Article | 18 February 2022

Explaining spectrum: how wireless works – and how LTE/5G can work for you

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Daniela
Written by
Daniela Muente, Global Marketing Manager The Netherlands

Wireless data is a complex subject, isn’t it. From 2G through 5G, early GSM to later CDMA, it’s a salad of creations and concepts. There’s even a bit of Hollywood sparkle. (Did you know the spread-spectrum concept that underpins many wireless technologies was invented by actress Hedy Lamarr, one of many female inventors in the history of telecoms?)

But fast-moving technologies create questions. Why is LTE/5G so promising? What are its benefits? And how can it work at sites far from “covered” areas? Addressing these concerns is the point of this article. Show it to curious colleagues as an easy help sheet. And for a more in-depth look at these topics, download our recent paper, “The 5G for Business Guidebook”.

Bandwidth’s unifying theme: frequency

To understand why LTE/5G holds so much promise – and is already delivering for Blue Wireless’ 300+ customers – it’s useful to have a unifying theme. An idea that helps us see the wireless communications world as a whole. That idea is rising frequency.

A reminder for those long out of High School. Electromagnetism travels in waves; frequency is how many waves pass by a set point in a set time. The more waves (measured in Hertz, cycles per second), the higher the frequency. And the higher the frequency, the more data you can pack onto it, and the more bandwidth the customer can enjoy.

That’s the story of wireless data communications: ever-rising frequencies enabling ever-higher bandwidth. Easy, isn’t it?

Frequency up, range down

The downside is range. A whale’s wailing can be heard around the world (if you’re another whale) because its frequency is very, very low: just a few Hz. But radio waves (including all wireless data today) are much higher: 1KHz to 100GHz. Which means they find it harder to penetrate the medium they travel in (air).

Early 2G data plans couldn’t carry much more than an email, but 2G frequencies—800-1900 million hertz, or MHz—meant even cell towers 50km apart could keep you connected. 3G and 4G’s range was less than half that, as frequencies rose into the gigahertz bands. 5G reaches higher still, with plans for 50GHz+ on the tech pathway—but because of this, cell towers and other nodes have to be less than 300m apart, tops. You can’t break the laws of physics.

Side note: this 50GHz figure, incidentally, is why 5G scare stories are Fake News. Ionising radiation (the dangerous kind) starts way into the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, with frequencies in the Terahertz (THz) range—thousands of times higher than anything planned for 5G. Take that, Fake Newsmongers! (Also, this is why you shouldn’t spend too long on a tanning bed.)

Limited range, but amazing bandwidth

The upside to this limited range is that 5G technologies have the potential for incredible bandwidth. Combined with other telecoms wizardry, 4Gb/s is on the horizon—enough for several hundred people to all watch Netflix at once. That’s what high frequencies enable.

(Since they’re so useful, you might ask why network providers didn’t just start with higher frequencies, years ago. The answer is basic economics. Higher frequencies need more densely-packed cell towers; in the early days, the real estate just wasn’t available at the right price. Simple things like getting permission to install a tower on a rooftop can take years.)

For a remote site, high-bandwidth wireless is a technician’s dream. No need to lay cables between your buildings. No need to negotiate rights-of-way across roads and geographical features. And with far higher bandwidth, complex factories with thousands of moving machines can all be connected up in the Internet of Things, and the data they produce, mined for business improvement insights.

But if you want to connect to the rest of the world—such as a global SD-WAN—you still need to connect to other networks. And that’s where LTE/5G comes in.

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Bringing LTE into the equation

LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution”. It’s not a technology, but a set of standards that tell telecoms companies what’s up ahead, so they can make equipment that interoperates correctly. If you run any kind of remote site, this is why LTE/5G makes sense for your business today. Because it’s not a fly-by-night gadget you’ll have to replace in two years; there is a smooth upgrade path stretching decades into the future.

In fact, thanks to these solid agreements on standards, over 100 remote sites like mines and oilfields have set up their own private LTE/5G networks—basically, private 5G networks not connected to public ones licensing bits of spectrum from governments. Trouble is, this is both expensive and time-consuming. And you still need some way to connect your network beyond the site if you want to run a global SD-WAN or similar. It’d be far simpler to use the public 5G infrastructure, but public networks simply can’t reach those areas. Or can they?

How Blue Wireless LTE extends 5G network coverage

Blue Wireless flips that problem on its head. The solution? Extend the coverage. A powerful directional antenna “looking at” a distant 5G provider lets you access that network from a much greater distance than 300m: 10km, 50km, and beyond are all do-able. (Even a boat 50 nautical miles offshore can benefit - see maritime connectivity ) Without needing custom spectrum or government licensing. While routers then supply that connectivity across your site. You’ve extended the public network into your own little bubble.

Remember the part about not breaking the laws of physics? Well, that’s still true. But signal boosting turns them to your advantage. Because the directional antenna that “pulls in” 5G connectivity doesn’t have to use short-range frequencies, it can cover far more distance than a 5G cell tower.

So you’re connected to a 5G network, with all 5G’s benefits … even 50km+ from normal network coverage. Which is great news for your business. And your bottom line.

LTE/5G is the best of both worlds

That’s Blue Wireless. Connecting remote sites (and enterprise SD-WANs) via public 5G infrastructure, taking advantage of the immense bandwidth coming online as 5G technologies roll out worldwide. Clever? Yes. Cost-effective? Even more so. To learn more about what LTE/5G can bring to your business, let’s talk.

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Our global team of experts is looking forward to helping your enterprise gain all the benefits of LTE/5G connectivity.

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