5G Standard-Setting Delays Worsening, FCC TAC Told
COVID-19 is slowing development of 5G standards by all standard-setting groups, and the problem is getting worse, Technological Advisory Council members said at the group’s quarterly meeting Thursday, held virtually by the FCC. TAC heard from other working groups, in the early stages of preparing reports to the commission.
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3rd Generation Partnership Project Release 16 was supposed to be completed in March, but was initially delayed by three months because of the pandemic, said AT&T Assistant Vice President-Standards and Industry Alliances Brian Daly, co-chair of the 5G Radio Access Network Technology WG. More recently, work was pushed back until July, he said. Work on the next two releases has also been slowed, and the group on Release 18 “tried to prioritize and reduce the content,” he said. “It is still uncertain with coronavirus when they are going to get back to any sense of normalcy.”
Running the international meetings online is “cumbersome,” Daly said. “When you normally have a one-week, face-to-face meeting, typically those are now two-week electronic meetings,” he said: “You have all the emails and so forth associated with that. It is quite a bit of a burden on the delegates that attend these meetings.” All regional and global standards groups are affected, he said. Resumption of “face-to-face” meetings “is not only dependent upon the virus being defeated, but also what other government and company travel restrictions may be in place,” he said.
The three keys to fifth-generation are availability of spectrum, densification and spectrum efficiency, said co-chair Russ Gyurek, Cisco director-IoT. “Spectrum diversity is really important” to address “overall bandwidth needs and different deployment models,” he said: “All users do want more spectrum, obviously. It is not something that you just invent.” Mid-band spectrum is a “sweet spot” but is “very limited,” he said. Adding small cells and making networks denser “helps” but is “very costly,” he said. Spectral efficiency is “challenging technically as well as costly,” he said.
The WG is looking closely at open-RAN deployments, proposed by 22 operators so far, Gyurek said. The group is tracking the scalability, deployment capabilities and challenges posed, he said. Projections are O-RAN can cut network costs 35-49%, he said. “This is moving fairly quickly” and it's the right time to make policy recommendations, he said.
The WG is looking at 6G, which some believe could launch as early as 2028, Daly said. The “bottom line” is “6G is happening around us, if we want to lead, now is the time to engage,” he said.
TAC Chair Dennis Roberson said it’s “disappointing to all of us” the coronavirus slowed standards. “Still, things are moving forward.” 6G “is coming,” he said: “If we really want to be leaders, we need to be thinking about 6G.”
Unlicensed spectrum has worked best when the FCC keeps ahead of both demand and technology, said Brian Markwalter, CTA senior vice president-research and standards, co-chair of the Future of Unlicensed Operations WG. “What tends to work is finding the spectrum ahead of the obvious demand, and then adjust as we learn." Markwalter’s biggest “takeaway” is the FCC's actions to provide unlicensed spectrum are “justified in the economic value we have seen brought to the market.” CTA sees recent FCC action on 6 GHz (see 2004230059) as a “necessary addition” to meet growing mid-band demand, he said.
Wireless ISPs offer a case study of the importance of unlicensed spectrum, said Kevin Leddy, Charter vice president-technology planning. “They are six times as cost-effective as fiber,” he said: “By relying on these unlicensed bands, they are able to offer a good broadband experience in very low-density rural towns, where other ISP's just cannot reach.”
The Artificial Intelligence and Computing WG plans to recommend the FCC develop an AI strategy, said co-chair Adam Drobot, chairman of OpenTechWorks. "AI impacts so many different aspects of what the FCC does that having that kind of strategy in place is … important to be prepared for the kind of issues that will end up in front of the FCC.”
“Be ready,” Drobot advised: “AI is not all mature technology, but there is a lot of it already deployed in the marketplace. There's a tremendous investment.” Such issues will reach the FCC faster than most expect, he said.