THE TECH SWING

4G Backbone of 5G & need for testing with LTE 4G/5G tester equipment & RF drive test tools

The current 4G structure contains macrocells and channel frequencies in the range of 700 MHZ to 2GHZ and LTE in the Radio layer. With the given constraints is there anything that stops people from deploying what they call 5G? Absolutely not, and to point out the obvious there is not much improvement as compared to 4G which in other words is seen as a “Marketing gimmick”. So, now let us investigate about 4G Backbone of 5G & need for testing with Smart 5g tester, 5G test equipment, 5g network tester tools and Smart RF drive test tools & equipment, RF tester software app & network LTE 4g tester in detail.

5G is ideally supposed to provide a huge increase taken together bandwidth per cell (which is expected to be at least 10 times better than its predecessor 4G) and also support greater density of users within a particular environment. Although not all the innovative techniques need to be available in every implementation, 5G is exploring such techniques as FBMC instead of OFDM, mm waves instead of the UHF band, massive MIMO instead of MIMO, very large channel bandwidths instead of 20 MHz, and as a result, very short range in the RF layer, and at least a 10X improvement in the aggregate capacity of each cell, and many more users online, in a given geo location. Also, short latencies, even though that has more inclined towards the maximum distance to servers than anything else. Still, for 5G to be different, you should expect smaller cells, as compared to the typical 4G macrocells. This is correct as more users need to be served per location, at higher bit rates, and since RF range will be reduced, channel frequencies necessarily have to go way up.


Even though none of the above-mentioned innovations are in place Marketing types across the globe still insist on labelling this alteration as 5G. Keeping in mind, 4G can also support small cells, mainly for indoor use, but also possibly outdoors, supports higher order MIMO, even if not massive MIMO, and carrier aggregation to 80 MHz, 160 MHz, 320 MHz etc. What 4G cannot do, that makes 5G truly different, is to climb way up in the RF frequencies, where wider channels are available and there are benefits of massive MIMO, such as beam forming can be accrued. If we need to stick onto the 4G infrastructure, it is unclear as to what significant improvements we can expect. 4G is expected to evolve past LTE-A, but even that requires a change in the infrastructure as compared to the existing 4G infrastructure.

Conclusion

It is quite clear that 5G standalone solution will take some change in infrastructure to function as an independent service. Until then, we need to rely on 4G assisted 5G or 5GNR. But, with the growing demand Countries across the globe for a faster and a more reliable internet connectivity, 5G is bound to break off the architectural shackles of the 4G and evolve into a standalone solution functioning at its maximum ability quite soon.