An Overview of

5G Requirements and
Future Wireless Networks

Accommodating scaling technology

Sven Mattisson

I
n this article, we dardization is an ongoing effort, and
review the evolu- much industry research is devoted to
tion of radio access finding a good match of requirements,
networks and intro- including balancing system perfor-
duce fifth genera- mance, flexibility, and implementation
tion (5G), based on the current plans implications. We present standardiza-
and expectations, as reported in the tion activities, including over-the-air
2017 Ericsson Mobility Reports. Stan- (OTA) testing. Examples are given from
both academia and industry, where
millimeter-wave (mm-wave) and ar-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2018.2844606 ray antenna systems are explored and
Date of publication: 13 August 2018 their suitability for 5G is investigated.
5G Radio Access Networks
The envisioned 5G mobile commu-
nications promises near-unlimited
access to information and data shar-
ing with reduced latency, at any time
and everywhere. This will challenge
the reliability, security, and energy
and cost efficiency for both future
devices and future radio access net-
works (i.e., the infrastructure).
The 5G networks will cover diverse
applications, such as high-capacity,

54 su m m e r 2 0 18 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE 1943-0582/18©2018IEEE

 The Foundation of Mobile Telephony
Mobile Telephony for Everyone
1G 2G
~1980 ~1990
FIGURE 1: The 3G Partnership Project cellular generation evolution. 1G: first generation; 2G: second generation.
low-latency cells with large array anten-
nas as well as low power machine-type
communications with modest data-rate
requirements. Array-antenna systems
(AASs) for high-speed cells offer new
possibilities but also pose new design
challenges. Several hardware-based
test-bed demonstrators are in develop-
ment to investigate such aspects.
Wireless networks were originally
built for voice and messaging with
only limited data connectivity. With
the introduction of third-generation
(3G) networks, mobile broadband be-
came more widely available, allowing
people to stream music and video,
surf the web, and engage in social me-
dia via their smartphones. Fourth-gen-
eration (4G) networks have enhanced
the mobile broadband capabilities,
and now 5G will need to meet new and
increased performance levels.
Our networked society is evolving,
and the increasing number of uses for
wireless networks plays an important
role in this development. New wireless
features will be introduced continu-
ously throughout the development of
5G (see Figure 1), and stand-alone sys-
tems that meet all International Tele-
communication Union requirements
are expected to be deployed in volume
from 2020 [1].
What Will 5G Be?
As shown in Figure 2, 5G will bring
together evolved versions of existing
radio-access, cloud, and core technol-
ogies with new complementary ones.
Cellular networks will be able to serve
many new use cases, as well as more
traffic, devices, and types of devic-
es—even those with different operat-
ing requirements. Thus, 5G will bring
much more than just performance
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE su m m e r 2 0 18 55
The Foundation of Mobile Broadband Embracing a
Mobile Broadband Enhanced Networked Society
3G 4G 5G
~2000 ~2010 ~2020
enhancements. New complementary Internet of Things (IoT). A dense urban
technologies include 1) machine-type environment with 10,000 households
communication, 2) beamforming, 3) per square kilometers similar to the
front- and backhaul, 4) hot spots, and central area of London, Beijing, or New
5) small cells. York, has been used as the base for a
While these improvements are recent massive IoT services scenario
quite extensive, they do not represent study [3]. A variety of connected de-
the full impact of 5G. To a large extent, vices was assumed to be deployed in
the evolution of mobile technology has the area studied, including water, gas,
been driven by requirements for fast- and electricity meters; vending ma-
er and better mobile broadband ser- chines; rental bike position monitors;
vices; for example, data rates have and accelerometers in cars monitoring
increased from 10 kb/s to 1 Gb/s, a fac- driver behavior. The estimated traf-
tor of 100,000 (Figure 3) [2]. Improved fic characteristics for each device are
mobile broadband is still part of the summarized in Figure 4. The number
driving force behind 5G; however, it is of connected devices used in this sce-
by no means the only driver. nario represents a mature, large-scale
A very important driver will be massive IoT scenario. During an initial
machine-type communication, or the roll-out phase, device densities will be
Evolution of
Existing Technologies
5G
Wi-Fi
3G
4G
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
FIGURE 2: The 5G networks will embrace existing technologies.
App Coverage with Data Rates
Exceeding 10 Gb/s
Network Latency Under 1 ms
5G
Capacity Expansion by a Factor of 1,000
Energy Efficiency Gains by a Factor
of 1,000 per Transported Bit
FIGURE 3: The targets for 5G technology.
 Water Electricity Gas Vending Bike Fleet Pay-as-
Meters Meters Meters Machines Management You-Drive
Typical Message Size 100 B 100 B 100 B 150 B 150 B 150 B
Message Interval 12 h 24 h 30 min 24 h 30 min 10 min
2 2 2 2 2
Device Density 10,000/km 10,000/km 10,000/km 150/km 200/km 2,250/km2

FIGURE 4: The traffic characteristics of deployed massive IoT-connected devices in a city scenario.

proportion of overall traffic. Addition-

Mobile Traffic by Application Category Compound Annual Growth Rate 2017–2023 ally, the use of embedded video in so-
48% cial media and websites continues to
grow, fueled by larger device screens,
higher resolution, and new platforms
supporting live streaming. Embedded
34%
31% 32% video in social media and websites is
counted as video traffic.
New applications can shift the rela-
20% 21% tive volumes of different types of traffic,
although the proliferation of different-
sized smart devices will also affect the
traffic mix; for example, tablets are as-
sumed to be associated with a higher
share of video traffic than smartphones.
Typically, tablets and smartphones are
expected to be used equally for watch-
File Web Software Audio Social Video ing short video content but tablets more
Sharing Browsing Download Networking
for watching longer video content [3].

FIGURE 5: The traffic distribution of 5G by application. When Will 5G Be Available?

lower, and the corresponding traffic
load will not be as high. The services
represent a realistic range of massive
IoT use cases that are expected to be
deployed in an urban environment.
Estimated 5G Traffic
In the 2017 Ericsson Mobility Report
[4], mobile video traffic was forecast to
grow by around 50% annually through
2023 to account for nearly 75% of all
mobile-data traffic (Figure 5). Further,
social networking is expected to grow
by 34% annually over the coming six
years. However, its relative share of
traffic is predicted to decline from
12% in 2017 to around 8% in 2023, as
a result of the stronger growth in the
video category. Other application cat-
egories are expected to have annual
growth rates ranging from 20 to 32%,
so these are expected to shrink as a
In [4], it is further reported that the
interest in launching prestandard 5G
networks has increased over the years,
and roll-outs before 2020 are antici-
pated in several markets. Early 5G de-
ployments are driven by the need for
enhanced mobile broadband services
and as a complement for fixed Inter-
net services, referred to as fixed wire-
less access. The expected subscription
growth, via mobile technology, is
depicted in Figure 6 [3]. By 2023, the

56 su m m e r 2 0 18 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

number of mobile 5G subscriptions
are expected to be 1 billion [4].
5G Network Research Challenges
The expectation for 5G mobile com-
munications is to provide a set of
integrated radio-access technologies
jointly enabling the long-term net-
worked society. This leads to several
radio-access research challenges (Fig-
ure 7), including how to 1) extend the
addressable spectrum into higher-
frequency bands, 2) increase spec-
trum allocation flexibility, 3) develop
array-antenna techniques, 4) use mul-
tisite coordination, 5) employ access/
backhaul integration and multihop
techniques, and 6) enable device-to-
device communication.
The addition of new spectrum at
mm-wave frequencies (Figure 8) pro-
vides many new radio-design opportu-
nities. The use of very-high-frequency
bands means
■■ large amounts of spectrum will
be available, leading to very high
capacity and data rates
■■ short wavelengths, necessitating
large array-antenna solutions to
maintain useful link budgets
■■ array antennas will be very small
when wavelengths reach mm-waves,
challenging building practices.
In December 2015, the World Radio-
communication Conference decided to
promote cellular applications in bands
below 6 GHz and ranges between 24
and 84 GHz [5], [6]. The rationale for
Multihop
Communication
Device-to-Device
Communication
and Cooperative
Devices
Ultrareliable
Communication
FIGURE 7: The research challenges of 5G.
IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE su m m e r 2 0 18 57
Total
Additions
2.9 Billion
6.8 Billion
+540
5G
3.9 Billion +2,700
LTE
WCDMA /HSPA
–65 GSM/EDGE-Only
Other
–95
–130
2016 2022
FIGURE 6: Mobile smartphone subscriptions by technology [3]. LTE: long-term evolution;
WCDMA: wide-band code division multiple access; HSPA: high-speed packet data access; GSM:
Global System for Mobile communication; EDGE: enhanced data rates for global evolution.
the gap from 6 to 24 GHz is the diffi- as these bands are in close proximity to
culty in harmonizing with existing ap- existing bands and have similar propa-
plications in this range. gation conditions. For example, coexis-
tence with altimeters at 4.2–4.4 GHz will
Ongoing Standardization Work put requirements on transmitter emis-
A 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) [7] sion and receiver selectivity.
study item on 5G standardization was At mm-wave frequencies, AASs of-
started in April 2016, and the first re- fer the possibility of beamforming
lease was agreed upon in June 2018. and massive multiple-input, multi-
For bands below 6 GHz, the baseline ple-output (MIMO) [8], [9]. Such AASs
requirements will most probably be will imply new transmitter challen­
similar to the current cellular conditions ges due to their spatial selectivity,
Ultradense Deployments
Intervehicular/Vehicular-to-Road
Communication
Massive
Machine-Type
Communication

Current Spectrum Range
300 MHz 3 GHz
Cellular Bands
FIGURE 8: Cellular frequency bands.
antenna crosstalk, and so on. On the
mm-wave receiver side, due to coverage
and cell-edge bit-rate demands, the de-
sign choices regarding the number of
transceivers and antenna elements is
far from being trivial, especially since
this will have implications for the
transceiver noise figure (NF). In addi-
tion, the AAS spatial selectivity may
be limited for adjacent channels. For
example, local-oscillator phase noise,
in a distributed system, may result in
similar interference levels as for sin-
gle-antenna receivers.
As a baseline for unwanted-emis-
sion discussions, 3GPP uses U.S. Fed-
eral Communications Commission
emission masks beyond 24 GHz. Cur-
rently, a general level of −30-dBm/MHz
spectral density is assumed for Europe,
but subranges of −37 dBm/MHz or even
lower (e.g., 7–8 dB lower) are discussed
for coexistence with satellite systems.
Some of the current standardization
discussions are listed in the “Spectrum
Confinement” section.
12 · NRB · fSCS
BW
–5 dBm/MHz
BW
10
–13 dBm/MHz
Above 6 GHz Transmitter Mask
FIGURE 9: A spectrum confinement and its tentative limits. BW: bandwidth.
58 s u m m e r 2 0 18 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
mm Band
30 GHz 300 GHz
Spectrum Confinement
In 4G, there is a 90%/10% channel/
space allocation (Figure 9). This leaves
10% of the spectrum unused, and for
5G there is a desire to recover some
of this. The newly agreed 5G allo-
cation depends on band, subcarrier
spacing, and channel bandwidth.
The variable allocation may be as
high as 98.3%/1.7% and 95.2%/4.8%,
below and above 6 GHz, respectively.
This allocation will challenge 1) filter
complexity and power consumption,
2) group-delay-incurred latency, and
3) interference in mixed 4G/5G cells.
Still, reducing the space allocation
from the current 10% to between 1.7
and 5% will give a significant capac-
ity improvement.
Receiver NF
For mm-wave operation, both the
low-noise amplifier (LNA) current con-
sumption and NF will increase with
the carrier frequency (Figure 10) [10].
The dynamic range of a cellular re-
ceiver, in general, will be limited by the
front-end insertion loss (IL) together
with the LNA and analog-to-digital con-
verter (ADC) noise and linearity prop-
erties, making these building blocks
critical for the receiver design.
A simplified receiver NF model can
be derived by lumping the front end
(FE), receiver, and ADC into three cas-
caded blocks (Figure 11) where ten-
tative nominal NF contributions at
30 GHz are shown. Additionally, some
3 dB need to be added for variability
and environmental conditions, like
temperature and supply voltage.
At mm-wave frequencies, layout
parasitic capacitances as well as con-
tact and wiring resistances will increase
IL significantly. This will aggravate
the routing problems for AASs, where
many antennas and FE components
need to fit in a very limited space, as
dictated by the short wavelength at the
mm-wave carrier frequencies. Such in-
tegration levels are best supported by
complimentary metal–oxide–semicon-
ductor (CMOS) technology, possibly
supplemented by power amplifiers
using gallium nitride (GaN) or gallium
arsenide for example.
The receiver NF assumption will
impact much of the standardization
work, making an early estimate im-
portant. Currently, total receiver NFs
of 10, 12, and 14 dB are assumed for
30, 45, and 70 GHz, respectively, and
5 dB at 2 GHz for current standards.
The NF values may need to be relaxed
95%
5%
if emission requirements necessitate
sharp RF filters. LNA NF Versus Frequency
7
Over-the-Air Testing
Traditional selectivity measurements 6
are done by injecting a test signal via 28 nm
5
a physical connector at the antenna el- 45-nm SOI
ement port. The test is composed of 65 nm
4 90 nm

both a wanted signal that is typically
6 dB above the reference sensitivity
level (i.e., the allowed desensitization)
and an interference signal (e.g., adja-
cent channel signals or out-of-band
interference). To comply with standards,
the receiver must then be able to detect
the wanted signal at a certain maximum
bit/block error rate.
The traditional receiver test ap-
proach will be difficult and time-con-
suming to perform for large antenna
arrays. For example, test connectors
may be impossible to implement or at
least severely impair AAS performance
and restrict implementation options. An
alternative, more-attractive approach is
to do radiated, OTA tests instead of con-
ducted measurements.
An OTA test of the receiver noise
floor, with and without interference, is
a possible way of testing receiver sen-
sitivity and selectivity. For example,
the ratio of the received total wideband
power, when subject to interference
only, and the received thermal noise,
without any applied signal, can be mea-
sured. Then, selectivity can be assessed
by mapping this interference-pow-
er to thermal-power ratio with known
NF (dB)
3
2
1
0
0 20 40
Carrier Frequency (GHz)
FIGURE 10: The wideband LNA NF trends. SOI: silicon on insulator; SiGe: silicon germanium.
receiver error-rate characteristics. The
error-rate characteristics may, in turn,
be based on a limited set of supplemen-
tary OTA wanted signal tests.
OTA tests need to be defined for
the array as well as the subarray level.
Further, spatial filtering of beams and
adjacent-channel leakage may differ,
and establishing translations between
circuit and radiated performance will
be challenging.
Numerology
When the carrier frequency increases,
the relative subcarrier spacing de-
creases for a fixed subcarrier spacing.
Leeson’s equation tells us that local
130-nm SOI
130-nm SiGe
250-nm GaN
150-nm GaN
Trend
60 80 100
oscillator phase noise increases as
(f0 /Df ) 2, or 6 dB/octave [10], assum-
ing the same resonator quality factor
and power consumption. A wider sub-
carrier spacing will reduce the impact
of oscillator noise, but a narrower spac-
ing is generally desirable as this offers
more resource allocation flexibility
and better fading properties. Thus, to
optimize performance at mm-waves, a
slightly increased subcarrier spacing
is being discussed in standardization.
Numerologies based on N · 15 kHz sub-
carrier spacings, with a focus on N # 8,
are being discussed (Figure 12).
Synthesizer phase noise will also
benefit from a higher phase-locked loop

FE Receiver ADC

Psig, N0 SNR

IL F, BW, G DR, CP
Filter, SW, Routing LNA, Mixer, Analog Baseband VFS

1.3 dB 0.9 dB 1.7 dB 0.3 dB 30 GHz

2.7 dB

FIGURE 11: The simplified receiver model with an exemplary NF distribution. SNR: signal to noise ratio; F: receiver noise factor; G: gain;
DR: dynamic range; CP: compression point; SW: (antenna) switch.

IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE su m m e r 2 0 18 59


N . 20 MHz
Same
Number of
Resource
Elements
1 ms
FIGURE 12: The numerology of latency/
time versus bandwidth.
(PLL) reference frequency as the PLL
gain, and, consequently, the amplifica-
tion of the reference noise will be lower.
Ongoing Test-Bed Efforts
Both industry and academia are very
active in developing 5G test beds. As
this is a fast-moving field, this article
only discusses a few examples of
published efforts.
Academic massive MIMO projects
can be found at, for example, Lund
University [11]. There, in cooperation
with the University of Bristol, mobile
multiuser tests have been demonstrat-
ed as well as a world record in capacity
of 145 b/Hz/s at 3.5 GHz [12], [13].
Public tests by Ericsson and partners
have shown indoor coverage and beam
tracking. A 28-GHz beam-tracking dem-
onstration with high-speed cars can be
found in [14] and [15], while the low 5G
latency has been demonstrated in an In-
dianapolis racetrack trial [16].
Conclusions
For the envisioned 5G systems, beam-
forming, especially at mm-wave fre-
quencies, is an essential component
that will require a substantial in-
crease in the number of parallel radio
chains. A compact building practice
is required due to the high frequency
and number of transceivers needed
to fulfill requirements on link budget,
power consumption, heat dissipation,
area, and volume.
With an increased integration level,
fewer technologies remain suitable
and advanced CMOS must be con-
60 s u m m e r 2 0 18 IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE
sidered as the strongest candidate. The
receiver performance will be challeng-
ing moving up to mm-wave frequen-
cies. The on-chip frequency generation
will suffer from higher phase noise
and, with a tenfold increase in carrier
frequency, this noise fundamentally in­­
creases by 20 dB. The expected receiv-
er NF will increase from some 5 dB at
2 GHz to 10 dB at 30 GHz, simply due to
increased losses at mm-wave frequen-
1/N ms
cies and due to operating the devices
closer to their transit-frequency limit.
However, with technology scaling,
the expected NF may be expected to
improve over time at the expense of
reduced breakdown voltage that will
challenge the receiver’s overall dy-
namic range.
Future updates on the 5G market,
technology, and standardization, may
be found in forthcoming Ericsson Mo-
bility Reports [1] and a recent book [17].
Acknowledgments
Numerous colleagues have contrib-
uted to the activities reported here. In
particular, I would like to thank Farshid
Ghasemzadeh, Stefan Parkvall, and
Sten Wallin from Ericsson and Fredrik
Tufvesson and Liang Liu from Lund
University for sharing their work and
presentation material with me.
References
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About the Author
Sven Mattisson (sven.mattisson@
ericsson.com) received his Ph.D. de-
gree in applied microelectronics from
Lund University, Sweden, in 1986.
From 1987 to 1994, he was an associ-
ate professor in applied microelec-
tronics at Lund University, where his
research was focused on circuit simu-
lation and analog ASIC design. In 1995,
he joined Ericsson Research, in Lund,
Sweden, to work on cellular handset
development. Currently, he is work-
ing on fifth-generation radio circuits
and holds a position as senior expert
in analog-system design at Ericsson Re-
search. He is also an adjunct professor
at Lund University. He is a co-inventor
of Bluetooth. He has served as a techni-
cal program committee member for the
IEEE International Solid-State Circuits
Conference and IEEE European Solid-
State Circuits Conference. He is a mem-
ber of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Engineering Sciences, the Royal Physio-
graphic Society in Lund, and a Senior
Member of the IEEE.