Selection of cell towers will mean choices between what type of tower we will deploy for a particular cell site and on the cell site location. Communication happens between the antenna systems and the user equipment, be it handheld devices, smart meters, or autonomous vehicles. So, we can understand that the orientation of the antennas is highly important to provide coverage and capacity to a particular geographic area.
5G as a technology operates across a wide range of available spectrums. The higher frequency in a cell site we will be using, the shorter will be the coverage. Hence the deployment strategies of 5G will vary from Macro Cell Towers (catering to large areas) to Small cells and in-building solutions (small area with dense population).
The 5G cell tower coverage depends on the below criteria:
Antenna height and orientation The Frequency band is used for transmission Power (in dBm or watt) of the carrier in which the carrier frequency is radiating Surrounding Landscape and vegetation
A Cell site is either owned by a wireless carrier or taken on lease from Cell Tower companies. A particular cell site is used by a single wireless carrier, or it can also be shared among other wireless carriers. Acquisition of a cell site by a wireless carrier involves handshakes with stakeholders from sourcing and network planning teams.
To give a perspective of the footprint of cell towers and their commercial dimension in the US, below are a few numbers from Vertical Consultants, last updated in Sept 2020.
349,344 cell towers in the US in 2019 1,082,544 total number of cell tower sites (cell towers, rooftops, water towers, flag poles, billboards, etc.) in the USÂ $253 billion dollars invested in cell sites since 2010
The above numbers go on to explain the importance of cell towers in the implementation of any telecom standard. In 5G, if we are using the High-Frequency Bands to give good coverage, we will need cell towers within a few hundred meters. So, in a dense urban population, we will be able to appreciate the amount of effort and investment that will go into making 5G operational.
5G TOWERS WILL HOST TELECOM GEARS AND WILL BE A PIVOT IN COMMERICAL 5G ROLLOUTS
For wireless carriers and tower companies, the major challenges for deploying/upgrading a cell site are:
Space to install the cell tower Rent to be paid to the landowners Weight of the Telecom gears so as they don’t collapse and cause any accidents
$24,000 to $225,000 per year per cell tower (collocated) was the rent paid by tower companies to the landowners, as Vertical Consultants analysis in Sep 2020. This dollar amount points to the need for optimal cell site planning while introducing a new telecom standard in the market.
A wireless carrier can introduce new technology in the market in two ways:
Greenfield Commercial Roll-out: In this scenario, the wireless carrier doesn’t have any existing footprint in the market, and they are rolling out a new technology (5G) from scratch.
Brownfield Commercial Roll-out: In this scenario, the wireless carrier is a player in the market with legacy technologies (Like 2G/ 3G/4G) and is thinking of introducing 5G.
So, when a wireless carrier thinks of commercial deployment of 5G in its market, the key consideration is to understand how they can use their cell site infrastructure. 3GPP, the governing body of Telecom standards, specifies that 5G can be deployed in two different ways.
Wireless Carrier, if they decide to implement the Traditional Network Rollout scheme in their brownfield network, can use the existing site infrastructure and install the 5G telecom gears. This is applicable if there is space and provision available on the existing site. If there is a space constraint, then the carriers need to look for a new cell site. The load on a tower due to the weights of the equipment gears can also be considered when choosing a cell tower location. To mitigate load constraints, Telecom OEMs are continuously updating their product portfolio with lightweight equipment.
Ericsson was in the news recently for launching their ultralight AIR 3268 for easier and efficient mid-band deployment. The Antenna Integrated Radio weighed just 12Kg and 23 Liters.
Rolling out a commercial network using the feature DSS (Dynamic Spectrum sharing) will lead to the use of the existing 4G hardware and looks to be a luring opportunity to showcase the 5G experience. But DSS has several limitations concerning speed and uses cases and is not a viable option when we think of ultra-high-speed and low latency requirements.
In summary, there are multiple factors that wireless carriers do consider when they plan for an upgrade of their network infrastructure. As there have been efforts made by OEM to make gears lightweight new technologies like C-RAN, V-RAN is also proposing a solution to consolidate, centralize and virtualize hardware on-site. See more details in 5G Magazine, Open RAN edition – published in June 2021.
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