DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES
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DEMYSTIFYING
MILLIMETER WAVE
FOR 5G MOBILE USES
Millimeter Wave (aka mmWave) wireless
technology for mobile use based on the global
5G NR (New Radio) standard will be deployed
commercially as early as 2019 to efficiently provide
needed capacity and bandwidth for smartphones,
mobile PC’s, tablets, head-mounted displays such as
Virtual Reality headsets, and even vehicles.
Thanks to advanced mmWave-related technologies
coming with 5G NR, all these devices will be able
to consume and share rich video and media content
that users crave and that service providers are
increasingly eager to supply as a potential revenue
generator.
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Some analysts believe that rollouts of mmWave for
mobile will start later than the 2019 time frame.
But Qualcomm is resolute that the global 5G NR
standard, its underlying technology, and standards-
based devices and infrastructure will come together
and indeed be ready, with commercial deployments
starting 2019, after interoperability testing and
over-the-air field trials in 2018.
“We believe there is a big opportunity with 5G
mmWave for mobile,” and not only fixed wireless
over mmWave, said Matt Branda, director of
Qualcomm’s 5G technology marketing. “Based on
our extensive research and testing, we are confident
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DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES
that we will be ready for 5G NR mmWave
mobile commercial launches starting 2019 for the
smartphone form factor.”
To support these claims, Qualcomm has introduced
the Snapdragon X50 5G modem family that
will support 5G NR mmWave for smartphones
and mobile devices. It is being designed to
support operation in the sub-6 GHz and multi-
band mmWave spectrum to provide a unified 5G
design for all major spectrum types and bands
while addressing a wide range of use cases and
deployment scenarios.
Verizon has made a big push for pre-standard fixed
wireless mmWave trials in 11 U.S. cities. AT&T
also announced trials of streaming their DirectTV
Now video service over a pre-standard 5G mmWave
fixed wireless connection, but also committed to test
both mobile and fixed 5G services based on the 5G
NR standard starting later this year
Outside the U.S., international carriers also seem
ready to jump on mobile mmWave pilots. A high-
profile showcase of the technology by telecom
provider KT is slated for the Winter Olympics
being held in February in South Korea.
HOW 5G MMWAVE WILL
WORK FOR MOBILE
The radio spectrum that is called mmWave
spectrum runs from 30 GHz to 300 GHz, although
the 5G NR mmWave efforts loosely refer to
frequencies above 24 GHz, with the first phase
of rollouts to run from 24 GHz to 40 GHz, then
eventually up to 100 GHz.
The spectrum gets the name “mmWave” because
these high frequency waves are very small—just
millimeters in size. They stretch over a relatively
huge swath of the radio spectrum that has very
wide bandwidths and isn’t as crowded with mobile/
wireless users like those at lower frequencies.
Therefore, mmWave is attractive to carriers looking
to efficiently address the ever-increasing global
demand for mobile data.
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“We believe there is a
big opportunity with 5G
mmWave for mobile.”
— Matt Branda, director of
Qualcomm’s 5G technology
marketing
The challenge with utilizing these mmWave bands
in mobile networks is robustness (aka getting a
suitable RF signal) due to increased propagation/
path loss and blockage from foliage, light poles,
humans, etc. at these high-frequency bands. Lately,
5G Researchers have shown great progress in
overcoming some of the challenges with advanced
antenna techniques.
5G NR mmWave will utilize these advanced
antenna techniques to focus a narrow beam of RF
energy (aka beamforming) toward the mobile user,
akin to a spotlight, instead of a floodlight. New
5G NR technologies will enable mobile devices
to quickly and constantly track for the beams (aka
beam-tracking), including across multiple base
stations, with seamless transitions when the primary
signal (or beam) is obstructed or too weak.
Qualcomm released a compelling real-world
video in February demonstrating that mobile 5G
mmWave technology can overcome many physical
obstructions and will work effectively for users
inside vehicles and offices, even with non-line of site
(NLOS) connections and device mobility.
The over-the-air demonstration, completed utilizing
Qualcomm’s 5G mmWave prototype system,
consists of a prototype 5G handset connecting
to prototype 5G base stations in various ways,
including from inside a vehicle moving at 30 mph
along office park roadways, with a quick connection
to a second base station when other vehicles
interfere. Inside a typical office, the user handset’s
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DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES
signal is shown redirecting to a second base station
when a worker in a hallway blocks the wireless
pathway to the first base station.
Ozge Koymen, head of Qualcomm’s 5G mmWave
research said the video shows that the challenges of
mmWave can be overcome with 5G NR technology
innovations known as beam forming and fast beam-
tracking. “We’ve actually shown it can work in a
handheld in both indoor and outdoor mobility use
cases in real-world environments,” he said.
A big payoff will be speed and capacity. Prototypes
have shown that mmWave can support 5 Gbps
speeds when using an 800 MHz channel at the 28
GHz frequency, Koymen said. The ideal maximum
range for 5G NR mmWave cell sites will be
approximately 150 meters.
It is likely that 5G NR base stations will contain
hundreds of antenna elements in a phased MIMO
array, Koymen said. Mobile devices will likely
incorporate multiple selectable RF sub-arrays, each
with multiple antenna elements.
Meanwhile, low- and mid-band spectrum, below
6 GHz, will be crucial in the rollouts of mmWave
as well. The sub-6GHz bands, already deployed in
many 4G LTE networks, will be used to provide
ubiquitous coverage — seamlessly interworking
with 5G NR mmWave.
WHAT’S DRIVING MMWAVE
The availability of mmWave frequency bands should
provide relief to wireless carriers who already see
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congestion on lower-frequency bands.
Analyst Joe Madden of Mobile Experts has
forecast a huge cost savings for carriers that deploy
5G mobile broadband, including mmWave. He
reasoned that it will cost one-tenth as much per
gigabyte to transmit mobile data with 5G when
compared to earlier generations of wireless. Not
by accident, video content is what has prompted
companies like AT&T and Verizon to seal deals
with DirecTV and AOL.
Madden has projected a 4GB movie file will cost
$1 to deliver over 5G, a fraction of the cost when
compared to LTE. “By combining the mobile
network and the video content, mobile operators
have found a revenue opportunity,” he said.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission
helped advance mmWave in its Spectrum Frontiers
unanimous ruling in mid-2016, which opened up 11
GHz across multiple mmWave bands
Gordon Mansfield, vice president of AT&T’s
radio access network and device design, said
AT&T “certainly has made it clear that we see 5G
mmWave for beyond fixed…and we are focused on
mobility and fixed.” Mobile apps will be available at
the end of 2018, he added.
SKEPTICISM OVER MMWAVE
ROLLOUTS BY YEAR-END 2019
Even with such ambitious plans, several analysts
said they believe commercial deployments of
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 DEMYSTIFYING MILLIMETER WAVE FOR 5G MOBILE USES FierceMarkets Custom Publishing

announced a 5G Modem with a baseband chip that

“From the technical side, we see no
real show stoppers” for 5G NR rollouts
in 2019.”
— NYU Wireless Director Sundeep Rangan and
post-doctoral researcher Aditya Dhananjay.
mmWave for mobile won’t happen as early as 2019.
Michael Thelander, an analyst at Signals Research
Group, said that “I believe mmWave is definitely
going to have its time and place, but I’m not looking
forward to a handset running on it in 2019.”
Thelander agrees that the tests done by Qualcomm
and others show compelling mmWave mobile
performance, so he’s optimistic, but on a longer
timeline.
These concerns come despite an accelerated 5G
NR stardardization schedule declared by 3GPP.
Release 15 of the 5G NR spec is now on track for
early 2018 which wide-scale commercial network
deployments starting 2019.
Qualcomm says it is committed to enabling 3GPP-
compliant 5G NR mobile devices, for both sub-65
Master Qualcomm logo (rgb 0, 51,160)
enables both sub-6 GHz and mmWave.
Other challenges exist, such as provisioning a
sufficient number of base stations (or small cells)
with power and backhaul to create a useful network.
“The true challenge of mmWave is how to place all
these antennas and connect them to the Internet
wirelessly or wired, and how to get power to these
antennas,” said Roger Entner of Recon Analytics.
“It’s a huge logistics problem of how to get so many
antennas out there.”
With higher frequencies like mmWave, a signal
doesn’t travel as far, which implies more base
stations than with LTE. To get ready, carriers are
already densifying their networks with small cell
deployments, which will continue with the advent
of new technologies like Gigabit LTE with LAA
(Licensed Assisted Access) which also requires
densification. Qualcomm believes 5G NR mmWave
technologies can be added to those existing small
cells and provide good coverage in cities.
“From the technical side, we see no real show
stoppers” for 5G NR rollouts in 2019, said NYU
Wireless Director Sundeep Rangan and post-
doctoral researcher Aditya Dhananjay. “The
question remains with the business case, namely

GHz and mmWave, with its Snapdragon X50 5G the timeline for operators to be convinced that
modem family in 2019. In early 2017, Intel also mmWave is ripe for investing in.” l

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