The 5G Edge (Blog)

The recent announcement of an upcoming 2.5 GHz band spectrum auction for mid 2022 may lead some to dig in on the perception that midband frequencies are here to stay, and that the higher, millimeter wave frequencies are too difficult to work with and will be slowly phased out over time, but for scattered usage in ultra dense urban settings, stadium venues and the like.

This may or may not be the case, but the upcoming spectrum auction will have little or nothing to do with such a trend. Auction 108 (2.5 GHz), as it is being called, is intended to allow for improved coverage across large swathes of rural lands and less populated regions of the country. Millimeter waves were never intended to cover such spread out geographical areas.

The unanswered question is where will the dividing line generally fall between higher frequency 5G service and midband 5G service? Perhaps along the outer suburbs of metropolitan areas. Perhaps closer to the urban centers or even further out to the edge of more rural regions.

These are compelling questions being answered in real time. Ask these questions to any expert in the wireless industry and you will get a different answer from each. This is because the answer is not yet clear. Little by little, segment by segment, the major carriers are piecing together their 5G networks across the nation, learning valuable lessons as they go.

As your 5G telecommunications expert consultant, Hoplite is carefully tracking these trends so that your jurisdiction always adopts the best practices available, and reviews small wireless facility applications through the lens of holistic awareness and local concerns.

It has been put forth for quite some time that autonomous transportation networks will only be possible with the extremely low latency and high bandwidth offered by 5G networks.

This assumption has become widely accepted, so much so that nearly all recent research in the field incorporates 5G into any autonomous model that hopes for any chance to be taken seriously. The typical argument goes something like: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) embedded in vehicles can only do so much without instantaneous updates on the continually varying conditions of streets and highways. Enormous, lightning fast processing power and the entire planet mapped out in GIS format on a local car CPU will not help if a vehicle 300 feet ahead has lost use of its breaking system, or if an intersection traffic flow control has just malfunctioned.

How important is 5G, actually?

According to most auto manufacturers, including Audi, Ford and Toyota, very important. In fact, barring some even bolder advance in networking technology than 5G in the coming years, there is no practical way to enable widespread self driving vehicles without 5G networks. The power and flexibility of 5G networks, including low latency and edge computing capabilities, will allow them to integrate with the low level communication between vehicles, as well as public information systems, LIDAR feeds and a veritable galaxy of inputs and data to maintain an overarching framework that has yet to be fully thought out, designed and implemented.

A trifecta of vehicle to everything (V2X) functionality, environment information capturing, and the controlling 5G wireless network will necessarily be integrated into any eventual outcome.

But what about flying vehicles?

Another technological marker of progress established in the 20th century is the eventual widespread use of flying passenger cars, untethered to freeway traffic jams and other land based inconveniences.. However, the realization of both autonomous vehicles and flying vehicles presents a conflicting set of objectives. On the one hand, autonomous transport networks will rely on 5G, a land based wireless network paradigm that typically relies on frequencies between 3-6 GHz and 24-39 GHz. On the other hand, flying cars will operate out of range of such networks, probably anywhere from 100 to 1000 feet or higher in the sky.

That is, unless flying cars remain piloted by humans and only terrestrial vehicles are auto piloted. Or if autonomous flying cars hug the ground, within range of 5G network coverage, the way close air support aircraft operate to avoid detection by radar systems.

Otherwise, a means of projecting the 5G network into the sky will become the next major engineering challenge to overcome. Anything from drones to dirigibles will be floated (pun intended!) as a possible solution.

What about the visual effect of all this? And how will it impact local government?

Streetscape

Current trends suggest that 5G will be deployed via a combination of small cell sites, mostly within public streets and highways, as well as conventional rooftop and tower sites. Small cell sites are generally unobtrusive in design, often indistinguishable from standard utility poles that run power and cable lines across the landscape.

However, utility poles themselves, although long accepted as part of the streetscape, are considered eyesores by many. Municipal planning boards frequently require that new residential developments install their utility lines underground. The long term wisdom of these planning trends is always in question and involves balancing the visual benefits of buried utilities to the cost and expense of affecting replacement and repairs to the actual equipment, with repairs potentially requiring major ground disturbance and the presence of long term work sites.

In the end, 5G networks will power the future of communications and many other industries, and so developing sensible processes and guidelines to govern the deployment of physical infrastructure is paramount: do not hold back the future, but do not let your beautiful scenic views be ruined in the process.

Traffic Regulations

Another major area of regulatory involvement. The USDOT is only just beginning to contemplate a regulatory framework capable of encompassing roads with both autonomous and human operated vehicles. Issues such as determining liability in the event of accidents and malfunctions remain open questions and will take shape, in part, based on parsing out responsibility between the vehicle makers, component manufacturers, wireless carriers and network performance, as well as the computer scientists who program the actual “minds” piloting the vehicles.

Exotic Configurations

Wireless carriers, in their ongoing struggle to unchain their networks from earthly bonds will continue to experiment with network equipment on gliders, dirigibles, satellites, and fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicles. It remains to be seen what, if any, results will come of these efforts in the foreseeable future.

If there is a major breakthrough that compels legislatures and government agencies to act so that the public may reap the benefits, it will likely mean yet another entire re-write of laws and regulations, an upending of everything we thought was set in stone. The intersection of federal, state and local frameworks, as well as the complex nature of the new technologies, will doubtless leave many scratching their heads.

Hoplite Communications Consulting Services

No other telecommunications consulting firm combines the legal, technical and scientific expertise to help local governments navigate through any and all of these regulatory and technical challenges, as well as whatever unplanned and unexpected second and third order effects may arise.

If you have been approached by a carrier seeking to install telecommunications equipment that seems unfamiliar, or is not what you are used to seeing, contact us to see how we can help

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