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What’s Needed to Deploy 5G in Rural Environments

What’s Needed to Deploy 5G in Rural Environments Image Credit: Laymanzoom/Bigstockphoto.com

There is significant excitement and talk about deployment of 5G in the U.S. within the next few years, with major commercial rollouts expected in 2020. However, 5G in its purest and stand-alone form has its challenges when it comes to deployment in rural areas. We’ll need a change in the technology behind 5G and financial backing in order to bring 5G to rural areas.

From a technical point of view, the range of radio frequencies that are slated for high data rate implementations of 5G are in the millimeter Wave (mmWave) range. mmWave radio waves have the inherent physical characteristic that they do not travel over long distances well, nor do they bend around corners or go through obstacles. These inherent characteristics require that the cell sites (base station towers) in a 5G network be placed much closer to each other as compared to 4G and previous generations of wireless systems. For example, the typical cell site in a 5G network would have a range of 500 feet - this is in contrast to a range of 1200 feet in a 4G network. Therefore, the very fundamental technology in 5G that makes it cost effective for densely populated areas makes it very costly for rural deployment.

On the other hand, the significantly higher bandwidth offered by 5G does allow rural end users to enjoy high speed Internet connectivity similar to their urban or suburban counterparts. So, how can one close the gap between the cost requirements and service advantages of 5G? One feasible approach would be to use the 5G wireless network for the “last mile(s)” and then link these 5G pockets to more cost-effective landline long haul networks. This hybrid deployment will eliminate the exorbitant cost of providing high speed landlines to every remote rural community, as the end users will have wireless internet access, while the bulk of the network for the long haul will be on legacy landline infrastructure.

Yet another approach could be to use the legacy lower radio frequencies (same as the 4G frequencies) for 5G rural deployments. This simply means that the high data rates advertised for 5G will not be achievable using this deployment approach. This is still with the understanding that even today, in large pockets of the U.S., rural areas have no 4G coverage.

It is a tough balancing act between providing high data rates to the sparsely populated areas and keeping the infrastructure cost (5G cell sites) low. Most likely 4G networks will carry the bulk of the traffic while slowly, these hybrid networks come to the fore.

The other contributing factor is finances. Bringing 5G broadband to the areas outside of densely populated areas means that we’ll be needing large sums of money to back the deployment. For example, the FCC Chairman announced his intent to create the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which will inject $20.4 billion into high-speed broadband networks in rural America over the next decade.

In summary, while the prospect of a hybrid 4G/5G deployment in rural America seems achievable with a larger financial backing, a standalone 5G deployment uniformly accessible across the country will need several key components to be a success.

Author

Dr. Babak D. Beheshti is an IEEE Member and professor and Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences at New York Institute of Technology. Babak’s areas of research include secure embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, and wireless systems. He is the author of numerous technical papers in these areas. He has over 20 years of experience in R&D for embedded systems and wireless technology industry, where he has successfully managed joint R&D programs with Asian, European, and U.S. companies. Babak has been an active member of IEEE since 1991. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the IEEE.

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