[lisp] 5G deployment status (was: Re: [ipwave] I-D Action: draft-barkai-lisp-nexagon-10.txt)

[Alexandre Petrescu <[e-mail]>]

Hi

Le 20/09/2019 à 04:23, Sharon Barkai and Dick Roy ([RR]) wrote:
[...]
>> */[RR] This is a really long story, however, C-V2X is being specified 
>> as an alternative to US DSRC, not as a cellular access technology 
>> since that’s already available and deployed.  The reason LTE Release 
>> 14 and successors is being specified has nothing to do with its 
>> lineage as a child of cellular; in fact, it is provably a square peg 
>> being forced into a round hole and we all know how that generally ends 
>> up, and that’s a story for another day/*
>>
>> The 5G evolution is supposed to match the latency of peer to peer WiFi.

When that matches, WiFi will have leaped forward to below 
100micro-second latency.  This was so (cellular catching up with a 
leaping forward WiFi latency) since the invention of WiFi 20 years ago, 
and it wont change.  It's a constant of evolution.

>> */[RR] 5G is nothing but hype at the moment 

Here is a more precise status, according to my personal understanding. 
This obviously differs from many people's understandings, who may be 
more knowledgeable.

In France, frequencies for use in 5G radio would start to be discussed 
now in September, with allocation towards December.  The allocation is 
similar, but not quite like, the process that was used for 3G: auction 
sales.  The differences from 3G are: (1) it is not expected to generate 
huge revenues for gov't and (2) some sales, like of the 3.5GHz band, 
would actually be a re-allocation from what was previously allocated to 
wimax operators  (e.g. SDH in France) and to City Authority (like Mayor) 
in places where there was no operator).

Obviously, until these frequencies are allocated one cant really talk 
about 5G deployment on public roads, even if...

If one wants to talk about 5G like when talking a higher bandwidth and 
lower latency than 4G, then one assumes 4G to be 50ms latency and 
2Mbit/s bandwidth.  One can talk then about 25ms latency and 10Mbit/s, 
and claim that to be 5G.  But it is not 5G.  It is just another Class or 
Category of 4G.  In theory, one can still be 4G and run at 1Gbps (e.g. 
Category 16).

Also, one can talk about a higher bandwidth outdoors network by running 
802.11 WiFi on 5.4 GHz and, why not, at 5.9GHz.

Colleagues call these 'acrobatics 5G'.

This is when one wonders: what is 5G anyways? with its associated 
question: why was the predecessor of 5G called 'LTE' (Long Term 
Evolution), or where is the long term?  Is 5G LTE?

With respect to other countries, I heard two recent announcements, about 
Spain and Germany.

They both claim 5G is deployed in the respective areas.

This claims 15 cities in Spain on June 15th, by Vodafone:
https://www.xataka.com/empresas-y-economia/red-5g-comercial-vodafone-espana-tiene-fecha-lanzamiento-15-ciudades-15-junio

This claims 5 cities in Germany, but it does not say when, by Deutsche 
Telekom:
https://www.telekom.de/start/netzausbau?wt_mc=alias_1070_netzausbau

As hardware for end users, this is the situation now:
- there is no 5G smartphone for sale in France.  I guess it is the same
   in more countries.  If it were different, it would be an isolation
   easily spot by many.
- iphone 11 just launched features 'Gigabit-class LTE' and 'LTE
   Advanced' but no '5G'.  They run on 'LTE Bands' which are your typical
   frequencies below 5GHz for cellular communications, but nowhere like a
   26GHz of 5G.  No such band is called a '5G band'.
- one can buy off the shelf modules, like miniPCIe (I have a list) that
   go very high in terms of bandwidth, well beyond what normal 4G would
   do, but couldnt really use them at that high parameters.

Alex

>> and simply matching the 
>> latency would be no reason to switch from DSRC to another access 
>> technology for V2V safety, though nothing prevents the addition of 5G 
>> NR access technologies in ITS stations (aka OBUs) for other uses. /*

I agree.

[...]

Alex