Test of 5G NR in 3.5 GHz band included massive MIMO; achieved 2 Gbps throughput
As the 3GPP continues its work to create a 5G NR (New Radio) specification, vendors and operators around the world continue to test pre-standard technologies in a push to rapidly commercialize 5G services.
The latest test of 5G NR, completed by vendor ZTE and compatriot operator China Unicom, focused on deploying 5G in sub-6 GHz spectrum, specifically the 3.5 GHz band.
The 5G NR spec is set to be included in Release 15 and is tracking for standard-compliant deployments in the 2020 timeframe. Earlier this year, at a plenary meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia, 3GPP members agreed to introduce an earlier, intermediate specification, non-standalone 5G NR, to facilitate large-scale trial deployments in 2019.
According to Lorenzo Casaccia , vice president of technical standards for Qualcomm Technologies, described the non-standalone and standalone variants of the 5G NR specification:
- Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G NR will utilize the existing LTE radio and core network as an anchor for mobility management and coverage while adding a new 5G carrier. This is the configuration that will be the target of early 2019 deployments (in 3GPP terminology, this is NSA 5G NR deployment scenario Option 3).
- Standalone (SA) 5G NR implies full user and control plane capability for 5G NR, utilizing the new 5G core network architecture also being done in 3GPP.
China Unicom used what ZTE sells as pre-5G equipment included a base station that supports massive MIMO, an unstandardized term most commonly used to refer to a 64×64 transmit/receive antenna configuration, as well as LDPC (low-density parity check).
The Shenzhen-based testing used a 100 megahertz channel to simulate an actual commercial network environment, and was predicated on work begun last year in China Unicom’s 5G lab. The end goal here is pre-standards deployments in 2019 followed by “large-scale deployment in 2020,” according to the company.
ZTE expects to see revenues from the sale of standardized 5G equipment in 2019, the company’s managing director for 5G solutions, Alex Wang, told reporters during a press conference on the sidelines of an recent event in Japan.
He said the company expects to see higher revenues from the sale of 5G-related equipment from 2020 onwards, noting this will depend on the mobile operators’ roadmaps for the commercial launch of 5G services.
Wang also said the vendor is working with U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm and numerous operators to carry out end-to-end tests. “It’s important the whole ecosystem works together, including handsets and chipsets. By 2019 and 2020, we believe we’ll have some commercial offering of handsets,” Wang said. “We consider Chinese and Japanese operators as following the more strict 3GPP-based definition, with launches around 2020. Any launch earlier than that is up to the individual operator to define, but we don’t think that’s standard compliant 5G,” Wang said.
