Typical Condition for 5G/NR max throughput

At the point of writing this part (Nov 2020), I think the typical condition for
achieving the max throughput in 5G/NR can be illustrated as follows.

 Frequency Range : FR2

 Number of Carrier : 8

 Bandwidth of Each Carrier : 100 Mhz

 Number of RBs for each carrier : 66

 Modulation Scheme : 256 QAM (MCS 27)

 Number of Layers : 2 (2x2 MIMO)

As far as I know as of now (Nov 2020), I don't see anything that supports the
speed shown below, but this would be realizable at least in terms of 3GPP
specification.

 Frequency Range : FR2

 Number of Carrier : 8

 Bandwidth of Each Carrier : 400 Mhz

 Number of RBs for each carrier : 264

 Modulation Scheme : 256 QAM (MCS 27)

 Number of Layers : 2 (2x2 MIMO)

NOTE : In NR TDD case, there are ofther factors affecting the achievable
throughput. They are the scheduling ratio of Downlink and Uplink, and the
number of symbols assigned for each slots. It is assumed that slot and
symbols are scheduled for downlink as much as possible.
First thing to remember for throughput troubleshooting

One sentence. "Throughput troubleshooting is not simple at all.", "Don't

expect it to be simple.". If I solved the problem with single shot, I would say
"I was just lucky, It is not because I am technically competent".

Even troubleshooting with wired communication is not easy. Think about how
many more factors would get involved in the data path.

That's all for the first thing. Now let's move to the second important thing for
this issue. What is the second thing ?

It's "Don't give up. You will eventually find the solution!" -:). It is just matter
of time and depend on how much dedicated you are during the troubleshoot.

Now the third things comes (Many people think this is the first thing since it
sound more technical, but I don't think it is the case).

What I want you to do as the third item is "list up all the nodes from the data
transmitter to the reciever, and follow all the steps without skipping
anything.". One example I can give you is (this is an example where you use
a Network Emulator for the test).

i) IP Application Software on PC (e.g, iperf, FileZilla)

ii) TE port on PC (e.g, Ethernet Card).

iii) TE port on throughput test equipment (e.g, Data packet port on Network
Emulator)

iv) PDCP layer on test equipment

v) RLC layer on test equipment

vi) MAC layer on test equipment

vii) L1 (Transport and PHY) layer on test equipment

viii) L1 (Transport and PHY) layer on UE (mobile phone or data card)

ix) MAC layer on UE

x) RLC Layer on UE

xi) PDCP layer on UE

xii) TE port on UE (e.g, Modem connector)

xiii) TE port on PC (e.g, USB port the UE is connected to)

xiv) IP Application Software on PC to which the UE is connected.

The more you understand on each of these items, the better position you are
in for troubleshooting. (If you really enjoy your job as engineer, one of the
topic I would recommend you is to try with throughput troubleshoot or
optimization. To me it looks like an art at the same time being a technology).

Now you would ask "Which component on the list is most important, most
critical factor for the throughput ?". I wish I had a simple/clear answer to this,
but my experience says "the answer varies depending on the situation".
Especially it would differ depending on what kind of radio technoloty your
device is using. (e.g, Is it R99 WCDMA Device, HSDPA, HSPA+, LTE ?)

In addition to the major technical factors listed above, sometimes very

simple things as follows make you spend several hours to several weeks for
troubleshoot if you are in bad luck.

i) LAN Cable type (Sometimes you have to use 'direct cable' and sometimes
you have to use 'cross over' cable).

ii) Category of LAN cable. (Is it Cat 5 cable or Cat 6 cable ?)

iii) Ethernet Port Capability (Is it only for 10/100 M, or Gigabit ethernet ?)

iv) Firewall setting on your PC (I will go back to this later in a separate

section).
I will try to go through each type of radio technology and try to point out the
important factor for that specific technology. (Try to memorize all the steps
listed above sicne I will talk about the steps for each of the following
sections).

What Number you want to get ?

I often see two extreme opinion on the result of throughput test result.
Followings are those two with example LTE Cat3 MIMO download throughput.

Opinion 1 : I know the ideal max throughput is 100 Mbps, but I think it
doesn't make much sense at least for a mobile device because in live
network, you would never be in such a situation where a network allow such
a huge resource allocation for any single UE and Radio Signal Quality also
would not be good enough to achieve those throughput. so I am happy if the
throughput result gives 30~40 Mbps. <== I wrote this comments around
6 years (2011) ago when LTE is at relatively early stage of deployment. But
now (Jun 2018), the device supporting 1Gbps is not uncommon and we are
talking about 1.6 Gbps and even 2.0 Gbps device. Nobody think 100 Mbps is
too high throughput. My point is that all the technology evolve like this.
When a technology comes out, many people think it is 'too much' but just in
a few years it becomes 'too little'.

Opinion 2 : The 3GPP sepecfication says the Max throughput for LTE Cat 3 is
100 Mbps, so I want to get exact 100 Mbps throughput displayed on my IP
traffic monitoring tool.

I think there is problem with both opinion, but I would not say much on
Opinion 1. Just think you are lucky if your customer has this kind of opinion
-:).
I will talk something about Opinion 2 in this section. What would be the
problem of this opinion ?

First he should not expect to get the same number on IP traffic monitor as
3GPP spec sheet shows, because what 3GPP spec sheets shows is the
physical layer throughput, not the IP layer throughput. Between physical
layer and IP layer, there are various kinds of overhead getting inserted. So it
is natural to see a little bit less throughput on IP traffic monitor than the
number on 3GPP spec sheets.

Then you may ask.. what if we want to measure only PHY throughput. Will I
get the same Max throughput as the 3GPP spec document says ? In WCDMA,
HSDPA, HSUPA probably 'Yes', but in LTE you would still have a little low
throughput than the 3GPP spec value even in PHY throughput. It is because
there is some subframes where you cannot allocate full RBs (100 RBs in case
of 20Mhz, Cat 3). These frames are where SIBs are scheduled. Especailly
SIB2 is causing a lot of overhead because it is supposed to be transmitted at
subframe 5 at every two SFN. The amount of phyiscal layer overhead varies
depending on how eNodeB allocate RBs for user data for the subframe where
the SIB is transmitted. According to my experience, I saw roughly three
different strategies for this case.

Option 1 : eNodeB still allocate RBs for the SIB transmission subframe, but
the number of RB is a little bit lower than the Max RB

Option 2 : eNodeB does not allocate any RBs for user data at SIB
transmission subframe.

Option 3 : eNodeB stop transmitting SIBs when connected state and

allocate the MAX RBs even for the SIB transmission subframe.

I think live network eNodeB is using Option 1 and I saw most of test
equipment is using Option 2 or Option 3. But Option 3 may cause some
unexpected side effect and this options is not widely used. So in theory, you
may get a little bit higher throughput if you use real eNodeB in 'test lab' (not
in live network) comparing to test equipment. (You would get much less
throughput in live network because you cannot control the eNodeB as you
want and the signal quality is not as good as in the test lab. ).
In concolusion, whatever method you use you would not get the 100% same
as specified in 3GPP specification. In my personal opinion, it would be
considered OK if you can achieve around 90% of the ideal Max throughput
without much of packet error. (If the difference between the test throughput
and ideal throughput is due to packet area, not much due to overhead..
you'd better investigate further to find the root cause of the problem).

Milestones in the history of throughput evolution

I've been involved in throughput testing for Cellular devices since UMTS
HSPA and I had seen some stumbling blocks for almost each and every steps
of evolution. These stumbling block is not only from the DUT (Cellular device)
but also from other components which constitues the test system. In this
section, I would list up some of the milestones (stepping stones) that I've
gone through. Some of the items list

I will add some troubleshoot tips for each of the milestones, but it may not
be a direct solution to the problem that you are facing since there are so
many factors get involved in the data path and root cause of a problem may
be different for different problem even though the symptom looks similar.
However, the factors that I am listing here might be at least something worth
considering for your own troubleshooting process.

< LTE Category 3 : 100 Mbps >

This was around 6 or 7 years ago (around 2010/2011). Nobody would think
this is any big problem these days and they would classfy this as a very low
throughput case. However, when LTE first came out this was pushing the
limit not only on DUT(Cellular protocol) but also many other parts a well.
Followings are some of the factors that would cause issues.
  Stablity of Radio Link at MCS 23 with 2x2 MIMO. Since it was early
stage of LTE deployment, it was not easy for LTE mobile phone (or test
equipment) maintain stable radio quality at MCS 23. Usually this kind
of issues require a lot of DL power (sometimes UL power as well)
tuning, cable check and in worst case UE / Equipment firmware
upgrade.

 At this point of time, most common Network Interface Card(NIC) in PC

was still 10/100 Mbps. 1 Gbps NIC was available, but not every PC has
it. It means the required throughput would really hit the physical limit
of Network Card of server PC. Of course, this problem can be easily
resolved by using the PC with 1Gpbs NIC.

 Just using 1Gbps does not automatically resolve the bottleneck issue of
IP data path. Ethernet Cable often caused the problem. The most
common type of Ethernet cable at this time were Category 5 which has
100 Mbps max throughput. So if you don't use very good quality of
Category 5 cable, the througput would be sclipped by the cable as well.

 If you are using any Ethernet Hub or Switches supporting only up to

10/100 Mbps, you have to check whether it really support the required
throughput or change it to other ones supporting 1 Gbps.

< LTE Category 4 : 150 Mbps >

 Stablity of Radio Link at MCS 28 with 2x2 MIMO. This is the max MCS
applicable to 64 QAM and super high code rate. So achieving stable
radio link was challenging.

 Since this is obviously out of capability of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet

specification, you need upgrade to every Ethernet component (e.g,
Switch, Network Interface Card etc).

< LTE Category 9 : 450 Mbps >

  Stablity of Radio Link at MCS 28 with 2x2 MIMO and 3CC CA. This is no
problem at all for the current standard(as of Jun 2018), but maintaining
the stable radio link of 3CC CA at the initial phase.

 Everything should be with Gigabit ethernet. Gigabit ethernet was

pretty common to most of the PC at this time.

 This often caused problem on UE side when trying test with tethering.
This is almost ideal max throughput of USB 2.0. So if you don't use
very high quality USB 2.0 and well written driver, the throughput would
be bottlenecked by USB.

< LTE Category 12 : 1 Gbps >

 Stablity of Radio Link at DL 256QAM with 4x4 MIMO and Carrier

aggregation. You need to make it sure that 256 QAM decoding on UE
side goes well and guarantee the very high SNR for each and every
antenna of 4x4. If it is with 4x4 Antenna, you would need to get 28 dB
or higher SNR for all 4 antenna.

 This is also ideal max of Gbit ethernet. so even though your PC,
etherent cable, Switch claims that they support Gbit ethernet, it would
be safer to doublecheck the real performance of those components.

 If your test equipment and server Network card support jumbo frame,
it would worth trying with it.

 If you use ftp as a throuput server, you would need to use such a ftp
server that support multiple download at the same time.

 If you use iperf, you may need to carefully chose the version of the
iperf. In my experience, it was possible to achieve only 500 Mbps with
v2.0.5 but was able to achieve around 950 Mbps with v2.0.8 or v3.x.x.
However, the specific versions may give you a little different result
depending on test setup.

 If you ard doing the throughpu test with tethering, make it sure that
you are using USB v3.0 and the usb driver is well written to support
enough throughput.
  If you are testing using a special App on UE (not tethering), you have
to make it sure that the App can handle enough throughput (e.g,
supporting multiple download stream simultaneously)

< LTE Category 18,19,20 : [Link],2.0 Gbps >

 Stablity of Radio Link at DL 256QAM with 4x4 MIMO and at least 4 or

more CC CA(16 layer or more). It would not be easy maintain the good
radio link quality with these configuration.

 The biggest challenge would be the ethernet port on test equipment

and server PC. Most of them would support only 1Gb throughput which
was good enough when LTE first came out.

 If you are testing this with USB tethering, you have to make it sure that
your USB is 3.x and support enough throughput. Even though the USB
3.x specification defines max 5Gbps, but the real implementation
would not support this ideal throughput.

< 5G/NR >

 In this technology, you need to make at least 2 Gbps work from day 1
and very soon need to reach 6 Gbps or higher. So you would need to
use 10 Gb Ethernet from the beginning and would consider trying
with 40 Gbps ethernet in a couple of years down the road.