5G Technology

3Technology Components

Harri Holma

Nokia Bell Labs, Finland

CHAPTER MENU

1. Introduction
2. Spectrum Utilization
3. Beamforming
4. Flexible Physical Layer and Protocols
5. Network Slicing
6. Dual Connectivity with LTE
7. Radio Cloud and Edge Computing
8. Summary
9. Reference

3.1 Introduction

5G targets are set very high, not only in terms of data rates up to 20 Gbps and capacity increase by 1000 times but also in terms of providing a flexible platform for the new services like massive Internet of Things (IoT) and critical communication. The high targets of 5G networks require a number of new technology components. This chapter presents an overview of the main new technologies in 5G compared to Long Term Evolution (LTE). A summary is shown in Table 3.1. The chapter is divided into spectrum utilization, beamforming, physical layer and protocols, network slicing, dual connectivity, and new architecture with radio cloud and edge computing. Each topic is explained in the corresponding section in this chapter.

3.2 Spectrum Utilization

3.2.1 Frequency Bands

5G radio is designed for flexible spectrum utilization to take advantage of all available spectrum options from 400 MHz to 90 GHz including licensed, shared access and unlicensed, Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD) bands, and narrowband and wideband allocations. The three main spectrum options are illustrated in Figure 3.1. Millimeter wave spectrum above 20 GHz can provide bandwidth even above 1 GHz, which allows a very high ...