How will this possibly work? It is my understanding that 5g operates on microwaves. Microwaves are only good for short distances. Maybe 5g isn't what they are telling us it is.
You are correct. From what I have read, satellite communications using C band (TV broadcast station, Mhz waves) transmissions will be used with the satellites.
The SpaceX project is called Starlink, and it will use the Ku and Ka bands, which are in the mm wave length. These bands have already been used for satellite communication previously, so it does work. The atmosphere only attenuates the signals, it does not block them.
Starlink satellites would orbit at 1⁄30 to 1⁄105 of the height of geostationary orbits, and thus offer more practical Earth-to-sat latencies of around 25 to 35 ms, comparable to or exceeding existing cable or fiber networks[49] (although transmitting a signal halfway around the globe takes at least 67 ms at the speed of light).
Wow. That's a seriously ambitious project! It looks like it's still a few years away though.
While details are lacking, it appears that they plan to make this work by utilizing powerful earth based antennas, mounted to some type of base station. And from there, utilize standard 5G cell transmissions.
view the rest of the comments →
CarpenterforChrist ago
How will this possibly work? It is my understanding that 5g operates on microwaves. Microwaves are only good for short distances. Maybe 5g isn't what they are telling us it is.
VOALTRON ago
You are correct. From what I have read, satellite communications using C band (TV broadcast station, Mhz waves) transmissions will be used with the satellites.
Satellites will be used to assist 5G networks, but they're not going to be using 5G frequencies. https://www.rcrwireless.com/20180108/5g/the-role-of-satellites-in-delivering-5g-tag17-tag99
qwop ago
The SpaceX project is called Starlink, and it will use the Ku and Ka bands, which are in the mm wave length. These bands have already been used for satellite communication previously, so it does work. The atmosphere only attenuates the signals, it does not block them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellation)
VOALTRON ago
Wow. That's a seriously ambitious project! It looks like it's still a few years away though.
While details are lacking, it appears that they plan to make this work by utilizing powerful earth based antennas, mounted to some type of base station. And from there, utilize standard 5G cell transmissions.