B ook R eviews
Edited by Satyajayant Misra
5G Spectrum and Standards, by Geoff
Varrall; Artech House; 2nd Edition; May
31, 2016; ISBN-13:978-1-63081-044-3;
Hardcover, 360 pages.
Reviewers: Gaurav Panwar and Satyajayant Misra
The estimated number of glob-
al smartphone subscriptions is expect-
ed to grow from 2.6 billion in 2015 to
6.1 billion by 2020. With the popularity
of smartphone applications and advanc-
es in technology, the user expectation of
seamless data connectivity is becoming
common. This has resulted in the adop-
tion of 4G networks in most developed
countries and an emergence of 4G mar-
kets in developing countries. But mov-
ing beyond, academia and industry are
already planning the deployment and use
of 5G network technologies. This is due to
not only the increasing number of users,
but also the network traffic generated by
freshly emerging applications, such as the
Internet of Things (IoT). In this book the
author focuses on the current progress
of research, development, and standard-
ization for 5G networks and the future
directions. The book also discusses other
current industry standards and technolo-
gies for wireless data communication.
The first chapter introduces the book
and its chapters. It also gives a basic
understanding to the reader about the
composition of the 5G spectrum and
the 5G standards and technology. The
author talks about the technical and
commercial innovations at the different
wavelengths of wireless communication.
The impact of military millimeter radio
on wide area 5G and vice versa, costs
associated with having multiple radio
technologies coexist in the spectrum and
their interaction, the various wavelengths
of interest in the spectrum allocated
to 5G, and the cost and performance
economics associated with 5G are
also discussed. The chapter concludes
with a discussion of the five processing
domains: frequency, phase and ampli-
tude, power, time, and spatial domain,
and their relevance to 5G systems.
The second chapter is an examination
of the cost of telecom standards. The
author provides a case study on the tech-
nological and economic cost involved in
the transition from 4G to 5G including
how the Third Generation Partnership
Project’s (3GPP) release process has
impacted other standards that overlap
with it. The discussion also touches on
other topics such as 2G to 5G modula-
tion, channel coding, the performance
4 IEEE Wireless Communications • February 2017
loss between simulation and actual imple-
mentations, and the economic impact of
the aforementioned implementation loss.
The author also talks about the need for
coexistence of small radios and standards
such as Bluetooth/Zigbee with bigger
radios such as Wi-Fi and 4G.
In the third chapter, the discussion
focuses on the technology cost in the
spectrum due to band complexity. The
author specifically discusses the 44 LTE
bands specified in 3GPP Release 12 as
a case study to describe issues to the
reader. There are questions posed such
as whether to deploy 5G as a time-divi-
sion duplex (TDD), frequency-division
duplex (FDD) , or full duplex system, and
the costs and complexities as well as the
advantages associated with each option.
Carrier aggregation and the economics
and implications of 5G on current Wi-Fi
and LTE networks are also discussed.
Chapter Four explores spectrum-relat-
ed costs and implications of 5G’s phys-
ical layer specifications. This includes
discussion about the coexistence of var-
ious standards and their impact on each
other in the physical layer. The reader is
engaged in an in-depth review of vari-
ous kinds of intersystem costs and inter-
ference in systems, such as LTE, digital
terrestrial television (DTT), digital video
broadcasting-terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2), the
Advanced Television Systems Committee
(ATSC), and so on. There is a discussion
on how increasing network density and
RF efficiency impact network economics.
Chapter Five acquaints the reader
with the way spectrum allocation and
auction work. The chapter starts with
an illustration of how the procedures
followed today evolved over time, and
the regulatory and spectrum allocation
policy followed around the world in the
past. Various aspects of spectrum allo-
cation and considerations for market
value of the auctioned bands to compa-
nies is also discussed. The chapter ends
in a summary and suggestions to follow
when coming up with policies in regard
to 5G spectrum allocation and auction.
In Chapter Six, the author discusses
how mobile broadband and economic
growth of developing countries could
benefit each other. There is an analysis of
the challenges involved in bringing new
technologies to developing countries with
a lower per capita income. The chapter
also discusses the innovations in the sat-
ellite sector, which made it commercially
feasible to bring certain wireless technolo-
gies to developing economies. The chap-
ter ends with a summary, discussing how
in the next 15 years the developing econ-
omies will act as market and technology
drivers and agents of change in technolo-
gy policies and delivery options.
Chapter Seven discusses 5G as
a combination of three wavelength
denominated bands: meter band (300
MHz–3 GHz), centimeter band (3–30
GHz), and millimeter band (30–300
GHz). This chapter delves into complex
issues associated with the adoption of
5G such as tension points due to the
preference of different industry sectors
and research programs, and topics
such as coexistence issues of terrestri-
al radio telescopes and terrestrial radio
systems. The author discusses challeng-
es as well as collaboration opportunities
for radars and satellite communication
systems used in spacecraft and other
space exploration equipment. The chap-
ter focuses more on the satellite com-
munication and space communication
industry, and leads to the next three
chapters where each of the bands of the
5G spectrum are detailed.
In the eighth chapter all the aspects
of 5G in meter bands (300 MHz–3
GHz) are discussed. The chapter starts
with a discussion of various physical
layer options for 5G, support for pub-
lic safety radio systems, as well as the
coexistence issues with S-Band and
L-Band spectrum. This is followed by the
important discussion on the coexistence
of 5G with legacy 4G technologies and
the resultant issues. The last part of the
chapter includes discussion on antenna
tilt techniques for radio access networks
(RANs), which could benefit centimeter
and millimeter bands in LTE.
In Chapter Nine, the discussion
moves to the 5G technologies in the
centimeter band (3–30 GHz). This
includes detailed discussions on back-
haul data rates, latency, and 4G and 5G
network efficiency, and techniques such
as dynamic beamforming and satellite
spectrum in the centimeter band. Lastly,
options for 5G in the centimeter band
are examined before a summary con-
cludes the chapter.
Chapter 10 reviews 5G in the milli-
meter band (30–300 GHz).The author
discusses various aspects of communi-
cation in the millimeter band, such as
60 GHz Wi-Fi, beamforming in the mil-
limeter band, coexistence, filter options,
differentiating the 5G physical layer, and
Wi-Fi automotive bands and millime-
ter mobile broadband. The author also
discusses RF hardware enablers for mil-
limeter band before summarizing with

potential advantages and challenges of
millimeter band for 5G.
Chapter 11 starts with a discussion of
the challenges faced with digital signal
processing (DSP) in the past and presents
DSP techniques currently used in 4G.
There is also a examination on the impact
of 60 Hz Wi-Fi on future wide area 5G,
the options for DSP going forward for
the next 15 years, and hardware limita-
tions of ADCs and processors and how
they might impact 5G in the future. The
author concludes the chapter with a brief
summary of adaptive tracking, envelope
tracking, and digital signal processors.
B ook R eviews
In the final chapter, the author
concludes the book with some final
thoughts on what he thinks the future
holds in terms of the communication
industry and the impacts and future of
5G on it. The chapter touches on vari-
ous topics, such as 3D-RAN, terahertz
radio, optical smartphones, sensor web,
and IoT, the downsides of adversarial
auctions, and quantum telecom. The
author then concludes the chapter
with a detailed summary of the positive
and negative economic touchpoints
between the mobile broadband indus-
try and the rest of the radio industry,
and avenues of cooperation between
various industry entities.
This book is a very handy guide for anyone
to quickly get acquainted with the current stan-
dards for communication and the imminent
challenges faced by researchers and industry
entities. This book is easy to understand, and
the author does a great job of breaking down
complex topics and engaging the reader by
giving historical examples. The book presents
the rationale behind why certain decisions
could be better than others and what needs
to be done to make 5G commercially feasible
and viable. This book presents a well rounded
exposition of efforts in 5G.

Call for Papers

IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine

Wireless Big Data: Technologies and Applications

Background
Big data, which are described by the four “V” — volume (large datasets), variety (different types of data from myriad sources), velocity (data collected in real
time) and value (benefits to various industries) ­— have received considerable attentions in various applications. With the help of advanced wireless technolo-
gies, the smart devices, smartphones, smart vehicles, smart homes, smart cities, smart sensors — a smart world — have been come to a reality in our daily life
and enriched rapidly. Meanwhile, the emerging 5G and Internet-of-Things (IoT) are increasingly producing vast amount and different types of data. Therefore,
big data and the technologies related to big data demand multi-disciplinary collaboration and joint efforts from industries, academics and governments to
develop new solutions.

The emerging wireless technologies for big data has brought us an unprecedented opportunity to study the characteristics of wireless things, to discover new
values, and to help us to gain an in-depth understanding of the hidden values. These understandings will greatly benefit the wireless operators, mobile sub-
scribers, commercial companies, and governments. In the study of wireless technologies, big data will be a powerful tool and hot research topic, e.g., wireless
signal processing, channel modelling, fog computing/edge caching, and wireless access. As a consequence, we need to find answers to effectively manage
and exploit the big data in wireless systems, to build an efficient network architecture for wireless big data, and to support various applications in the future.

We organize this Special Issue in IEEE Wireless Communications focusing on the theory and applications of wireless big data. This Special Issue covers two
areas: (1) the most recent research results on how wireless technologies support big data; (2) novel solutions on how big data can enhance and optimize
wireless communications performance.

Submissions
Prospective authors should prepare their submissions in accordance with the rules specified in the Information for Authors of the IEEE Wireless Communi-
cations guidelines (http://www.comsoc.org/wirelessmag/author-guidelines ). Authors should submit a PDF version of their complete manuscript to http://
mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ieee-wcm

Important Dates
• Submission Deadline: May 1, 2017
• Initial Decision: July 15, 2017
• Revised Manuscript Due: August 15, 2017
• Final Decision: October 1, 2017
• Final Manuscript Due: November 1, 2017
• Publication: February 2018
Guest Editors
Yan Zhang Javier Lopez Jian Tang
University of Oslo, Norway University of Malaga, Spain Syracuse University, USA
Email: yanzhang@ieee.org Email: jlm@lcc.uma.es Email: jtang02@syr.edu

Ying-Chang Liang Xing Zhang

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, China Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China
University of Sydney, Australia Email: zhangx@ieee.org
Email: liangyc@ieee.org

IEEE Wireless Communications • February 2017 5