Back in June of this year, the component technologies for 5G continued their inexorable march forward with Release 15 of the 5G New Radio specifications. These let equipment manufacturers know the standards network gear must meet to enable 5G networks.

At about the same time, a team of researchers at the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IET) in Portugal published a study in the journal IEEE Access that looked at the equipment that was available at that time to see if they measured up to the demands of 5G networks. In particular, they assessed the capabilities of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) radio frequency (RF) equipment. In these tests, millimeter wave (mmWave) RF front ends did not measure up.

“It has been shown that currently COTS RF front ends do not yet cope fully with 5G requirements,” said Rafael Caldeirinha, a professor at IET, and co-author of the research, which was further illustrated in a recent IEEE Communication Society webinar now available on demand.