echnology is being adopted for such use in later releases, which is explained in detail in Section 5.3. Besides market expansion considerations, another important business factor is cost. In order to be successful, 5G deployment is likely to require much higher cell densification, at 2.9 Role of Standards Macrocell Gateway E.band Backahul Small Cells Figure 2.11 5G is likely to require massive small cell deployments. least for the mmWave bands. Therefore, massive small deployments are crucial to realize the 5G potential, as illustrated in Figure 2.11. Dense small cell deployment will come at a cost, and therefore operators are looking for ways to reduce the CAPEX required to build a 5G network. Since backhaul transport network (explained in Section 6.6) contributes substantially to both CAPEX and OPEX, especially for small cells, operators are considering more cost-efficient alternatives such as relays (explained in Section 5.2). Another important cost-related factor is the network equipment itself. In the past, most operators used to deploy equipment from a single ven- dor (at least in a given area) and therefore the importance of open network interfaces and multi-vendor interoperability was relatively low. This may change in 5G, considering that it is likely to require massive small cell deployments, which may not be economically viable without competition. Therefore, the importance of RAN architecture based on open inter- faces may grow with 5G (this is covered in Chapter 4). Role of Standards Historically, standards in general and 3GPP in particular have been crucial for cellular technologies. The importance of standards is unlikely to change with 5G; however, certain market developments affect the way 5G standards are defined and deployed. 3GPP has been extremely successful SO far, with LTE in particular. So much so, that it has put the organization in a very peculiar position. It is widely considered to be the 2 Market Drivers 3GPP meeting attendance Figure 2.12 3GPP meeting attendance. organization that sh