With all the attention paid to mid-band spectrum to provide a balance of capacity and coverage, there are clear use cases for millimeter wave spectrum, which offers tremendous amounts of bandwidth, though at the cost of reach. It often is noted that millimeter wave spectrum has such short range that it must use a small cell architecture.
But that is precisely the combination of attributes that are most useful for high-density areas that handle a disproportionate share of customer traffic.
Mobile network traffic tends to be highly asymmetrical, resembling a Pareto distribution, commonly known as the 80/20 rule. Telecom service provider revenue and profit illustrate how Pareto applies in the business.
About half of total mobile network traffic is carried by about 10 percent of cell sites, for example. About 30 percent of sites carry about 80 percent of traffic.
According to Ericsson, five percent of cell sites support 25 percent of total traffic. About a quarter of sites handle half of all traffic, while 70 percent of sites are required for 25 percent of total traffic.
So millimeter wave spectrum makes perfect sense for the dense urban areas that actually carry a disproportionate share of total network traffic.
Other studies confirm the pattern. Looking at usage on a given day, by any single user, perhaps 80 percent of traffic is carried by just three towers. About half of traffic is carried by one tower. The remaining 20 percent of traffic is carried by 28 additional cell sites.
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