Director of Telecommunications Vertical Marketing at nVent

Technological advances in 5G have generated excitement and enthusiasm about what 5G connectivity will mean for the world. 5G brings faster speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) to personal phonesand industrial devices and delivers lower latency. It also allows for more devices to be connected simultaneously.

The low latencyof 5G makes it very attractive for time-critical communications and could enable many new applications in our streets.All of these applicationsare hard to imagine today but could include city and national security systems, water and gas detection, smart wearables, car-to-car, and car-to-home communications, smart utility grids, smart parking, and traffic congestion relief.

While the potential of 5G technology is extremely attractive, telecommunications carriers face many deployment challenges which may not have been given due consideration by the pure technology enthusiast.If the challenge of properly placing outdoor cells is not addressed, many of the benefits which carriers, governments, regulators, and cities hope to derive from 5G will not come to fruition.

Telecommunications carriers and other entities that are building infrastructure like smart cities depend on densification to get the full benefits of 5G. Densification means intense use of existing macro cell sites, new macro cell sites, and deploying a very large number of street-mounted small cells.

There will be challenges involved in the deployment of these cell sites which have to be addressed by industry bodies, carriers, power authorities, public works authorities, standards, and codes ad government bodies. Here are a few of the major deployment challenges:

1. Guidelines for joint use of power poles

In many instances, the 5G Small Cells will need to be installed on existing power poles. A large bulk of these power poles are owned by electrical power authorities. The requirements that power authorities have for 5G deployment companies in the installation of 5G equipment are generally varied and in some cases difficult. Government and standards bodies must work tocreate uniform guidelines for the joint use of these facilities that provide telecom companies with certainty about installation requirements.

2. Site acquisition

Location suitability for installations is determined by carrying out a software-modelled RF design which helps select sites based on location, height,and suitability. The location used in the modelling design may not be physically available for the installation of the 5G small cells

3. Site approval

Site approvals fortraditional mobile network base stations can take several months. Itcan involve obtaining approvals from the regulatory, environmental, and otherauthorities

This amount of approval, just for a single small cell will be excessive and burdensome. The approval process for the development of an acquired 5G small cell site needs to be streamlined.

4. Powering challenges

5G small cells are generally powered with AC power from nearby power lines. In many cases, this power is converted to DC power before it flows to the 5G equipment. In a very small number of cases, there is a DC battery backup installed on poles as well. The availability of low-voltage power to power 5G equipment also varies, necessitatinga small transformer to reduce high voltage to low voltage on some poles. Equipment in the streets is also exposed to threats from power and lightning surges and additional measures are needed to provide protection. If batteries are utilized they bring with them the additional challenges of monitoring and managing the batteries in varying temperatures. While the power consumed is very small, installers still need the infrastructure to get the power to the sites.

5. Public safety and electrical grounding

Traditionally,telecommunications network equipment installations are housed in buildingsor shelters in gated environments away from the public. Since the advent of ADSL and multiple fiber technologies FTTX, some infrastructure is now installed in the streets. The deployment of 5G will see a significantly larger proportion of the powered network installed in the streets in the public domain. This bringswith it additional public safety considerations. While 5G small cell equipment is low in power, the path to ground created by the necessary grounding systems used could become a path for larger power system faults. Faults from other high-voltage assets owned by power utilities could also migrate to small-cell ground electrodes. Guidelines and safety measures to mitigate this risk to public safety need to be developed.

6. Access tofiber network

5G small cells are designed to operate on fiber backbones directly from the small cell to a central office. That means that every small cell site needs several fibers directed back to a central facility. In metro areas, that will require lots of fiber. If it's not there, it will need to be installed. The current fiber network even in developed cities will almost certainly not get to every small cell without further development of fiber infrastructure.

7. Local planning laws and rights of way

Such installations would need to comply with existing planning rules, which areusually set at a local level. Local administrative processesare intended to assurethat specific requirements are met and that the installation and operation ofthe equipment are compliant with norms.However, the more complex the processthe more time it requires. Changes are needed in local planning and zoning legislation to allow speedy compliance and approval.

8. Leasing and tax arrangements

Telecommunications leases exist between the telecom provider and the landlord.These agreements are put in place for the carrier to lease space to place their equipment on thelandlord’s property, rooftop, or tower for a specifiedlength of time. The carrier normally enters into a lease with a standardtimeframe of 20-25 years, in exchange for a monthly or annual payment to thesite owners. The management of these agreements across a large number ofpoles in the public domain will be an excessive burden on telecom companies. Legislative changes will be necessary to standardize the leasing and tax arrangement in the use of steel poles as the asset.

With many telecom carriers and smart cities expecting to deploy large numbers of outdoor 5G small cells, challenges willarise that, if not addressed in a timely fashion, threaten to derail the ambitious 5G targets set by many countries. Development of legislation, codes, and standards for deployment are needed at several levels of public utilities and government in every country.