It’s early days in 5G deployment and while Vodafone, as far as I know, has not yet launched their 5G network in the UK they have already published a coverage map so one can get an impression of where 5G will be available once they open up their network.
In the previous two posts on 5G NR massive MIMO, a.k.a. beam forming, I’ve gone into the basic principles of what it can be used for in practice and how antennas for beam forming will look like. Great background information from Keysight and Ericsson respectively. The next question I then had was how mobile device … Continue reading 5G: How To Control Beamforming
So far I’ve always made a quick and approximate calculation when somebody asked me what the theoretical peak data rate of 5G NR would be for a given bandwidth. But there is a more scientific way to do this as 3GPP has put a formula together to include all relevant factors in the calculation. Using … Continue reading 5G NR Throughput Calculator
Network operators in a lot of countries around the world are getting ready at the moment to launch first 5G networks in the 3.x GHz spectrum (i.e. 3GPP band n78). One of the particularly interesting things about this band is that its made for TDD operation and not FDD as most operators are used to. … Continue reading 5G NR in 3.x GHz – Up- and Downlink Configuration
In the previous two parts on the topic I’ve been looking at why there is a need to evolve the initial 5G network architecture in which 5G base stations are merely a side-kick to the LTE access and LTE core to a pure 5G access and a 5G core network. There are several ways how … Continue reading 5G Beyond Option 3 – Pt. 3
In the previous part on this topic I’ve been looking at why it is unlikely that we will see 5G NR Option 3 networks directly transitioning to a 5G-only Option 2 architecture. So how could intermediate steps look like?
At the moment, most network operators scrambling to deploy 5G are doing so based on EN-DC (EUTRAN-New Radio – Dual Connectivity) which is also referred to as ‘Option 3’. As the longer abbreviation suggests, this way of deploying 5G uses the ‘legacy’ LTE radio network as a base and connects a 5G radio network alongside … Continue reading 5G Beyond Option 3 – Pt. 1
It’s sad to see history repeating itself. Back in 2012 one network operator in the US that, at the time, had not yet introduced LTE decided to just rebrand its dual carrier HSPA network into 4G. Done, a 4G network overnight out of thin air with a bit of a creative redesign of the network … Continue reading US Marketing Does It Again – 3G became 4G – Now 4G becomes 5G
There is a lot of media attention in Germany on the upcoming spectrum auction for 5G that is scheduled for early 2019. Like in previous rounds, spectrum is awarded via an auction to the highest bidders. Someone recently asked me if spectrum has always been auctioned so I had a look in my archive to … Continue reading 5G Auctions – Let’s Look Back to 1989
In a previous post I referenced a paper of Keysight as a good starting point to understand how Active Antenna Systems (AAS) that have been specified for 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) could improve overall capacity in a cell and extend the cell range. Today, I have found another interesting paper on the topic that … Continue reading 5G Active Antenna Systems (AAS) Revisited