3GPP Spectrum Access Evolution Towards 5G

Authors: Michal Szydelko (Movilo), Marcin Dryjanski (Grandmetric)
Type: Journal article

The ever-increasing needs for more spectrum resources, and the emerging new Radio Access Technologies under the 5G umbrella add to the complexity of the Spectrum Toolbox in mobile networks landscape. This article covers 3GPP LTE evolution from Release 8 up to the Release 14, which deals with the LTE-Advanced Pro enhancements. A collection of available frequency bands, spectrum aggregation mechanisms, licensing and duplexing schemes, as well as spectrum sharing and refarming techniques is described. With such a classification, Spectrum Toolbox is defined and its evolution directions are discussed, with the opportunities and challenges of the individual features summarized. Studies on the new non-backwards compatible Radio Access Technology, as well as the new channel models for higher frequency bands are also covered. The presented 3GPP Spectrum Toolbox is considered as a baseline for the introduction of the new air interface framework towards 5G ecosystem in the context of future mobile networks enhancements.

Source: M. Szydelko, M. Dryjanski, “3GPP Spectrum Access Evolution Towards 5G”, EAI Endorsed Transactions on Cognitive Communications, Vol. 3, Issue 10 (doi: 10.4108/eai.23-2-2017.152184)

* “Copyright © 2017 M. Szydelko and M. Dryjanski, licensed to EAI. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unlimited use, distribution and reproduction in any medium so long as the original work is properly cited.”

Keywords: 3GPP evolution, 5G, LTE-A pro, Spectrum management, Spectrum toolbox, WRC-15