A Blog on Cables in 5G Networks

With the launch of 5G in the UK a lot of questions are being asked about the role that cables will play in the future.  In this week’s Blog I am going discuss the future of cables in 5G Networks.

Whilst many people think of 5G as a wireless network it is only wireless from the point of the masts that deliver the signal.  Everything else is still delivered by traditional cabling systems.

Firstly Fibre! It’s the backbone of all high-speed networks and the cost of ownership is coming right down.  We do see a future where fibre will be the main cabling element of most networks as copper data transfer rates is near to saturation points with current copper-based technologies.

What are the Fibre Options?

Traditional Multimode and singlemode will be the backbone of the networks supporting 5G.  With ever increasing demand for bandwidth OM5 will become more popular. 

Because OM5 cable can support four SWDM channels, each carrying 25G of data to deliver 100G Ethernet using a single pair of multimode fibres,  It is fully compatible with OM3 and OM4 fibre. This means it is packing a bigger punch for data capacity.

Singlemode fibre will carry the trunk networks across long distances as it still remains the best method of delivering massive amounts of data fast and is the pillar of any fast-high speed network.

Copper Networking:

Cat 6A is fast becoming the new standard for data networks for the data centres and Cat 7 will soon start to become more popular.  There is still some debate over which Cat 7 system will become the most popular as it is still going though a VHS v Betamax style race to become the dominant system.

Datacentres that handle all the traffic will still be largely relying on traditional networking infrastructures, once the signal leaves the wiring systems it will largely be down to the network processors which will be one of the main elements of speed transmission.

RF Technologies

This is one of the most old-fashioned aspects of this most modern network.  The many electronic devices that are required to enable 5G rely on RF. 

We like RF due to its simplicity and systems like IPX and UFL will remain at the heart of electronics, even the mobile phones themselves will rely heavily on this technology.

Most external antennas will be using LMR Low loss cabling systems and we will still be seeing good old SMA and N-Type connectors everywhere.

Electronics in 5G is the future!

Rather than get into the technicalities of 5G we wanted to give more of an overview as we are reminding people that while the sexy part of 5G is the speed to data to the mobile device, behind this is plenty of traditional technologies to support the networks.    Good news if you are involved in the specialist electronics helping to deliver 5G as this will be something of a boom time for all involved.

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