In this episode, we are talking with Andrew Von Nagy from Celona about 5G.
What will 5G technology bring to the table? Increase speed, more spectrum band use, CBRS at 3.55 GHz, C-Band (3.7 to 4.2), 6 GHz for unlicensed 5G (licensed assisted access), and millimeter wave (60 GHz).
With 5G, comes new use cases. New hardware will be required and we’ll hear terms like 5G-NR which means new radio. Other terms you should know is G-Node-B (the name of the AP in 5G) and Node-B, from 4G.
Do Wi-Fi Engineers care about 5G? Yes! It’s more accessible than the past and is driven by the use case to meet business needs. There’s a lower barrier to entry, no longer high and it becomes another tool in the tool bag.
Complementary to Wi-Fi. Private 4G & 5G can handle devices that need an express lane handled by the corporation. The traffic can be scheduled in a granular fashion.
Design is still going to be critical but you aren’t designing the network the same way. You need a different mindset. Handover is treated differently and there isn’t co-channel interference because of increased coordination. There is a minimum amount of signal separation between access points on the same channels.
Some of the tools that can be used are iBwave, Google outdoor planner (beta), and RAN Plan.
This is a great episode to listen to if you want to get a start with 5G before diving into the technical details.
Links & Resources
- Celona Website: https://www.celona.io
- Andrew’s website: http://www.revolutionwifi.net
- Celona YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW8PqCtRwgZO3fiXJMtzIiYqh5Itr9BO5
Really interesting. Thanks for this amazing podcast.