1. Rural challenges What are the challenges to provide reliable national coverage?
Taco Kluwer

2. 5Groningen, a rural 5G pilot
5Groningen Fieldlab
Health-care
Agri-culture
Energy
Environ-ment
Traffic & Logistics
Rural challenges

3. Why do we need coverage?
Rural challenges

4. Theoretical reference mobile phone
Theoretical mobile connectivity <99% in the Netherlands with a ‘reference’ mobile phone calling 112
Orange spots: Locations where the probability for successfull mobile connection (to 112 emergency service) with a reference mobile phone via at least one of the following techniques is lower than 99%.
This picture is the result of the
theoretical use of a very poor quality
mobile phone and does not reflect
the common practice.
Theoretical reference mobile phone
Technique
OTA sensitivity
GSM 900
-95 dBm
GSM1800
-100 dBm
UMTS 900
-103 dBm
UMTS 2100
-108 dBm
receiver sensitivity +10 dB (as compared to reference)
Coverage is vital to society…. But it depends on many parameters
Rural challenges

5. Challenge 1
What is coverage when you face a wide variety of devices and services?
Rural challenges

6. Two rural use cases for agriculture
Crop Imaging
Smart Potato
Connectivity for high speed data upload
Connectivity for deep rural coverage
Rural challenges
Photos: Derk Gesink

7. Challenge 2
How to provide large bandwidth at high frequencies in the rural areas?
Rural challenges

8. Enabler: use technology to increase range
Or forget about using high frequencies
Rural challenges

9. Challenge 3
How to build a cloud radio access network without fibre in rural areas?
Rural challenges

10. The future needs Cloud RAN……
flexibility
backhaul
Core
BBU
BBU
Cloud
BBU
backhaul
BBU
Fronthaul
Cloud
Where to find fibre for fronthaul in rural areas?
Rural challenges

11. A major overhaul of infrastructure for 5G is needed
Rural challenges

12. Conclusions Challenge 1:
Coverage depends on many parameters per use case. It should not be about coverage, it should be about providing the right connectivity.
Challenge 2:
Rural coverage at high frequencies is challenging. Use available technology to improve coverage for rural areas in stead of focussing on top performance locally only.
Challenge 3:
Flexibility and scalability in the architecture is key for a gradual implementation of 5G. A major overhaul in fixed (incl. wireless) infrastructure is needed. Incorporate this in the 5G approach.
Rural challenges