5G NR Rollout & Acceptance Field Testing

• Solutions Marketing / Keysight Technologies

• Dave Low

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 Topics
• 5G rollout considerations
• Spectrum, NSA/SA Options
• Massive MIMO
• Coverage enhancements

• Acceptance criteria
• Coverage
• Throughput

• 5G deployment reference case

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5G NR rollout considerations

NWS 5G field/drive test solution 3

IMT-2020 Key Requirements

mMTC

eMBB/URLLC

URLLC

Source: GSMA

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Spectrum bands for 5G deployment
NR Operating Bands in FR1 (410 MHz – 7125 MHz)
Band UL Band DL Band BW Mode
n1 1920 MHz – 1980 MHz 2110 MHz – 2170 MHz 60 MHz FDD
n2 1850 MHz – 1910 MHz 1930 MHz – 1990 MHz 60 MHz FDD
n3 1710 MHz – 1785 MHz 1805 MHz – 1880 MHz 75 MHz FDD
n5 824 MHz – 849 MHz 869 MHz – 894 MHz 25 MHz FDD
n7 2500 MHz – 2570 MHz 2620 MHz – 2690 MHz 70 MHz FDD
n8 880 MHz – 915 MHz 925 MHz – 960 MHz 35 MHz FDD
n20 832 MHz – 862 MHz 791 MHz – 821 MHz 30 MHz FDD
n28 703 MHz – 748 MHz 758 MHz – 803 MHz 45 MHz FDD
n38 2570 MHz – 2620 MHz 2570 MHz – 2620 MHz 50 MHz TDD
n41 2496 MHz – 2690 MHz 2496 MHz – 2690 MHz 194 MHz TDD
n50 1432 MHz – 1517 MHz 1432 MHz – 1517 MHz 85 MHz TDD
n51 1427 MHz – 1432 MHz 1427 MHz – 1432 MHz 5 MHz TDD
n66 1710 MHz – 1780 MHz 2110 MHz – 2200 MHz 70/90 MHz FDD
n70 1695 MHz – 1710 MHz 1995 MHz – 2020 MHz 15/25 MHz FDD Bands with BW > 100MHz
n71 663 MHz – 698 MHz 617 MHz – 652 MHz 35 MHz FDD
n74 1427 MHz – 1470 MHz 1475 MHz – 1518 MHz 43 MHz FDD
n75 N/A 1432 MHz – 1517 MHz 85 MHz SDL
n76 N/A 1427 MHz – 1432 MHz 5 MHz SDL NR Operating Bands in FR2 (24250 MHz – 52600 MHz)
n77 3300 MHz – 4200 MHz 3300 MHz – 4200 MHz 900 MHz TDD Band UL Band DL Band BW Mode
n78 3300 MHz – 3800 MHz 3300 MHz – 3800 MHz 500 MHz TDD
n257 26500 MHz – 29500 MHz 26500 MHz – 29500 MHz 3000 MHz TDD
n79 4400 MHz – 5000 MHz 4400 MHz – 5000 MHz 600 MHz TDD
n80 1710 MHz – 1785 MHz N/A 75 MHz SUL n258 24250 MHz – 27500 MHz 24250 MHz – 27500 MHz 3250 MHz TDD
n81 880 MHz – 915 MHz N/A 35 MHz SUL
n82 832 MHz – 862 MHz N/A 30 MHz SUL n260 37000 MHz – 40000 MHz 37000 MHz – 40000 MHz 3000 MHz TDD
n83 703 MHz – 748 MHz N/A 45 MHz SUL
n84 1920 MHz – 1980 MHz N/A 60 MHz SUL

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NSA Options

NSA Option Description

Option 3 User Plane path exists between gNB (NR) and eNB
(anchor).
Option 3A No User Plane path on X2, but direct path from gNB to EPC.
Option 3X Both User Plane on X2 as well as path between gNB and
EPC.

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Various MIMO Modes
Feature 3GPP/LTE Transmission mode Description

SU-MIMO (Single User) 5G: max 8x8 MIMO Multiple data streams send to UE, increasing the peak
LTE Rel8: TM3,TM4 throughput of individual user, 2x2 MIMO doubling, 4x4 MIMO
4x4 MIMO, 4x2 MIMO, quadrupling the throughput
2x2 MIMO
MU-MIMO (Multi-User) 5G: Max 12 layers Multiple data streams sent in same frequency/time resource
LTE; Max 8 layers (TM9) block, one for each UE. Increases total cell throughput
(capacity).
Massive MIMO 5G: 64Tx #Antennas >> #Users. MU-MIMO, SU-MIMO, and analog
TM9(LTE Rel9) beamforming.
16TX(LTE Rel13), 32TX(LTE Rel14) High number of antennas improves the MU-MIMO
performance

Benefits of Massive MIMO:

 Increased Capacity
 Better SINR
 Reduced Inter-cell Interference
 Better Spectral Efficiency

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Cell Capacity Field Testing
F O R M A S S I V E M I M O V E R I F I C AT I O N

Field units distributed geographically Control & Monitoring Data analytics tools
measurement coordination Aggregated cell-level KPIs
around the cell under test Real time monitoring Per-UE drill down
Nemo Analyze / Windcatcher

Configure,
Control &
Multiple devices Monitor

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Coverage enhancements - Supplementary Uplink (SUL)

C-Band Downlink coverage

1.8GHz Uplink coverage

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Coverage enhancements – SUL

Without coverage enhancement With coverage enhancement

Handover point 5G C-Band Cell LTE 1.8GHz Cell 5G C-Band Cell + SUL cell

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Other 5G Coverage Enhancements

Dynamic Power Sharing (DPS) in NSA networks

- To achieve max 23dBm Tx power, LTE and NR transmission are limited to 20 dBm each.
- Uplink coverage can be a concern if the LTE transmit power is limited to 20 dBm.
- Dynamic power sharing: MCG has higher priority than SCG for power allocation. After allocating the
required transmission power of MCG (Master Cell Group), the remainder of uplink power can be
allocated to SCG (Secondary Cell Group)
- The reason is that the control plane signaling will go through MCG mainly, thus the uplink coverage of
MCG shall be guaranteed

Band Width Parts (BWP) / Bandwidth Adaptation

- High data rate (BW) are not always needed
- Wide BW incurs higher idling power consumption both from RF and baseband signal processing
- BWP concept reduce band processing requirement to transmit or receive narrow bandwidth
- Bandwidth adaptation helps UE to save power

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Acceptance Criteria

NWS 5G field/drive test solution 12

NSA network test items
NSA NETWORK TEST ITEMS

• Coverage
• Not used as an direct acceptance criteria in NSA
5G deployments seen so far
• SS-RSRP -98dBm used as out-of-coverage
threshold to filter all other results in one case
• Peak Throughput, Latency
• Handovers
• NR-NR handovers with/without anchor change
• successful handovers clockwise, and
counterclockwise
• 60ms handover delay/interruption time
• Beam performance
• Drive test around the site to check that all SSB
reference beams are detected – ensuring correct
beam configuration of the base station.

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5G NR Acceptance Testing - Coverage
COMMON PRACTICES

Anti-clockwise Clockwise

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Acceptance Criteria – 5G NR State Indicator
USER EXPERIENCE

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Acceptance Criteria – Examples From The Field
PEAK THROUGHPUT

5G NR throughputs considered only. Some MNOs have criteria for the total tput (LTE+NR) as wel.
Config Customer/test case Peak rate DL (NR only) Avg rate DL (NR only) Avg rate UL (NR only)

100MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, MNO1 cell centre 1.2Gbps 800Mbps 195Mbps
FR1
100MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, MNO1 cell mid range 700Mbps 500Mbps 90Mbps
FR1
100MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, MNO1 cell edge 400Mbps 350Mbps 50Mbs
FR1
100MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, MNO1 cell centre, loosened 750Mbps 550Mbps 50Mbps
FR1 requirement due to device
instability
100MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, MNO1 cell mid range, loosened 320Mbps 250Mbps BS1 40Mbps
BS2
FR1 requirement due to device
instability
100MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, MNO1 cell edge, loosened 90Mbps 50Mbps UE1 20Mbps
FR1 requirement due to device
instability

60MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, MNO2 900Mbps (1600Mbps LTE + NR

FR2, MU-MIMO LTE in use (60MHz+60MHz))
100MHz BW, Rank 4, 256QAM, Nemo test, Elisa live NW, Huawei 736Mbps
FR1 infra, Nemo Handy on Oneplus
BS3
Pro 5G

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Peak Throughput Example
• Elisa live NW Finland, Huawei infra, Nemo Handy on Oneplus Pro 5G device
• Peak throughput on 5G NR 736Mbps

NWS 5G field/drive test solution 17

Acceptance Criteria
L A T E N C Y, E M B B U S E C A S E

Criteria Max E2E Latency, round trip time

NGNM 200km between NR 10-15ms

node and EPC/NGCore
MNO1 cell centre 10ms

MNO1 cell mid range 13ms

MNO1 cell edge 15ms

MNO2 75ms

Nemo test, Elisa live NW, 15ms

Huawei infra, Oneplus Pro 5G
Nemo Handy

How to ensure ping packet gets

routed via 5G in NSA?

Source: NGNM
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Acceptance Testing
B E A M C H A N G E S M AY C A U S E D A T A I N T E R R U P T I O N

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Acceptance Testing – VoLTE-NR concurrency
E N S U R E T H AT V O I C E C A L L S D O E S N O T I N T E R R U P T 5 G

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Acceptance Testing Report

Nemo Analyze 5G acceptance report with SSB Beam check

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Reference Case, Tier1 MNO 5G Site Acceptance

NWS 5G field/drive test solution 22

Tier 1 operator: NR 5G Site Acceptance
SOLUTION OVERVIEW

• Tier 1 operator launching phase 1 of 5G NR network,

800 sites in multiple markets Nemo WindCatcher
• Acceptance testing is performed by the NEM as a
proof of delivery towards the Operator Nemo Outdoor
• Acceptance criteria (tested KPIs and their thresholds) Logfiles
are defined by the Operator 5G NR phone

• The acceptance criteria varies by market, depending

on the available bandwidth and deployed LTE and 5G
features
• Acceptance criteria includes KPIs for the QoS
(throughput, ping) and radio KPIs

Report
• Nemo solution is being used for the acceptance
testing, in production since May 2019

Custom
Acceptance report 23
Tier 1 operator: NR 5G Site Acceptance
SAMPLE REPORT

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Tier 1 operator: NR 5G Site Acceptance
TEST REQUIREMENTS

• Stationary tests (performed per cell): • Mobility tests (performed per site – clockwise
• iPerf3 UDP Downlink test – Gating metric: NR and counter clockwise)
PDSCH throughput – 5 minute test against • Continuous ping – Gating metric: NR intra-cell
operators IPERF server handover
• iPerf3 UDP Uplink test – Gating metric: NR
PUSCH throughput – 5 minute test against
operators iPerf server
• Latency (ICMP) test – Gating metric: Round trip
time – 2 minute test against 8.8.8.8

Post-processing: Nemo WindCatcher processes data for all cells of a site based on
logfile naming convention.

Report template used as per implementation scenario. Separate templates available

in WindCatcher for each implementation scenario.
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Tier 1 operator: NR 5G Site Acceptance
NEMO OUTDOOR TEST SEQUENCES(SCRIPTS)

NR Downlink peak throughput test – iPerf3 UDP DL NR latency test – ICMP ping

NR Uplink peak throughput test – iPerf3 UDP UL NR handover test – continuous ICMP ping

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Thank You

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