Digital Transformation VIA 5G: Deployment Plans

Digital transformation is indispensable for achieving sustainable development, and deployment of fifth-generation wireless networks (5G) is instrumental for making digital transformation a reality. There are a number of challenges and technical choices that influence 5G deployment with impacts on efficiency, interoperability, and associated costs. These are of significant importance as there is no roadmap that would be universally applicable to all network operators for deploying 5G and beyond. In this paper, we contextualize various technical options for 5G deployment and discuss their impacts. Specifically, we focus on the timely utilization of various standards pertaining to radio access network (RAN), transport network (TN), and core network (CN) with a view to enhancing interoperability with existing networks/facilities. We also discuss how 5G standards are evolving.