Executive Summary 2 Introduction 3 What Is 5G? 4

4.2 5G Americas Activities

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  In June 2014, the white paper “4G Americas’ Summary of Global 5G Initiatives” was published.¹⁸ In February 2016, 5G Americas started a technical work group project to provide an update of the paper. This updated white paper provides an overall summary of the 5G initiatives landscape including descriptions of the current initiatives, status and progress of the various programs. This 2016 white paper is the output of the technical work group.
  
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  In June 2015, the white paper “Mobile Broadband Evolution Towards 5G: Rel-12 & Rel-13 and Beyond” was published.¹⁹ It discusses the evolution of 4G systems toward 5G, including descriptions of new features and enhancements that will be introduced and the use of LTE as the foundation for 5G evolution.
  
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  In August 2015, the white paper “5G Spectrum Recommendations” was published.²⁰ It discusses how 5G spectrum requirements are primarily driven by the combination of expected increases in traffic capacity demands and the support for new use cases that will be enabled by the 5G ecosystem. The 5G technical requirements to support 5G use cases (e.g., peak data rate greater than 10 Gbps, cell edge data rate of 100 Mbps and 1 msec end-to-end latency) could potentially be met in a variety of carrier frequencies. These 5G use cases include enhanced mobile broadband to deliver applications such as high definition video, supported both in very high density (e.g., stadiums) and with ubiquitous coverage. Other 5G use case categories include ultra-reliable communications for industry/transport automation, low latency communications applications and high/medium data rate service for massive Machine Type Communication (MTC) for various applications like e-health, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), augmented reality and tactile internet. These and other use cases will further impact the expected increase in spectrum demand.
  
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  In October 2015, 5G Americas published the white paper “5G Technology Evolution Recommendations,”²¹ which is an update of a paper published in October 2014. The 2015 paper defines 5G from an Americas’ perspective, including the market and technical requirements for the Americas in the evolution to 5G mobile broadband. This paper identifies the primary drivers for 5G, such as the coexistence of human-centric and machine-type applications, as well as the spectrum challenges, and provides a definition of 5G, recognizing that the evolution from 4G to 5G is more than increased maximum throughput. The requirements for the evolution from and compatibility between 4G LTE and 5G systems are identified, as well as the role of new network architectures, spectral efficiency improvements (e.g., advanced receivers, advanced MIMO schemes (Full Dimension (FD)-MIMO), dynamic coordination from Baseband Unit (BBU) pooling, Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) and densification (cell splitting)).
  
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  In addition to liaisons and MoUs with ITU, 3GPP, NGMN, ATIS and the Small Cell Forum, 5G Americas entered into a multi-lateral MoU with many of the world’s leading national and regional associations for the development of future 5G mobile technology through hosting of a bi-annual Global 5G Event. The MoU’s parties include The Fifth Generation Mobile Communications Promotion Forum (5GMF) (Japan), 5G Forum (Republic of Korea), IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group (non-profit organization, China) and The 5G Infrastructure Association - Public Private Partnership (5G PPP) (Europe). The first event, attended by more than 500 industry executives, was hosted in Beijing on May 31-June 1 by IMT-2020; planning is underway for the second Global 5G Event in Rome and hosted by 5G PPP in November 2016.
  

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  5G Americas has hosted several webinars on 5G development, held briefings with leading industry analysts, hosted the 5G World North America event and participated at numerous 5G conferences throughout the world.
  

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  5G Americas continues to work with government organizations throughout North America and Latin America and the Caribbean to establish appropriate policy recommendations for 5G spectrum and other requirements.
  

4.3 ATIS Activities

To realize the North American 5G vision, ATIS is conducting a much-needed industry initiative to define a coherent network evolution from 4G/LTE to 5G. North American service providers have invested heavily and strategically in 4G/LTE. Rapid growth in the LTE footprint and subscriber numbers are predicted to continue for at least several more years. One of ATIS' goals is to enable service providers to leverage their existing and planned LTE investments to ensure 5G’s success.

ATIS is also analyzing 5G from a disruptive perspective and considering potential new architectures to identify breakthrough 5G opportunities. Using a use case-driven approach, ATIS will propose how 5G could:

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  Support new business models and create roles for new types of providers.
  
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  Optimize user experience on current and future devices.
  

ATIS has released two white papers on 5G:

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  “ATIS—A Critical Force in Shaping 5G to Meet Service Providers’ Market Needs”²²
  
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  “5G Reimagined: A North American Perspective”²³
  

ATIS Wireless Technologies and Systems Committee (WTSC) RAN has been collaborating with ITU-R on IMT-2020 efforts. For additional information on IMT-2020, see Section 4.6 ITU Activities. ATIS also supports and collaborates with 3GPP on 2G, 3G and 4G technologies – see Section 4.1 3GPP Activities for additional information on this work.

ATIS has several groups working on 4G topics which will likely be leveraged in 5G, such as SDN/NFV, Energy Efficiency and regional capabilities (Enhanced 911 (E9-1-1), Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA), etc.).