rent deployment architectures for high bands versus mid and low bands. One particularly important conclusion is that while deploying 5G in the middle frequency ranges using the same cell sites as 4G (which can be considered low range) is feasible, the high frequency range (i.e. mmWave) will require much more dense deployment of small cells (or RUs), which inevitably leads to new cell site acquisition and drives up development costs. If, for example, the coverage range (of e.g. mmWave) is 5 times smaller, then 25 times more RUs/small cells will be required to cover the same area (as shown above), which of course has a direct impact on CAPEX and OPEX. Covering an operator's entire ser- vice area using the high frequency range would require a huge number of RUs, therefore mm Wave radios are expected to be deployed as a capacity booster in places of high through- put demand rather than as a blanket coverage layer, which is best provided for using low and middle range radios. Table 7.1 Typical bandwidths and coverage ranges for different 5G frequency ranges. Typical bandwidth (MHz) Typical coverage range Low frequency range GHz) 10-60 2-2.5 km Mid-frequency range GHz) 1-1.5 km High frequency range (>24 GHz) 400-1200 100-500 m 7.4 Deployment Considerations High- High- High- Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4 Option 5 Option 6 Option 7 Option 8 High- High- High- Figure 7.1 Possible NG-RAN functional splits (Source: Reproduced by permission of © 3GPP). 7.4.4 Transport Considerations Whichever band a NG-RAN radio is operating in, it needs to be connected to the core net- work and Internet through some kind of backhaul and often fronthaul and midhaul trans- port network (see Section 6.6). While the bandwidth required for the backhaul depends on user data rates only, the fronthaul bandwidth also depends on the RAN architecture protocol split. Figure 7.1 (3GPP TR 38.801) illustrates various functional splits considered in 3GPP and other organizations (e.g. O-RAN), which are explained in detail in Chapter 4. When modeling th