SCF, the global trade organization committed to driving sustainable digital transformation across industries, enterprises, and communities, has released its latest paper – 5G mmWave Small Cells, which aims to help policy makers, regulators and service providers understand the current and emerging opportunity for 5G mmWave globally.

SCF’s Chief Strategy Officer Simon Fletcher explained: “With increased demand for heightened network capacity, the case for mmWave is well documented and the technology is well-suited for in-building and smaller cell topologies within outdoor networks, making it ideal for the small cell ecosystem.

“Yet despite being long discussed – and standardized – deployments have been slow until now. Unique radio propagation characteristics have traditionally made mmWave more challenging to deploy than lower and mid bands, or additional spectrum allocation has been required.

“As this paper shows, with significant emerging market opportunity, reducing costs and significant R&D advancements overcoming technical barriers, now is the time for 5G mmWave to live up to its potential.”

This latest paper from SCF represents a proactive strategy aimed at realizing a practical, commercially viable, and sustainable approach to infrastructure development. It is the output of SCF members including Picocom (Work item lead), Qualcomm, Crown Castle, iCana, Reliance Jio, Dense Air, BT Wholesale, TMYTEK and Microamp Solutions.

The paper presents a comprehensive market analysis and demonstrates the growing maturity and viability of the technology, as well as identifying the interplay between mobile operators, enterprise network deployers and users. Key highlights include:

• Technology: how ongoing R&D activities mean mmWave is now ready to transition into the telecoms mainstream. Including an explanation of architectures and components.

• Applications: the global market opportunity over the next five years, with early demand coming from fixed wireless access deployments – where mmWave offers a cost-effective alternative to the ubiquitous deployment of fiber to premises – and a second wave of investment anticipated from Industry 4.0 and enterprise solutions. Plus, the introduction of 5G mmW non-terrestrial networks (NTN) holds immense potential to extend coverage in underserved regions, respond to disasters, and augment existing terrestrial infrastructures.

• Use cases: The paper includes a selection of case studies, showing mmWave is starting to be better understood and has been exemplified in trials and early commercial deployments, indicating the growing maturity and viability of the technology.

• Sustainable operating practices: how the radio propagation characteristics of mmWave allows for more efficient use of energy and more sustainable network operations.

The release of these documents signifies a significant step towards fostering collaboration between industry and policymakers, underlining the pivotal role of shared infrastructure in realizing national and local digital transformation ambitions.

The paper is now available for download, free of charge, via the SCF website, with ongoing initiatives poised to leverage the Disaggregated RAN Transport Study tool to evaluate mmWave use cases. Visit the SCF website to find out more about the latest work items and how to get involved.