ericsson.

com/
spectrum-sharing

Extend your
5G reach
Combining Ericsson Spectrum
Sharing and Carrier Aggregation to
enable smooth and cost-efficient
5G coverage and performance
2 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach
Introduction
In radio spectrum, the whole can be
03 The challenge
greater than the sum of the parts.
04 The solution
06 Initial launches
07 Simulations
09 Conclusion
As the first commercial 5G networks enter
service and consumers get their hands
on new 5G devices, user expectations
are high. 5G users will not only want
to see excellent performance for their
smartphones and other devices when they
are in city centers; they will also expect
to see improved performance levels as
they use their devices in suburban areas,
and at venues, as well as on the move.
This means mobile communications
service providers need to build out 5G
New Radio (NR) coverage to ensure
5G-enabled use cases are a hit with users,
especially if they are to pay a premium for
them. The challenge for service providers,
is to build out broad 5G NR coverage as
quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
This is why Ericsson has developed the
Ericsson Spectrum Sharing solution.
This enables service providers to make
better use of their most valuable asset –
existing radio spectrum – as a way to roll
out wide-area 5G coverage, on lower bands,
quickly, smoothly and cost-effectively.
The solution enables the same spectrum
band to be shared dynamically between
4G and 5G carriers within milliseconds.
It requires no dedicated hardware
or spectrum, has minimal impact on
existing 4G user experience, and can be
activated remotely in 3 million Ericsson
Radio System radios already in service.
Used in combination with Carrier
Aggregation, Ericsson Spectrum Sharing
not only delivers wide-area 5G NR
coverage in existing 4G bands, it also
significantly improves the coverage of
5G NR in new mid-bands and increases
overall site capacity. The whole really can
be greater than the sum of the parts.
3 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach
The challenge
Ensuring 5G hits the ground running.
Smartphone-based enhanced mobile
broadband (eMBB) is the biggest use case
for 5G in these early deployments, as it
promises a lower cost per Gigabyte. This
is because it can provide an enormous
capacity and peak rate boost wherever
5G NR in mid- or high-band spectrum is
available, thanks to the technology’s very
wide carriers and beam-forming ability.
However, as users become acquainted
with the higher connection speeds and
lower latency of 5G, they will soon want to
experience similar performance levels in
areas outside city centers: in business parks,
at event venues, at home and on the road.
How can service providers achieve the
necessary wide-area coverage quickly
without throwing the business case for
5G off balance?
Most service providers plan to introduce
5G on a mix of spectrum bands: new high
Figure 1: Spectrum availability across all RAN generations over time
2017 2018
bands for ultimate performance, new
and legacy mid-bands for capacity and
coverage, and low bands for extended
coverage, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Utilizing legacy spectrum in combination
with new bands enables service providers
to serve a wider variety of use cases more
efficiently and, in most cases, more quickly.
However, rolling out 5G in dedicated
(or re-farmed) lower bands takes careful
planning, investment and time. service
providers are keen to avoid the risks
of 5G roll-out costs running ahead
of revenue potential and of putting
existing service revenue at risk. They
need a 5G implementation strategy
that balances investment, new revenue
streams and competitiveness.
It will be important for existing
spectrum used for 4G, and perhaps other
mobile technologies, to be migrated
2G
2019 2020 2021
smoothly to 5G over time to improve
efficiency and take full advantage of
network assets, minimizing the impact
on existing services as 5G is introduced
in the same band. Functions that
enable smooth spectrum migration
and combinations (of both bands and
technologies) will be crucial for the
planned evolution of the network.
Through a combination of Dual
Connectivity, Spectrum Sharing and
Carrier Aggregation, service providers can
roll out blanket 5G coverage early, as they
continue to roll out 5G in new mid and high
bands for higher capacity and performance
– at a pace that suits their specific market
situation and business objectives.
Devices supporting Ericsson Spectrum
Sharing and Carrier Aggregation are
expected to hit the market before the
end of 2019.
3G 4G 5G
High bands
(24 GHz–40 GHz)
New
Mid-bands
(3.5 GHz–6 GHz)
New
Mid-bands
(1GHz–2.6 GHz)
Legacy
Low bands
(Sub 1GHz)
New/Legacy
2022
4 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach

The solution

Three steps to early, efficient 5G coverage.

Let’s take a look at the steps service

providers can take to maximize 5G
coverage and capacity.
As has been seen, most service providers
are initially rolling out 5G in 3.5 GHz
mid-bands, in a Non Standalone (NSA)
configuration, typically using the existing
4G cell grid and sites in high-density areas.
While this band offers a reasonable
trade-off between peak-rate data
speeds, capacity and coverage, 5G is
inevitably limited when compared with
4G which is typically in lower bands.
This is not a big issue in NSA
configurations, as the user device is
continuously connected to the 4G network,
which handles mobility and traffic flow.
However, there is a drop in performance
as devices move out of 5G coverage areas Step 1: Deploy 5G NSA with Step 2: Add a lower band for 5G
into 4G coverage. dual connectivity with Ericsson Spectrum Sharing
One cost-efficient way to address this The first step is to deploy 5G in NSA In the second step, a lower band is
issue is to deploy 5G in lower frequency bands configuration, with 5G anchored on a 4G added for 5G to boost coverage.
at existing sites too. This is particularly useful carrier, and extended coverage through This is a cost-efficient way to quickly
for boosting indoor coverage (because of the LTE–NR Dual Connectivity, which implement blanket 5G coverage,
higher penetration of lower frequency radio optimizes performance in two key ways: requiring far fewer sites than rolling out
into buildings), where the majority of traffic is – Downlink and uplink decoupling such coverage in mid and high bands.
generated. What is more, the ability to serve improves 5G coverage by moving the To do this would typically require new
users in poor coverage areas on a lower band uplink (the limiting factor in mid-band or re-farmed low-band spectrum, which
avoids excessive consumption of resources in 5G) to the 4G network which operates many service providers do not easily have
the mid-band, improving overall efficiency. on a lower band, while keeping the access to. Ericsson Spectrum Sharing
There are three key steps service providers downlink on mid-band 5G for maximum software enables spectrum in existing
can take to extend their mid and high throughput and capacity. 4G LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)
band 5G coverage on the way to achieving – Combining the 5G NR and 4G LTE bands to be dynamically allocated to 5G NR
ultimate 5G roll-out, as illustrated in Figure 2. carriers boosts overall peak rates. within milliseconds, according to demand.

Figure 2: Step-wise 5G deployment scenario 2G+3G 4G 5G 4G+5G DC CA

Baseline Introduce 5G +5G coverage +Capacity Ultimate

LTE Corner Aggregation NSA NR Carrier Aggregation Increased capacity Coverage, capacity
Option 1 Option 3 Spectrum Sharing Ultra low latency and performance
Option 3/2 Option 3/2 Option 3/2

High bands

Mid-bands (new)

Mid-bands (existing)

Low bands
5 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach
Step 3: Introduce Carrier
Aggregation on the cell
The third step involves using 5G NR Carrier
Aggregation to further boost mid-band
5G coverage and overall cell performance.
Carrier Aggregation offers service providers
the key advantages of improved 5G
coverage and performance, and is a step
towards a stand-alone 5G network. This
will be vital in enabling service providers
to serve the growing number of 5G devices
in the network while maintaining overall
network performance and user experience.
This is done by activating Downlink CA
(FDD+TDD) in the areas with low-band
and mid-band NR. This not only boosts
mid-band NR coverage, and consequently
capacity gain, but also provides a further
coverage boost by enabling some of the
5G signaling to be moved to the lower
band. Ericsson has shown that this
can provide up to 3–7dB extra gain
in link budget on the downlink – or a
potential improvement of 60 percent
in the mid-band reach depending on
the characteristics of the scenario.
Together, these three steps enable
service providers to deliver sufficient 5G
coverage performance to ensure users
can experience its improved capabilities
wherever they go in the network. To
further increase capacity, or support
lower-latency use cases, service providers
Figure 3: Ericsson Spectrum Sharing
NR
LTE
Ericsson Spectrum Sharing software, available on Ericsson Radio
System, is based on unique intelligent scheduler algorithms. This enables
service providers to quickly introduce 5G within 4G carriers on existing
infrastructure, and to roll out 5G nationwide coverage as early as possible.
Ericsson Spectrum Sharing software dynamically shares spectrum between
4G and 5G carriers based on traffic demand. The split of simultaneous
4G and 5G capacity is adjusted at the millisecond level to ensure optimal
performance for any mix of 4G and 5G active devices in the network. This
minimizes spectrum wastage and results in the best end-user performance.
can deploy 5G in high bands in the
3–7dB
locations with specific performance
requirements, such as traffic hot-spots
and stadiums. Ultimately, the goal is
for all bands to carry 5G, which can
be aggregated to achieve maximum Using 5G NR Carrier Aggregation can
performance and efficiency. provide up to 3–7dB gain in
Another way to look at the gain from link budget on the downlink
deploying Dual Connectivity, Ericsson
Spectrum Sharing and Carrier Aggregation
for LTE and NR in low and mid-bands is
to compare performance using a metric
which can be easily translated into
financial terms, such as deployed spectrum
bandwidth. Simulations show that with
Carrier Aggregation, the same capacity
gains as with Dual Connectivity can be
achieved with half the 5G NR bandwidth.
6 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach
Initial launches
Service providers going live.
Service providers around the world are starting to launch commercial 5G services. As at mid-2019, around 20 service providers
in Europe, Asia and North America had announced their commercial 5G launches, with several having gone live, including:
SK Telecom (South Korea), which has
already deployed 34,000 5G base stations
in data-intensive areas of 85 cities
nationwide, including university districts,
KTX, sports stadiums, expressways,
subway lines and beaches. In the second
half of 2019, SK Telecom will expand 5G
network coverage to nationwide subways,
national parks and festival sites. The
service providers is using the 3.5GHz
mid-band for nationwide 5G coverage and
they will use millimeter wave (mmWave)
bands in locations requiring high capacity.
5G NR Carrier Aggregation
Carrier Aggregation offers significant
advantages over Dual Connectivity
alone by extending mid-band 5G
coverage and increasing overall cell
capacity and improving user experience.
From a link budget perspective, Dual
Connectivity needs all Layer 1 control
channels on all bands. By contrast, Carrier
Aggregation only needs a limited set of
control channels on secondary cells.
As described earlier, mid-band
coverage is more limited than that in
lower bands under the same conditions;
Figure 4: Coverage gains from Carrier Aggregation and Ericsson Spectrum Sharing
Standalone NR coverage baseline
Swisscom (Switzerland) went live
with the country’s first 5G network in
April 2019, initially with 5G deployed across
102 locations in 54 towns. Swisscom
plans to quickly expand in the major
cities, tourist areas and throughout the
countryside, with the aim of having more
than 90 percent population coverage by
the end of 2019. The service provider is
initially deploying 5G in the 3.5GHz
mid-band for high-traffic areas, and adding
Ericsson Spectrum Sharing in 4G FDD
bands to achieve wide-area 5G coverage.
for a site with both LTE FDD and
mid-band bands, the reach of stand-alone
mid-band carriers will be limited by the
uplink – both for data channels and
control channels.
With Dual Connectivity and
downlink/uplink decoupling, the uplink
data can be moved to the LTE FDD
band while keeping the downlink on
the mid-band. One limitation of Dual
Connectivity is that Layer 1 control
channels cannot be moved to the
LTE band.
UL/DL
UL data
control
NSA NR Dual Connectivity Inter-band Carrier
up to 9dB Aggregation
up to 7dB
Verizon, AT&T & Sprint (USA) use a mix of
spectrum bands in the initial deployment
of 5G, depending on available spectrum
assets. The main scenarios are either to
deploy 5G on mmWave bands to reach
high peak speed in dense urban areas or
to use legacy mid-bands for coverage and
speed. Next steps include the use of lower
bands and to densify mmWave coverage.
When Ericsson Spectrum Sharing and
inter-band Carrier Aggregation are
activated together, Layer 1 control
channels (such as PUCCH and MSG3)
can be moved to the NR low band.
Figure 5 shows the relative coverage
gains of implementing Dual Connectivity
and Carrier Aggregation at a site with
LTE FDD and NR mid-band with
Ericsson Spectrum Sharing enabled.
NR on mid-band TDD
NR/LTE on FDD band with
Ericsson Spectrum Sharing
7 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach

Simulations

Ericsson has carried out a number of simulations, using data from

urban and dense urban areas of commercial networks, to investigate
how implementing dual connectivity, spectrum sharing, and carrier
aggregation can boost 5G coverage.

27%
Offloading traffic to mid-band
increases network capacity
by 27 percent

Case study 1 – Europe.

In this example, Ericsson looked at a major
European city. Here, the cell grid has a
typical inter-site distance (ISD) of
600 meters, and LTE is deployed
across 800, 1800, 2100 and
2600MHz bands, with an average of
38MHz deployed per sector and site.
In the simulation, 5G is deployed in the
3.5GHz band, with 100MHz carrier
bandwidth. Ericsson Spectrum Sharing
is implemented in the 800MHz band,
running 4G and 5G in the same radios.
The potential 7dB link budget gain of
Carrier Aggregation over Dual Connectivity
is an input to the simulation.
When NR Carrier Aggregation is
implemented between the 3.5GHz and
800MHz bands, there are significant
improvements in performance compared
with using Dual Connectivity alone.
Some 25 percent more people could
be connected to the mid-band 5G
downlink, and there is an improvement
in the cell edge performance.
The higher available capacity means

28%
The same performance can
be achieved with 28 percent
less spectrum as a result of
Carrier Aggregation
25%
NR Carrier Aggregation could
connect some 25 percent more
people to the mid-band 5G
that more traffic can be offloaded on
to mid-band 5G (which uses spectrum
more efficiently than 4G), leading to an
overall capacity increase of 27 percent.
Another way of looking at the gains is
from a spectrum efficiency point of view.
With Carrier Aggregation, the system can
deliver the same performance with
28 percent less spectrum.
8 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach

Case study 2 – USA.

27%
Offloading traffic to mid-band
increases network capacity
by 27 percent

In this example, Ericsson looked at a

major city in the USA. Here the cell grid
has a typical ISD of 250 meters, and LTE
is deployed across the 700, 1900 and
2100MHz bands, with an average of
30MHz deployed per sector and site.
In this simulation, 5G is also deployed
in the 3.5GHz band, with 100MHz
carrier bandwidth. Ericsson Spectrum
Sharing is implemented in the 700MHz
band, running 4G and 5G in the same
radios. The potential 7dB link budget
gain of Carrier Aggregation over Dual
Connectivity is an input to the simulation.
When NR Carrier Aggregation is
implemented between the 3.5GHz and
700MHz bands, there were significant
31%
Carrier Aggregation enables
the same performance with
31 percent less spectrum
improvements in performance compared
with using Dual Connectivity alone.
Around 19 percent more people could
be connected to the mid-band downlink.
Despite the high building loss in the
area, there is still an improvement in the
cell edge performance. As more traffic
19%
Around 19 percent more people
could be connected to the mid-band
downlink with NR Carrier Aggregation
is offloaded to mid-band 5G, overall
capacity increases by 27 percent.
From a spectrum efficiency point
of view, Carrier Aggregation enables
the same performance to be delivered
with 31 percent less spectrum.
9 Ericsson  |  Extend your 5G reach
Conclusion
The availability and cost of implementing
new spectrum bands has a significant
impact on where, when and how service
providers deploy 5G. Solutions that enable
service providers to start rolling out 5G
coverage in widely available mid and
low bands mean they can start offering
a 5G eMBB experience to as many users
as possible – and start developing 5G
new use cases as soon as possible.
Optimum use of
current infrastructure
and spectrum assets
Whether service providers are focused on
innovating and enhancing their existing
use cases, exploring new opportunities
with new use cases, or simply using
technology leadership as a competitive
differentiator, Ericsson’s solution for
efficient spectrum sharing across mid
and low bands offers a quick, smooth and
cost-efficient path to full 5G coverage.
Ericsson’s solution – incorporating Dual
Connectivity between 4G and 5G, Ericsson
Spectrum Sharing and inter-band Carrier
Aggregation – enables a stepwise
introduction of 5G in current network
designs, which make optimum use of
current infrastructure and spectrum assets.
This puts the service providers in control
of the introduction of 5G coverage at a
pace that matches their business needs.

Ericsson
SE-164 80 Stockholm, Sweden
Telephone +46 10 719 0000
www.ericsson.com
Ericsson enables communications service providers
to capture the full value of connectivity. The company’s
portfolio spans Networks, Digital Services, Managed
Services, and Emerging Business and is designed to
help our customers go digital, increase efficiency and
find new revenue streams. Ericsson’s investments in
innovation have delivered the benefits of telephony
and mobile broadband to billions of people around
the world. The Ericsson stock is listed on Nasdaq
Stockholm and on Nasdaq New York.
www.ericsson.com
The content of this document is subject to EAB-19:004200
revision without notice due to continued © Ericsson AB 2019
progress in methodology, design and
manufacturing. Ericsson shall have no
liability for any error or damage of any kind
resulting from the use of this document