Quote:
Originally Posted by Shano592
The crazy thing is, with 5G mobile broadband only a couple of years away, and Telstra successfully testing gigabit throughput already, NBNCo is now pushing for mandated protection from this technology.
|
Hi Shane,
5G, as a technology, is still only in the design stage.
The irony, however, is that it is highly dependent on fiber for backhaul.
Lots and lots of fiber.
5G is being engineered to achieve peak data rates of 20 gigabits per
second (20 Gb/s).
To achieve that, engineers have been experimenting with using millimetre
waves which are at much higher frequencies (between 30 and 300 GHz)
compared to mobile phone frequency bands used in the past (below 6 GHz).
Though one can transmit at a higher data rate using millimetre waves, there is
a catch. Millimetre waves can't easily travel through buildings and they
can be absorbed by rain drops and the leaves on trees.
So a key part of the 5G architecture are termed "small cells" which act as
miniature base stations. These augment the traditional macro network.
In cities, it is proposed that "small cells" might have to be placed every
250 metres or so to provide adequate coverage and bandwidth.
In rural areas, this is obviously a problem.
Small cells, like the macro network, are all then connected by fiber.
So a 5G network is really predominantly an optical fiber network.
In their planning elsewhere in the world, there is a push to lay
down fiber network backbones as deep as possible, ideally to the premise,
and to ensure that the fiber addresses all the collective bandwidth needs,
including both fixed installations and 5G small cells and beyond.
What these same planners know, recognize and are exploiting is that
the deeper you deploy fiber, that the next need is incrementally cheaper
and quicker to do.