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Re:Open source 5G core network by solarkraft on Friday June 05, 2020 @11:57AM (#23429972)
> I think it's quite likely that sooner or later we will have 5G networks with intra-services running as edge-services, providing us low-latency.

Noob question, sorry, but: Why not Wifi?

Re:Open source 5G core network by 14k12j41j211 on Friday June 05, 2020 @12:20PM (#23430258)
Mobile networks allow seamless switching of cells. If you're on a call while in the car, your connections won't drop and ideally you wouldn't loose a single packet.

Network and smartphone monitor nearby cells. If you're just about to switch the cell because the quality becomes too bad, everything is already being prepared in the next cell.

Re:Open source 5G core network by Nextgrid on Friday June 05, 2020 @03:48PM (#23433079)
With proper configuration, Wi-Fi can do this too. Things like 802.11r, 802.11k, etc allow a station to roam between access points near-instantly.
Re:Open source 5G core network by ex3ndr on Friday June 05, 2020 @04:58PM (#23433878)
MacOS + UniFi actually have seamless reconnection.
Re:Open source 5G core network by ksec on Friday June 05, 2020 @01:53PM (#23431572)
Because 5G, or even 4G LTE is still technically superior to even latest WiFi 802.11ax.
Re:Open source 5G core network by superkuh on Friday June 05, 2020 @01:59PM (#23431650)
Only slightly. Most of the difference is telcos paying the $$$ to get their antennas up high with line of sight.
Re:Open source 5G core network by ksec on Saturday June 06, 2020 @07:31AM (#23438432)
Well Not really. 5G / 4G are far better in noisy, complex multi user environment. You could get higher bandwidth from 4G / 5G then you could in best case WiFi scenario ( Line of Sight ) with equal spectrum.

802.11ax was basically moving some of the LTE tools over to WiFi ( OFDMA ) and completely failed. And pushing back some intended features to 802.11be.

Re:Open source 5G core network by Jhsto on Friday June 05, 2020 @12:03PM (#23430039)
LTE (and 5G on 3.6Ghz, I guess) signal can cover many kilometers. The protocols are built to be more reliable (a phone keeps a tab of access points to which it can quickly hop if access to one base station is lost) and the licensing ensures that there cannot be spectrum suffocation at any time, which is quite common in bigger cities with WiFi.
Re:Open source 5G core network by g_p on Friday June 05, 2020 @12:55PM (#23430669)
Seamless handovers are definitely key to mobile networks, and much of the 3GPP technology is designed around this.

Spectrum licensing is more about ensuring exclusive use of spectrum - in a busy built up area (less common during current times hopefully), you'll still suffer from "spectrum suffocation" like with WiFi - if you ever experienced data stalling where your phone indicated a signal, but weren't getting any actual traffic through, you were on a cell that was hitting the limits of the air interface capacity.

The nice part of cellular networks is that you can add more base stations using other licensed spectrum the operator has, in order to get more capacity. So with 3.5 GHz 5G bands, and wider cell widths supported, these can take some of the load in busy places. Otherwise the alternative is to deploy more base stations with lower power on each, to better and more effectively reuse the spectrum.

Since the same operator runs all the equipment on their own spectrum, they can coordinate this much more effectively than ad-hoc multi operator WiFi in a congested area. The downside is the vastly increased complexity of a cellular solution (the sheer number of pages of standards), and the "entrenched player lock-in" available to legacy telecoms operators who already hold spectrum.

Re:Open source 5G core network by matt9j on Friday June 05, 2020 @07:30PM (#23435200)
In addition to just the total amount of spectrum, coordinated scheduling between towers in the cellular standards helps with cooperative management of interference. Some of this is just now happening in 802.11ax, but without the high-speed non-microwave connections that celltowers in dense areas enjoy to coordinate over. 5G-NR also allows coordinated multipoint transmission, which you can think of kind of like MIMO but from multiple towers instead of just multiple antennas on the same tower. I don't know if this would ever be feasible in consumer WiFi equipment due to the challenges of synchronizing clocks across the different APs.