CONNECTIONS_64-e

Focus
Cabling Megatrend 5G Premises – But How?
With Macro Cell Upgrades to Small Cells
050.7296
5G promises to change the role of cellular phone networks. The fifth generation will
create new economic opportunities and influence social development. But first, providers
will have to set up their macro cells for 5G and create infrastructures for small cells.
New solutions for fiber optic cabling are needed.
Five factors are among the most important
driving forces behind the transition to 5G:
– growing global demand for mobile services
– the continuous development of cellular
technologies
– the emergence of new use cases
– the development of global standards
– the availability of new frequency bands
for 5G
The mini radio cells (small cells) will play a
decisive role in the gradual development of
mobile networks from the predominant 4G/
LTE technology to 5G. They can provide the
high-bandwidth, low-latency connections
required for the potential 5G use cases.
Unique position
Mobile network operators are in a unique
position. They can use their existing networks
and make use of collocated sites for new,
non-standalone 5G sites and expanded 4G
sites. To do so, they need to equip existing
4G macro-cell sites with new and additional
infrastructure elements.
First, network operators will expand their
4G macro-cell locations. These can then be
upgraded with additional 5G small cells in the
form of underlying networks. This enables,
among other things, targeted, local signal
coverage as well as shorter latency times
with the help of the small cell radio heads and
correspondingly compact antenna systems.
Important technical developments for this are
the «massive active multi-input multi-output
antennas» (MIMO) and «beamforming» features
of modern 5G antennas using phase
array technology. Together, these innovations
offer improved network coverage and transmission
capacity as well as an optimization
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