Nokia dynamic spectrum

sharing for rapid 5G coverage

rollout

White paper
 Contents

Executive summary 3
5G spectrum overview and DSS 4
DSS in the physical layer 4
DSS use cases with standalone architecture and carrier aggregation 5
Standalone architecture with DSS 6
5G carrier aggregation with DSS 7
DSS technical solution specifics 9
DSS for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies 10
Q&A 11
Conclusions 11
Abbreviations 12

2 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
Executive summary
Dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technology allows spectrum resources to be shared dynamically between
4G (Long Term Evolution (LTE)) and 5G New Radio (NR) radios. 4G coverage rollout took several years
without DSS, since new spectrum, new antennae and new Radio Frequency (RF) units were required. In
contrast, communication service providers (CSPs) can build 5G coverage a lot faster because the spectrum,
the antenna and the RF units can now be shared between existing 4G and emerging 5G deployments
using DSS.
Figure 1 illustrates the DSS concept. This Nokia white paper outlines the DSS technology, Nokia’s DSS
solution and the practical aspects of deployment.
Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) for fast 5G rollout
Figure 1. DSS concept allows fast 5G coverage rollout

Traditional radio Dynamic spectrum

network rollout sharing rollout

• New spectrum • Reuse existing spectrum

• New antenna • Reuse existing antenna
• New RF units • Reuse existing RF
• Resources shared
dynamically between 4G
and 5G

4G 5G 4G+5G

DSS functionality was defined in 3GPP standardization and Nokia was a major contributor to that process.
DSS
1
capability has been built into Nokia’s hardware and software, with AirScale baseband and AirScale and
Flexi radio hardware platforms ready to support it. Millions of Nokia 4G RF units already in the field can
be upgraded to support 5G, which enables fast rollout of 5G coverage and access to 5G services. Nokia’s
AirScale baseband software provides fast dynamic resource allocation between 4G and 5G to maximize the
system efficiency.
DSS with 5G carrier aggregation (CA) releases the full potential of the technology, especially when combined
with standalone (SA) architecture. CA provides the highest data rates while SA maximizes low-band
coverage and access to 5G services. DSS will be supported by a growing number of 5G devices from 2020
onwards, with widespread support for devices with DSS, SA and CA available during the course of 2021. The
introduction of Nokia’s DSS capability therefore aligns with the growing availability of devices.
Nokia’s DSS solution extends beyond the 4G/5G transition to include dynamic sharing between 2G, 3G and
4G technologies. This enables a smoother evolution to 5G deployments.

3 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
 5G spectrum overview and DSS
5G is the first ever mobile radio system that is designed to use any spectrum from below 1 GHz up to
millimeter waves. 5G is also designed to be deployed in licensed, shared and unlicensed spectrum bands.
5G can use Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) technology for paired spectrum and Time Division Duplex
(TDD) technology for unpaired spectrum. DSS technology is relevant for low-band FDD spectrum, where
DSS can provide flexible refarming from LTE to 5G. Figure 2 is an overview of the 5G spectrum options.

Figure 2. DSS can be used for 600 – 2600 MHz band flexible refarming towards 5G

• 5G millimeter wave
24 – 39 GHz • Hot spot capacity and data rates
5G
5 – 6 GHz • 5G local solution
deployment
unlicensed • No spectrum license needed
without 4G
• Mid-band mainstream 5G spectrum
3.3 – 5.0 GHz • Urban capacity with massive MIMO
Dynamic
600 – 2600 • Wide area 5G coverage Spectrum
MHz • Gradual refarming from 4G to 5G Sharing

2 DSS in the physical layer

DSS allows CSPs to share resources dynamically between 4G and 5G in time and/or frequency domains,
as shown on the left of Figure 3. It’s a simple idea in principle, but we also need to consider the detailed
structure at the level of the resource block in order to understand the resource allocations for the control
channels and reference signals. A single resource block is shown on the right side of Figure 3.
The 5G physical layer is designed to be so similar to 4G in 3GPP that DSS becomes feasible with the same
subcarrier spacing and similar time domain structure. DSS is designed to be backwards compatible with
all existing LTE devices. CSPs therefore need to maintain LTE cell reference signal (CRS) transmission. 5G
transmission is designed around LTE CRS in an approach called CRS rate matching.
5G uses demodulation reference signals (DMRS), which are only transmitted together with 5G data and
so minimize any impact on LTE capacity. If all LTE devices support Transmission Mode 9 (TM9), then
the shared carrier has lower overheads because less CRS transmission is required. The control channel
transmission and the data transmission can be selected dynamically between LTE and 5G, depending on
the instantaneous capacity requirements.

4 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
Figure 3. 4G and 5G resource sharing in time and frequency domain

Time and frequency Resource block

domain allocation structure in LTE/5G
100 ms 1 ms sub-frame
0.07 ms symbol

20 MHz 180 kHz

DSS in the physical layer

DSS allows
= 4G data = 4G data, or 5G data &
= 5G data 5G reference
= 4G reference
= 4G/5G control

DSS use cases with standalone architecture and carrier

3

aggregation
DSS can provide full benefits for CSPs when deployed together with two other technologies: SA
architecture with the 5G core network and CA in the devices. The optimum combination of DSS with SA
architecture and CA depends on the operator-specific spectrum situation and on the 5G coverage targets.
Figure 4 illustrates the decision tree for DSS feature selection. If the target is to maximize 5G coverage
then the combination of DSS and SA is preferred. If the CSP uses DSS with non-standalone (NSA)
architecture then mid-band 4G is needed for the anchoring and it can limit the coverage. Typical devices
are not able to support low-band 4G with low-band 5G. If the operator has mid-band (2.5 GHz or 3.5
GHz) 5G, the two 5G frequencies should be aggregated together, which calls for the support of DSS and
5G carrier aggregation. DSS on low frequency bands delivers 5G coverage. SA brings new 5G services and
great coverage. 5G CA allows the CSP to combine low-band and mid-band resources together for high
data rates. These key technologies are summarized in Figure 5. The relationship between the features is
illustrated in more detail in the following sections.

5 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
 Figure 4. Decision tree for DSS feature selection

Yes Empty No
FDD band
for 5G?

Yes 5G coverage No
extension
needed?

Yes Mid-band No
5G (3.5 GHz)
used?

15G FDD+TDD
Use SA but DSS 2
With mid-
Use DSS + SA Use DSS + CA1 carrier Use DSS + NSA2 band 4G
not required aggregation

Great 5G coverage Great 5G coverage High 5G data rates Wide area 5G logo

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) for extended 5G service coverage

11
Figure 5. DSS with 5G core network and 5G carrier aggregation delivers the optimum set of 5G benefits

5G coverage 5G services 5G data rates

5G FDD with DSS 5G SA 5G CA

Dynamic spectrum sharing + 5G core network + Carrier aggregation
Frequency 1
Carrier
Standalone architecture with DSS Frequency 2 Aggregation

The first version of 5G is based on NSA architecture, where the 4G Evolved Packet Core (EPC) is used in the
core network and 4G and 5G radios are used with dual connectivity (DC). In this way, NSA can be used to
combine mid-band 5G with low-band 4G using dual connectivity for mobile broadband services (see left
section of Figure 6). SA with the 5G core network brings new service opportunities thanks to its enhanced
support for network slicing, with dynamic scalability and adaptability. SA, by definition, does not use DC
in the radio since there is no connection to the 4G radio. It cannot therefore take advantage of low-band
4G. The solution is to use 5G with DSS in all or part of an existing 4G (low) band to boost 5G coverage, as
shown in the right section of Figure 6.
4

6 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
 DSS = Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
Figure 6. 5G FDD operating in low bands (that are currently used for 4G services)
NSA = is required for SA
Motivations for DSS and SA
deployments since dual connectivity between mid-band 5G and 4G low bands
NonStandAlone
SA is not available in SA
= StandAlone

NSA with low band 4G SA with low band 5G using DSS

Good for mobile broadband Good for 5G slicing and services

4G core 5G core

5G mid band 5G5G 5G mid band 5G

5G low band 5G
4G low band 4G using DSS 4G

Mid-band needed for capacity. Low band needed for coverage. NSA can utilize low band LTE. SA needs low band 5G. If there is no
clean low band available for 5G, then low band DSS is needed. Therefore, SA typically leads to low band DSS.
5G
Note:carrier aggregation
UEs cannot withofDSS
have dual connectivity low band 5G + low band LTE. If the operator would like to use low band 5G for coverage
(like T-Mobile USA 600 MHz), they need SA architecture.
NSA
5
can use 4G CA to combine the radio resources from multiple 4G bands to provide an additional
capacity boost. 4G CA is a basic capability in 4G devices and in 5G NSA devices today. However, the 5G
FDD devices available in the first part of 2020 only support a limited number of 5G FDD bands and no CA
between 5G bands. This device limitation degrades the practical user performance because 5G FDD in a
low band + 5G TDD at 3.5 GHz are not optimally utilized together. So, if a low band is converted from 4G to
5G usage, it is preferable to support 5G CA in order to maximize performance for the end user.
In addition to the above limitation, 5G FDD and 4G FDD bands are combined with DC instead of CA,
resulting in 20-30% lower downlink throughput for two reasons. First, it does not allow for common
scheduling, which would be possible with CA. Second, there will be a 3 dB coverage loss, because CA
requires just one uplink whereas DC requires two separate uplinks.
Figure 7 illustrates the NSA case described above. It shows that low-band 5G without 5G CA degrades
the end user performance by reducing the number of carriers that can be aggregated for each end user.
Consequently, there is no merit in using DSS for such NSA deployments.

7 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
5G FDD
Figure 7. with NSA5G
NSA case: – no benefit
in FDD in performance
low bands degrades end user performance without 5G CA, resulting in no
benefit for employing DSS.

In 3.5 GHz 5G coverage area Outside 3.5 GHz 5G coverage area

With 5G FDD low With 5G FDD low
No 5G FDD low band No 5G FDD low band
band band

5G-3500 5G-3500
DC
4G-2100 5G-2100 DC 4G-2100 5G-2100
. . . CA . DC
4G-1800 4G-1800 4G-1800 4G-1800
CA

5G FDD low band degrades user 5G FDD low band degrades user
throughput until devices support 5G CA throughput due to lower DC performance
between FDD and 3.5 GHz TDD compared to CA

CA = Carrier aggregation
DC = Dual connectivity
7

In contrast, the introduction of CA with 5G is a good reason to use DSS with SA, since it improves 5G
coverage and access to the 5G core and associated new services, as depicted in Figure 8.
5G FDD with SA – clear benefit in performance
Figure 8. SA case: 5G FDD with CA and DSS provides clear benefits in 5G coverage

In 3.5 GHz 5G coverage area Outside 3.5 GHz 5G coverage area

With 5G FDD low With 5G FDD low
No 5G FDD low band No 5G FDD low band
band band

5G-3500 5G-3500 No 5G Service !

CA
5G-2100 5G-2100
4G-2100 4G-2100 DSS 4G-2100 4G-2100 DSS
. . . .
4G-1800 4G-1800 4G-1800 4G-1800

5G FDD low band with DSS improves 5G 5G FDD low band with DSS brings 5G
coverage area and throughput using CA coverage and access to new 5G services
with 5G TDD but with lower capacity than NSA with DC

CA = Carrier aggregation

8 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
DSS technical solution specifics
One option is for DSS to use a single shared baseband card for 4G and for 5G, which obviously precludes a
multi-vendor solution for 4G and 5G. The other option is to keep the existing 4G baseband and add a new
5G baseband. The scheduling between the two baseband functions is then based on a fast Xp interface
between 4G and 5G. This interface is not open and works only for a single vendor, so CSPs must use the
same vendor in 4G and 5G if they use DSS (Figure 9).
Base station configuration options
Figure 9. The two primary baseband options for DSS

Keep existing 4G Bring new common

baseband unit baseband unit

• DSS can use shared

RF RF baseband card for 4G
and 5G
• DSS can use different
baseband cards for 4G
and 5G, and Xp
Xp interface between
4G 5G 4G/5G

A primary performance consideration for DSS is the reconfiguration time. Figure 10 illustrates simulations
for DSS with 100 ms, 10 ms and 1 ms coordination and a static split for reference. The simulations assume
8

bursty 4 Mbit packet transmission, which is common for web browsing. Some 70% of devices are assumed
to be 4G and 30% are 5G.
The results show that DSS provides a clear improvement in user data rates at all timescales compared to
the fixed split. The majority of the gain is apparent using 100 ms DSS, with 10 ms DSS only providing an
extra 5% gain and 1 ms DSS a further 2% gain. The results can be explained as follows: Feedback loops
and allocation cycles in 4G (Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), Channel Quality Indicator (CQI),
Rank Indicator (RI), Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)) run on an approximate 10 ms cycle, so that DSS with
less than a 10 ms period provides no material gains. Furthermore, in terms of usage patterns, the following
is true:
• If there is just one or a few bursty users that might motivate a fast reconfiguration, this is not an issue
because the dynamic capacity is not fully utilized.
• If there are a lot of bursty users, the full data capacity can be used with the 100 ms allocation time.
• If there are 5G speed tests being performed, these take several seconds and, again, the 100 ms
reconfiguration time is more than adequate.

9 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
Nokia Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) for efficient spectrum utilization
Figure 10. The relative impact of DSS reconfiguration time on user throughput

UE throughput in 10 MHz • Dynamic spectrum sharing provides a clear

6 improvement in user data rates compared
5 to fixed split
4 • 100 ms DSS provides most benefits
Mbps 3 • 10 ms DSS gives extra 5% gain
2 • 1 ms DSS gives extra 2% gain
1
Explanations
0 • Feedback loops and allocation cycles in LTE (PDCCH, CQI, RI,
Static Dynamic 100 Instant 10 ms Instant 1 ms ARQ) run with approx. 10 ms cycle. Therefore, DSS with less
ms than 10 ms period provides no gains.
4G 5G • If there is just one or few bursty users, the efficiency is not
an issue because the capacity is not fully utilized.
• 10 MHz carrier • If there are large number of bursty users, the full data
• 70% LTE UEs, 30% 5G UEs capacity can be utilized also with 100 ms allocation.
DSS for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies
•
•
Traffic model bursty 4 Mbit transfer
Poisson random UE arrival process
• If there is somebody running speedtesting, it takes several
seconds and 100 ms is fine.
DSS can also be implemented between 2G, 3G and 4G radios, enabling legacy technologies to support
9 existing devices while maximizing the use of spectrum for 5G. This is important because most CSPs still
run these technologies as they deploy 5G.

With much spectrum having previously been refarmed to 4G, it is vital to achieve the highest efficiency
when applying spectrum sharing to the relatively small amount of remaining 2G and 3G bandwidth. 4G-5G
DSS builds on the common numerology of LTE and NR. DSS for 2G and 3G uses different dynamic sharing
mechanisms. Applying DSS on 2G-3G, 2G-4G, 3G-4G and 4G-5G on distinct carriers reduces signaling
overheads and maximizes overall efficiency.

DSS aligns with the patterns of subscription and traffic migration from one radio access technology to
another, which is typically governed by the affordability of devices. Enabling large numbers of 4G users to
dynamically tap into the resource pool previously dedicated to 2G and 3G frees resources for the growing
number of 5G users on the 4G-5G DSS carrier. This also protects 2G, 3G and 4G performance.

Nokia’s DSS features and the schedule is summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Nokia multi-technology DSS solutions

DSS features Nokia support

2G – 3G DSS Yes, 2019

2G – 4G DSS Yes, 2019
3G – 4G DSS Yes, 2020
4G – 5G DSS Yes, 2020

10 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
Q&A
DSS technology impacts on devices and existing network deployments, which raises a number of questions
about the technology. The main questions and answers regarding DSS technology are summarized in
Figure 11.

Q&A 11. The primary questions and answers on DSS usage

Figure

Is there any specific device All LTE devices support DSS (backwards compatible). All 5G
needed for DSS? devices will support DSS during 2020

When will devices support Devices will support this set of features more widely in
FDD + SA + CA? 2021

Dynamic allocation with 100 ms cycle provides the vast

How fast DSS is needed? majority of the DSS benefits

Is common LTE & 5G No, a DSS solution can use two separate baseband cards
baseband needed for DSS? with fast Xp interface between the two basebands

Is multivendor LTE – 5G DSS

No, DSS must use the same vendor in LTE and in 5G
feasible?

What is the minimum LTE 5G broadcast takes 1 ms of 20 ms impacting LTE capacity

capacity loss caused by DSS? up to 5%. Other controls can increase the impact.

Is DSS feasible for 2G and 3G

10 Nokia has DSS solution for all technology refarming for 2G,
refarming? 3G, 4G and 5G.

Conclusions
DSS is a handy solution for flexibly refarming spectrum to 5G. Nokia supports DSS between all
technologies from 2G to 5G. The most advanced DSS solution is available between 4G and 5G, where
spectrum sharing is already specified as an option by 3GPP. DSS provides full benefits when combined
with SA architecture for maximum coverage and new 5G services, and with CA for maximum 5G data rates.
The combination of these technologies will be available in devices towards the end of 2020. Nokia’s radio
products are designed to support DSS, so millions of existing RF units can be upgraded to support 5G and
DSS. Similarly, existing LTE baseband modules can be used for DSS with 5G.

11 White paper
Nokia dynamic spectrum sharing for rapid 5G coverage rollout
Abbreviations
ARQ Automatic Repeat Request
CA Carrier Aggregation
CRS Call Reference Signal
CSP Communication Service Provider
CQI Channel Quality Indicator
DMRS Demodulation Reference Signals
DSS Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
DC Dual Connectivity
EPC Evolved Packet Core
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
LTE Long Term Evolution
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
NR New Radio
NSA Non-standalone
PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
RF Radio Frequency
RI Rank Indicator
SA Standalone
TDD Time Division Duplex
TM9 Transmission Mode 9
UE User Equipment

About Nokia
We create the technology to connect the world. Only Nokia offers a comprehensive portfolio of network equipment, software, services and licensing opportunities across
the globe. With our commitment to innovation, driven by the award-winning Nokia Bell Labs, we are a leader in the development and deployment of 5G networks.

Our communications service provider customers support more than 6.4 billion subscriptions with our radio networks, and our enterprise customers have deployed over
1,300 industrial networks worldwide. Adhering to the highest ethical standards, we transform how people live, work and communicate. For our latest updates, please visit
us online www.nokia.com and follow us on Twitter @nokia.

Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.

© 2020 Nokia

Nokia OYJ
Karakaari 7
02610 Espoo
Finland
Tel. +358 (0) 10 44 88 000

Document code: SR2003042300EN (April) CID207265