5G. One of the sections in that was about Use Cases. A very common questions that people ask is what can 5G do that 4G can't. The answer frankly is sometimes not very straightforward.

#5G teacher extraordinaire @zahidtg from @Parallel_tw is back in action today with his popular #CWTechTrain "An Advanced Introduction to 5G". Spaces are still available for CW's next training day on #IoT (29 May) - find out more here: https://t.co/FBMECW88ge pic.twitter.com/DtMqttefg1

— Cambridge Wireless (@cambwireless) May 2, 2019

While you can get a very high speed and very reasonable latency 4G system, it's not necessarily a commonplace. Similarly 5G is a bit over-hyped. There is a lot of potential in the technology but the theory may not translate into practice. Take for example millimeter wave. There is a large amount of bandwidth that can be available to each operator in this spectrum. The laws of physics however restrict how far mmWave can travel and also the fact that mmWave does not penetrate through glass, walls, etc. Does that mean that an indoor 5G system would be required to complement an outdoor one? Would Wi-Fi be able to complement cellular in-building? There are many unanswered questions at the moment.

There is also the debate around 5G icon displayed on your smartphones. When you see 5G, would it really be 5G or just re-branded 4G? Light Reading has explained this issue nicely here.

So while there are many potential applications & use cases that will benefit from 5G in the long run, the answers are not that easily available today. Anyhow, the collection of videos and slides embedded below will provide you with an insight on how different vendors and operators are looking at potentially using 5G.

Miscellaneous: 5G Uses Cases - April 2019 from 3G4G

The latest version of these slides are available to download from UK5G website here.

Slides from Parallel Wireless Webinar: 5G at #MWC19

I hosted a webinar for Parallel Wireless* yesterday about all the stuff related to 5G at Mobile World Congress 2019. The slides are embedded below and can be downloaded from BrightTalk here. You can also listen to the webinar there.

Parallel Wireless Webinar: 5G at #MWC19 from Parallel Wireless, Inc.

Related posts:

• Distributed Massive MIMO using Ericsson Radio Stripes
• 5G and Innovation by Latvian MNO LMT
• Beyond-5G and 6G at #MWC19
• Can Augmented & Mixed Reality be the Killer App 5G needs?
• Drones at Mobile World Congress 2019 and my upcoming webinar on 5G at #MWC19

*Full Disclosure: I work for Parallel Wireless as a Senior Director in Strategic Marketing. This blog is maintained in my personal capacity and expresses my own views, not the views of my employer or anyone else. Anyone who knows me well would know this.

Nice short articles on 5G in 25th Anniversary Special NTT Docomo Technical Journal

5G has dominated the 3G4G blog for last few years. Top 10 posts for 2018 featured 6 posts on 5G while top 10 posts for 2017 featured 7. In makes sense to start 2019 posting with a 5G post.

A special 25th Anniversary edition of NTT Docomo Technical Journal features some nice short articles on 5G covering RAN, Core, Devices & Use cases. Here is some more details for anyone interested.

Radio Access Network in 5G Era introduces NTT Docomo's view of world regarding 5G, scenarios for the deployment of 5G and also prospects for further development of 5G in the future. The article looks at the main features in 5G RAN that will enable eMBB (Massive MIMO), URLLC (short TTI) and mMTC (eDRX).

Interested readers should also check out:

• Overview 3GPP 5G NR Physical Layer
• 5G NR Radio Protocols Overview
• 5G New Radio Standards and other Presentations

Core network for Social Infrastructure in 5G Era describes the principal 5G technologies required in the core network to realise new services and applications that will work through collaboration between various industries and businesses. It also introduces initiatives for more advanced operations, required for efficient operation of this increasingly complex network.

This article also goes in detail of the Services Based Architecture (SBA). In case you were wondering what UL CL and SSC above stands for; UpLink CLassifiers (UL CL) is a technology that identifies packets sent by a terminal to a specific IP address and routes them differently (Local Breakout) as can be seen above. It is generally to be used to connect to a MEC server. Session and Service Continuity (SSC) is used to decide if the IP address would be retained when the UE moves to a new area from the old one.

Interested readers should also check out:

• 5G Network Architecture Options (Updated)
• Tutorial: Service Based Architecture (SBA) for 5G Core (5GC)

Evolution of devices for the 5G Era discusses prospects for the high-speed, high-capacity, low-latency, and many-terminal connectivity features introduced with 5G, as well as advances in the network expected in the future, technologies that will be required for various types of terminal devices and the services, and a vision for devices in 2020 and thereafter.

According to the article, the medium term strategy of R&D division of NTT Docomo has three main themes: 5G, AI and Devices. In simple terms, devices will collect a lot of data which will become big data, 5G will be used to transport this data and the AI will process all the collected Big Data.

NTT Docomo has also redefined the devices as connecting through various technologies including cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & Fixed communications.

Interested readers should also check out:

• Benefits and Challenges of Applying Device-Level AI to 5G networks
• Short summary of #CWFDT event 'Smart Devices of 2025'

The final article on 5G, Views of the Future Pioneered by 5G: A World Converging the Strengths of Partners looks at field trials, partnerships, etc. In fact here the embedded video playlist below shows some of these use cases described in the article



In addition there are other articles too, but in this post I have focused on 5G only.

Nice article in 25th Anniversary special NTT Docomo technical journal - "History of Mobile Communications with a Look Back at NTT DOCOMO R&D and Outlook for the Future" - https://t.co/DolDIm15jL featuring @seizo_onoe pic.twitter.com/QVlpPXvFQS

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) January 3, 2019

The 25th Anniversary Special Edition of NTT Docomo Technical Journal is available here.

How much spectrum would 5G need?

The above picture is a summary of the spectrum that was agreed to be studied for IMT-2020 (5G). You can read more about that here. I have often seen discussions around how much spectrum would be needed by each operator in total. While its a complex question, we cannot be sure unless 5G is defined completely. There have been some discussions about the requirements which I am listing below. More informed readers please feel free to add your views as comments.

Real Wireless has done some demand analysis on how much spectrum is required for 5G. A report by them for European Commission is due to be published sometime soon. As can be seen in the slide above, one of the use cases is about multi gigabit motorway. If the operators deploy 5G the way they have deployed 4G then 56 GHz of spectrum would be required. If they move to a 100% shared approach where all operators act as MVNO and there is another entity that deploys all infrastcture, including spectrum then the spectrum requirement will go down to 14 GHz.

This is in addition to all the other spectrum for 2G, 3G & 4G that the operator already holds. I have embedded the presentation below and it can be downloaded from here:

The UK Spectrum Policy Forum (UKSPF) recently held a workshop on Frequency bands for 5G, the presentations for which are available to download on the link I provided.

Its going to be a huge challenge to estimate what applications will require how much amount of spectrum and what would be the priority as compared to other applications. mmMagic is one such group looking at spectrum requirements, use cases, new concepts, etc. They have estimated that around 3.1GHz would be required by each operator for 99% reliability. This seems more reasonable. It would be interesting to see how much would operators be willing to spend for such a quantity of spectrum.

Related posts:

• 5G Spectrum Discussions
• Feasibility Study on New Services and Markets Technology Enablers for 5G
• NTT Docomo's 5G Treasure Trove
• Some more thoughts on 5G

Feasibility Study on New Services and Markets Technology Enablers for 5G

3GPP SA1 (see tutorial about 3GPP if you dont know) recently released four new Technical Reports outlining the New Services and Markets Technology Enablers (SMARTER) for next generation mobile telecommunications.

3GPP TR 22.891 has already identified over 70 different which are into different groups as can be seen in the picture above. These groups are massive Internet of Things (MTC), Critical Communications, enhanced Mobile Broadband, Network Operation and Enhancement of Vehicle-to-Everything (eV2X).

The first 4 items have their own technical reports (see below) but work on the last item has only recently started and does not yet have a TR to show to the outside world. It is foreseen that when there are results from the eV2X study these will be taken on board in the Smarter work. (thanks to Toon Norp for this info)

The four Technical Reports (TR) are:

• TR 22.861, FS_SMARTER – massive Internet of Things (MTC): Massive Internet of Things focuses on use cases with massive number of devices (e.g., sensors and wearables). This group of use cases is particularly relevant to the new vertical services, such as smart home and city, smart utilities, e-Health, and smart wearables.
• TR 22.862, FS_SMARTER – Critical Communications: The main areas where improvements are needed for Critical Communications are latency, reliability, and availability to enable, for example, industrial control applications and tactile Internet. These requirements can be met with an improved radio interface, optimized architecture, and dedicated core and radio resources.
• TR 22.863, FS_SMARTER – enhanced Mobile Broadband: Enhanced Mobile Broadband includes a number of different use case families related to higher data rates, higher density, deployment and coverage, higher user mobility, devices with highly variable user data rates, fixed mobile convergence, and small-cell deployments.
• TR 22.864, FS_SMARTER – Network Operation: The use case group Network Operation addresses the functional system requirements, including aspects such as: flexible functions and capabilities, new value creation, migration and interworking, optimizations and enhancements, and security.

Embedded below is 3GPP TR 22.891 which has a lot of interesting use cases and makes a useful reading.