5G Huddle Being Held In New Delhi

Hosted by the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) in partnership with Broadband India Forum (BIF), ITU-APT Foundation of India and Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI), the 7th 5G Huddle is being held in New Delhi,. It is a two day event, February 5 and 6, 2020.

In a recent study of industrial and telecom company executives from around the world, when asked which technologies will be the most integral to their digital transformation over the next five years, 75% of respondents answered 5G.

As the 5G journey around the world continues, this year’s 5G Huddle is looking at the progress that has been made, and more importantly the challenges that still remain in order for the long-term benefits of this truly transformational technology to be felt across all areas of society.

Day One

5G as catalyst for digital transformation

The theme of the conference is 5G as a Catalyst for Digital Transformation.

Nigel Jefferies, Chairman, WWRF, said: “We will see at the outcomes of 5G networks, and also look at its future. We will also study the case studies of 5G for rural and urban environments. WWRF has been at the forefront since 2001. We have a long engagement with India.”

Accelerating maturity of 5G apps

Ashwani Kumar, VP Standards & Industry, Huawei read a presentation by Zukang Shen, Head of Huawei Wireless Standards Department. The industry did Rel 15 with 3GPP. Rel 16 has some enhancements like massive MIMO enhancement, network slicing, etc. Rel 17 has broadcasting through 5G NR. There are NR IoT devices types. The coverage enhancement is also supported, besides side-link relay.

China established the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group in 2013. There were operators, network vendors, chipset and terminal vendors, etc. 5G technology trials were started in early 2016, in phases 1-4. Phased 5G trials accelerated the maturity of network equipment and materials. Phase 1 was meant to carry out test and verification for potential key technologies for 5G. The development of key technologies was promoted. The RAN had massive MIMO, new multiple access, new waveform, channel slicing, etc.

In phase 2, the solutions were evaluated. Parameters were developed to benchmark the solutions. In phase 3, there was end-to-end system integration. A central lab was created in the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), besides the MTNet Lab and HuaiRou Field Lab. In phase 3, there was system integration of core networks. The base stations now supported Standalone (SA) vs Non-Standalone (NSA), as did the chipsets. Phase 4 saw interoperability testing. There were 4 chipset vendors, 6 vendors, 2 network architectures, and 2 bands, etc. The testing was done in the lab and field.

Next, the focus was on accelerating the maturity of 5G applications. Smart life, smart industry and digital governance were considered. Industrial Internet, smart grid, etc. were developed. Many of the concepts are now part of 3GPP. There is a need to promote technology enhancements through global specifications, promote a healthy 5G ecosystem, and accelerate the maturity of 5G apps.

India has unique challenges

Pamela Kumar, DG, TSDSI added that India has unique challenges. We need to leapfrog and embrace the emerging technologies. There is a Smart City Mission that has taken up 99 cities. There are challenges such as rural broadband for fiber-to-panchayat, diversity, greenfield deployment, and leapfrog technology solutions. We need to think uniquely and try to solve these challenges. We want a good quality of life. Technology is the answer! We need to develop the relevant technology for the rural areas. We also need to address the last-mile diversity. We have a unique opportunity to use new technology. There is a dilemma for the smart city Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) today — network, device, business, etc.

India is probably the world’s most fertile market for 5G adoption. Most of the BTSs in India are operating at 80-90% capacity, for Reliance Jio, BSNL, Airtel, etc. Internet penetration in India should be 829 million or maybe 1 billion by 2021.

So far, 99 smart cities have been selected and are to be allocated Rs 2.04 lakh crores. There is a quest for standards-driven development based on an interoperable common services platform. Is oneM2M an answer? TSDSI has proposed this solution.

The purpose and goal of oneM2M is to develop technical specifications, which address the need for a common M2M Service Layer that can be readily embedded within various hardware and software, and relied upon to connect multiple devices in the field with M2M application servers worldwide.

She added: “There is a huge, latent demand out there. We want to deploy 5G and do trials, do use cases, etc. We need to influence the direction of the new technology. We need to understand our own use cases, and take those requirements to standards, etc.”

The NDCP 2018 has specific goals to connect, propel and secure India. There is a 5G India 2020 High-level Forum. The Use Case Lab has already been set up. $35 million has been ear-marked for India’s collaborative testbed. LMLC is a mandatory test configuration for IMT-2020 technical performance requirements. LMLC is the ITU-R WP5D for rural broadband.

Bharat Bhatia, President ITU-APT Foundation of India, noted that people have come from all over the world to attend the 5G Huddle conference in Delhi. India is now moving from being an importer to a nation that is now trying to develop some technology. India can learn a lot from China in 5G. He added that Pamela Kumar had set the stage for 5G Huddle.

5G deployment: State of play and early lessons

In the session titled 5G deployment: State of play and early lessons, Bharat Bhatia, President ITU-APT Foundation of India, noted that the ITU has set goals for IMT-2020, such as 100 times higher system capacity, etc. We are nearly at the final stage to define 5G. So far, 34 countries have already launched 5G. It will also support a large number of use cases.

5G deployment in EC

Tonnie de Koster, Adviser for Digital Single Market International Outreach EC, DG CNECT, spoke about the deployment in the EU digital single market. He said: “We need to take a holistic view of 5G. It is global, and means that everybody is confronted by policy challenges. We are at the start of all this. 5G can be a game changer. It will take care of the factories of the future, lead media and entertainment, automotive, energy, etc. EU’s 5G strategy is at the heart of its digital single market strategy. Europe is well prepared for 5G rollout. Having a comprehensive approach is very important.”

5G will be present in all urban areas and along the main transport paths by 2025. There will be commercial launch of 5G services in at least one major city in each country within the EU. There is a connected and automated mobility to work in the cross-border concept. We need a global, interoperable standard to succeed in the global market. There is also a major overhaul of EU’s telecom legislation, merged into a single code. It is updated notably to foster 5G roll-out.

There are a series of key measures: firm common deadlines in the EU for licensing, commitments for 5G pioneer bands, certainty of long-duration licenses, lightweight regime for small cells, etc. 5G cybersecurity is changing the nature of networks towards critical infrastructure.

The 5GObservatory.eu has indicated the main 5G market developments in the EU and internationally. It looks at 5G precommercial and commercial launches.

As 5G is gearing up for market deployment, the European 5G Observatory provides updates on all of the latest market developments, including, actions being undertaken by the private and public sectors, in the field of 5G. The 5G Observatory also delivers an analysis of the strategic implications of the 5G Action Plan and other public policy objectives.

The Observatory focuses on 5G developments in Europe, along with major international developments (USA, Japan, China, South Korea) that could impact the European market.

5G deployments in USA

Sudhir Dixit, Vice Chair for Americas, WWRF added that there are 5G deployments in the USA. The key to 5G is to have a compact antenna. The mm wave signals are best for high bandwidth, short-range apps. Qualcomm has chipsets such as 855 for LTE and 5G, and 865 and 765. Apple plans to announce a 5G device this year.

Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile US, Sprint and US Cellular are the 5G operators in the USA. They plan to evolve the CDMA networks to GSM. Verizon plans to use 28GHz 5G NR, while AT&T plans to use 39GHz 5G NR. T-Mobile will use 600MHz and 28GHz for more capacity. It has announced 99% coverage of the country. Sprint has gone with 2500MHz 5G NR. That is the preferred range for most mobile operators in the world.

Verizon has also rolled out 5G. Now, it is present in 21 cities. AT&T Mobility launched 5G mobile hotspot in 2018. It has launched 5G in 20 more cities in 2019. It also opened a new 5G Lab. T-Mobile has launched 5G in 5,000 cities in sub-600GHz network in parts of 7 cities, mm wave in 6 cities, and 600MHz for nationwide network.

In mm wave, the cell deployments have to be dense. The real impact of 5G will be felt by 2025. The operators have a dilemma of capacity/coverage/cost, especially, to make 5G commercially viable. There are challenges for ultra-dense networks (UDNs) mm wave and macro cellular, and how to build, focus on performance, develop 5G capable handsets, radiation and espionage fears, and cost of service and business cases.

Andreas Sommer, Team Leader and Senior Technical Adviser, Project, India-EU Co-operation on ICT-related Standardization, Policy and Legislation, added that spectrum is very rare in South Africa. Spectrum may not be allocated within this year. There is a high demand for spectrum from the industries. Bosch received two spectrum licenses from regulator in Germany, for industrial use.

In South Africa, the infrastructure costs are a problem. There are not many policies in place. There are also issues regarding laying out fiber-optic cables. There are also areas such as deserts and mountains in South Africa. We are in discussions with the government. India has similar challenges, especially, with the rural areas. In North Macedonia, there is a broadband plan for the next decade. We are discussing how this rollout problem can be sorted out and infrastructure costs can be brought down.

In Pacific Islands, there are projects to connect the islands using fiber-optic cable. They have huge expectations from 5G. India may have similar connectivity problems with its own islands.

WRC-19 delivering spectrum to power 5G future

Yi Shen Chan, Director, Plum Consulting moderated a session on WRC-19 — delivering the spectrum to power 5G future.

Bharat Bhatia, president, ITU-APT Foundation of India remarked that WRC 2019 was attended by 3,540 delegates from 165 countries in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. 5G spectrum was the key agenda of WRC-19. Over 22 agenda items and 11 issues were discussed. WRC-19 identified the following bands for IMT.

* 24.25-27.5 GHz (26GHz)
* 37-43.5GHz (40 GHz)
* 45.5-47GHz and 47.2-48.2 (50GHz)
* 66-71 GHz for IMT (70GHz).

The main issue for 5G spectrum in 26GHz at WRC-19 was the protection of the earth exploration satellites (EESS) in adjacent band (in 23.6-24GHz) and fixed satellite in 24.5-27GHz. The limits proposed by India were the most reasonable and quite adjacent to what was finally approved. WRC also agreed for very light conditions to protect fixed satellites (FSS) in 24.5-27GHz.

The WRC-19 also decided only on mm wave bands (above 6GHz). 5G will require access to multiple bands of spectrum. The C-band and the Group 30/40a are the first global 5G bands. WRC-19 decisions were also made on the high-altitude platform stations (HAPS) and GSO. WRC-23 will look at mid-band spectrum for 5G, as well as a new mm wave band for 5G.

Price and quantum key for India

Rajan Mathews, DG, COAI, said that we now have an ability from the government side to be involved in the technical side. When we look at 5G, we are looking at the outcoming spectrum auction. There are two things — price and quantum, for the operators. With 175MHz of spectrum left over, there was not much to do. Besides pricing, we now have a quantum issue to deal with.

The Philippines is giving away spectrum for free to its operators. Can India learn from this? Who is going to put up their hands regarding the utilization of the spectrum? These are the matters that need to be resolved.

Satellite industry achieved a lot

Rajesh Mehrotra, Global Spectrum Policy, of the EMEA Satellite Operator’s Association (ESOA), added that looking at the satellite industry’s considerations, 5G is not just the next G. It is an amalgamation of a number of satellites. Satellite industry has achieved a lot at WRC-19. There are outcomes in C-, Ku-, Ka, Q-V bands, etc.

The Ka band is now available for the GSO ESIMs (earth stations in motion). A new agenda item will consider the future use of Ka band by the NGSO ESIMs. HAPS did not enter the 28GHz band. 5G is a network of networks that pools the strengths of other networks. We would like to make mobile a path to also use our network.

MPS Alawa, Senior Deputy Wireless Advisor to GoI, DoT, said that the new band will take advantage of MIMO. In WRC-19, there were the additional bands for IMT-2000. WRC-19 has given the protection to the satellite. However, it has not given the angle of satellite to the earth so far. On identified bands, it has two ~ 33BS/~29 UE (dBW/200MHz) and ~ 39BS/~35 UE (dBW/200MHz). A third band was also identified.

HAPS can be used to serve communities, remote and rural areas, disaster management, as an additional platform for broadband, and HAPS as IMT BS (HBS). WRC-19 also had the outcome for the non-GSO system. WRC-23 agenda items are about the sharing and compatibility studies.

Issues with 5G licensing

On the topic of issues with 5G licensing, Bharat Bhatia said that countries are looking at different licensing approaches. For mm wave bands, you need smaller coverage areas. Smaller-sized licence areas may be easier to implement.

Rajan Mathews noted that India has to address the licensing conditions concerning 5G. We are on the LSA basis. The emerging Licensed Shared Access (LSA) regulatory framework enables flexible spectrum sharing between a limited number of users that access the same frequency bands, while guaranteeing better interference mitigation. How 5G will be implemented in India is going to be critical? The configurations in standalone and non-standalone cores (SA and NSA) are also going to be important.

MPS Alawa added that there is an angle for positioning the satellite over India, that has to be notified by WPC. Right now, technical things are not in the reckoning.

Regulatory and cybersecurity challenges of 5G

In the session on the regulatory and cybersecurity challenges of 5G, Henrik Berndt, Vice Chair for Europe, Middle East, Africa, WWRF, said that there are three Qs that need to be addressed for 5G. They are:

1) How can the new security challenges and requirements can be met in 5G?
2) How fast are regulators willing to ensure necessary framework exists for the success of 5G?
3) User privacy and using cross-border evidence and what it means for data privacy?

Samiran Gupta, Head of India, Internet Consortium for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said that ICANN co-ordinates the unique identifiers for the Internet. We see 5G as an important step forward in the telecom space. It is a network of networks. The Internet has increasingly become mobile. It also includes M2M communications.

In 2018, ITU had a paper on setting the scene for 5G. Some of these challenges are deployment of small cells, cost for attaching small cell sites, high cost of network equipment, spectrum allocation, etc. We have had an issue in Korea where there was simultaneous 4G and 5G network play on the handsets. 5G and IoT have also posed unintended challenges.

There is a case for one unified Internet — the Internet has 4.5 billion users. There may be a future where there is no longer the case. The IETF is working on quick transport protocols. Till that happens, we want to ensure there is no disruption to any transport protocol. 5G has two unintended challenges. One, network slicing. It could end up changing the way the Internet works. It could become a major challenge if another identifier system is put in place. Each app could even have an Internet of its own! These could also pose security challenges.

With 5G, phone numbers may not be relevant. Will there be new identifiers? The E.164 numbers are used within the cellular networks. They have also used IMSI or international mobile subscriber identity. There is no need for a new numbering system. However, within IoT, there could be a case for a new numbering system. These can easily create unintended challenges.

Narendra Nath, Joint Secretary, NIC, GoI, felt that cybersecurity challenges in 5G networks are there. In the UK, they came out with guidelines for consumer IoT. There will be a big jump in IoT devices with 5G. There may not be retrofitting of the IoT devices, which can be a challenge. We need to classify IoT devices and have the minimum security requirements in place. With 5G, there will be some disaggregation in applications. Is the security level mature for these? The general security aspects are quite common worldwide.

Debabrata Nayak, Chief Security Officer, Huawei, said that many of the security areas have been addressed in 5G. Network slicing is set to be the biggest benefit for apps. We can take appropriate measures.

5G threat agents

Samant Khajuria, Senior Specialist, Cybersecurity, Terma A/S, said that the defense has been looking at 5G for a very long time. We want to put sensors in homes, factories, and everywhere, to protect against cyber attacks. We need to ask and find out: What is the 5G landscape? Who are the threat agents? What will it take to bring trust and confidence?

There are 5G assets and security properties. E. g. cloud services. My data should be very secure and viewed by authorized personnel. The threat taxonomy is vast. As for threats, there is ransomware, hackers, cyber warfare, etc. E.g., the secret surveillance of Norway’s leaders was detected. Hackers may develop new tools and methods.

P Balaji, Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea, said that the march of technology and digital consumption has been massive. 5G will also transform the way businesses are conducted. There will be enhanced mobile broadband, mission-critical communications, and massive IoT, such as connected cars, remote surgery, etc. 5G use cases will span across many industry verticals.

There is a need to create a sustainable investment climate. Network slicing will be needed for critical, priority communications. There are cybersecurity challenges as well, so there is a need to improve standards, technologies, identify risks, etc. We need to protect the network infrastructure and devices, consumers and multi-stakeholders.

Andreas Sommer, Team Leader and Senior Technical Advisor, Project India-EU Co-operation added that there have been a lot of cable thefts, and equipment have also been stolen. Will these change in the 5G era? The European companies don’t even trust these systems. They rather want the private players to come in.

Delivering long-term and sustainable future for 5G

The final session on Day 1 was on delivering the long-term and sustainable future for 5G.

Simon Fletcher, CTO, Real Wireless, said that 5G has to be helpful to businesses. 3G and 4G were helpful in the growth of the wireless industry. We made a number of recommendations to the EC. We have focused on large infrastructure requirements. At the Commission level, there was a push for healthcare. We recently completed a study of ports. There were about 120 base stations installed at a port. We need to get emerging business models, stick with them, and make them sustainable.

Adrian Scrase, CTO, ETSI spoke about beyond mobile broadband. 3GPP continues to expand the LTE platform to improve its efficiency to meet the mobile broadband demand. Phase 2 (Rel 16) completes the IMT-2020 submission and addresses the identified use cases and requirements. 5G has already been launched in many countries, including USA and China. These are exclusively in the non-standalone mode. They are delivering mobile broadband. The operators are taking a low-risk approach to 5G, perhaps.

The question that arises is: when will the standalone mode be deployed? When will services, other than the mobile broadband, be delivered? Rel 15 NR is delivered to meet the market needs. Rel 16 involves huge work from the 5G community. Rel 17 is IoT driven. There will be more 5G support for verticals.

There are new enhancements for the radio and the system in Rel 17. The overall RAN timeline for Rel 17 has a 15-month gap. We have only launched 5G NR (new radio). Standardization is a long way ahead of deployment. There is a major push to add more use cases and accelerate releases, which are driven by the demand side. A corresponding response is needed from the supply side. Scale will be essential to close the gap.

Kishore Babu, Deputy DG, DoT, said that 5G may open up whole, new opportunities. However, there are certain doubts regarding 5G. There are a lot of new capabilities in latency, throughput, etc., that have been added. But, are we using 4G fully?

There may be frugal 5G deployments. What is in 5G that will alter our living styles? From the policy perspective, there may be attractive pricing for building backhaul. What are the rights of way that need to be addressed? 5G will bring a new era in the service delivery mechanism. It needs to be revenue churning for the operator as well.

On sustainability, Adrian Scrase asked how can more engagements from users will happen? It is a matter of expectation. Evangelization by the governments has so far seen 5G networks in 34 countries. The industry has done well to have 5G NR up. The core network is the key, as it will bring network slicing in 5G. The operators need to think: how do I evolve from 4G to 5G? It is back to the expectations.

On the question whether private networks as a theme are emerging in India, Kishore Babu said that it is sought after, looking at the SMEs, campuses and the enterprises in India. It may be a value to them, if there is a need. There are lot of such service requirements.―CT Bureau