Qualcomm working to help operators simplify 5G mmWave planning and deployment while optimizing performance
Operators are using mmWave spectrum today to deliver multi-Gbps experiences, “But its role will expand as we pave the way to the future of 5G and beyond,” according to Qualcomm Technologies’ Ozge Koymen, senior director of technology. Specifically, Qualcomm is working to help operators simplify the network planning and deployment process, improve mobility management, and realize system-wide capacity improvements through spectrum sharing.
During Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company demonstrated the work it’s doing as regulators around the world gear up to auction and allocate high-band frequencies, and similarly, operators narrow on target use and business cases that balance high capacity channels with limited propagation.
On the network planning and deployment side, Qualcomm Technologies showed how machine learning can be tapped to create a digital twin of a target deployment location, simplify the model with ML-based object recognition, clustering and pruning, then evaluate placement locations for mmWave infrastructure, including small cells, repeaters and Integrated Access Backhaul units.
“A well-planned network can greatly enhance user experience even in challenging settings,” according to Ashwin Sampath, senior director of technology at Qualcomm. “We’re taking a comprehensive approach to designing and optimizing 5G mmWave networks. We combine machine learning and optimization techniques to greatly simplify the network planning process. Our scalable methodology extends to other deployment settings and joint designs with sub-7 GHz frequency bands to deliver compelling user experiences at achievable costs.”
In another demonstration, Koymen showed what happens when mobility management is moved from Layer 3 to Layer 1 and Layer 2, which becomes especially important in demanding use cases like mobile virtual reality. In a simulated deployment in Frankfurt, Germany, using a 400 megahertz channel in the 26 GHz band, moving mobility management functions to the physical and data link layers better manages intercell handover. This results in a superior experience in terms of reduced lag and experiential consistency.
Qualcomm is also working on mmWave spectrum sharing to help multiple operators make the most of available capacity, deployment flexibility, and consistent quality of service. As compared to licensed spectrum, coordinated access to shared spectrum requires a control infrastructure and channel coordination which adds cost and complexity. Uncoordinated sharing of unlicensed spectrum doesn’t guarantee channel access or quality of service.
Principal Engineer Aleksander Damnjanovic highlighted that there are techniques that enable licensed sharing with access to primary and secondary channels depending on priority but without sacrificing quality. Interference is mitigated using Long-Term Sensing, or LTS. In a simulated two-operator airport deployment in the 37 GHz band, “We see spectrum sharing offers significantly higher network capacity than the unshared spectrum baseline but LTS sharing offers much higher quality of service for a better user experience,” according to Principal Engineer Aleksandar Damnjanovic.
Big picture, Koymen said, mmWave 5G is about more than just enhanced mobile broadband. “The wide bandwidth, narrow beams or high directionality, and the limited interference enable a lot more than just data-centric use cases,” he said, citing centimeter-level positioning for high-precision, industrial use cases as just one example. “As we look forward, we can also see mmWave and sub-THz that we have a new paradigm of joint communications and sensing.”
Watch demonstration of AI-enabled air interface: mmWave beam management
For a deeper look at all of Qualcomm’s MWC22 demos, visit this resource hub.
