Spectrum toolbox evolution towards 5G (conference paper)

Date: 19.05.2016

This short overview on the Spectrum Toolbox is based on the article “Spectrum Toolbox Survey: Evolution Towards 5G“, by Michal Szydelko and Marcin Dryjanski that will be presented on the Conference on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks (CROWNCOM 2016), held this month in Grenoble, France.

Note: This post is prepared with Michal Szydelko, who is the founder of Movilo Ltd. (michal.szydelko@movilo.net).

Figure below presents an example of the Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) comprising of macro- and Small Cell (SC) layers, accompanied with various spectrum access techniques, including e.g. Carrier Aggregation (CA) and Dual Connectivity (DC) covering both, licensed and unlicensed frequency bands.

Towards 5G

Spectrum Toolbox covers the available frequency bands, spectrum aggregation mechanisms, licensing and duplexing schemes, as well as spectrum sharing and refarming techniques. Spectrum Toolbox evolution over the LTE releases is summarized in the table below[2].

3GPP release	LTE: Rel-8, 9	LTE-A: Rel-10, 11, 12	LTE-A Pro: Rel-13, 14	5G phase I: Rel-155G phase II: Rel-16
Frequency bands [GHz]	0.7, 0.8, 1.8, 2.1, 2.3-2.4, 2.5-2.6GHz	0.45 (Brazil),Digital Dividend, 1.5, 3.4-3.8GHz	5GHz ISM;WRC-15 bands	New bands below 6GHz for 5G RAT;mmW: 6-100GHz; WRC-15/19 bands
Spectrum aggregation	Single Carrier (1.4-20MHz),Symmetric DL/UL	Dual Connectivity,CA variants: – up to 5CC, – intra-/ inter-band, – (non)continuous, – FDD and/or TDD – Co-located, RRH; – asymmetric DL/UL	Massive CA (32CC), LAA (5GHz), LWA, eLWA, SDL for CA:2.3-2.4GHz	Multi-Connectivity with asymmetric DL/UL,SDL for CA: 700MHz, 2.5-2.6GHz, Lean carrier
Spectrum licensing schemes	Licensed spectrum only	Licensed, Carrier Wi-Fi	Licensed, Unlicensed, DL LAA, LWA, LSA, eLWA	Co-existence of: exclusive licensed, shared license-exempt spectrum, enhanced LAA (DL+UL)
Duplexing schemes	Separate FDD, TDD	FDD and TDD (CA-based),eIMTA	FDD Flexible Duplex	Full Duplex,Additional DL-only TDD configurations
Sharing schemes	Static schemes (MOCN, MORAN)	Static schemes (MOCN, MORAN)	RSE, LSA	LSA (new bands),SC sharing, SCaaS, spectrum trading, Cognitive Radio
Spectrum refarming	Static	Static	Dynamic Spectrum Allocation, Multi-RAT Joint Coordination	Fully dynamic, opportunistic, Cognitive Radio

Summary

Spectrum Toolbox includes a wide set of bands ranging from 450MHz up to 100GHz with licensed and unlicensed spectrum, covering different licensing options, as well as different access schemes, Bandwidth aggregation mechanisms, duplexing and RATs. On top of that, 5G requirements target tight integration of all these elements to unify the operation of the next generation mobile systems and to provide the possibility to adapt to different use cases and scenarios that will further complicate the overall landscape.

In order to enable efficient usage of new spectrum licensing schemes (like LSA), considering scenarios which are evolving towards Ultra Dense Networks (UDN), the radio resources coordination shall be addressed on multiple levels, namely inter-MNO, inter-RAT, inter-site, inter-layer, inter-band dimensions. To achieve this, it is already obvious that the high level flexibility in the RF domain will be required. Additionally, high level of “programmability” of the baseband units will be needed, relying on Software Defined Networking (SDN) techniques, leading to dynamic spectrum access. On top of that, the overall design of future networks should natively incorporate SON engines, to manage the network towards unified user experience provided across multiple converged radio access technologies.

For more, see you in Grenoble!

Tags:

3GPP, 5G, LTE, Spectrum

Author

Marcin Dryjanski, Ph.D.

Marcin Dryjanski received his Ph.D. in telecommunications from the Poznan University of Technology in September 2019. During the past 15 years, Marcin has served as R&D Engineer, Lead Researcher, R&D Consultant, Technical Trainer, Technical Leader and Board Member. He has been providing expert-level courses in the area of 5G/LTE/LTE-Advanced for leading mobile operators and vendors. In addition to that, Marcin was a work-package leader in EU-funded research projects aiming at radio interface design for 5G including FP-7 5GNOW and FP-7 SOLDER. He co-authored a number of research papers targeting 5G radio interface design and a book "From LTE to LTE-Advanced Pro and 5G" published by Artech House. Marcin is co-founder of Grandmetric and co-founder and CEO at Rimedo Labs, currently focusing on Open RAN systems.

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