Just how different is testing for millimeter-wave-based 5G compared to previous generations of cellular technology? According to William Graff, global TCB program manager for TÜV Rhineland, the old testing rules simply don’t apply.
“In many ways, you have to throw out the existing rulebook that you’ve got for going and doing a lot of this kind of testing,” Graff said in an interview at the Mobile World Congress Los Angeles. “Mostly, it’s because the frequencies are so high and the wavelengths are so small. It’s very, very difficult to get calibrated antennas – it’s difficult enough to go and get the signal to pass down a wire. …
“There’s a lot of challenges, and there are a lot of unknowns there, too,” he added, noting that much of the basic millimeter wave research dates back to the 1950s and ‘60s and was conducted in the context of military radar. “To try to go and take all of that whole body of knowledge and kind of rekindle it and bring it into the commercial lab world, is just very challenging all the way around,” Graff said.
Graff, who also is a member of the Telecom Certification Board for the Federal Communications Commission, also gave some insights on regulatory conversations around 5G systems and testing. The TCB focuses on physical equipment authorization, to ensure that hardware is tested to make sure that it operates within rules established by the FCC.
When it comes to 5G, however, “the rules are really just coming online, they’re really very new in many respects right now,” Graff said. While the FCC has test and measurement procedures in the works for frequencies including the new millimeter wave airwaves that have been and will continue to be auctioned off this year, Graff said that the
“We could test something now to what we think the FCC will want, but it could very well be that a year or two goes around, and they want to fine-tune the measurement procedures. So it’s going to be a very interesting world.” .”
Graff also gives a breakdown of how to think about latency and its role in 5G, and the possibilities opened up by 5G systems that can operate so quickly that “for all practical purposes, you’ve now developed something that is faster than your own nervous system.”
Watch the interviews with Graff below.
