Radio Frequency (RF) & Wireless Design

I was at the 5G Boot Camp sponsored by Keysight Technologies (formally Agilent Technologies formally Hewlett Packard (hP) Test Equipment Division) and came away with a much deeper appreciation on the many intrinsic qualities that comprise the 5G standard.

One of my interests is Phased Arrays and Beam-forming and the use in 5G was made clear that is *not* an optional requirement at the mmWave frequencies. In fact, the simplest level for a node in User Equipment (UE) such as a phone will be a 2x2 MIMO patch array at a minimum. These are in conjunction with existing 4G antennas the surround the perimeter of the phone for horizontal and vertical polarizations.

5G Cellular sites will have much more complexity with massive MIMO technologies and very complex antennas for granularity for both theta (azimuth) and phi (elevation) angles.

At this point the market is wide open for carriers to determine how far they want to extend this granularity in determining the best price point for the minimum performance requirements for the number of users within the much shorter range (but higher bandwidth) of 5G, but it seems likely that there is a convergence of 5G and WiFi on the not so distant horizon.

So i am wondering if anyone out there is already experimenting or actually deploying 5G implementations and what their experiences or lessons learned might be.

Your comments are welcomed.