21581 - SCTE Broadband August2022 COMPLETE v1

58 Vol. 44 No. 3 - September 2022 Issue Reducing carbon footprint of broadband access by EXFO The evolution What is 5G 5G is the 5th generation of mobile networks specified by the 3GPP organisation. It promises capabilities within a mobile wireless network that were only thought possible through local area networks (LANs) that use fixed infrastructure. From a feature viewpoint, 5G offers higher throughput (25x), lower latency (1/25th) and higher capacity (500x) than 4G networks. This allows new applications to be developed such as high- definition 3D video, real-time virtual reality environments, autonomous vehicles, remote surgery and connectivity to billions of devices to support the Internet of things (IoT). 5G also promises higher reliability, improved energy efficiency and easier reconfiguration of the network to deploy additional services. In order to deliver these capabilities, 5G introduces new technologies including: n The use of higher radio frequency (RF) bands to support additional bandwidth (mmWave) n Faster and more efficient fronthaul connections (eCPRI) n More reliable and cost effective timing provided over the network (IEEE1588/PTP) n More granularity in the distribution of network functions (CU, DU, RU) n The ability todynamically configure the network infrastructure through network function virtualisation (NFV) n Cost savings by running virtual network functions (VNFs) over “white box” hardware technical of 5G mobile networks: the what, why and how Figure 1: 4G vs 5G network features