5G & Satellite Blog – Part 1 of 3: 5G Deployment – faster & more cost efficient using SatCom?

At ENENSYS Technologies, we believe that satellite is a game changer for the deployment of 5G. It has the ability to significantly improve the reachability of 5G applications – with the major advantage of reducing investment in terrestrial infrastructure. But how exactly can satellite technology be deployed in 5G? Which architectures can be implemented? Which protocols, which functions? In this three-part blog series, we explore 5G implementation challenges & the role that Satellite Communications (SatCom) can play, how 3GPP is introducing satellite scenarios and finally, satellite & 5G for OTT@Scale.

Part 1: 5G Deployment – faster & more cost efficient using SatCom?

About 5G Infrastructure

As the 5th generation of mobile network technology, 5G was designed to meet the growing demand for connectivity, including – but not limited to – the quantity of data exchanged.

After 1G, 2G, 3G and 4G, even if 5G multiplies (versus 4G) the internet speed available on cell phones by 10, it should not be considered an umpteenth improvement of cellular networks for smartphones. Moreover, on current smartphones suitably served by 4G, apart from video services which can suffer from quality issues, most of the services are acceptable and do not require a new network.

5G’s new technology increases speed, but above all, reduces latency – allowing a lot more users to connect to the network, as well as to network directly between themselves. This direct networking opens the door to connected objects of all sorts, in addition to a multitude of new application. Some examples include:

• Connected cars and autonomous driving
• Telemedicine assisted by virtual reality headsets
• Industry 4.0
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
• UHD video broadcasting to fixed and mobile receivers
• Entertainment to all moving vehicles

The list of applications which will benefit from 5G capability is already long and grows daily.

5G technology is currently undergoing heavy testing in many countries around the globe, and according to latest GSMA figures, commercial roll-outs are now live in 24 markets worldwide.

Even if 5G is not only for smartphones, mobile operators lead 5G deployment and are preparing for the move with a mixture of resignation and anticipation: they know that it will open up opportunities to capture value from new 5G use cases but they are also aware that they will have to increase their infrastructure investments to deploy the technology. In the analysis of one European country, McKinsey predicted that network-related capital expenditures would have to increase 60% from 2020 through 2025, roughly doubling total cost of ownership (TCO) during that period.

This raises important questions about investment strategy and future profits for mobile players. The use cases that 5G enable will require network performance to increase by 10-times for all network parameters compared to current ones, including latency, throughput, reliability, and scale. To get there, mobile operators must invest in all network domains, including spectrum, radio access network (RAN) infrastructure, transmission, and core networks.

5G Implementation Challenges

To increase network performance, mobile operators will likely first initiate an evolutionary approach to infrastructure investment and 5G initial infrastructures will mostly be built by upgrading 4G ones. When network upgrades are no longer sufficient to support the increased traffic, operators will need to build new sites and/or cells. That point in time will vary by location, but simulations show that most operators will need to embark on significant new build-out between 2020 and 2025. This shift will be the primary driver behind network cost increases.

First, spectrum availability will continue to be a major roadblock: the scarcity of low-band availability in many countries (despite their interest for initial rollouts), together with the high price of the 3.5 gigahertz bands which provide operators with greater air capacity, will continue to provoke headaches for operators’ investment strategists. Not to be forgotten, the higher bands, while providing higher capacity, come with increased propagation limitations, forcing operators to invest in order to improve radio interface and antennas, in order to increase efficiency of this new spectrum.

Second, on top of macro-site densification in rural and suburban areas required to handle the increased traffic and connectivity, a general shift toward small-cell solutions will also be needed to be able to cope with a higher concentration of traffic as well as the use of spectrum bands above 3 gigahertz. An analysis by McKinsey & Company estimates that sites with traffic density above 0.5 petabyte per square kilometer per year had a cell radius of less than 200 meters, requiring small-cell solutions, while many major cities will all be at 1 or 2 petabytes per square kilometer by 2025.

Third, high-data rate links will become essential everywhere to backhaul 5G networks to meet capacity and support small-cell deployment. Fiber transmission will play an important role, but it cannot be the only way to backhaul the 5G radio access network, especially for rural areas where it will be a while before fiber is installed everywhere (not to say impossible) and will be quite expensive.

As a consequence, core network capacity will need to be upgraded in order to provide increased capacity and functionality.

How can SatCom help 5G? 

In order to continue promising 5G deployment, mobile operators will need to develop strategies to cope with this expected growth in network costs. Standard measures will, of course, involve cost-saving efforts, but they will need to explore more options. In this context, the question of how satellite networks can help operators to increase the capacity all the while balancing their investment is of high interest.

Satellite networks have specific capabilities to address 5G use cases. The general consensuses on how satellite helps in achieving 5G requirements are:

• Ubiquity: Satellite provides high-speed capacity across the globe using the following enablers: capacity in-fill inside geographic gaps, overspill to satellite when terrestrial links are over capacity, global coverage and backup/resilience for network fall-back (especially for communication during emergencies). In other words, high-data rate backhauling is quickly available everywhere with satellite: urban, suburban and rural areas.
• Mobility: Satellite is the only technology capable of providing connectivity anywhere on land, at sea, or in the air for moving platforms (trains, ships & aircraft, respectively), while requiring a minimal terrestrial infrastructure for support. In fact, an airplane can be backhauled like a small cell through satellite.
• Simultaneous Broadcast: Satellite can efficiently deliver rich multimedia and other content across multiple sites simultaneously, using broadcast/multicast streams with an information-centric network and content caching for local distribution.

Recent technological developments have led to a number of initiatives in the SatCom sector, enabling the operation of High Throughput Geostationary (GSO) as well as non-Geostationary (non-GSO) satellite networks, based on hundreds to thousands of satellites that can contribute to the delivery of 5G services leveraging on reduced-latency, high-throughput communications.

Coming soon, in the second blog post of the series, learn about how 3GPP is introducing satellite scenarios – including Mobile Edge, non-3GPP access networks & 5G new radio.