5 g rationales and strategic insights

Whitepaper – 5G Rationales and strategic Insights - Setting the NexGen Paradigm
Copyright © 2018 Fundarc Communication (xgnlab)Page 1
Purpose
Executive Insights
New Paradigms
eLAA & LWA
Convergence in 5G and NSA mode
5G as Large Scale Convergence
ONAP

3GPP NorthBound API
MEC-Mobile Edge Computing
Application Defined Networking - magical dimensions
Network Slicing
New Spectrum-New Radio
Higher Frequency Spectrum – mmWave
Massive MIMO BeamForming
Massive MIMO BeamForming Design and Verification Challenges
TM9 Functionality
Challenges Ahead
Strategic recommendations on 5G migration
Conclusive Remark
References –
Author’s info
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Purpose
It’s about rationales and strategic
vision for 5G, which going to be a
technology beyond cellular systems.
5G is about incorporation of multiple
technological advancements, at
larger scale, to address the variety of
applications and verticals. We refer
this, comprehensively, with notion of
“Large Scale Convergence or LSC in
-short”, which provides universal
nature of architecture evolution for
next gen telecom networks. This
said to be large scale, as it is about
to set larger horizon for network
services enablement’s and delivery.
Convergence, as it is setting
paradigm like “homogeneous
connectivity through heterogeneous
networks”. We also envision LSC as
upside down view of network slicing
enablement.

The idea behind selecting the term ‘LSC
- Large Scale Convergence’ comes from
below meanings…..
[The large scale in meteorology (also known
as synotical scale or cyclonic scale) is a
horizontal span scale.]
[A convergence zone in meteorology is a
region in the atmosphere where two prevailing
flows meet and interact, usually resulting in
distinctive weather conditions.]
Executive Insights
5G is, essentially, a vision that techno
savvy people across industry have in
combination. it’s about the uses of
currently evolved technologies for the
better applicability on most modernize or
next gen applications. In that sense, it
is not another cellular system or a
wireless broadband access connectivity
system only, but definitely a
communication system with far larger
perspectives.
The sequential term 5G has comes
through, to address the ITU-T IMT 2020
recommendation for the next gen
communication systems, to cater the
need of upcoming applications from a
wider industry space, and the
improvements over ITU-T advance
recommendation for 4G.
Mostly, these recommendations caters,
more spectrum utilization, better
spectrum efficiency, high data rates,
very low latency or even ultra-low
latency, high subscriber density, power
efficiency, flexibility, comprehensive
automation, and fast deployment etc.
Industry is not limited to these
recommendations only and has taken a
larger view. 5G is being seen to, enable
smart cities, automate industries,
connect & automate vehicles, transform
various vertical industries, adaptable to
versatile applications, provide
everywhere connectivity, generate big
data for analytics & machine
learning(ML), cater IOT/IOE, etc.
That’s makes it a technology for next
industrial revolution, known as
Industry 4.0, that entice a never
ending brainstorm to talk and
discuss on it. Interestingly the
opinions on 5G, from industry
persons or technology veterans, still
maturing and being deliberated. in
due course 5G will be settling with its
impact on economy and social
empowerment. As per GSMA
forecast, the 5G connection will
reach to 1.1 Billion, 12 % of total
mobile connections around 2025. The
overall operator revenue will grow
with CAGR 2.5 % and will reach 1.3
Trillion USD by 2025.
5G is not yet concretely defined term
and also being hyped to an extent. This
hype is definitely not exorbitant rather
this is the much necessity to deliberate
on it. It is based on well-grounded
although not yet matured technologies.
Industry still has to be matured to build-
up the confidence, on part of business
decisions, use cases, investment plan

etc. There is a definite eye on the
progress of these technological
developments and adaptations, and
industry is taking selective approaches
so far.
Despite of much conundrum around,
5G is being seen as game changer, a
trailblazer for setting the next gen
networks horizon. The incumbents
and industry giants want to take lead
and dominance on this. Verizon has
come up with his own version of 5G
standards, said to be its proprietary,
developed through Verizon 5G
Technology Forum (V5GTF), and also
similar stands were taken by SK
telecom in Korea, i.e. with its own
version of early 5G developments. It
is Interesting to note that both of
these companies have already tested,
and now progressing to rollouts their
proprietary version of 5G for
commercial uses. Verizon
commercialized its’ home broadband
services from 1st Oct 2018. This is
possible because of Samsung has
taken early approval of their 5G
systems from FCC, to launch
commercial 5G. It is said that those
are based on proprietary 5G
standards from Verizon, and will be
upgraded with 3GPP 5G standards.
Contrary to that AT&T remained stick
to 3GPP standards in their 5G plan
and now they are going to come,
probably with the beginning of 2019,
with rollout of their 5G network with
mobility. It is to be noted that as of
now these early roll outs are on
millimeter waves 28 GHz spectrum
and will provide NSA mode mobility,
what AT&T claims in its impending
5g rollouts, also like in Verizon case,
The proprietary versions of radio
differ from the 3GPP based
compliance for 5G NR.
5G is about “scaling up”, not only in
context of ITU-T 2020 recommendation
but for industry outlook in general. Its a
technology which provides, scaled up
performance, industry wide impact &
coverage, and tremendously versatile
use cases. It’s also about scaling up the
investment, risk associated, and
economical and social impact etc. As
the recent ‘ITU report 2018’ on 5G,
warranted to tackle the 5G with
balanced approaches - like prudent
investments, as per the need and
requirements, - and also alerting to look
after larger perspective for socio
economic impacts.
The policy makers, really has to draw
the right and much deliberated picture
while dealing with 5G deployments.
Spectrum uses, allocation, and sharing,
must be effective to cover larger
perspective of socio economic
considerations.
CBRS is in this line, a well deserve
initiative from FCC, and also the legacy
or low frequency (700 MHz) spectrums
need to be re-farmed for larger
applicability.
Also there is much apprehension across
industry that 5G is not in immediate

need, as LTE in its advanced version
can fulfill much the need of current
requirements.
Gigabit LTE has taken its shape, and
LTE advance has touched the data rate
as high as 1.4 GHz. LTE is deeply
rooted and far matured now - as a
cellular technology, use of unlicensed
spectrum, in form of LAA, is helping to
provide much needed bandwidth. Even
for the 5G roll outs, LTE is going to be
there, as much needed fallback
technology.
Although in early 5G cases, where NSA
mode is going to take place, LTE is the
anchor technology. We believe that’s
NSA mode going to be immediate future
for the 5G - as cellular network.
Moreover, there would be much pace
to adopt 5G in this and next year i.e.
2018-19, but true 5G will take due
time to emerge, due to much required
deliberation and maturity of technical
advances. The real start could be
anticipated from 2020, which will be
settling to maturity by 2025. ITU
report 2018’ on 5G support this
forecast for 5G emergence.
Most important part of talks and
discussions is about 5G monetization
and plausible use cases. As per the
recent reports on the industry
perceptions on 5G use cases, based on
widespread survey, the figure below
depicts the trends around the
adaptability of use cases. we radically
proclaim that’s the reality shown here in
vertical bars in image below.
Broadly, the vision for 5th
generation
wireless networks (5G) is to enable
readiness for applications and use cases
for the society of 2020. This would be done
by enhancing network throughput by 10x,
network scale and traffic capacity by 100x
at network efficiency that is 100x better
than 4G. Higher spectrum utilization,
specifically millimeter bands, is in focus for
boosting network throughput by 10x with
the goal of supporting 10-20Gbps peak
data rates and 100-50 Mbps downlink and
uplink sustained traffic. A much needed
throughput for high density requirements
like 1 million devices per km2 area.
Key technology for improving spectrum
utilization is to use a large number of
antennas at the radio, also called
Massive MIMO, for beamforming to
allow simultaneous sharing of the
spectrum resources in both time and
frequency domain among users. 100x

improvements in network scale and
traffic capacity is needed to support
massive Machine Type Communication
(mMTC) that will enable connectivity for
anything that can be connected.
Following need to be addressed in 5G
context.
More Spectrum – Below 6 GHz
and Above 6 GHz Specifically Millimeter
Waves
Ultra Low Latency & Ultra High
Density Uses
Uniform data rates, even in fringe
area
Quick service creation and
application deployment (<90 min)
High speed, peak and average
data rate
Green technology, low power
consumption
Unlicensed band /shared bands
like CBRS
Although 5G has taken the larger
horizon, its also captures those
perspectives which set it as sequential
move to next gen technology, like….
1. Tremendous growth of end
devices demanding for the connectivity.
2. Ultra-high density requirements.
3. Everywhere connectivity kind of
paradigm setting.
4. Eventual increase in high quality
video traffic.
5. Spectrum efficiency with wider
spectrum in use.
6. Green Technology - low power
consumption, low emission.
Also it’s going to cater next stage
applications, which define it a leap
forward technology from the previous
generation, like….
1. AR/VR application specific
requirements.
2. Industry vertical - like, IIOT,
automation etc.
3. Mission critical applications - like
easily and quickly deployable, adaptable
and flexible.
4. Dynamic connectivity- like D2D,
V2V and V2X.
5. Immersive experience - like
holographic calls and robotics etc.
Many upcoming proposal on 5G
impelling to change many facets of
wireless stack functionality that were
standardized as part of the 4G releases.
The industry is divided and rightly
questioning undoing functionality that is
working well in 4G, given the
unprecedented success of 4G LTE.
Worldwide view of 4G adv pro
deployment, in below figure, shows the

widespread adoption of 4G.
That’s where 4G and 5G both stream
will co-exist, as both will progress
simultaneously. This will be easing the
operators, who have invested massive
on 4G technologies, to migrate to 5G
gradually. This also necessitates to
safeguard, their investment and
futuristic upgradation.
Broadly, in a nutshell, 3GPP and ITU
has categorized 5G use cases in three
categories.
• IOT/IOE
• eMBB
• URLLC
IOT/IOE is most evidential use case
category for 5G, due to 5G capabilities
of connecting millions of devices per
km2 and molding the network for
various vertical application demands by
network slicing.
5G is assumed to provide everywhere
connectivity with high bandwidth data
capability. Most opt for application for
5G would be eMBB - High quality video,
video conversation and live streaming
are some of the example people opt for
in there next devices as of 5G capable.
5G ultra low latency has put a separate
attention to provide URLLC (ultra-
reliable and low latency communication)
applications. 5G radio latency of 1ms
and E2E latency of 5-10 ms will provide
a remarkable impact of 5G architecture
as well.
URLLC has got visualized for low
latency MTC type communication like
robotics and VR/AR applications, and
also in some cases for mission critical
applications too. Ultra-low latency has
far reaching effect on pure 5G
architecture definition. This ultra-low
latency would provide a magical
paradigm shift in terms of network
availability, consistency and service
integrity.
New Paradigms
5G Architecture going to be much
deliberated conundrum, for bringing the
much far sighted simplicity. It would be
guided by the few strengthening pillars-
5G use cases
Ultra
low
latenc
y
High
capaci
ty
Massiv
e
conne
ctivity
High reliabilityHigh Availability

1. Complete separation of control
and data plane,
2. Distributed control plane &
service oriented architecture.
3. Convergence of multi radio at
data plane.
4. Access or Edge network & Non-
access or Core Network.
The complete separation of control
and data plane give a flexibility in
terms of technology amalgamation,
where control plane can be taken
over by much mature technology, in
terms of coordination, scalability and
interoperability. No doubt it is about
LTE in its advanced and advanced-
pro forms, though some 5G specific
improvements would have to bring
in, like Control plane latency,
reliability and coverage for mass
connectivity.
Whereas data plane would be about
converging of various other
technologies for delivering services
including LTE , 5G, and WiFi as well.
3GPP has already made official its NSA
architecture to include 5G NR. In fact it’s
a fastest move where 5G will take a
required pace, where LTE would be an
anchoring technology. NSA is evolution
from LTE advance pro technologies like
LTE-U, LAA, and LWA.
3GPP has already planned its road map
for next releases to improve LTE latency
(to best suit for 5G control plane), and
enhanced bearer connecting in terms of
number of bearers, also network
availability and spectrum efficiency.
Core
network
Access
converg
ence
Service
creation
and
policy
Control
and
coordina
tion at
Access
Resour
ce
control
Unifie
d
Core/s
ervice
deliver
y
CN/SD
N
Data
chann
els

eLAA & LWA
3GPP release 15 is the offcut for 5G,
but release 14 has also knocking stuff to
account for 5G beginning.
Evolved LAA and upcoming LWA
from 3GPP could be very well taken
as a profound way or first steps for
converging paradigm. The upcoming
5G architecture would be having an
influential take on such paradigm.
Convergence in 5G and NSA mode
Convergence of unlicensed and
licensed is the foremost step towards
5G-convergence, specifically for LTE
assisted architecture (LAA), a much
needed solution for evolved networks.
This is not only about being curious for
LAA or LWA, as these solutions provide
converge or aggregation approaches -
like carrier aggregation (CA) or split
bearer approach respectively. There are
also ample possibilities to converge or
aggregate at network level i.e. a smart
pipe approach –much flexible for 5G
architecture. 3GPP has also turned it
focus and accepting the similar
requirements for 5G roadmap. Figure
below depicts the concept of WiFi and
LTE convergence at IPRAN level using
Local PGW, Where WiFi can be used as
associated data path for LTE controlled
network.
Also Wi-Fi is coping up with 5G through
its advancement like 802.11ax (recently
rebranded as WiFi 6) and in unlicensed
high frequency spectrum like for 60GHz,
802.11Conv. Qualcomm recently
showcased 10Gbps with its 60GHz WiFi
Chipset QCA64x8 and QCA64x1, also
with wire-equivalent latency.
5G as Large Scale Convergence

We visualize the 5G network - as
convergence of various technologies at
larger scale - be it access, transport or
core, all with comprehensive
orchestration and management. This
provides a larger horizon of network
capability for service enablement and
delivery as per the need of applications,
in flexible, scalable, operational,
manageable and service oriented way.
It is not only about convergence of
different technologies, but a
comprehensive framework which
allow and enable to deliver the
services as per the requirement of
various applications, irrespective of
underlying technologies.
That’s also the way where 5G would be
application defined, and being assumed
to provide universal approach to
address various applications demands,
that will require to pull-up layers for
more abstraction to address new and
versatile dimensions from various
applications. Therefore 5G as “large
scale convergence is about…..
● Facilitate required abstraction
to address versatile
dimensions of various
applications
● Provides homogeneous
connectivity through
heterogeneous networks, an
E2E paradigm.
● Incorporating multiple access
as well as transport
technologies
● A comprehensive E2E
approach while setting 5G
network.
● To define the 5G landscape, i.e.
a large scale unified horizon.
● Its’ facilitate network slicing.
There comes an eminent need for a
right platform to create such framework,
which can emulate necessary
abstraction of the large scale facilitation.
These facilitations are in terms of
required resources, their orchestration
and life cycle management. In cases,
also vendor selection and
interoperation, not confined to
technologies.

ONAP has emerged as the Platform for
management and orchestration and
enablement. It is about the tools and
platform which will help the network to
converge, configure, manage, organize
and orchestrate. This will provide the 5G
landscape a comprehensive platform to
operate in diversified but with
apprehensive approach.
ONAP
AT&T ECOMP has taken a credible
place here in form of ONAP. ONAP now
under the ownership of Linux foundation
has taken a comprehensive approach to
address this, rather, disruptive scenario.
ONAP is a platform which has taken up
various open source efforts in a
framework to harmonize and provide a
unified platform, for the service
management as well as network
management. ONAP has a modular
approach to combine various different
project in a harmonized way, these
modules are for orchestrations,
configuration, life cycle management
etc. etc.
ONAP is a kind of platform, which the
operators need to adapt for 5G. This is a
platform which will be enabling the
operator to adapt to 5G, and scale up as
large scale convergence (LSC).
VNF, Virtual network functions are going
to be the enabler to scale up the
network for 5G, and will be catalyst for
“5G as large scale convergence”. VNFs
are also going to create a broad
ecosystem from various classes of
vendors small as well as large.
ONAP provide a standardized approach
and a kind of incubatory for the
development, deployment and
management of VNF lifecycle.

3GPP NorthBound API
For better harmonization and
standardization of service provisioning
and control, 3gpp has taken the much
awaited step to work for northbound
APIs.
A Northbound API is an interface
between an Application Server (either in
a mobile operator’s network or external
to it - operated by a third party) and the
3GPP system via specified Functions in
a mobile operator’s network.
As ONAP is facilitation for south bound
activities 3GPP has come up with its
plan to provide northbound abstraction
for service creation and management.
These efforts from 3GPP have far
seeking impact on 5G to make it
application defined network. In words of
3GPP
“To realize standardized integration of
services with diverse service providers,
northbound APIs provide for interaction
at the application layer. This makes it
possible for mobile network operators to
offer a wide range of services beyond
prevalent teleservices - voice calls, SMS
and data service. Those services can be
exposed within the operator network or
to third parties in other networks. The
figure below is a simple model to
illustrate how the Common Framework
will develop as the study progresses.
The blue lines are defined by for all
services accessed by northbound APIs
– a common framework. The red lines
are specific interfaces to deliver a
particular service.”
Common API Framework will focus on
architectural aspects such as
registration, discovery and identity
management that generally apply to all
services. Common API Framework
Functions could be achieved uniformly
for such capabilities as Service API
discovery, monitoring and charging. TR
23.722 provides the 3GPP study work
for common API Framework (CAPIF).
Specific service API support the
specific needs of individual vertical
service offerings as well. For example,
work on Broadcast interfaces has
benefited from the participation of 3GPP
member organizations actively providing
broadcasting services. Similarly, MTC –
related service exposure is coordinated
directly with OneM2M and involves a
wide range of other participants.
In Release 14, the “eMBMS Delivery of
Media and TV Services” feature
provides broadcasters with the ability to
directly integrate their services with
mobile network operators over

standardized interfaces to the 3GPP
system. In Release 15, to correspond
with OneM2M release 2, 3GPP will
include functionality to directly expose
Cellular IoT and MTC capabilities via
northbound APIs.
3GPP currently focusses significant
resources on developing 5G standards.
5G aims to provide distinctive
performance and capabilities to meet
the needs of specific services. This will
intensify the existing focus on
integration with service providers in
different service domains (often called
‘vertical industries.’) One aspect of this
may be a broadening range of
northbound APIs designed to expose
the capabilities and resources of 3GPP
operator’s networks and the broad
range of devices communicating over
them.
There exists lots of scope to set large
scale abstractions by incorporating
3GPP north bound API standardization
with ONAP modular approach. This will
be a beneficial stuff for service
providers, operators and vendors
harmonization, and making a much
hyped 5G expectation a reality.
MEC-Mobile Edge
Computing
MEC, Mobile Edge computing, is the
kingpin of ‘5G as Large scale
convergence’, i.e. giving a right gear to
set the wider horizon for network
services. ETSI in its latest whitepaper
acknowledged MEC as the key pillar for
5G specific KPIs for catering the
versatile applications.
This actually embarks upon the need for the
convergence at the access network. This
convergence not only going to cater
multiple technologies but various aspects of
application demands, those are unique to
each application. We refer to such demand
as magical dimensions, like for example,
how much latency is enough to support the
most stringent real time application? What
is the least interruption time to maintain the
service integrity for most consistent
application during transfer of end user from
one point of connect to other point of
connect to access the serving network, or
during the fault recovery from transient
faults with in the network itself.
These could be some of the citation for
the requirements for the highly available
network. These magical dimensions i.e.
networks which are so highly available
that the application is completely
transparent of their internal behavior for
environmental changes like, mobility,
fault & recovery.

This convergence will be contingent
upon Mobile edge computing i.e. MEC
in short. This is because of the ‘large
scale’ requirements from variety of
applications, which need to be catered
in flexible, scalable and well defined
way and that is also the way the MEC
itself will be defined. Therefore both are
mutually inclusive things and also most
of the application delivery and
operational logic will move to the edge.
As per ETSI, edge computing is
acknowledged as one of the key pillars
for meeting the demanding Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) of 5G,
especially as far as low latency and
bandwidth efficiency are concerned.
However, not only is edge computing in
telecommunications networks a
technical enabler for the demanding
KPIs, it also plays an essential role in
the transformation of the
telecommunications business, where
telecommunications networks are
turning into versatile service platforms
for industry and other specific customer
segments.
ETSI ISG MEC (Industry Specification
Group for Multi-access Edge
Computing) is the home of technical
standards for edge computing. The
group has already published a set of
specifications (Phase 1) focusing on
management and orchestration (MANO)
of MEC applications, application
enablement API, service Application
Programming Interfaces (APIs) and the
User Equipment (UE) application API.
The MANO and application enablement
functions contribute to enabling service
environments in edge data centers,
while the service APIs enable the
exposure of underlying network
information and capabilities to
applications. One of the key value-
adding features of the MEC specification
is this ability for applications to gain
contextual information and real-time
awareness of their local environment
through these standardized APIs. This
local services environment is a flexible
and extendable framework.
Application Defined
Networking - magical
dimensions
When we say, that networks, which are
so highly available that the application is
completely transparent of their internal
behavior for environmental changes like,
mobility, fault & recovery etc. We not
only caring for the dimensions of
applicability, we also see the feasibility.
We know that even currently available
networks provide very high availability
and the consistency of the service is
maintained during hand off, connection
failure & recovery, reselection of access
points etc. There are quite procedural
executions at network and terminal
level, to maintain such availability with
fare transparency to the application.
The magical networks paradigm is to
make such lengthy procedural execution

to almost disappear or reduce them to
the negligibility of computation.
And this is very much feasible if your
latency of access is coming down and
down, and also with some of
architectural evolution. The core of the
network, where the context of the
application requirement for the delivery
of services is retained, is dissolving to
totally flat architecture with all-IP
paradigm. There are no rigid or strict
architectural requirements in terms of
core network architecture as the NFV
and cloud is blurring the boundaries of
computational requirement of network
specific functionalities. What is needed
a right orchestration.
There are no exaggerations in these
magical dimensions, as 3GPP setting
certain KPI in evolving next gen
architecture, like 0 ms interruption time
in case of mobility or fault recovery.
Radio latency is 1 ms and for URLLC
specifics, lot of front end
computation/procedural stuff are being
distributed or minimized.
That means networks are such that the
end users are able to access service
with minimum set up time due to less
procedural computation and very low
latency. The mobility is such that the
procedural executions are negligible to
provide the hands off but rather like a
seamless plug-in from one point of
connect to other point of connect so fast
and consistent that the magic has
occurred below the line, and completely
transparent for the things above the line.
Network Slicing
Network slicing is a phenomenal aspect
of 5G system, as it provides 5G it true
versatility, Without network slicing talk of
5G becomes handicapped, it’s about
downside-up visions of LSC. Network
slicing basically is OSS/BSS
terminology, where from we can
segregate or mold the network
resources for specific need of
applications. It’s about effective
utilization of underlying network which
provide a unified horizon for real
enablement’s of network services.
Network slicing can be used to create
multiple virtual network as per the need
of services, application and business
specific requirements, and that is only
feasible if we have a larger horizon
underneath and that is also about
“Large Scale Convergence or LSC”.
Recently Nokia has bragged about open
standards for network slicing not only in
mobile specific network but also for fixed
networks, As per nokia using network

slicing, fixed home broadband networks
can be segregated for multiple use and
most importantly for 5G transport.
Network slicing has versatile
advantages, as for in roaming
interworking, MVNOs etc. As a result
the non mobile or telecom player may
also come into business of
communications.
As per Nokia “network slicing could
also help co-operative efforts and co-
investment from competitors. The
physical deployment of the network
can be shared between any number
of Telco’s, with each then claiming
their own ‘slice’ which can be
managed and configured
independently. Openness and
collaboration seems like a nice idea,
though few competitors can play nice
unfailingly, but with network slicing
they only have to for a set period of
time (in theory) before turning their
attention to their own business.”
New Spectrum-New Radio
NR going to be the 5G radio standard.
NR is and will be in continuity for
incorporating new requirements and
upcoming features, for that 3GPP
decided 5G radio to be forward
compatible. We interpret it to
incorporate new dimensions for taking it
forward to application defined.
Higher Frequency
Spectrum – mmWave
5G is about 10-20 Gbps peak data rates
and to achieve this, wider channel
bandwidths are required. That’s where
the focus comes to higher frequency
spectrum in the range above 6 GHz. In
the US, the FCC is making mmWave
spectrum available at 28 GHz and 39
GHz. At these higher frequencies,
operators could see 400 MHz, 800 MHz,
or up to 1 GHz of additional bandwidth
for their networks. In LTE networks
current days, operator has just over a
100 MHz of aggregate channel
bandwidth in their network.
Signals at higher frequencies have their
own behavioral impacts on the design
and developments of radio system.
Higher frequencies are more likely to
attenuate at distance i.e. more
propagation loss, less diffraction
therefore low penetration i.e. low affinity
for multipath. Massive MIMO is the
technique with massive antenna and
LoS beamforming are the most viable
solutions, which requires antennas in
ranges of hundreds at base station side,

will be the key. These antennas will be
quite small by today’s standards. They
will use analog beamforming that is
more akin to the “smart antennas” of the
1990’s rather than the digital MIMO
ubiquitous to LTE.
Massive MIMO
BeamForming
One revolutionary change is in the use
of massive multiple- input / multiple-
output (MIMO) antenna schemes,
enabling spatial multiplexing and
maximizing the reuse of scarce
bandwidth. Massive MIMO beamforming
brings the major shift from the traditional
point-to-multipoint paradigm to a real-
time adaptive point-to-point link, with the
base station tracking the user and
steering its signal to them. Improved
antenna gain overcomes path loss,
enabling higher data rates per hertz.
All of this drives new requirements for
the development and implementation of
massive MIMO technology within the 5G
ecosystem. This has implications for the
tools required to simulate, design and
test highly complex systems containing
tens or hundreds of antennas and the
associated communication pathways.
Massive MIMO BeamForming Design and
Verification Challenges
In contrast, for a mobile system, a
moving user will be tracked and served
by a beam from a particular base station
until that beam is blocked and service is
interrupted. Communication will be
reinstated from a beam transmitted from
another antenna that has an
unobstructed path. These beam
handovers will be more infrequent than
the fast beam scanning implemented in
a fixed wireless system.
Massive MIMO is about multi-channel
beam forming techniques e.g. a
network-side (base-station) spatial
multiplexing technique designed to
improve data rates per user. A much
needed technical approach to address
the high density areas for fair and
ubiquitous data rate distribution.
MIMO designs will be in the range of
hundreds of antennas, beamforming in
azimuth and elevation i.e. 3D
beamforming, and so there is number of
channels requirements for
measurements, 2D antenna pattern
measurements will not work to validate
overall system performance.
TM9 Functionality
For the massive MIMO, the devices and
the networks both must be compatible
for TM9 transmission mode. It leverages
advanced beamforming schemes
between the network equipment and the
mobile device to raise network spectral
efficiency and customer speeds.

Challenges Ahead
There are various areas of challenges in
respect to 5G, whether it is about
standardization, development or
deployment. There need to be large
scale coordination to various
functionaries, as 5G is being tackled
with multiple approaches and in a
fragmented environment. 5G
functionaries in process has to be of
continuity, like continuous improvement,
continuous integration, continuous
optimization etc. etc.
Although 3GPP has officially announced
the standardization of NSA mode NR for
5G beginning but in actuality it a
subsequent evolution of 3GPP road
map and 5G in its esoteric form has to
take a long way. Therefore 3GPP has
many challenges ahead too, wide scope
and all-encompassing goals for 5G has
resulted in a hype cycle that has led to
significant increase in proposals for
standardization. It is not feasible to
evaluate such a large number of
technology proposals and come up with
standard specifications in a timeframe to
start 5G deployments by 2020.
These proposals aim to change many
facets of wireless stack functionality that
were standardized as part of the 4G
releases. The industry is divided and
rightly questioning undoing functionality
that is working well in 4G given the
unprecedented success of 4G LTE.
Prolonged debates to build consensus
within standard working bodies further
add to the delay. Therefore 5G will go
along with 4G support and take its due
time to that could be expected to have
real start from the year 2020 itself and
gaining the maturity by 2025
To complicate matters further, operators
are anxious to deploy 5G sooner,
particularly for high capacity fixed
wireless access links to substitute the
expensive last mile fiber access, like
Verizon has started commercial home
broadband services using 5G ‘millimeter
wave’ with proprietary NR standards, or
fill the time to market gap for these links.
Test bed are already being set and
tested this year, like for 2018 winter
Olympics in PyeongChang, Korea and
2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Strategic recommendations on
5G migration
5G Migration is not a easy game it’s
about long term planning and
continuous coordination with in the
emerging ecosystem. As 5G, in real
sense of a wider horizon of network
services, apart from much improved
KPIs.
5G is about having a comprehensive
approach, and first and foremost
thing for any operator is to enrich its
orchestration, operation and
management systems. As jumping
into 5G with all kind of investment, its
mandatory to use the 5G infra in
effective and efficient way.

LTE is a far matured technology, and
now with its advanced form, without
doubt, that it can surpass many of the
use cases that foreseen for 5G. Also
3GPP provided NSA mode standards
for 5G, using LTE as anchor technology.
This also facilitate operator to enhance
their network in gradual way. LAA and
CA are the technologies have touched
Gbps data rates.
5G in Standalone (SA) mode is a
longtime dream, as there are
challenges associated with millimeter
wave propagations, mobility etc. Also
making it a next cellular system is
not about a next step but a leap frog
jump.
Conclusive Remark
A good amount of debate is actively
happening within the industry on viable
use cases. Fixed wireless access, smart
cities, augmented reality/virtual reality
applications, and autonomous cars are
the leading use cases, commercial and
regulatory concerns persist in the broad
adoption of these use cases.
5G already being commercialized with
fixed home broadband by Verizon, and
much of the use cases
commercialization is in pipeline, but 5G
is still in evolution phase as what the
things are coming out is millimeter wave
radio not a holistic 5G approach as that
going to take long time and deliberation,
industry wide coordination. Although 5G
approach will Hughley depends on
virtualization, automation and
orchestration and some of the forums
and platform are definitely working for
the right industry specific coordination,
like Linux foundation for ONAP.
That’s also includes integration of
several vertical industries such as
energy, health and transportation
markets.
5G is happening fast, there being
testimonials for the same by end of
2017 and much is being expected far
early in 2018. Massive MIMO has
been tested, NR has got
standardized, End to End 5G call also
taken place and seamless roaming
with network slicing has been tested
on test bed. 5G when happens,
operators will have a short time to
get their networks and service
platforms ready and upgraded.

Operators and service providers cannot
afford to wait and watch and risk
missing the market, network upgrades
and capacity enhancements will happen
despite the uncertainty and misaligned
objectives within the ecosystem
For these reasons, operators have to
build agile networks that are flexible,
scalable and extendable and there is a
movement within the industry to come
up with programmable platforms that
can be rapidly updated and enhanced to
catch the wave of new services
revenue.
As vendors, including hardware
vendors, are skeptical about the
standard stabilization on technology
they are having ad hoc approaches to
provide hardware based on
programmable FPGAs and SoCs, those
are specifically designed to address
evolving 5G market requirements. Early
stage 5G developments, proof of
concepts, test beds and early
commercialization trials are leveraging
these technologies, ASICs are not
viable this early stage in the 5G
standardization phase. The key value
proposition of such platforms is that
these systems can be dynamically
repurposed to support any function and
host evolving algorithmic
implementations.
5G is not immediately available, as
there are a lot is required for
operation & management and
capabilities bring ups. It is about
wider horizon with large scale
convergence, although early steps of
5G would be to use millimeter wave
with 5G NR in Fixed mode or in NSA
mode mobility. That makes it obvious
for having Dual connectivity in place
for immaculate approach as for 5G
enablement and fall back cases.
References –
1. Millimeter wave as the future of 5G, Robert W. Heath Jr., PhD, PE. University of
Texas at Austin.
2. Document IEEE 802.11-16/35lrl by Richard Burbidge Intel Corporation.
3. October 13, 2015 GSA report: Evolution of Technology
4. ETSI white paper 11 – MEC A Key Technology Towards 5G
5. ETSI white paper 28 - MEC in 5G Networks
6. NGMN-5G E2E Architecture framework, v0.6.5

7. 5GPPP European 5G annual journal 2017
8. 3GPP TR 38.913 v0.3.0 (2016-03)
9. 3GPP TR 23.722 – Study of common API frame work of 3GPP North Bound APIs
10.3GPP TS 26.347 MBMS API for TV broadcasting service logic
11.http://www.telecomtv.com/articles/5g/3gpp-takes-control-of-northbound-apis-for-
5g-enabled-vertical-services-15618/
12.ONAP architecture overview https://www.onap.org/wp-
content/uploads/sites/20/2017/12/ONAP_CaseSolution_Architecture_120817_FN
L.pdf
13.ONAP OOM Solution brief https://www.onap.org/wp-
content/uploads/sites/20/2017/12/ONAP_CaseSolution_OOM_1217.pdf
14.ITU 5G Report 2018
15.TM Forum 5G Monetization Report - 5G Monetization : Operational Imperative
july 2018
Author’s info
Saurabh Verma, is having vast industry experience in telecom and networking space,
he started his career from Govt of India telecom R&D premier organization, and worked
across various MNCs for development of switches and base stations systems, his
recent focus being with telecom network solutions on 4G and 5G specific technologies.
Also his major interest area being solutions around WiFi and Cellular integrations, and
upcoming convergence in 5G networks with significant focus on MEC or Multi Access
edge computing.
Disclaimer - The contents and figures expressed here for standards or publically
exposed technologies are duly referenced or taken from referenced documents. We
intently have not copied or resembled in our writing for expressing our innovative ideas,
either in text or in figures. The ideas expressed here are purely original in text and
figures. The text used to explain the open technological concepts and figures to explain
that are only for explanatory purpose and no intention of commercialization or use for
advantage. This is an expression of about pure conceptualization of ideas and claims or
pertain no authorization about standards or industry views to be claimed for.
Saurabh Verma
Chief Technology Consultant & Founder Director
Fundarc Communicaton (xgnlab)
[SME –WG] 5GPPP EU Networld 2020
www.xgnlab.com

© Copyright - This is a draft version of the document, may go with changes, all
the copyright stand for “Fundarc Communication (xgnlab)”, any form of
replication or reoccurrences of the ideas or thoughts expressed in this document
would be directly taken as infringement with rights and interference with
property.

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