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Here's why the future of mobile connectivity isn't 5G

By Liu Hongzuo - 21 Oct 2015

Here's why the future of mobile connectivity isn't 5G

The future of mobile connectivity isn't just about pushing out the latest 5G network or asking service providers to get more coverage while increasing their bandwidth capacity. Here we take a look at some of the breakthrough technologies you might see in your next phone.

 

Why is my 4G loading so slowly?

First of all, let's look at the current state of affairs. Saying that our existing network resources feels overcrowded is an understatement - according to the Arris 2015 Consumer Entertainment Index, each household in Singapore has an average of 8.3 devices connected to the home Wi-Fi. That’s more than the global average of six, and it doesn't help that 44% of the 19,000 people surveyed said that public transport is the most commonly preferred place to watch mobile TV. The demand for huge amounts of network data can strain public Wi-Fi or even existing LTE networks, as our population may be small, but dense: at a density of 7,618 persons per square kilometer since 2014. In contrast, neighboring countries Malaysia and Indonesia have a population density of 93 per square km in 2015, and 132 per square km in 2014, respectively. It doesn’t help that Singapore is first place for smartphone adoption in 2015, with 85% of our population equipped and with 8 out of 10 people owning two or more connected devices.

It’s not hard to imagine our local mobile data networks resembling our public transport – overcrowded with too many people on devices sharing limited space and bandwidth. In fact, a 2015 regional survey by Deloitte’s Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications involving 37,000 said that there is a perceived drop in LTE network quality in Singapore. When compared to respondents for last year’s survey, there were four times more respondents believing that there’s no difference between LTE and 3G speeds and 30% less respondents feel LTE is faster than 3G.

 

So 5G is going to solve everything right?

The short answer: not really.

While 5G is much talked about because of the promises of better-everything, the current LTE infrastructure is still ripe for development; in the form of LTE-Advanced (which many smartphone makers market as 4G+, when it’s really just LTE all along, except better). Peter Carson, Senior Director of Marketing in Qualcomm Technologies Inc. explains it best:

Peter Carson, Senior Director of Marketing, from Qualcomm Technologies Inc.

We see a lot of these developments as stepping stones towards 5G. The LTE Advanced suite of technologies is rich with new features that are yet to be deployed, and which will offer tremendous network capacity and user experience benefits while the industry coalesces around definitions for what 5G technology will look like.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC is one of the ways we can maximize existing LTE infrastructure in multiple ways - one of which is the concurrent Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity shown below.

A quick trip to Qualcomm’s 3G/LTE Summit 2015 held during September 2015 at Hong Kong proved to be more than just a plug for the Snapdragon 820 SoC (System on Chip). In it, we found ways where our existing LTE networks can be put to better use, with no effort on our past as end-users of connectivity, and little effort required by our telcos and existing LTE networks.

 

Exploring unlicensed LTE frequencies

Using both Wi-Fi and unlicensed LTE (LTE-U) to achieve better reliability and faster speed is what smartphones of the near future can achieve. But, this example requires telcos to install small cells to support the boost. So what exactly is the future of LTE and Wi-Fi?

Unlicensed LTE bands are simply LTE bands that are not in use by any telco in a certain country. They are unlicensed because telcos only buy certain bands (allotted to them via licenses from the government) to service their users. Currently, 18 different bands are in use by telcos around Asia, depending on which country you visit, and LTE bands around the world number all the way to 42, with a handful reserved for non-phone purposes. Singapore itself uses merely three LTE bands (3, 7, and 8) across three telcos, with a carrier aggregation of 40MHz, 20MHz, and 5MHz respectively. That actually leaves us with many frequencies that are not licensed (with some that are probably also in use for non-telco purposes). Usually, a problem with overcrowding and slow speeds is something to be fixed somewhere in between telcos, licensing, the government (and many other factors that run parallel to your typical customer complaints).

Qualcomm, however, has one of many solutions available via their X12 LTE modem chip, integrated in the Snapdragon 820 SoC. It has the ability to tap into unlicensed LTE frequencies to boost the smartphone’s connectivity (Qualcomm calls the unlicensed spectrum LTE-U). What it does, is the X12 LTE modem will tap into the unlicensed 5GHz band that’s normally used for Wi-Fi. The modem will then aggregate (combine) licensed LTE, with unlicensed LTE bands, without affecting existing 5GHz Wi-Fi users.

The net result is smartphone users with the chip can get speeds that are better and more consistent during usage, with no adverse effects to the existing Wi-Fi network.

The only caveat? Telco carriers have to install many small LTE-U cells in public and indoor locations, in order to boost the signal of their big towers that are currently working on the licensed spectrum.

“Singapore is well positioned to make full use of LTE-U and MuLTEfire (the unlicensed spectrum) technologies, due to its policy frameworks that support innovative technology advancements and make the most efficient and effective use of scarce spectrum resources,” said Mazen Chymaytelli, Senior Director of Business Development, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. “For mobile operators, the best way to make full use of all available spectrum resources is to combine, through carrier aggregation, LTE in licensed spectrum with LTE-U utilizing small cells in 5GHz. For new entities without licensed spectrum, MuLTEfire broadens the LTE ecosystem to new markets, enhancing consumer experience for local area Internet access and voice services, especially in hyper-dense environments. “

Illustration of what goes inside the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820.

For Qualcomm, it doesn’t simply stop there. The X12 LTE modem comes with a cognitive Zeroth platform. Simply put, Zeroth is Qualcomm’s attempt at using a neural chip that “learns” your surroundings and user habits – unlike a typical chip where the process is coded. It is this part of the X12 LTE modem that will be responsible for switching Internet voice-calls over to Wi-Fi if the LTE connection is too slow or unreliable. Older and current versions of the modem chip in your smartphone processor would normally show you if the Wi-Fi signal strength is healthy or otherwise. The Zeroth platform on this modem chip has the ability to detect whether the Wi-Fi network is walled behind a login page (also known as a captive portal). Once the Zeroth chip detects that the Wi-Fi network is accessible and that it’s sufficiently speedy from end to end, the call will automatically switch itself onto the unlicensed spectrum. Finally, the modem chip will continue to observe the strength of the call, and latch itself back on the LTE network should the Wi-Fi one degrade in quality.

In theory, this is very much like how current smartphone switch between 3G and LTE networks without any effort on the end-users' part. This feature, which we’ve come to expect in modern smartphones, will soon come in the form of flagship smartphones of the very near future – since the Snapdragon 820 will have the X12 LTE modem.

 

Getting More Antennas and Sharing Them

Considering how many mobile phones use Qualcomm SoCs, and how Qualcomm promises 802.11ad Wi-Fi and antenna-sharing in their upcoming Snapdragon 820, it's normal to expect that our next-gen smartphones can handle 4K streaming quite effortlessly.

In radio transmission jargon, a MIMO (Multi-Input, Multi-Output) is a simple technique used by many wireless transmission standards (e.g. Wi-Fi, LTE) to ensure stronger data signals, by exploiting something called multipath propagation – a thing that antennas do naturally where the receiving end gets the data signals from two or more paths. A signal gets multiple paths because it bounces off water and walls. The MIMO technique is currently in widespread use, in the form of 2x2 or 3x3 MIMO – this means the device with 2x2 design can receive signals on two antennas, as well as send out signals on the other two, while the 3x3 can do the same, but with three for receiving and three for sending. This is important, because Qualcomm has managed to fit a 4x4 MIMO on the X12 LTE modem chip. Naturally, more antennas make your data signal’s job significantly easier.

“This means that an operator with limited spectrum holdings can still offer consumers with Snapdragon 820-based devices higher throughputs than would otherwise be possible, as 4x4 MIMO can double the throughput on one LTE carrier vs. 2x2 MIMO” Peter explains. For clarification, throughput is jargon-speak for a network’s “actual speed”.

While this doesn’t actually improve coverage, what it does is to bolster areas with existing LTE and Wi-Fi by having even better real network speed – so that the little reception indicator on your smartphone would be less of a liar when it indicates good signal strength, but your Facebook app doesn’t load or refresh.
Adding to that, the X12 LTE modem’s features antenna sharing. This means that LTE and Wi-Fi both uses the same antennas on the chip (as we have already explained how both these frequencies are possibly compatible and seamless). While this is not directly crucial to our user experience, it does actually affect our smartphone’s physical attributes.

“It (antenna sharing) allows LTE and Wi-Fi to share their antennas, so that OEMs can offer better performance on both LTE and Wi-Fi using fewer antennas” Peter reasoned. “Fewer antennas mean less space and flexibility in building attractive form factors.”

 

New categories, more connectivity

New catergories of LTE introduces more options and faster speed for both chipmakers and telcos, allowing smartphones the potential go as fast as 600Mbps.

One thing ever user can relate to is better speeds, and more connectivity options. LTE, as it currently exists, can possibly go up to 450Mbps download speed on the iPhone 2016. That’s because the Intel XMM 7360 Modem chip supports up to LTE Categories 9 and 10. These categories are what define the speed – the higher the number, the higher the maximum speed for LTE and LTE Advanced can be. Qualcomm’s X12 LTE modem, however, takes it further. It supports LTE Categories 12 and 13, and those categories are what currently define 600Mbps download speed, and 150Mbps upload speed, respectively.

Snapdragon 820's modem chip grants them the ability to achieve 600Mbps download speeds, thanks to its LTE Cat 12/13 support.

In the Wi-Fi domain, the X12 LTE modem is also equipped with support for 802.11ad Wi-Fi (which operates at 60GHz). And how fast is 802.11ad, compared to 802.11ac? Peter puts it best, explaining how the X12 LTE modem has support for 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and the new 60GHz Wi-Fi:

Utilising tri-band connectivity to make the most out of your smartphone. This image shows the device with 60GHz access having 10x the speed in a typical network environment, even with other users taken into account.

“Using 60GHz spectrum grants up to five times higher user throughput for similar power consumption as 11ac Wi-Fi. 11ac provides peak data rates of up to 867Mbps, while 11ad provides up to 4.6Gbps.”

 

Conclusion

As a user, we are not looking at having the newest, and it’s difficult to see beyond product marketing content that’s made to sell. While 5G is not immediately going to be available yet, we are looking at new breakthroughs in the current network climate – the sharing of antennas, exploring new frequencies and categories, and even using neural chips to handle tasks – and that is enough to bring us closer to truly reliable and better speeds in the long term, which can be implemented as soon as your next smartphone processor.

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