Digital & Communication Technology
RedCap, driving the next wave of the 5G rollout
By Sabrina Bochen, director, product planning and marketing, u-blox I
t may not yet be meeting the expectations created by its pre-launch hype, but most industry insiders agree that 5G is firmly in the “quiet evolution” phase of the Gartner hype cycle. As with any major technology migration, the roll-out of 5G must overcome various complications and there are a number of barriers that have slowed adoption of 5G beyond consumer-oriented applications. Several factors are responsible for the slower than anticipated pace of the roll-out. Many operators face monetization challenges, as they struggle to balance the need to fund investments in 5G infrastructure against incremental revenues from new services. The decision by most operators to launch services on 5G non-stand-alone (NSA) networks may have minimized upfront investments, but there is still a lack of a strong value proposition that has limited incremental revenues. Without wider investment in stand- alone (SA) networks, mmWave, and other 5G advanced technologies, operators will struggle to exploit the full capabilities of 5G. These benefits include features such as higher speeds and innovative value-added services, including network-as-service and network slicing. Other issues influencing the roll-out include inertia in the emergence of killer apps from sectors such as the automotive industry, where legal concerns and a lack of a regulatory framework has impacted the development of autonomous driving – a major prospect for 5G’s V2X (vehicle to everything) capabilities. One of the biggest factors impacting the 5G roll-out, however, is the slow growth in IoT connections. Forecasts of explosive growth in the IoT were key drivers for the development of 5G, particularly for its massive machine-type communication (mMTC) capabilities. However, so far, the majority of IoT applications continue to use LTE connectivity and connect to 4G EPC (evolved packet core) networks.
To address this situation and encourage the development of a 5G IoT ecosystem, 3GPP has introduced 5G reduced capability (RedCap) specifications. This article discusses how RedCap and extended RedCap (eRedCap) are set to re-invigorate the 5G roll-out.
50 December/January 2025
IoT expectations vs reality Total cellular IoT connections reached around 3.4 billion at the end of 2023 and this figure is predicted to exceed 6 billion by 2029 (figure 1).
Despite this healthy growth, many IoT application developers are hesitating to leverage the capabilities of 5G connectivity. IoT design requirements are currently primarily covered by LTE specifications: LTE Cat 4,
LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat 1bis, LTE-M, and also by the NB-IoT standard. LTE Cat 1 and Cat 1bis address applications which require medium data speeds and are capable of supporting video streaming with up to 10 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink. LTE Cat 1bis is the lowest cost, globally available LTE category. LTE Cat 4 covers IoT applications that require higher throughputs, ranging from tens to hundreds of Mbps. LTE-M and NB-IoT are both Low Power
Wide Area (LPWA) standards which address applications where extended battery life is critical and lower data speeds are acceptable. LTE-M and NB-IoT are often considered forward-compatible with 5G, but in practice, there are no 5G networks either technology can connect to, and no mobile network operators have announced the necessary upgrades to allow LTE-M or NB-IoT devices to connect to the 5G Core network. These
Figure 1: Total cellular IoT connections reached 3.4 billion at the end of 2023 Source: Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2024
Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk
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