One of the most anticipated 5G use cases is leveraging massive connectivity and data throughput to build digitally driven communities — or smart cities. With 68% of the global population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, governments across the globe are looking forward to the better economic and functional quality-of-life that smart cities promise. However, bringing those promises to fruition will be no easy feat.
Although engineers and architects have been pursuing the dream of bringing technology to Property (“PropTech”) for some time now, they still face significant challenges related to designing and implementing smart technologies at scale.
Of course, this is to be expected. In the case of smart city development, the primary obstacle may not be designing new blueprints for intelligent traffic management, utility metering, public safety, and transit. Rather, it is likely be the completion of the 5G mobile networks that form the backbone of smart cities and their connected features. Powering these next-generation mobile networks at scale and in populous areas come with significant barriers for urban planners, communication service providers (CSPs), and power design engineers.
Why smart cities will rely on 5G
To better appreciate the power challenges facing 5G, one must first understand why 5G technology will be integral to smart cities’ functioning.
5G mobile networks have incredible promise. The radios and equipment facilitating these next-generation networks are designed to operate on higher-frequency spectrum bands that offer more bandwidth and less congestion. The result is higher speeds, improved scalability, less interference, and extremely low latency, all of which are necessary to support a smart city’s infrastructure.
While these features are critical to smart city design, another important consideration for service providers will be network reliability. In a truly smart city, mobile networks will play a significant role in keeping self-driving cars safe on the road, operating public transportation services on time and at optimal efficiency, and much more. As such, these mobile networks must be secure, uninterrupted, and able to transmit vast amounts of data almost instantaneously. That’s something that “true 5G” will be able to offer when realized.
The challenges facing 5G
While the higher-frequency operations of 5G radios are part of the technology’s allure, they will also require significant investments in new infrastructure and power solutions by CSPs and urban planners.
First, there are limited coverage ranges that is the bane of 5G networks operating in the high-band spectrum can result in significant gaps in service areas. For example, low-band (under 1 GHz) and mid-band (1-6 GHz) radios can provide coverage for up to 10 miles. With 5G radios operating in the high band or millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum (over 6 GHz) to support smart city applications, coverage may be much less than 1 mile. To achieve widespread deployments and facilitate the significant bandwidth increases needed for connected, smart cities, additional 5G radio deployments will likely be needed to fill gaps between existing towers.
CSPs and engineers are bridging these coverage gaps by deploying 5G repeaters and small cells. 5G repeaters amplify 5G signals and can increase connectivity in mid-scale premises such as office buildings, banks, and industrial units.
Small cells are compact, cost-effective solutions can be deployed on existing street furniture in populous areas to help ensure reliable, consistent coverage. They can be installed to accommodate the topography of the city, its population density, coverage requirements, quality of service, and other factors that may affect the network’s function. However, deploying and powering enough small cells to support smart cities can be a challenge.
First, determining where to place small cells and how many radios each installation will need can be complex and time-consuming. With small cells, tailoring the equipment to the region isn’t really an option; it’s a necessity. The importance of getting it exactly right when designing smart cities cannot be understated. If coverage anywhere in the city is lacking, it won’t be a matter of a dropped call or a delayed email but something more serious — such as a car not stopping at a crosswalk or stop light.
Powering this vast network of small-cell radio deployments will also challenge power engineers and smart city designers. Each site will have to be tailored to the needs of its specific location and determining the power demands and how to design each cell’s power infrastructure could demand extra time since operating efficiency is a top concern. The higher operating frequency means 5G radios require more power than their predecessors, which means inefficient builds may lead to even higher losses. Multiply that across hundreds of thousands of sites, and the impact — both in terms of energy usage and financial implications — can be significant.
Further complicating the issue of powering smart cities’ networks is determining how to get power to each site. While many small cells have been deployed on existing furniture, tapping power from those sources, this method could become more complicated as more small cell radios are deployed. Installing enclosures on poles and light fixtures also can come with leasing fees. The companies that own poles, powerlines, and other street furniture charge for space, and those fees could get steep.
Planners have explored the idea of building centralized AC-to-DC or DC-to-DC conversion plants in communities to supplement or replace local power taps. The central plant approach, however, could introduce issues such as the need for trenching in dense urban areas and potential risks from a single point of failure.
A more connected future
The logistics of smart city design go far beyond power considerations, encompassing everything from the city’s topography to network maintenance scheduling and more. When these initial challenges are finally overcome, more are likely to arise in their place. That’s the nature of progress: the only certainty is that there will always be something to improve.
The long-term success of smart city design will hinge on listening, experimentation, learning from failure, and a willingness to keep pressing forward. Municipal leaders and city planners are hard at work defining what the future of urban life will be. They can rest assured that power specialists, CSPs, and manufacturers are doing the same so that 5G networks are ready to support a more connected, sustainable future and a better quality of life for urban populations.
