Small Cell Forum spells out 5G requirements

The Small Cell Forum is on a roll. Last week, the forum formally established six teams to tackle specific work areas, including small cells in unlicensed spectrum and multi-operator cells. It also mapped out the requirements for 5G at a 3GPP workshop in Phoenix.

The workshop, where the 3GPP RAN also hammered out an agreement on to standardize Narrowband-IoT, or NB-IoT, provided an opportunity for the Small Cell Forum to share the work it's doing on multi-operator small cells, access virtualization over different latency transport networks and on monetizing 5G through the establishment of common API frameworks. "As experts in supporting the commercialization of dense, efficient networks, we believe the Forum and its members have real-world experience that can help advance 5G deployments," said Small Cell Forum Chair Alan Law in a release.

The Small Cell Forum says 5G needs flexible options for multi-vendor access virtualization over medium latency, which is 2 to 6 milliseconds, and high latency, or 10 to 30 millisecond transport networks. Release