The second DC5G held in Washington DC last November 2018, was not specifically targeted at the satellite industry, and representatives were in the minority, at the conference. It is however a subject that we cannot afford to ignore. Plenty has been written and said about the spectrum requirements, which seem destined to have a major impact on C-Band customers in the US and probably around the world. And Ka-Band customers may well see a similar impact.
However, whilst spectrum is a huge issue, and one that deserves all the attention that it is getting; 5G could also be a significant business opportunity and one the industry should be paying more attention to. 5G is the cellular network on steroids. It is expected to deliver speeds of up to 10Gbps, 100 times faster than today’s 4G LTE networks. Latency is to be reduced to one to four milliseconds from a theoretical 20 milliseconds today, and capacity is to be increased to one million devices per square kilometer.
Several of the speakers were tasked with defining the “killer app” for 5G. There was no consensus on that, but there was consensus over the fact that that 5G has the potential to be transformational, enabling many new applications that could significantly change our lives. John Godfrey, SVP Public Policy, Samsung, in the opening keynote, pointed out that as technology advances, new applications emerge. The enhanced bandwidth provided by 4G-LTE (Long term evolution), enabled the sharing economy: Uber and Lyft for example. So, expect new and innovative applications to emerge.
Already there are experimental applications of augmented reality, that go way beyond Pokemon. An example that was mentioned, was the use of Google glass headsets to guide someone using a defibrillator. Godfrey, talked about using Virtual Reality in pain management. Showing a person, a calming, soothing environment has been demonstrated to reduce pain levels, not only whilst emerged in the experience, but also afterwards.
Another example of augmented reality was given by Adam Zuckerman, Director of Ventures and Innovation, Discovery Inc. He envisaged a heads-up display in a car, that would mimic passing scenery, providing information; names and heights of mountains for example. There was considerable discussion over lunch, as to whether this would count as driver distraction or not!
The Internet of Things, is already happening, but many of the applications will be enabled by the enhanced capacity of a 5G network. Eugene Grant, the mayor of Seat Pleasant, MD, recognized as one of the world’s smart cities, spoke about having sensors in homes, that would alert the emergency services when someone hadn’t moved for a specified amount of time. This was cited as a way to avoid the tragedy of an elderly resident lying dead for days before anyone noticed.
Unsurprisingly, all this additional and linked information, that may be gathered, raised concerns about privacy and security. One of the sessions was devoted to this topic. The Honorable Jill Kelley, President Military Diplomacy Strategies LLC, insisting that protecting personal information was the job of the government. Drew Martin, Director Federal Cyber Security Technology and Engineering Programs, T-Mobile, vehemently disagreed, stating that it is the carriers’ job to protect data.
Whilst delivering millisecond latency effectively rules satellite out of the equation, it is not a prerequisite for many applications. Morten Hagland Hansen, VP Segment Market Management - Energy, SES Networks, pointed out that there are four “sweet spots” for satellite in 5G. These are: trunking and headend feed, backhauling and tower feeds, comms-on-the-move and hybrid multiplay (delivering content to complement terrestrial broadband). These areas take advantage of satellite strengths of high bandwidth and ubiquitous coverage, enabling and extending 5G networks.
Network densification is needed for 5G, by 2025 a 50% increase in the number of base stations is forecast, and Chris Pearson, President 5G Americas stated that this process needed to start now, the industry couldn’t afford to wait for 5G, before installing the additional base stations. Couple this with the tremendous growth in video; Cisco are forecasting that between 2016 and 2021, video will increase 8.7-fold to account for 78% of mobile traffic, and it is obvious that the demands for backhaul will increase correspondingly. Clearly, most of this will be in metro areas, where there is no or very limited place for satellite, but some will not be, meaning increased demand for satellite backhaul. Even with the increased capacity of 5G, delivery of vast quantities of Over-the-top (OTT) video, much of which will be the same, to individual devices, has the potential to strain the network, potentially opening the door for satellite delivery to the edge.
There are a multiplicity of organizations and committees working on standards for 5G, many of them, based in Europe. Some of them have satellite as their main focus. This marks the first time, that satellite has been considered as the standards are being developed, nevertheless, as Hansen stated: “We need to be the ones that fit in, and make it easy for cellular operators to incorporate satellite”. SES is very actively involved in many of the committees, other satellite companies represented include: Avanti, Echostar, Eutelsat, Gilat, Hispasat, Intelsat, LeoSat, Newtec, Telesat and Viasat.
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Elisabeth Tweedie has over 20 years experience at the cutting edge of new commmunications entertainment technologies. She is the founder and President of Definitive Direction (www.definitivedirection.com), a consultancy that focuses on researching and evaluating the long-term potential for new ventures, initiating their development, and identifying and developing appropriate alliances. During her 10 years at Hughes Electronics, she worked on every acquisition and new business that the company considered during her time there. She can be reached at etweedie@definitivedirection.com.
