Zahid Ghadialy, Principal Analyst and Consultant discusses the controversial topic of "Real 5G" or "True 5G". To explain the concept he goes back to explain the difference between ITU defined requirements of IMT-Advanced and how that translated to 4G via LTE/LTE-Advanced. The main point to remember is that "there will be different flavours of 5G whether you like it or not. Get over it!" All our #3G4G5G slides and videos are available at: Videos: https://www.youtube.com/3G4G5G Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/3G4GLtd 5G Page: https://www.3g4g.co.uk/5G/ Free Training Videos: https://www.3g4g.co.uk/Training/

1. Opinion:
What is “Real 5G”?
(and “Real 4G”?)
Zahid Ghadialy,
Principal Analyst and Consultant
@3g4gUK

2. The Battle of “Real 5G”
©3G4G

3. Three’s claim for ‘True 5G’
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IMT-2020 (5G) Requirements
Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the
maximum aggregated system
bandwidth. The bandwidth may be
supported by single or multiple radio
frequency (RF) carriers. The
bandwidth capability of the RIT/SRIT
is defined for the purpose of IMT-
2020 evaluation.
• The requirement for bandwidth is
at least 100 MHz.
• The RIT/SRIT shall support
bandwidths up to 1 GHz for
operation in higher frequency
bands (e.g. above 6 GHz).
Source: The 3G4G Blog

4. ‘This is Fine’ Dog Meme
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5. Evolution of Mobile Networks and ITU IMT Vision
©3G4G
CS
PS
1990 2000 2010 2020
IMT-2000 IMT-Advanced IMT-2020
Voice & SMS
PS Data MBB
eMBB
URLLC
mMTC
CSFB to 3G
CSFB to 2G
VoLTECS Data
[2G] [3G] [4G] [4.5G] [5G]

6. ©3G4G
LTE: 3.9G or 4G?
Bandwidth Scalable
At least 40 MHz
Scalable
1.4 MHz – 20 MHz
Max 2x20 (40 MHz)
Scalable
Up to 5x20 (100 MHz)
Peak Data
Rates
DL = 1 Gbps
UL = 1 Gbps
DL = 150 Mbps (2x2)
UL = 50 Mbps
DL = 300 Mbps (2x2)
UL = 100 Mbps (2x2)
DL = 3 Gbps (8x8)
UL = 1.5 Gbps (4x4)
Latency
10 ms max 4.9 ms 4.9 ms 4.9 msUser Plane (UP)
100 ms max 50 ms 50 ms 50 ms
Control Plane
(CP)
Max
peak
spectral
efficienc
y
15 bps / Hz 16.3 bps / Hz 16.8 bps / Hz 30 bps / Hz
Downlink
(DL)
6.75 bps / Hz 4.32 bps / Hz 8.4 bps / Hz 15 bps / Hz
Uplink
(UL)
IMT-A LTE
(Rel.8)
LTE-A
(Rel.10)
LTE-A

7. ©3G4G
Carrier Aggregation

8. ©3G4G
LTE-Advanced: Real 4G
Bandwidth Scalable
At least 40 MHz
Scalable
1.4 MHz – 20 MHz
Max 2x20 (40 MHz)
Scalable
Up to 5x20 (100 MHz)
Peak Data
Rates
DL = 1 Gbps
UL = 1 Gbps
DL = 150 Mbps (2x2)
UL = 50 Mbps
DL = 300 Mbps (2x2)
UL = 100 Mbps (2x2)
DL = 3 Gbps (8x8)
UL = 1.5 Gbps (4x4)
Latency
10 ms max 4.9 ms 4.9 ms 4.9 msUser Plane (UP)
100 ms max 50 ms 50 ms 50 ms
Control Plane
(CP)
Max
peak
spectral
efficienc
y
15 bps / Hz 16.3 bps / Hz 16.8 bps / Hz 30 bps / Hz
Downlink
(DL)
6.75 bps / Hz 4.32 bps / Hz 8.4 bps / Hz 15 bps / Hz
Uplink
(UL)
IMT-A LTE
(Rel.8)
LTE-A
(Rel.10)
LTE-A

9. ©3G4G
4G Evolution
3.9G? 4G?
4G? 4G+? Advanced 4G?
4.5G?
4.5G? 4.9G? 5G? 5GE?

10. ‘Gigabit LTE’ Networks
©3G4G

11. ‘Gigabit LTE’ Networks
©3G4G
GSA Report Link Gigabit LTE does not always equal Gigabit speed. Some
networks capable of delivering downlink speeds of 1 Gbps can
do so without using all three key LTE-Advanced features
Some networks using all three features do not achieve 1 Gbps
The fastest networks in the GSA database are:
• KDDI, Swisscom, Turkcell: 1.2 Gbps
• China Unicom: 1.156 Gbps
• Bell Mobility: 1.15 Gbps
• 3 Hong Kong, Singtel: 1.1 Gbps
• Optus: 1.03 Gbps
• Vodafone Italy: 1.023 Gbps
• Telstra, Vodafone Germany, Vodafone Netherlands,
HKT, Elisa, Ooredoo Qatar, Starhub, Dialog Axiata,
AT&T Mobility, China Mobile Hong Kong, DNA, Telenor
Denmark, TeliaSonera Denmark, Smartone, CYTA,
Sprint: 1 Gbps
©2019 GSA
Gigabit LTE: At the end of February 2019, GSA has identified 100
operators in 59 countries or territories investing in all the three
core LTE-Advanced features for Gigabit LTE (defined as Carrier
Aggregation, 4×4 MIMO or higher, and 256QAM modulation in
the downlink).
51 operators have deployed all three of these technologies and /
or launched commercial services based on them.

12. ‘Gigabit LTE’ Networks
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13. ©3G4G
FACT: No existing 4G / LTE Network
meets the ITU ‘IMT-Advanced’
Requirements

14. 5G (IMT-2020) Requirements
©3G4G
10 years
battery life
M2M
Ultra low cost
100 x
More devices than 4G
>10 Gbps
Peak data rates
100 Mbps
Whenever needed
10000 x
More traffic than 4G
UR
Ultra-Reliable
(99.999%)
< 1 ms
Low latency on
radio interface
1,000,000
devices per km2
ITU-R IMT-2020 requirements

15. 5G and IMT-2020
©3G4G
Submission 1: SRIT
Component RIT: NR
Component RIT: E-UTRA/LTE
Submission 2: NR RIT
RIT = Radio Interface Technology
SRIT = Set of Radio Interface Technologies
Standalone (SA)Non-Standalone (NSA)

16. 5G Bandwidth (BW)
©3G4G
f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6
LTE Carrier Aggregation 5G NR Carrier Aggregation
5G NSA BW = 4G Carrier Aggregated BW + 5G Carrier Aggregated BW
5G SA BW = 5G Carrier Aggregated BW

17. Other Interesting IMT-2020 Requirements
©3G4G
• Peak Data Rate (eMBB)
▪ Downlink peak data rate is 20 Gbit/s.
▪ Uplink peak data rate is 10 Gbit/s.
• User experienced data rate (eMBB)
▪ Downlink user experienced data rate is 100 Mbit/s.
▪ Uplink user experienced data rate is 50 Mbit/s.
• Control Plane Latency (air interface)
▪ Minimum requirement is 20 ms (eMBB & URLLC)
• User Plane Latency (air interface)
▪ 4 ms for eMBB
▪ 1 ms for URLLC
• And there are more…

18. ©3G4G
FACT: No 5G Network will meet the
ITU ‘IMT-2020’ Requirements

19. Why is 5G not as simple as Wi-Fi?
©3G4G
Source: TechSpot

20. Wi-Fi is Simpler than 5G but…
©3G4G
Internet
ISP
750 Mbps
Backhaul
100 Mbps
Wi-Fi doesn’t have:
• Wide Area Coverage
• Mobility Management
• QoS Management
• Worldwide Roaming
• Inter-RAT Handovers
• Paging

21. 5G is Far More Complex Because…
©3G4G
• Each country has different regulations
▪ Spectrum is not necessarily harmonized across all regions
• Each operator has different amount and type of spectrum
▪ Remember, Licensed Spectrum is Expensive too
• Backhaul varies from area to area
▪ Fibre cannot be used everywhere
▪ Latency depends on type of backhaul
▪ Rural / Remote areas relying on Satellite will have a very high latency
o But they can still benefit from 5G security mechanism, QoS,
etc.
• There are many other things like slices, functional splits, network
architecture options, migration paths, etc.

22. 3GPP Specifications for 3G, 4G & 5G
©3G4G
Source: Nokia / The 3G4G Blog

23. Different Flavours of 5G
©3G4G

24. ©3G4G
FACT: There will be different flavours
of 5G whether you like it or not. Get
over it!

25. Thank You
To learn more, visit:
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