The document discusses key technology enablers for 5G networks, including 5G radio, ultra dense heterogeneous networks, mobile edge computing, network function virtualization, software defined networking, network slicing, and internet of things. The objectives of 5G include supporting peak data rates of 10Gbps, guaranteed rates of 50Mbps, latency of 1ms for radio access and 5ms end-to-end, high mobility up to 500km/hr, location accuracy of less than a meter, and connectivity for over 1 million devices per square kilometer. 5G aims to enable a wide range of new applications through these advanced capabilities.

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Table of content
Introduction
Objectives
Technology Enablers
5G Radio
Ultra Dense Heterogeneous Networks
MEC-Mobile Edge Computing
NFV-Network Function Virtualization
SDN-Software Defined Radio
Network Slicing & ADN (Application Defined Networking)
IOT-Internet of Things
Challenges
Conclusion
References
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6
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tippingthescale
for5g

2. introduction
The data deluge has broken all boundaries ever set for the broadband wireless communications. Conse-
quently, networks have evolved to provide higher and higher bandwidth after incorporating all the
advanced radio and networking technologies. The race is on and seems to be never ending, as this has
changed the entire ecosystem and boosted the confidence, to achieve unimaginable stuff. The capacity
to provide access to every nook and corner of the human life has been growing gigantic. Subsequently,
newer applications are emerging with game changing use cases. These are creating tremendous business
opportunities in the telecom arena.
Such technical advancement in wireless technology area is incorporating many computational advance-
ments as well, like virtualization, SDN, Cloud, Analytics, Bigdata etc. The significant focus is on providing
applications with path breaking use cases, many of which are falling under the umbrella notion of Internet
of Things i.e. IOT or Internet of everythings IOE. The progress and evolution of wireless broadband cover-
ing such landscape of technologies and widespread harvesting of applications on top of it is being coined
as “5th Generation networks” or 5G. Understanding 5G is to do a deep dive and simultaneously also fly
high, as this would be a two-way approach from top-to-bottom and from bottom-to-top.
Objectives
It is interesting to note that the objective for 5G is planned for catering the challenges predicted for the year
2020, under the recommendation from IMT2020. The foreseen advancement of the technical requirement
is there, in comparison with what was objectivized around 2008-2010 under the recommendation for
IMT-advanced. This is so because of the fact that the first commercial trial of 5G is expected to be under-
way by 2020 and 2009-2010 was the time for 4G emergence.
Some examples are - The volume of data is to reach by multi folds per geographical area and is expected
to be greater than 10 TBPS/KM2. It included 100x increase in the peak data rate per subscriber. Similarly
the power consumption of the network is to reduce by a factor of 10, this all is referenced to what was
there with networks in 2010.

3. At a high level of 5G expectations and objectives for wireless broadband, falling in the line of IMT2020
vision and recommendations. These are under discussion in various forums, such as NGMN and ITU-R,
indicate the following advances required by 5G systems:
The data volume requirement has come up from an assumptive calculation, from the statistical fact that to
cover a stadium with 30.000 devices relaying an event in social networks at 50 Mbps, on minimum guar-
antee bandwidth, would turn into a capacity of 10 Tbps/km². Further, high latency requirement for reduced
end-to-end latencies of the order of 5 ms are needed to support interactive applications like mission
critical sensor, some of the industry applications, and to ensure ultra-responsive mobile cloud-services.
The Wheel of fortune in reference to 5G objectives is depicted below in the figure, as per EUROCOMM
5G-PPP under their horizon2020 undertaking. It showcases the advancement from 4G to 5G.
Fig. 2: 5G advancements in respect to 4G and set objectives as per IMT2020 vision.
Source: EUROCOMM-5Gppp]
Peak terminal data rate per user is going to be in the order of 10Gbps.
Guaranteed user data rate is going to be in the order of 50Mbps.
Radio access latency expected to be in the order of 1ms and E2E 5ms.
High end terminal mobility up to 500 km/hour for ground transportation.
Terminal location accuracy would fall in the order of less than a meter.
Service deployment time in 5G network would be as reduce to less than 90 minutes.
Mobile data volume would be expected to reach up to 10 Tb/s/km2.
Terminal connectivity is expected to reach 1M terminals/km2.

4. Although several standardization bodies will potentially be involved in the 5G definition, predominantly
EUROCOMM is pioneering the work through FP7 HORIZON2020 program and 5G-PPP initiatives are
there for standardization and for defining the requirements for 5G. 3GPP will be most probably the focal
point for technical specifications, with 5G study items starting from 2015.
The charted plan for 5G roadmap under the various initiative has taken the shape given in the figure below.
5G radio will evolve through two parallel streams, one in the line of “LTE evolution” and would be backward
compatible, the other with disruptive inventions might be said as “pure 5G” and would not bound for back-
ward compatibility. So far so, they will split the spectrum band as well, one will operate on frequencies
lesser than 6Gh and other for above 6Gh frequency of 5G spectrum.
Fig. 3: 5G work road map in collaboration of various consortium works.
[Source: EUROCOMM 5Gppp]
5G Radio
Technology Enablers
5G spectrum range
1 GHz 3 GHz 10 GHz 30 GHz 100 GHz

5. It’s not only the frequency split, but also the operational split in terms of FDD and TDD and also a mix
would be decided based on the applicability of the scenarios, as for high dense area like stadium, cam-
puses and hotspot and even in in-building solutions, the higher frequency spectrum will be effective and
TDD will be the suitable answers. FDD with low frequency spectrum would be for high mobility, wider area
coverage, rural regions, and for low latency cases. The convergence of two will be for better adaptability,
flexibility, and agility of radio.
Fig. 4: Evolution to 5G segmented into pure 5G and LTE evolution.
[Source: EUROCOMM-5Gppp]
Fig. 5: FDD & TDD respective advantage as per the applicability in 5G systems.
3GPP Standardization of 5G RATs
R14 R15 R16
5G New RAT
WID phase I
eMBB for sub-6GHz
Non-standalone
5G New RAT
WID phase II
eMBB for above 6GHz
Massive MTC,
Critical MTC
5G scenarios and
requirement SI
High frequency
channel modeling
Backward compatible RAT (LTE evolution)
FD-MIMO, LAA, Latency reduction, LTE V2X,
non-orthogonal MA, massive MTC, relay enhancements....
Other feature SI
High frequency
technology SI
5G New RAT SI
Air interface
framework SI
5G
Non-backward compatible RAT
High mobility
Wide area Coverage
Very Low Latency
Massive Connections
FDD mode
Beam Forming
Flexible spectrum
uses
Higher side of spectrum
Ultra dense networks
TDD mode

6. Fig. 6: 5G waveforms candidates for possible take in 5G systems.
[Source: Qualcomm Technologies Inc]
5G Radio will have a selective waveform for radio interface based on use for the required applications like
highly dense network, wide area IOT, reliable or mission critical networks etc.
The wave form selected will depend on their best use in terms of spectrum utilization, interference man-
agement, power consumption or energy efficiency, latency and reliability and of course, complying with
regulation etc. Some of the qualified contenders for this are listed below in the figure.
OFDM-based multi-carrier waveformSingle-carrier waveform
Time domain symbol sequencing:
- Typically lower PAPR leading to high PA efficiency
and extended battery life
- Equalizer is needed to achieve high spectral
efficiency in the presence of multipath
Example waveforms:
- Constant envelops waveform, such as:
MSK (adopted by IEEE 80215.4)
GMSK (adopted by GSM and Bluetooth)
- SC-QAM (adopted by EV-DO and UMTS)
- SC-FDE (adopted by IEEE 80211ad)
- SC-FDM (adopted by LTE uplink)
- Zero-tail SC-FDM
Frequency domain symbol sequencing
- Support multiple orthogonal sub carriers within a
given carrier bandwidth
- Typically easy integration with MIMO leading to
improved spectral efficiency
Example waveforms:
- CP-OFDM (adopted by LTE spec)
- CP-OFDM w/WOLA (existing LTE implementation)
- UFMC
- FBMC
- GFDM
Ultra Dense Heterogeneous Networks
Heterogeneous networks has been center stage for LTE evolution. The emergence of smallcells, being the
enablers, has taken a mandatory part in network architecture. From an operator point of view, smallcells
were taken in network deployment scenarios for better spectrum re-usability and drawing more bits per
unit of frequency. The main forces for emergence of smallcells were capacity enhancements, coverage
solutions, and spectrum efficiency through its re-usability. Within 4G itself, the technology has evolved to
support the densification of smallcell networks through evolved interference management techniques like
eICIC or FeICIC, self-organizing techniques know as SON etc, and also the SON advancement techniques
based on predictive analysis like robust mobility etc.
5G is towards ultra-dense networks to cater to the need of high data volume as targeted in the range of
10Tbps/Km2. Highly dense smallcells, better to say here access point or AP, covering a cell area in the
range of only few meters, would be exaggerating the challenges of interference management and robust
mobility management. The techniques used for densification at LTE advance level, would not be fitting,
rather it would be handled through novel techniques like Cell virtualization for robust and efficient mobility,
and also for interference management through resource distribution.
The formation of virtual cells is a dynamic process here, and would be user centric. Each virtual cell will be
constituted of a master AP and one or more slave APs. The master will be at the helm of control at each
virtual cell and would be coordinating to each other, i.e. coordination between masters of each virtual cells
for handover etc. Also the channels used for coordination among master APs would again be on the
self-created backhaul over the air only. The techniques like beam forming & nulling, Massive MiMo,
mmWave for better penetration and higher throughput would take their course in the overall ultra-densifi-
cation of networks.

7. MEC-Mobile Edge Computing
MEC or Mobile Edge Computing is another enabler to provide flexibility at access for catering to various
service demands from a variety of applications. ETSI has standardized this term and it is all about having
application specific network functionalities at the radio edge, in close proximity to mobile, virtualized and
hosted on edge cloud. Edge cloud is about commodity server at edge having ability to host application
specific network function, so it is virtualization i.e. VNF at the edge or localized.
Fig. 7: 5G ultra dense heterogeneous network.
Fig. 8: Mobile Edge computing in 5G case.
VC1
VC2
Master AP1 Master AP2 Master AP3
Dynamic formation-Reformation
AP
UE mobility
VC3
Network
Orchestration
MEC
Data
Centre

8. There are infrastructure already in high end research like hyper-converge computing platform and network
and computing specific hypervisors for virtualization. MEC is going to have it secured place in 5G specific
network development.
Some of the examples of MEC enabled device are like residential gateways, M2M gateways, SON server,
content cache server, vCPEs etc.
MEC can also be taken as a framework for acceleration to increase the efficiency of next generation
service deployment, provisioning and delivery. For example, optimization of radio network, content specific
delivery, context or location based service integration. The operator could also encourage for a multi-ten-
ancy model of localised services through remote hosting or third party hosting.
Fig. 9: MEC infrastructure architectural diagram for the systems in 5G case.
[Source: ETSI]
NFV-Network Function Virtualization
Virtualization is the kingpin for addressing the challenge drawn on 5G networks, as operators are looking
to provide a broad range of services over 5G infrastructure, from low-latency connections for industrial
sensors, to multi-gigabit ones for virtual reality and video. To cope with that complexity and versatility of
application requirement, Virtualization is going to play a key role and the concept of NFV is taking the
central stage, virtualizing mobile network functionality at almost every point in the network, like in case of
next generation mobile access network points like vRAN, vEPC and also the IMS node functionalities.

9. SDN-Software Defined Radio
SDN and NFV are often put together, as both complement each other, but nowhere having any dependen-
cy at the fundamental concept level. Whereas, NFV is more about virtualizing network functions and
making them hardware agnostic, the SDN is about network programmability i.e. having the software sepa-
rate from the hardware or making a split between hardware and software. This split is generally interpreted
as the network management and control software is isolated from the data forwarding hardware, and the
accomplishment of this isolation is all about SDN on concept.
Though there is no rigid definition of SDN, what we define as separation of control plane and data forward-
ing plane has come from the ONF, Open Network Foundation, Founded by Software giants relying on data
centres for their operations, like Google, Yahoo, Facebook etc. The core of this architecture is open source
layer “openFLOW” which helps to manipulate the data flow control and is guided from isolated controller,
having end to end visibility of the network under operation.
SDN is not only about openFLOW, but from network vendors and OEM perspective, it’s about enhancing
the programmability of their network elements through exposing APIs, as Cisco and Juniper provide for
their equipment’s. These APIs expose the programmability of network to isolated control layer, on the top,
having end to end network visibility.
Fig. 10: 3GPP NFV reference architecture as per ETSI GS NFV 002 v1.1.1
Network function virtualization could be hosted on cloud, i.e. cloud will be providing the infra for running
the NFV. The cloud can be public cloud, private cloud, third party cloud services or localized cloud
infrastructure. The interesting side of bringing NFV to telco is to provide an architecture for mobile broad-
band network, which support diversified and multitude of applications and having on demand network
functions and infra. This is giving the benefit in TCO and on demand service creations.
The ONF has already supported the initiative to have a standardised platform for creating such infrastruc-
ture through cloud. Open source enablers like openFLOW, OpenStack, OpenNaaS, openDaylight are
defining the architecture framework to move ahead. Telecom vendors like Ericsson, have specific involve-
ment with openFLOW, to convert it for telco grade platform.

10. SDN is also about the overlay networks where the hypervisors like VxLAN, Linux Bridge provide a virtual
platform for providing network on demand and getting configured through separate control plane aware
of application requirements.
SDN is evolution is in the line of two paradigms, though interdependent yet separated, one in the line of
datacentre network, and other is for WAN networking. A generic architecture for SDN is depicted in the
figure below:
So in generic terms, SDN is about disintegration of hardware and software for best possible and cost
effective way, and also the separation of control plane with data plane in the best possible architectural
insight. This is with the objective of providing flexibility and scalability of networks with effective program-
mability and adaptive provisioning and control.
Fig. 11: SDN architecture - a canonical view for SDN generic architecure.
Network slicing & ADN (Application
Defined Networking)
As per the objective for 5G, like superfast service creation, to be specific to say that in less than 90
minutes, and the services to be hosted over the network indifferent to their variety of requirements.
The networks cannot be assumed to be rigid in terms of underlying infrastructure and also not for accom-
modating service specific infrastructure on the demand. Instead, networks would be capable of incorpo-
rating the service demand and provide and provision the infra accordingly, something which is known as
network slicing. The core of network slicing is to provide the flexibility for service creation at all levels, from
the service creation layers to network architecture, and at the root of network, the network resources.
Control & data
plane
disaggregration
Hardware &
software
disaggregration Switches/Routers
Hypervisor networking
Overlay protocol
Openflow, OVSDB, BGP
Network Provisioning & Control
[Mediation and Orchestration]

11. IoT – Internet of Things
5G is focused on IOT in terms of its objectives to provide connectivity to variety of devices and with a
capacity of connecting millions of devices per km2.
Though discussing IOT in details is not the objective here, we would still need to have a look as an enabler
for 5G. As per the 3GPP standards, machine type communication, known as MTC, has been broadly
categorized as massive MTC and mission critical MTC. Massive MTC is about low power devices most
probably specific sensors producing rudimentary data and having battery life in years, if not exaggerated,
may be for lasting for 10 years. On the other side, Mission critical MTC devices are high power computing
devices, producing the bulk of data like HD videos, text, voice etc. The mission critical MTC would be
requiring thorough management and control i.e. their own IT requirements and need to be optimized for
cost of operation etc.
Reliability and latency will be of high importance in almost all of the use cases under IOT. 5G is being well
equipped with radio waveforms and multiple access techniques like, for massive MTC, there are novel
multiple access techniques like RSMA, without a specific granting mechanism to avoid the system from
massive random access. Although OFDMA will be taking centre stage, but for the variety of application
and their use cases need, non OFDM will also be incorporated.
Artificial intelligence on the devices is also a discussion on hype for eMBB and IOT, as will help to select
the access for connectivity based on AI.
A logical instantiation of a network is often called a network slice. The enabler for these requirements are
the technologies already in their best hyped time like cloud and NFV along with SDN can help to provide
tools and abstraction to come up with virtualized layer that will help to define the comprehensive architec-
ture model. As the technologies will settle to their maturity, the models will evolve too.
Currently, the management of networks is mostly about managing individual network elements. One of the
major ideas behind NFV is to automate management for the entire network so that complex
network-spanning tasks are easier to perform. Integration of different NFV components will still be a com-
plex task for the operator, but on the other hand, NFV allows an entire network to be delivered as a pre-in-
tegrated network slice.
The concept of network slices is not a new one; a VPN, for example, is a basic version of a network slice.
But the wide range of use cases and tougher requirements that future networks will need to support
suggests that network slices in the context of 5G will be defined on a whole new level, more like networks
on-demand, or in other words, application defined networking (ADN).
The separation of control and data plane from SDN for flexibility of defining and hosting variety of applica-
tions, and virtualization with NFV for required scalability and agility will enable the possibility of network
slicing. Network slicing will be enabling new business models specifically for B2B cases, like multi-tenancy,
on demand network, third party service provider, and OTT management & control.
5G systems will be built to enable logical network slices, which will enable operators to provide networks
on an as-a-service basis, and meet the wide range of use cases that the 2020 timeframe will demand.
In fact, ADN application would be defining and dimensioning the upthrust of data deluge.

12. References
http://www.umts-forum.org/component/option,com_doc-
man/task,doc_download/gid,2537/Itemid,213/
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/ser-
vice-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/mobile-white-paper-c11-520862.html
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3098617
http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/mobility-report/ericsson-mobility-report-nov-2015.pdf
https://5g-ppp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/5G-Vision-Brochure-v1.pdf
http://www.ericsson.com/spotlight/cloud/blog/2015/02/17/5g-network-slices/
https://portal.etsi.org/NFV/NFV_White_Paper.pdf
https://portal.etsi.org/portals/0/tbpages/mec/docs/mo-
bile-edge_computing_-_introductory_technical_white_paper_v1%2018-09-14.pdf
Challenges
The challenges are there due to the disruptive nature of technological advancement of every kind, whether
it be of radio, core network, or computing infrastructure. This disruption is there due to high competitive
environment and resulted thrust of taking the lead or dominance, also due to business constraints and
futuristic vision and survivability.
The disruption is compelling to put efforts and provide solution for problems arising, like interoperability
and technology integration. Some compulsion are arising due to nature of emerging applications and
providing and provision the infrastructure for them, the well known debate on “net-neutrality” is still on.
Some major industry players are already moving in this direction by offering virtualised versions of their
products and some of their solutions by combining their proprietary software with industry standard hard-
ware and software components, but in a proprietary way. Enabling their proprietary software to run on
industry standard hardware in a standardised way may be a significant opportunity.
The challenge for network operators is how to migrate their operations and skill base, to a software based
networking environment, while carefully re-targeting investment to maximise the reuse of existing systems
and processes.
Conclusion
Everywhere connectivity and resulted surge in data traffic to unbounded scale has disrupted the whole
communication industry ecosystem, whether it be capacity gain at access or traffic management and
scalability at core networks. The whole ecosystem has been given a thrust for re-imagination of upcoming
networking architecture and evolve them to cater to the need of next generation requirements.
This re-imagination of network has been given a vision under IMT2020 objectives. 5G is a next phase of
evolution of mobile broad band networks, known as eMBB, under this vision, and destined to have it
implemented by the year 2020.

13. TM
Hello, I'm from HCL's Engineering and R&D Services. We enable technology led organizations to go to market with innovative products
and solutions. We partner with our customers in building world class products and creating associated solution delivery ecosystems to
help bring market leadership. We develop engineering products, solutions and platforms across Aerospace and Defense, Automotive,
Consumer Electronics, Software, Online, Industrial Manufacturing, Medical Devices, Networking & Telecom, Office Automation,
Semiconductor and Servers & Storage for our customers.
Saurabh Verma has more than 15 years of experience in telecom and
embedded systems development. After having worked on various
telecom network nodes and switches development projects, he has
gained rich experience in the telecom technological evolution path.
He has been involved in the solution design and development of
many significant transformation projects. He has widespread experi-
ence on 3GPP mobile systems. He is currently focused on LTE tech-
nology and next generation network evolutions.
Authors info
Saurabh Verma