要建设5G网络，需要数不清的设备

作为下一代无线网络技术的昵称，5G看起来似乎十分美好。然而，当你看到为了确保实现它能够提供的各种特性所需布置的大量线缆之后，例如更快的数据交换、更低的延迟、节能和成本节约等，你还会有这种想法吗？

难道当今的城市还不够拥挤吗？在9月于洛杉矶召开的美洲世界移动大会上，我曾问过移动行业贸易集团GSMA的首席营销官迈克尔·奥哈拉这个问题。

他说：“当数据传输达到这种非常高的速度时，传输距离就得缩短，因此人们必须在内容获取地点设置更多的天线和数据中心。基本上每一个数据灯柱就得安装一根天线。”

换句话说，数据通道在变宽的同时必须变短。

奥哈拉在谈论数据密集型虚拟现实技术时表示：“再看看延迟问题，当你尝试进行洛杉矶的虚拟现实体验时，位于亚利桑那州的数据沙漠中心发挥不了什么作用。因此，基础设施投资是不可或缺的。”（财富中文网）

译者：Pessy

审校：夏林

5G, the nickname for the next generation of wireless networks, seems great—until you think about all of the very real wires that will need to be put in place to ensure its promises of faster data exchange, lower latency, energy savings, and cost reductions.

Aren’t today’s cities crowded enough? I asked Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer for mobile-industry trade group GSMA, in September at the Mobile World Congress Americas convention in Los Angeles.

“When you go to this very high speed, you go to shorter range, so you do have to have more antennas and data centers close to where the content is being consumed,” he says, adding: “You need to have, essentially, an antenna per lamppost.”

In other words, in exchange for making the data “pipe” bigger, you need to make it shorter.

“When you get back to that latency conversation, a datacenter in the Arizona desert doesn’t do you a lot of good when you’re trying to do a VR experience in L.A.” O’Hara says of data-intensive virtual reality technology. “So there’s got to be some infrastructure investment.”