Barriers to Adoption for 5G-Capable Smartphones
The industry is moving at a fast pace to provide 5G services to end users. The initial 5G deployments have started with 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks in some countries. But the availability of Consumer Premise Equipment (CPE) is limited and only Huawei and Samsung are offering CPE’s. The real potential of 5G will be delivered by Stand Alone (SA) 5G which will enable Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (uRLLC), a wholly new form of wireless communications capability.
5G brings a new set of possibilities for wireless networks but also poses a challenge for the mobile ecosystem players to meet set timelines. In addition, 5G smartphones will also introduce challenges including high bandwidth, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), higher peak to average power ratio and frequency congestion because of carrier aggregation and many more. Some key challenges that will likely hinder the availability of 5G capable smartphones include:
Radio Frequency Front End (RFFE) and Baseband Complexity
Initial 5G smartphones will operate on 5G Non-Stand Alone (5G NSA) networks. They will require multi-mode (2G, 3G, 4G, 4.9G, 5G NSA) operation that will support legacy network capabilities for fallback until we have ubiquitous 5G coverage.
In addition to this, mmWave support will make Radio Frequency (RF) integration and antenna positioning more complicated. At mmWave frequencies the wavelength is so small that the radio waves can be easily blocked by hands, objects or walls making the RF Rx & Tx capabilities on the phone extremely challenging.
This in turn, will result in additional complexities for Radio Frequency Front End (RFFE) suppliers, particularly Power Amplifier (PA)s, filters and antennas. Many existing 3G/4G bands will have to be reframed for 5G and this may take years, depending on the country. Therefore, the RFFE will be needed to efficiently support multiple bands dynamically adding even more complexity for RFFE suppliers and handset design teams.
