5G

The fixed infrastructure must be robust, compliant with strict SLAs, able to accommodate growth as needed and adopt automation and intelligence to serve the increases in demand and the evolution of applications. How will the new 5G wireless network interact with existing and future infrastructure? This session will provide an in-depth look at how local and regulatory policy will need to change to promote small cell/CRAN and fiber deployments. It will also take a deep dive to examine future advancements in wired and wireless backhaul and their impact on the evolving network infrastructure.

Populated regions offer a particular challenge to network operators trying to manage operating expenses, data loads, millions of hours of streaming video per day, and multiple millions of cloud applications and IoT connections from consumers and sensor-rich devices. What is the best way to densify the 5G wireless network while ensuring proper connectivity and content delivery together with positive ROI? This session will take an in-depth look at the enabling technologies for 5G, including small cells/DAS, massive MIMO, mmWave, self-backhauling dynamic networks, full duplex and multi-radio integration. It will also consider best practices and strategies to deploy advanced technologies.

Is there a spectrum crunch? What are the results of the March FCC Incentive Auction? How are technological advancements, policy and regulatory requirements affecting the business of network development? What technology advances such as mmWave antennas, sensing for real time spectrum sharing, and full duplex communications will require policy changes and create new business opportunities? The session will discuss the driving forces behind demand and supply, the economics of licensed versus unlicensed spectrum, the case for opening up mmWave bands for mobile local area, broadband access and backhaul, and new business models for spectrum sharing and trading. The focus will be policy for allocating, administering, and managing spectrum crucial to ICT industries and the future of innovation, including international harmonization of spectrum use and rationalization of spectrum use in standards.

Healthcare, Energy, Education, Advanced Manufacturing, Public Safety, Retail, Transportation, Media – These are only a few of the industries that are being disrupted by increasing bandwidth, bringing an opportunity for innovation. This session will look at select industry sectors and the new business constructs, technology platforms and applications, products and services, and business models that are being and will be generated as a result of ubiquitous connectivity + network evolution.

Network infrastructures continually demand billions of dollars in annual investment in search of a profitable return on investment. This session will examine the flow of money and the financial impact of the anticipated investment required by future 5G networks. It will address such questions as: Where are carriers choosing to invest, and what changes to their business model do they foresee? Will the revenue growth and decline in cost per megabyte be sufficient to provide an attractive ROI? In addition, will the Content Service Providers be able to recoup the 5G investments to meet future expectations of profitability? From an investment markets perspective, do Wall Street, private equity, strategic and VC investors consider 5G a viable investment at this time? With 5G comprising such a broad swath of technologies, which are they following and where are they placing bets? Who will be the winners and losers in the industry as 5G deployments unfold?

The Cloud offers 5G networks flexibility, virtualization and Cloud-RAN. It offers government, enterprise and consumers innumerable opportunities to develop new over-the-top and IoT offerings, insert machine learning and intelligence in product functions, make use of big data collections, and push processing to the edge. This panel will take a look at how the Cloud is interacting with 5G to offer a myriad of new technologies and business opportunities.