Ericsson Technology Review - Issue 1, 2019

ERICSSON
TECHNOLOGY
C H A R T I N G T H E F U T U R E O F I N N O V A T I O N | V O L U M E 9 8 I 2 0 1 9 – 0 1
BOOSTINGSMART
MANUFACTURING
WITH5G
DISTRIBUTEDCLOUD
INAUTOMOTIVE&
INDUSTRY4.0
USECASES
TECHNOLOGY
CHOICESFOR
MASSIVEIoT
DEVICES

CONTENTS ✱
08 THE ADVANTAGES OF COMBINING 5G NR WITH LTE
5G at mid and high bands is well suited for deployment at existing
site grids, especially when combined with low-band LTE. Adding new
frequency bands to existing deployments is a future-proof and cost-
efficient way to improve performance, meet the growing needs of mobile
broadband subscribers and deliver new 5G-based services.
18 SIMPLIFYING THE 5G ECOSYSTEM BY REDUCING
ARCHITECTURE OPTIONS
Previous mobile generations have taught us that industry efforts to reduce
fragmentation yield massive benefits. In the case of 5G, an industry effort to focus
deployment on a limited set of key connectivity options will be critical to bringing
5G to market in a timely and cost-efficient way.
28 DISTRIBUTED CLOUD: A KEY ENABLER OF AUTOMOTIVE
AND INDUSTRY 4.0 USE CASES
Emerging use cases in the automotive industry – as well as in manufacturing
industries where the first phases of the fourth industrial revolution are taking place
– have created a variety of new requirements for networks and clouds. At Ericsson,
we believe that distributed cloud is a key technology to support such use cases.
48 KEY TECHNOLOGY CHOICES FOR OPTIMAL IoT DEVICES
The latest cellular communication technologies LTE-M and NB-IoT enable
the introduction of a new generation of IoT devices that deliver on the promise
of scalable, cost-effective massive IoT applications using LPWAN technology.
However, a few key technology choices are necessary to create IoT devices
that can support the multitude of existing and emerging massive IoT use cases.
60 BSS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE – TIME TO GO NATIVE
The growing need to support disruptive services emerging from the IoT
and 5G requires a fundamental transformation of business support systems
(BSS). At Ericsson, we believe that the best way to achieve this is by forging
BSS and artificial intelligence (AI) together to create truly AI-native BSS.
FEATURE ARTICLE
Boosting smart manufacturing
with 5G wireless connectivity
Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution – is already transforming the
manufacturing industry, with the vision of highly efficient, connected and flexible
factories of the future quickly becoming a reality in many sectors. Fully connected
factories will rely on cloud technologies, as well as connectivity based on Ethernet
Time-Sensitive Networking and wireless 5G radio.
38
08
Standalone NR and 5GC with
appropriate features and
coverage for addressed use
cases.
EPC
eNBeNB eNB gNB eNBeNB eNB gNB
NR NRNR-low
LTE LTE LTELTELTE
Option 1 Options 1, 3
Current industry focus
Options 1, 2, 3
1
3 2
EPC+ 5GCEPC+

18
Local Regional
Regional DCLocal DC
MTSO
MTSO
Local and regional sites
Service exposure
HD maps HD maps
Data exposure for automotive services
Access sites
Video stream
ECU sensors
HD maps
Video stream
ECU sensors
HD maps
Intelligent driving Intelligent driving
Advanced driver
assistance
Advanced driver
assistance
Huge
amount
of data
28
Enterprise
Strategic
level
Tactical
level
Operational
level
Business model #1 Business model #2 Common enterprise
resources
Resources common
to all business models,
for example:
∙ Party model
∙ Channels
∙ Credit check service
Credit rules
Channel
serviceCustomer
Contract
Sales
Onboarding
Billing
Settlement
Rating
Customer
support
Inten
Intent
Intent
In
60
48
38

ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #01 2019
Ericsson Technology Review brings you
insights into some of the key emerging
innovations that are shaping the future of ICT.
Our aim is to encourage an open discussion
about the potential, practicalities, and benefits
of a wide range of technical developments,
and provide insight into what the future
has to offer.
a d d r e s s
Ericsson
SE-164 83 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 8 719 00 00
p u b l i s h i n g
All material and articles are published on the
Ericsson Technology Review website:
www.ericsson.com/ericsson-technology-review
p u b l i s h e r
Erik Ekudden
e d i t o r
Tanis Bestland (Nordic Morning)
tanis.bestland@nordicmorning.com
e d i t o r i a l b o a r d
Håkan Andersson, Anders Rosengren,
Mats Norin, Erik Westerberg,
Magnus Buhrgard, Gunnar Thrysin,
Håkan Olofsson, Dan Fahrman, Robert Skog,
Patrik Roseen, Jonas Högberg,
John Fornehed and Sara Kullman
f e at u r e a r t i c l e
Boosting smart manufacturing with 5G
wireless connectivity by Kenneth Wallstedt,
Fredrik Alriksson and Göran Eneroth
a r t d i r e c t o r
Liselotte Eriksson (Nordic Morning)
p r o d u c t i o n l e a d e r
Susanna O’Grady (Nordic Morning)
l ay o u t
Liselotte Eriksson (Nordic Morning)
i l l u s t r at i o n s
Jenny Andersen (Nordic Morning)
c h i e f s u b e d i t o r
Ian Nicholson (Nordic Morning)
s u b e d i t o r s
Paul Eade (Nordic Morning)
i s s n : 0 0 1 4 - 0 17 1
Volume: 98, 2019
■ i find it deeply gratifying to witness the growing
enthusiasm among mobile network operators
(MNOs) around the globe about the massive growth
opportunities that 5G represents for their businesses.
In particular, 5G is now widely recognized as a prime
enabling technology of the fourth industrial revolution,
helping manufacturing companies leverage automation
and data exchange technologies that require seamless
communication between all the participants and
components in industrial processes.
Using 5G effectively in the fully-connected factories
of the future is the theme of the feature article in
this issue of the magazine. Among other aspects,
itexplainshow5Gcanprovidedeterministic ultra-
reliable low-latency communication to bring
wireless connectivity to demanding industrial
equipment, like industrial controllers and actuators.
Emerging industrial use cases in the automotive and
manufacturing sectors, among others, are creating a
variety of new requirements for networks and clouds.
Our distributed cloud article explains how distributed
cloud technology exploits key features in both 4G and
5G networks to enable an execution environment that
ensures performance, short latency, high reliability and
data locality.
Like 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) is also playing a
pivotal role in Industry 4.0, as well as in transforming
business and society in a myriad of other ways. In
light of this, MNOs need business support systems
(BSS) that can handle IoT use cases, which often
involve complex business situations, and optimize
CAPITALIZING ON
THE POWER OF 5G
✱ EDITORIAL
#01 2019 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 7
outcomes with minimal manual intervention.
In this magazine we argue in favor of architectural
changes to traditional BSS to fully integrate
artificial intelligence.
As IoT use cases continue to grow and spread,
it is critically important to take action to ensure
that the devices are secure, both in terms of
communication and data integrity end-to-end,
from device to data usage. It is our opinion that
certain key technology choices are necessary
to achieve the desired device characteristics
and create IoT devices that support the multitude
of existing and emerging massive IoT use cases.
While 5G is highly relevant for many industrial
(and other) applications that reach far beyond
traditional telco, it is also designed to address a
myriad of challenges within the traditional telco
sphere. One example of this is the way it enables
MNOs to overcome the challenge of capacity
exhaustion caused by the rapidly increasing
data consumption of their subscribers. Rather
than densifying 4G networks with new sites,
we recommend that operators use 5G technology
to add new frequency bands at existing 4G sites.
Of course, one of the most critical aspects of a
successful 5G deployment is the operator’s ability
to support user equipment, radio network, core
network and management products that are
manufactured by a multitude of device and network
equipment vendors. Achieving this can be more
difficult than it sounds, however. We propose a
smart approach to 5G deployment in this issue that
reduces network upgrade cost and time, simplifies
interoperability between networks and devices,
and enables a faster scaling of the 5G ecosystem.
I hope you will find the articles in this magazine
valuable. Please feel free to share them with your
colleagues and business associates. You can find
all of the articles, along with those published in
previous issues, at: www.ericsson.com/ericsson-
technology-review
5GISNOWWIDELYRECOGNIZED
ASAPRIMEENABLINGTECHNOLOGYOF
THEFOURTHINDUSTRIALREVOLUTION
ERIK EKUDDEN
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT,
GROUP CTO AND
HEAD OF TECHNOLOGY & ARCHITECTURE
EDITORIAL ✱

✱ COMBINING 5G NR WITH LTE COMBINING 5G NR WITH LTE ✱
8 #01 2019 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEWERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #01 2019 9
ThemainnewNRfrequencybandswilltypically
beallocatedasTDDinthemid(3-6GHz)andhigh
(24-40GHz)bands.Thesebandspresentseveral
interestingchallengesandopportunities.Bymeans
ofmeasurementsandradionetworksimulationsof
coverageandcapacity,wehavedemonstrated
thatitisfeasibletodeploybothmidandhigh
(alsoknownasmillimeterWaveormmWave)
bandsonexistingsites.
Thankstobeamforming,afundamental
techniqueinNR,theneedforsitedensificationis
muchsmallerthananticipated–particularlywhen
interworkingwithLTEisapplied.Beamforming
andmassivemultiple-input,multiple-output
(MIMO)techniquesalsoprovidehighercapacity
fromexisting4Gsites,whichcreatesroomfornew
5G-basedservicesandusecasesinadditionto
MBB.
AT EXISTING SITES
Combining5GNR
5G at mid and high bands is well suited for deployment at existing site
grids, especially when combined with low-band LTE. Adding new frequency
bands to existing deployments is a future-proof and cost-efficient way
to improve performance, meet the growing needs of mobile broadband
subscribers and deliver new 5G-based services.
FREDRIC KRONESTEDT,
HENRIK ASPLUND,
ANDERS FURUSKÄR,
DU HO KANG,
MAGNUS LUNDEVALL,
KENNETH WALLSTEDT
High-frequencychallengesandopportunities
Theuseofmidandhighbandsfor5Gmakesit
possibletoutilizemuchhigherbandwidths.
However,theincreasedcarrierfrequencycanalso
makeitmorechallengingtoprovidecoveragethatis
similartoexistinglow-banddeployments.Thereare
threeprimaryreasonsforthis:(1)physicallimitson
thepowerreceptioncapabilitiesofantennas;(2)
radiofrequencyoutputpowerlimitations;and(3)
increasedpropagationlosses,asshowninFigure1.
The speed expectations and data
consumption of mobile broadband (MBB)
subscribers continue to grow rapidly. Already
today, there are 4G networks in urban areas
that are being densified with new sites
(macro sites, small cells and indoor solutions,
for example) as a result of spectrum
exhaustion. Further, in regions such as
western Europe and North America, the data
demand per smartphone is projected to
grow by 30-40 percent yearly [1], resulting
in a four- to fivefold increase in five years.
Adding new frequency bands at existing sites
is a cost-efficient way to meet this demand
and improve performance. The ability to
achieve indoor coverage is particularly
important, because the majority of the
traffic is generated indoors [2].
■ Manypeopleinthetelecomindustrytendto
associatethedeploymentofhigh-frequencybands
withpoorcoverage,whichresultsintheneedfornew
sites,whichleadstohighdeploymentcosts.Thisis,
however,notatallthecasefor5GNewRadio(NR)
[3].5GNRisdesignedtomakeuseoffrequency
bandsabove3GHzandoffersthepossibilityto
introducenewfrequencybands–typicallyabove
3GHz–intoexisting4Gnetworks.Takingadvantage
ofthispossibilitymakesiteasiertomeetthe
increasingdemandsfromMBB-basedservices,
whilesimultaneouslyensuringthatsiteandbackhaul
infrastructureinvestmentscanbereused.5GNR
isalsoavailableforuseinnewbandsbelow1GHzand
existing3G/4Gbands.Smoothmigrationfrom4G
to5GinexistingspectruminaRANcanbedone
bymeansofspectrumsharing,whereNRis
introducedinparallelwithLTE.
THANKSTOBEAMFORMING...
THENEEDFORSITEDENSIFICATION
ISMUCHSMALLERTHAN
ANTICIPATED
Figure 1 Schematic indication of antenna and propagation factors affecting downlink coverage positively (blue) or
negatively (red) compared to coverage at a reference frequency of 1.8GHz. The numbers are indicative and may vary.
Output power and regulatory requirements
3.5GHz: 0dB (typical)
28GHz: -10 to -15dB (typical)
Antenna gain and beamforming
3.5GHz: +9dB (typical)
28GHz: +15dB (typical) Outdoor to indoor propagation loss
3.5GHz: -0 to -2dB (-0 to -3dB for IRR glass)
28GHz: -1 to -10dB (-2 to -20dB for IRR glass)
Outdoor propagation loss
3.5GHz: 0 to -2dB
28GHz: 0 to -7dB
Antenna gain and beamforming
3.5GHz: +6dB
28GHz: +9dB
Rx effective antenna area
3.5GHz: -6dB
28GHz: -24dB
withLTE
THE ADVANTAGES OF

the1.8GHzreference.Evenso,usersintheworst
positionsrequirethesupportofalowerfrequency
band,especiallyintheuplink(UL)direction.
Forhighbands(around30GHz),thesituation
differssubstantiallyfromthereference.Verygood
outdoorcoverageisachievedonexistinggrids.
Outdoor-to-indoorcoveragecanbeachievedby
targeteddeploymentswithline-of-sighttothe
buildingsintendedtobecovered.
Measuredbeamformingperformance
andoutdoor-incoverage
Earlyproofpointsofthe5Gconceptandits
performancecanbeobtainedfrommeasurements
inaradionetworkprototype.Ericssonhas
developed5Gprototypesforseveral5Gfrequencies,
including3.5GHzand28GHz.Initialtrial
deploymentsaretypicallysetupwithafewradio
sitesandoneorafewmobileterminals,allowingfor
acontrolledmeasurementenvironment.Testresults
onbeamformingperformancearereportedin
references[5],[6]and[7].Theresultsdemonstrate
thathighantennagainscanindeedberealized
throughbeamforming,andthatthebeamforming
isabletotrackfast-movinguserswithsustained
communicationquality.Moreover,goodindoor
coveragecanbeachievedwith5Gat3.5GHz,
provingthefeasibilityofdeploying5Gatexisting
4Gsites.Oneexamplefromourmeasurementsis
showninFigure2,whereindoorthroughputina
buildingatthecelledgereaches200-400Mbps
onan80MHzcarrierusingconservativerank-2
MIMOtransmission.
Butthehigherfrequenciesalsoallowhigherantenna
gainstobegeneratedwithoutincreasingphysical
antennasize.5Gcanutilizetheseincreasedantenna
gainsthroughbeamformingbothatthetransmitter
andatthereceiver,whichhelpsmitigatetheimpact
oncoverageathigherfrequencies.
Additionally,increasingthefrequencywillallow
theantennastobecomesmallerwhilemaintaining
thesameantennagain.Itisimportanttonotethat
anyfixed-gainantennainreceivingmodeactually
captures20dBlessenergyforeachtenfoldincrease
ofthefrequency.Thisisoftenmisunderstoodasa
propagationloss,wheninrealityitisaresultofa
decreasingeffectiveantennaarea.Ifthephysical
antennaareaoftheantennaismaintained,itspower
capturecapabilitiesbecomeindependentof
frequency,whileitsantennagain,forbothreception
andtransmission,growswiththefrequencyatthe
sametimeasthebeamwidthbecomessmaller.
Thus,athigherfrequencies,thereisatrade-off
betweenreducingtheantennasizeandincreasing
theantennagain.Coverageandimplementation
aspectsdeterminethesweetspot.
Theachievableoutputpowerathigherfrequency
bandssuchasmmWavefrequenciescanalsobe
limitedbypoweramplifiertechnologyandby
regulatoryrequirements[4].Theoretically,the
antennagainofafixed-sizetransmittingantenna
wouldgrowby20dBperdecadeinfrequency
(dB/decade),butinpracticetheincreaseinEIRP
(effectiveisotropicradiatedpower)maybesmaller
duetosuchconstraints.
Electromagneticwavepropagationincellular
networksinvolvessomeprocessesthatarestrongly
frequency-dependent,suchasdiffractionor
transmissionthrough,forexample,wallsorfoliage,
butalsootherssuchasfreespacepropagationand
reflectionorscatteringthatshowlittletono
differenceoverfrequency.Effectively,theoutdoor
propagationlossissimilarorincreasesslightlywith
increasedfrequency,asindicatedinFigure1.
Outdoor-to-indoorpropagationlossescanbe
challengingtoovercome,especiallyforbuildings
equippedwiththermally-efficientwindowglass,
whichcanaddupto20-40dBofadditionallossat
agivenfrequency.Whenincreasingthefrequency,
theoutdoortoindoorlossesalsotendtoincrease,
particularlyfordeepindoorlocations.Thisincrease
issmalltomoderateforregularbuildingsbutcan
bestrongforthermally-efficientbuildings,
asshowninFigure1.
Thehigherpropagationlossescanbemitigatedby
usinghigh-gainantennasonbothtransmittersand
receivers.Theseantennasbecomedirective,forming
beamswithstronggainincertaindirections,andlow
gaininotherdirections.Thebeamsneedtobesetup
andmaintainedtopointintherightdirectionsin
ordertosupportmobility.InNR,thisissupported
bybeammanagement.Besidesthebenefitof
amplifyingthesignalinthedesireddirection,
beamformingalsoattenuatesthesignalinother
directions,leadingtolessinterferenceandbetter
channelquality.Thiscanbedonetotheextentthat
multipleusers,usingdifferentbeams,can
communicatewithabasestationonthesame
frequencyandtimeresource.Thisisknownas
multi-userMIMO(MU-MIMO),anditenables
asignificantcapacityimprovement.
Evenwithbeamforming,usingexistingsitegrids,
itcanbedifficulttoreachfullcoverageonhigher
frequencies.Butsincealowerfrequencybandtends
tobeavailable,thisisnotaproblem.Usersoutof
coverageonthehigherfrequenciessimplyfallback
tothelowerfrequencybands.Thiscanbe
accomplishedbyinterworkingtechniquessuchas
dualconnectivityorcarrieraggregation.Theresult
isa‘forgiving’situation,whereamid-orhigh-band
deploymentdoesnotneedtobedimensionedfor
100percentcoverage.Instead,itsimplytakes
careofthetrafficthatitcovers.
Tosummarize,thenumbersinFigure1illustrate
thattheuseoftoday’stechnologies,powerlevelsand
beamforminggainsonthemidband(3-6GHz)
providesbetterdownlink(DL)coveragethan
THEMIDBAND(3-6GHZ)
PROVIDESBETTERDOWNLINK
COVERAGETHAN
THE1.8GHZREFERENCE
Figure 2 5G outdoor-in throughput measurement results from an NR 3.5GHz radio prototype
NR prototype base station
128Tx
3.5GHz, 80MHz bandwidth
5W output power
NR prototype UE 8Rx
Downlink throughput at 3.5GHz
> 400Mbps
200-400Mbps
100-200Mbps
50-100Mbps
10-50Mbps
1-10Mbps
Out of coverage
THEHIGHERPROPAGATION
LOSSESCANBEMITIGATEDBY
USINGHIGH-GAINANTENNAS

NRsystem,usingawiderbandwidth,beamforming
andMU-MIMO.Theabilitytoserveusersinpoor
coverageareasonalowerbandavoidsthe
consumptionofextensiveresourcesonthe
3.5GHzband,makingitmoreefficient.Toquantify
thebenefitofintroducingNR,wemeasuredthe
maximumtrafficloadforwhich(95percentof)
theusersstillachieveauserthroughputexceeding
20Mbps.WhenaddingNRintheDLdirection,
thismaximumtrafficloador‘capacity’increases
byafactorofeightfrom1Gbps/km2
to8Gbps/km2
(correspondingto135GB/subscriber/month,
assuming10,000subscribersperkm2
andabusy
hourtrafficof8percentofthedailytraffic).IntheUL
direction,thecapacitygainissmallerthantheDL
duetoTDDasymmetry(25percentfortheUL)and
alowertransmitpower.Thecapacitygainsobserved
herearetypicalforalow-riseurbanscenariowith
decentcoverage.Thegainsarescenario-dependent
andtypicallyincreasewithimprovedcoverageand
increasedverticalspreadofusers,anddecreasewith
worsecoverageandasmallerverticalspread.
Predictedurbanmid-bandcoverage
andcapacity
Topredict5Gcoverageandcapacityonalarger
scale,wehaveperformedradionetworksimulations.
WechoseapartofcentralLondonwithaninter-site
distanceofapproximately400m,whichis
representativeofmanyEuropeanurbanareas.
Similarstudiesofmajorcitiesinotherpartsofthe
world,includingAsiaandtheUS,indicatethatthe
findingsfromthisstudyarealsoapplicableinthose
scenarios.Radiobasestationcharacteristicssuch
asbeamformingcapabilities,powerandsensitivity
reflecttheimplementationsofthefirstproduct
generations,andterminalsaremodeledwithexpec-
tedtypicalsmartphonecharacteristicsformidand
highbands.Fourand32receiveantennasareassumed
forterminalsinmidandhighbands,respectively.
Formaximalfidelity,adigital3Dmapisused
togetherwithanaccurate3Dsite-specificpropagation
model,explicitlycapturingrelevantpropagation
phenomenaalongthepropagationpaths[8].
WehavemodeledLTEsystemsoperatingat
800MHz,1.8GHzand2.6GHz,aswellasanNR
systemoperatingat3.5GHz.Thisconfigurationis
representativeofthenon-standaloneversionofNR
thatwasdevelopedin3GPPRel-15.TheLTEsystem
usesFDD,2x10MHzat800MHzand2x20MHz
ateachof1.8GHzand2.6GHzaddingupto100MHz
pairedspectrum,andregularsectorantennas.
TheNRsystemusesTDD,100MHzofunpaired
spectrum,anda64T64Rantennaarrayof8x8cross-
polarizedantennas.Weapplieduser-specificdigital
beamforming,andMU-MIMOwithmultiplexingof
uptofourusersissupportedbothintheDLandUL.
WhenLTEandNRsystemsareevaluatedtogether,
carrieraggregationbetweenLTEsystemsanddual
connectivitybetweenLTEandNRcarriers
areappliedfortheinterworking.Althoughnot
consideredinthisevaluation,thereareseveral
interestingpossibilitiestoevolvetheLTEsystems
–withmoreadvancedantennas,forexample.
Figure3showsDLandULcoverageinterms
ofachievabledataratesinanunloadednetwork
withoutinterference.Eightypercentofusersare
indoors,andtheyareshownonlyfrommiddlefloors.
WhenexistingLTErooftopsitesarereusedwith
3.5GHz,bothindoorandoutdoorusershavevery
goodcoverageintheDL.Theblacklineinthe
colorbarindicatesthat95percentoftheindoor
subscribershavecoveragefor200MbpsintheDL
comparedwith50Mbpswhenaggregatingall
LTEsystems(notshowninthefigure).Inaddition,
95percentofoutdooruserscanexceed500Mbps
intheDLwithNR3.5GHzalone.TheULismuch
morelimitedwith3.5GHzalone.NR-LTE
interworkingimproves,andmanyoftheblankspots
inthe3.5GHzbandarecovered.Theremaining
areaswithpoorcoverageareconcentratedtoinside
largebuildingswithhigh-lossouterwalls.These
buildingsaresuitablecandidatesforindoor
deployments.Comparingthegainsfromadding
3.5GHzintheDLandUL,itisclearthatthegains
arelargerintheDL.ThisisduetoaDL-heavy
TDDasymmetry(75percent)at3.5GHz,
andthefactthattheUL,becauseofthelower
transmitpower,ismorepower-limitedandthus
gainslessfromadditionalbandwidth.
Whentrafficloadincreases,moreusersareactive
simultaneously,sharingthebasestationcapacity,
causingincreasedinterferencelevels,andleadingto
areductioninuserthroughputcomparedwiththe
unloadedcase.Theseeffectsaremitigatedbythe
Figure 3 DL and UL coverage maps. The black line in the color legends represents the fifth percentile of an indoor user
data rate, and the purple areas indicate antenna positions. The white circles mark indoor areas with limited coverage,
improved by interworking.
> 200Mbps
50-200Mbps
20-50Mbps
5-10Mbps
2.5-5Mbps
1-2.5Mbps
Out of coverage
> 200Mbps
50-200Mbps
10-50Mbps
5-10Mbps
2.5-5Mbps
1-2.5Mbps
Out of coverage
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
Uplink NR 3.5GHz alone
Uplink NR LTE interworking
-600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600
-600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600
> 400Mbps
200-400Mbps
100-200Mbps
50-100Mbps
10-50Mbps
1-10Mbps
Out of coverage
600
400
200
0
-200
-400
-600
-600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600
Downlink NR 3.5GHz alone
〉〉 Better user data speeds – 95 percent
of indoor subscribers have more than
200Mbps with today’s typical site grids.
〉〉 Higher capacity – adding NR 100MHz
TDD (75 percent DL) on top of LTE with
2x50MHz paired spectrum provides an
eight times higher DL capacity than
using only LTE. Normalized with the
1.5 times higher spectrum usage,
NR is thus five times more efficient.
BENEFITSOFOVERLAYING5G
NR3.5GHZATEXISTINGSITES

wouldbeagoodexampleofacapacity-drivenone.
Passivedistributedantennasystems(DASs)are
currentlythemostcommonsolutionusedfor
indoordeployments.
ThehardwarecomponentsofapassiveDASoften
haveanoperatingfrequencyrangethatislimitedto
bandsbelow3GHz,whichmeansthataddingthe
newNRmidorhighbandsrequiresanew5Gindoor
solution.Aradiodot[9]solutionat3.5GHzprovides
goodcoverageandmuchhigherspeedsthancurrent
LTEbandsatthesameradionodedensity,aswellas
consuminglesspowerthanaDAS.Forextreme
demandsintermsofuserspeedsorcapacity,an
indoorsolutionbasedonmmWavesmallcellsmight
bethebestchoice.Inthiscase,itisimportantto
deployamid-bandcoveragecomplement.
Conclusion
Thekeybenefitsofdeploying5GNewRadiowith
midbands(3-6GHz)atexisting4Gsitesarethat
doingsoresultsinasignificantperformanceboost
andallowsformaximalreuseofsiteinfrastructure
investments.ByaddingNRwith100MHzunpaired
spectrum,itispossibletoachieveeighttimeshigher
downlinkcapacityrelativetoLTE(2x50MHzpaired
spectrum)alongwithimproveddownlinkdatarates
–bothoutdoorsandindoors–bymeansofmassive
MIMOtechniquessuchasbeamformingand
multi-userMIMO.Uplinkcoveragedeepindoors
ismaintainedthroughinterworkingwithLTE
and/orNRonlowbandsusingdualconnectivity
orcarrieraggregation(new,refarmedorbyusing
LTE/NRspectrumsharing).Asaresultofthese
possibilitiesin5GNR,growingdatademands
canbemetwithlimitedsitedensification.
Furtherspeedandcapacityincreasescanbe
attainedbydeploying5GNRathighbands
(26-40GHz),alsoknownasmmWaves.Thehigh
bandsareparticularlyeffectiveoutdoorsandinside
buildingswithline-of-sightfromthedeployedradio
nodeandwithlowwalllossproperties.Buildings
thathaveorneeddedicatedindoorsolutionsdueto
highpenetrationlossandinteriorlossescanbe
successfullyupgradedwithupcomingNRbands
forhigherspeedsandcapacityatsimilarradionode
densitytothoseusedforLTEin-building
deploymentstoday.
Predictedurbanhigh-bandcoverage
andcapacity
ThewidebandwidthavailableonmmWave
spectrumcanprovidefurtherincreaseddatarates
andadditionalcapacityontopofthecombined
3.5GHzmid-bandNRandLTEsystem.Higher
frequenciesallowahighergainofantennaarrayat
thesamephysicalarea–bothinabasestationand
atauserterminalside–soastoincreasethe
maximumantennagain.
SimulationstudiesinthecentralLondonscenario
showthatanNR200MHzTDDsystemat26GHz
withthe256T256Rantennaarrayof16x16cross-
polarizedantennascanprovideverygoodDL
coveragetooutdoorusers–forexample,50-60
percentapproaching1Gbps.Withlargerspectrum
allocationssuchas400MHz,itispossibletoreach
multi-Gbpsspeeds.Whenthereisline-of-sightfrom
thebasestationtoabuildingandthebuildingisa
low-losstype,thereisalsoagoodchancethat
indooruserswillbewellcovered.
Ourresultsshowthatdeployingthe3.5GHzand
26GHzbandonexistingmacrositescanprovide
acapacityimprovementofapproximately10times
comparedwiththeLTEsystemsinlowandmid
bands.Thisadditionalgainisbecause26GHz
offloadsthelowerfrequencybandsbylettinggood-
coverageusersutilizeanadditional200MHz,
whichtherebyimprovesoverallperformance.
ApplyingmmWavespectrumatstreet-levelsites
canalsobeagoodalternative.Byplacingantennas
onlampposts,outerwallsandthelike,itispossible
toavoidtypicaldiffractionlossesfromrooftopsand
achieveshorterdistancestousersonoutdoor
hotspotsorintargetedbuildings.Oursimulation
studiesintheLondonscenarioindicatethatthe
street-levelradiodeploymentofanNRsystemwith
64T64Rantennaarrayprovidesgoodcoverageboth
innearbyoutdoorareasandforindoorusersinlow-
lossbuildingswithline-of-sighttothebasestation.
Suburbanandruraldeploymentconsiderations
Despitethetypicallylargercellsinsuburbanand
ruralscenarios,itispossibletoachievesimilarresults
tothosethatwehaveseeninurbanscenariosdueto
differencesintheradiopropagation.Whiletheurban
environmentischaracterizedbyrelativelylow
antennas,frequentlargeobstaclesandlarge, highly
attenuatingbuildings,thesuburbanandrural
environmentshavetallerantennas,fewerobstacles
andsmallersizedbuildingswithwalltypesthat
areeasiertopenetrate.Thiscompensatesforthe
differencesincellrange,andasaresultitistypical
toachieveverygoodperformanceinsuburban
andruralscenariosaswell.
Indoordeployments
In-buildingdeploymentsplayacentralrolein
providinggoodindoorperformanceinmanypartsof
theworldtoday.Largebuildingswithhighbuilding
entrylossesareanexampleofacoverage-driven
in-buildingdeployment,whereasacrowded
publicvenuelikeatrainstationorastadium
APPLYINGMMWAVE
SPECTRUMATSTREET-LEVEL
SITESCANALSOBEAGOOD
ALTERNATIVE
Terms and abbreviations
DAS – Distributed Antenna System | DL – Downlink | IRR – Infrared Reflective | MBB – Mobile Broadband |
MIMO – Multiple-input, Multiple-output | mmWave – Millimeter Wave | MU-MIMO – Multi-User
Multiple-input, Multiple-output | NR – New Radio | RAN – Radio Access Network | Rx – Radio Receiver
| Tx – Radio Transmitter | UL – Uplink
ITISPOSSIBLETOACHIEVE
EIGHTTIMESHIGHERDOWNLINK
CAPACITYRELATIVETOLTE

theauthors
Fredric Kronestedt
◆ joined Ericsson in 1993
to work on RAN research.
Since then he has taken
on manydifferentroles,
includingsystem design and
system management. He
currently serves as Expert,
Radio Network Deployment
Strategies, at Development
Unit Networks, where he
focuses on radio network
deployment and evolution
aspects for 4G and 5G.
Kronestedt holds an M.Sc.
in electrical engineering
from KTH Royal Institute
of Technology, Stockholm,
Sweden.
Henrik Asplund
◆ received his M.Sc. in
engineering physics from
Uppsala University, Sweden,
in 1996, and joined Ericsson
the same year. His current
positionisMasterResearcher,
Antennas and Propagation,
at Ericsson Research,
with responsibility for
propagation measurements
and modeling within the
company and in cooperation
with external organizations
such as 3GPP and ITU-R.
He has been involved in
propagation research
supporting predevelopment
and standardization of all
major wireless technologies
from 2G to 5G.
Kenneth Wallstedt
◆ is Director, Technology
Strategy, in Ericsson’s CTO
office, where he focuses on
the company’s radio and
spectrum management
strategy. He joined Ericsson
in 1990 and since then he
has held various leading
positions in Ericsson’s
research, development and
market units in Canada,
Sweden and the US. He
holds an M.Sc. in electrical
engineering from KTH Royal
Institute of Technology in
Stockholm, Sweden.
Du Ho Kang
◆ joined Ericsson Research
in 2014 and currently serves
as a Senior Researcher.
He holds a Ph.D. in radio
communication systems
from KTH Royal Institute of
Technology, Sweden, and
an M.Sc. in electrical and
electronics engineering from
Seoul National University,
South Korea. His expertise
is concept developments
of 4G/5G radio networks
and performance evaluation
toward diverse international
standardizationandspectrum
regulation bodies including
3GPP RAN, CBRS alliance,
Multifire alliance (MFA), ETSI
BRAN and ITU-R. Kang’s
particular interest at present
is developingsolution
conceptsforinternetworking
and massive MIMO for 5G
base station products.
Magnus Lundevall
◆ is Expert, Radio Network
Performance, in Ericsson’s
RD organization, where
he currently focuses on 5G
radio network deployment
and evolution strategies. He
joined Ericsson in 1998 and
has 20 years of experience
in radio network modeling,
simulation and performance
analysis. He holds an M.Sc.
Technology in Stockholm,
Sweden.
Anders Furuskär
◆ joined Ericsson Research
in 1997 and is currently a
senior expert focusing on
radio resource management
and performance evaluation
of wireless networks. He
engineering and a Ph.D.
in radio communications
systems, both from KTH
Royal Institute of Technology
in Stockholm, Sweden.
Saknar bild på Du
Ho Kang
Further reading
❭❭ 5G deployment considerations, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/networks/trending/insights-and-
reports/5g-deployment-considerations
❭❭ Massive MIMO increasing capacity and spectral efficiency, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/
networks/trending/hot-topics/5g-radio-access/massive-mimo
❭❭ Going massive with MIMO, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2018/1/massive-mimo-highlights
❭❭ Superior indoor coverage with 5G Radio Dot, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/networks/
offerings/5g/5g-supreme-indoor-coverage
References
1. EricssonMobilityReport,June2018,availableat: https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report/reports/june-2018
2. Ericsson ConsumerLab report, Liberation from Location, October 2014, available at: https://www.ericsson.
com/res/docs/2014/consumerlab/liberation-from-location-ericsson-consumerlab.pdf
3. 5G NR: The Next Generation Wireless Access Technology, 1st Edition, August 2018, Dahlman, E; Parkvall,
S; Sköld, J, available at: https://www.elsevier.com/books/5g-nr-the-next-generation-wireless-access-technology/
dahlman/978-0-12-814323-0
4. GSMA, 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Wearable Devices: What do the new uses of wireless
technologies mean for radio frequency exposure?, September 2017, available at: https://www.gsma.com/
publicpolicy/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/5g_iot_web_FINAL.pdf
5. IEEE, Beamforming Gain Measured on a 5G Test-Bed, June 2017, Furuskog, J; Halvarsson, B; Harada,
A; Itoh, S; Kishiyama, Y; Kurita, D; Murai, H; Simonsson, A; Tateishi, K; Thurfjell, M; Wallin, S, available at:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8108648/
6. IEEE,High-SpeedBeamTrackingDemonstratedUsinga28GHz5GTrialSystem,September2017,Chana,R;
Choi, C; Halvarsson, B; Jo, S; Larsson, K; Manssour, J; Na, M; Singh, D, available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/
document/8288043/
7. IEEE,5GNRTestbed3.5GHzCoverageResults,June2018,Asplund,H;Chana,R;Elgcrona,A;Halvarsson,B;
Machado, P; Simonsson, A, available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8417704/
8. Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2018), A set of
propagationmodelsforsite-specificpredictions,April2018,Asplund,H;Johansson,M;Lundevall,M;Jaldén,N,
9. Ericsson Radio Dot System, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/ourportfolio/radio-system/radio-dot-system

✱ SIMPLIFYING THE 5G ECOSYSTEM SIMPLIFYING THE 5G ECOSYSTEM ✱
BY REDUCING ARCHITECTURE OPTIONS
Simplifyingthe
Previous mobile generations have taught us that industry efforts to reduce
fragmentation yield massive benefits. In the case of 5G, an industry effort
to focus deployment on a limited set of key connectivity options will be
critical to bringing it to market in a timely and cost-efficient way.
TORBJÖRN CAGENIUS,
ANDERS RYDE,
JARI VIKBERG,
PER WILLARS
The multiple connectivity options in the 3GPP
architecture for 5G have created several
possible deployment alternatives. Initial
deploymentsfocusonoptions3(non-standalone
New Radio) and 2 (standalone New Radio).
However, the deployment of several
additional options would create a level of
complexity that impacts the whole 5G
ecosystem – across operator network
operations, equipment vendors and user
equipment (UE) chipset vendors as well as
spectrum assets. To avoid ecosystem
fragmentation, we believe that the best
approach is to limit the number of options
that are deployed.
■ Thereismuchmoretointroducing5Gthan
simplydeployingNewRadio(NR)technology.Fora
successful5Glaunch,theoperatorneedstosecurea
networkthatincludesend-to-end(E2E)capabilities
alignedacrossdevices,RAN,coreandmanagement
systems.5Gisalsoatechnologytransformationfor
operatorsstrivingformoreflexibilityandspeedin
networkdeployment–andwithanexpectationof
beingabletoaddressnewbusinessopportunities
withusecasesbeyondmobilebroadband(MBB).
Oneofthekeystrategictopicsthatoperatorsneedto
decideoniswhichconnectivityoptionstosupportin
thenetworktoaddressthetargetedusecases.
5Gconnectivityoptions
InRelease15,the3GPP[1]hasdefinedmultiple
architecturaloptionsforaUEtoconnecttothe
network,usingLTE/eLTEand/orNRaccessto
connecttoEvolvedPacketCore(EPC)or5GCore
(5GC)networks.Anewuseofdualconnectivityhas
alsobeenappliedtouseLTE/eLTEandNRasthe
masterorsecondaryradioaccesstechnology(RAT)
5Gecosystem
Figure 1 UE connectivity options
Connectivity
option
Core
network
Master
RAT
Secondary
RAT
3GPP term 3GPP release
Option 1 EPC LTE - LTE Rel. 8
Option 3 EPC LTE NR EN-DC Rel. 15, Dec 2017
Option 2 5GC NR - NR Rel. 15, June 2018
Option 4 5GC NR eLTE NE-DC Rel. 15, March 2019
Option 5 5GC eLTE - eLTE Rel. 15, June 2018
Option 7 5GC eLTE NR NGEN-DC Rel. 15, March 2019
indifferentcombinations.Thishasresultedinsix
connectivityoptionsforaUE,asshowninFigure1.
Notethatwhiletheoptionterminologyisnot
explicitlyusedinthe3GPPstandardsspecifications,
itoriginatesfromthe5Gstudyphaseof3GPP
Release15andiswidelyusedintheindustry.
ThesixconnectivityoptionsshowninFigure1
definehowanysingleUEisconnectedtothe
networkatagiventime.Inmostcases,anetworkwill
supportasetofsuchoptionssimultaneously.One
basestationmayhavedifferentUEsconnectedvia
differentconnectivityoptions,aswellasmovinga
UEconnectionbetweentheoptionsdependingon
factorssuchasradioconditions.LegacyLTE/EPC
(option1)isthebaseline,andtheindustryhasan
alignedviewthattheinitial5Gdeploymentsare
basedonoptions3and2.Thenextstep,therefore,
istoestablishindustryalignmentonthepotential
useofoptions4,5and7.
Theneedforindustryalignment
Mobilenetworkoperatorsthatdeploy5Gmustbe
abletosupportUE,radionetwork,corenetworkand
managementproductsthataremanufacturedbya
multitudeofdeviceandnetworkequipmentvendors.
Withmultipleconnectivityoptions,andevenmore
possiblecombinationsofoptions,thereisahighrisk
thatdifferentoperatorswilldeploydifferentoptions,
inadifferentorder.Ifthathappens,chipset,device
andnetworkequipmentvendorsarelikelytoget
contradictoryrequirementsfromdifferentoperators
ormarkets.Thiswouldcausesignificantproductand
integrationcomplexity,aswellascreating
interoperabilityissuesthatprolongthetimeittakes
toestablishacompleteecosystemthatsupportsthe
deployedoptions.
Thecomplexitycausedbyamultitudeofdeployed
connectivityoptionswouldalsohaveanimpacton
theE2Etestingofservicesintheoperatornetwork,

Figure2illustratestheevolutionofspectrum
usageinanetwork,startingwithLTEdeployedon
sub-1GHzand1–3GHzbands.First,NRisdeployed
on3.5GHzand/ormmWandwithLTEbandsusing
option3.Thenextstepistodeployoption2for
specificusecasesinlocalareas–suchasforFWA
andindustrialdeployments.
ExpandingstandaloneNRcoverage
andcapacity
Whendeployingoption2forwide-areausecases
likeMBB,itisimportanttoensurecontinuousNR
coveragewithinthetargetedarea(initiallyurbanfor
example).SpottyNRcoveragewouldresultinfrequent
mobilityeventsbetweenNRandLTEforwide-area
usecases,eventhoughintersystemmobilitybetween
option2andLTE/EPCwillbewellsupported.For
theseusecases,option2requiresasufficientlylow
NRbandinrelationtothesitegrid.Inmanycases,
thesitegridfora3.5GHzdeploymentwillgivegood
DLcoveragebothoutdoorsandindoors,butnot
enoughULcoverage.NRon3.5GHzshould
thereforetypicallybecombinedwithNRonlow
bandtoprovidecontinuouscoverageinboththeUL
andDL[3].ThelowNRbandcanbenew,refarmed
oranexistingLTEbandthatissharedbetweenNR
andLTE.Withrefarmingorsharing,akeyenableris
thatthespectrumlicenseallowsNRdeployment
(seefactboxonpage4,spectrumregulation).
Tosupportoption2forMBBinanarea,itisalso
advisabletodeployNRinoneormorelegacyLTE
bandsusingLTE-NRspectrumsharing(seefactbox
onpage4,LTE-NRspectrumsharing).Together
withNRonlowandmid/highbands,thismaximizes
thethroughputviaNRcarrieraggregation(CA).
ThisisessentialtoprovidegoodMBBperformance,
especiallyinareaswithoutDLcoveragefromnew
NRbands.WhileNRdeploymentislimited,mobility
tooption2shouldonlybetriggeredwhentheUE
includingbothexistingserviceslikevoiceaswellas
newones.Further,thehigherthenumberofoptions
deployed,themorecomplexandtimeconsumingit
willbefortheoperatorcommunitytoestablish5G
roamingintheindustry.
Networkdeploymentsbasedonoptions3and2
Option3isthebestshort-termalternativefor5G
deployment,asitreliesonexistingLTE/EPC(option
1).Option3willprovidegoodperformancein
severalaspects,allowingoptimizedtransmissionon
NRwhenNRcoverageisgood,extendingNR
downlink(DL)usageonahigherbandbycombining
withalower-bandLTEforuplink(UL)data,and,if
needed,aggregatingthroughputoverbothNRand
LTEspectrum.Italsoprovidesreliableandsmooth
mobilitybasedonanchoringinLTE/EPC,evenif
theNRcoverageisspotty.Theuseofdual
connectivityhas,however,introducedsomechallenges
ontheUEsidewithdualtransmitters,which,insome
cases,willlimitperformanceandcoverage.
Oneofthemaindriversforgoingbeyond
option3istoprovide5GC-enabledcapabilities
likeenhancednetworkslicing,edgecomputing
supportandoperationalbenefits,eventhough
EPCcanalsosupporttheseservicestosome
extent(slicingbasedonDECOR,forexample).
Anothermaindriverforgoingbeyondoption3
istobeabletodeploystandaloneNRandgetthe
radioperformancebenefitsofanNR-onlybased
radiointerface. Option2(standaloneNR)isthefirst
5GC-basedoptionavailableinUEsandnetworks.
EvenifgeneralNRcoverageislimited,option2
caninitiallybedeployedforspecificusecasesin
localareas,wheredevicesstaywithingoodNR
coverageonamidorhighband.Examplesinclude
industrialdeploymentswithultra-reliablelow
latencycommunicationrequirements,andfixed
wirelessaccess(FWA),evenifthelatterisalso
wellservedviaoption3.
Figure 2 Spectrum migration steps for the 5G network
Add option 2
5GC NR SA for local
use cases in mid/high
bands
Option 2 on
wide area
NR in new or existing
low bands with
spectrum sharing/
refarming
NR-NR CA
Extend wide
NR on additional bands
Baseline: option 1
LTE-LTE CA
LTE NR LTE+NR
Add option 3
New NR spectrum on
mid or high bands
LTE-NR DC (EN-DC)
High bands (24GHz–40GHz)
Mid bands (3.5GHz–8GHz)
Mid bands (1GHz–2.6GHz)
Low bands (sub–1GHz)
WITHREFARMINGOR
SHARING,AKEYENABLERIS
THATTHESPECTRUMLICENSE
ALLOWSNRDEPLOYMENT
Key enablers
❭❭ LTE-NR spectrum sharing
3GPP specifications allow efficient sharing of operator spectrum, so that one carrier appears as an NR carrier
to NR UEs, and an LTE carrier to LTE UEs. Resources are pooled and distributed dynamically between the two
RATs, according to instant needs. There is no impact on legacy LTE UEs, and the impact on LTE capacity is very
small. Compared with classic refarming, this provides a smooth migration of spectrum from LTE to NR as
NR-capable UE penetration increases, enabling NR to be rolled out on new and legacy bands.
❭❭ Spectrum regulation
Spectrum is becoming technology neutral in most of the world except for a few markets and frequency bands
where the spectrum license is currently tied to a specific RAT, prohibiting NR to operate in existing frequency
bands.ItisimportantthatregulatorsacknowledgetheneedforNRdeploymentinallbands.Thisisakeyenabler
formigrationtowideareacoverageofserviceslikeMBB/voiceandcMTCover5G,dependingonthepossibility
to deploy NR in lower frequency bands.
❭❭ Dual-mode core network
4G devices will be the major device type and traffic consumer for a long time [2].Inaddition,operatorsare
introducingnew5GdevicesdependingonbothEPC(option3)and5GC(option2). A “dual-mode” core network
with both EPC and 5GC functionality will support the evolving device fleet in the networkandenableasmooth
networktransformation.Toensureservicecoverageduringthemigrationperiod,thedual-modecorenetwork
willprovidetightinterworkingbetweenEPCand5GCforseamless4G-5Gmobility.

areas,NR(inorange)isdeployedon3.5GHzor
mmWtoaddcapacitytothenetwork.NRisalso
deployed,onasub-1GHzband(tocomplementUL
coverage),andinlegacyLTEbandswithLTE-NR
spectrumsharing.
ThehorizontalblacklinesinFigure3represent
thecoverageofoptions1,2and3.Option1isused
inalargepartofthenetworktosupportMBBand
actasthemainsolutionforMassiveMachineType
Communication(mMTC)–specifically,Narrowband
InternetofThings(NB-IoT)andLTE-MTC
standard(LTE-M).Option3canbeusedanywhere
thereisNRcoverage.Earlyoption2deploymentsin
localareasincludeFWAandindustrialdeployments.
Option2forgeneralMBBissupportedwhere
thereislow-bandNRandsufficientNRbandwidth
(mid/highbandand/oron1-3GHz).
TheorangearrowsinFigure3indicatethatareas
ofgoodNRcoverageareexpandedgeographically,
coveringmoreurbanareas,andintimealso
extendingintosuburbanareasandbeyond.
Withthesupportofoptions1,2and3,keyusecases
suchasmMTC,MBBandindustrialcritical-MTC
(cMTC)willbesupportedinthenear-and
mid-termwithgoodperformance.
Targetarchitecture
Theindustryhasspecifiedanewradioaccess
technology–NR–andanewcorenetwork–
5GC–asthefoundationfortheevolutionof3GPP
networks,which,inourview,makesoption2the
long-termtargetarchitecturefortheindustry.Inthe
long-termtargetnetwork,option2isdeployedwith
widecoverage,usedbroadlyinmostdevices,and
shouldbethebasisforfutureinvestmentsand
featuregrowth.
Figure4illustratesthemigrationstepsto
the5Gtargetarchitectureforthemobileindustry,
recognizingoption2asthelong-termtarget.The
firststepistoaddoption3,followedbyoption2in
selectedareas.Bygraduallyexpandingtheareas
whereoption2isdeployed,theoperatorandthe
hasenoughcoverageofsufficientNRspectrum,
whichcanbehandledwiththresholdsandoffsets.
ThepossibilityofaggregatingbandsusingCA,with
asingleULtransmitterintheUE,isanimportant
benefitofoption2,comparedwiththedual
connectivityusedinoptions3,4and7.Thethird
stepofFigure2showstheuseofNRonmultiple
legacyLTEbandsusingLTE-NRspectrumsharing.
Options1and3providegoodsupportfor
smartphonesandMBB.MovingMBBtrafficto
option2requiressupportforvoicetelephony.
ThismeansthatNRmustbeabletosupportvoice
natively,aswellassupportingseamlessmobilityvia
handovertoLTE/EPCwhenleavingtheoption2
coveragearea.AsanintermediatestepbeforeNR
supports(andisdimensionedfor)voice,thevoice
servicecanrelyonEPSfallbacktoLTE/EPC.
Tight5GC-EPCinterworkingisneededforboth
voicesolutions,andthiswillalsoprovidegood
intersystemmobilityforotherservices(seefactbox
onpage4,dual-modecorenetwork).
WhenaUEleavesanareawheretheNRcoverage
isnotgoodenoughforoption2,thenetworkcan
triggerintersystemmobilitytoEPC,eithertooption
3or1.Thesupportofoption2canthusbeextended
graduallyinever-largerareasinanoperator’snetwork,
startingwithdenseurbanareas.Bydeploying
option2inhigh-trafficareasfirst,asignificant
amountoftrafficcanbemigratedfromEPCto
5GC,evenifthegeographiccoverageisinitially
morelimited.
ManyLTEsiteswillbemodernizedwithmore
advancedradiosforimprovedperformance(suchas
4T4R)orbyaddingmodernbasebandhardware,
andwillthentypicallybepreparedtosupportNR
ontheLTEbands.Thedeploymentofoption2
inaRANcapableofoption3isthendonewitha
softwareupgrade.ThesamegNBwillservesome
UEsinthesameNRcellwithoption3andothers
withoption2.
Figure3illustratesnetworkdeploymentduring
themigrationfromLTEtoNR.Inselectedurban
Figure 3 Network deployment during migration, including supported use cases
3.5GHz/mmW
Denseurban Urban Suburban Rural
2
2 2
2 1
3
3
3
2
1-3GHz
1GHz
mIoT
1
2
SpectrumUsecases
3
2
3
1
3
2
LTE
NR
NRLTEshared
MBB
mMTC
FWA
Local-areacMTC
mIoT
Figure 4 Migration steps toward target architecture
Standalone NR and 5GC with
appropriate features and
coverage for addressed use
cases.
Full 5GC and NR coverage
NR+5GC mainstream
LTE/EPC for legacy devices
EPC
eNBeNB eNB gNB eNB gNB eNB gNBeNBeNB eNB gNB
NR NRNRNR-low NRNR
LTE LTE LTE LTE/NR LTE/NRLTELTE
Option 1 Options 1, 3
Current industry focus Target architecture
Options 1, 2, 3 Option 2 (1,3)
1
3 2 231
EPC+ 5GCEPC+ EPC+ 5GC

Insummary,option5isunlikelytoprovideafaster
routeto5GCwide-areacoveragethanthewide
deploymentofoption2.Widedeploymentofoption2
isthebetteralternative,particularlysinceoption5
wouldmeaninvestingintechnologythatdoesnot
capitalizeonthebenefitsofthelatestradio
technology(NR).
Option 7
Option7buildsonoption5andcannotexistwithout
it.Ifoption5weretobeused,itisverylikelythat
option7wouldalsobesupportedinareaswithNR.
Thedriverforoption7isthesameasforoption3;
thatis,tousedualconnectivitytoaggregateNRand
LTEbandstoenhancecapacity,butinthiscasefora
UEconnectedviaeLTEto5GC.Accordingtothe
samelogicexplainedintheOption5sectionabove,
werecommendusingoption2instead.
Option4
Option4isanadditiontooption2,usingdual
connectivitytoaddeLTEtoanNRanchor.Itis
primarilyrelevantwhenservingMBBtrafficvia
5GC.Thedriverforoption4istomaximize
throughputwhentheamountofNRspectrumis
limited.Anexampleofthistypeofsituationwould
beifNRisdeployedon700MHz,3.5GHzandmmW,
buttheUEisoutsidecoverageofthetwohigherbands.
Intermsofdrawbacks,option4wouldrequire
newsoftwaresupportineNB,gNBandUE,with
relatedinteroperabilitytesting.Further,thefuture
evolutionoffeatureswouldneedtoconsideroption4,
anditsusewouldrequirecontinuedinvestmentsin
eLTEdeploymentsforalongtime.
Option4isnotnecessary,andperformsworse
thanoption2withNR-NRCAandenoughNR
spectrum, inareasservingMBBvia5GC.Using
option2insteadofoption4alsofocusesinvestments
ontherolloutofthelong-termtargetarchitecture.
Conclusion
Ouranalysisshowsthatthemobileindustryhasan
opportunitytosimplifythe5Gecosystemby
focusingnetworkdeploymentsonconnectivity
options3and2,whicharecapableofdelivering
allthe5Gbenefitswithoutaddingunnecessary
complexityandcost(asinoptions5,7and4).
Theflexibledesignofradioandcorenetworks
supportsasmoothmigrationwithLTE-NR
spectrumsharinganddual-modecoretechnologies.
Theregulationoffrequencybandsshouldallow
NRdeploymentinexistingLTEbandsthatare
insyncwiththerequiredspectrummigration.
Operatorshavetheopportunitytoavoid
connectivityoptions5,7and4byimplementinga
proactivespectrummigrationstrategythat
considersNRfornewlowbands,andbyrefarming
orintroducingLTE-NRspectrumsharingin
existinglow/midbands.Thisapproachwill
reducenetworkupgradecostandtime,simplify
interoperabilitybetweennetworksanddevices,
andenableafasterscalingofthe5Gecosystem.
A5Gdeploymentapproachbasedexclusivelyon
options3and2ensuresthatinvestmentisfocused
onthelong-termtargetarchitecture,leveragingfull
5GScapabilities.Earlykeyusecasesforwide-area,
likeMBBincludingvoiceservices,arefullysupported
duringthemigrationperiod,alongwithservices
toexistingdevices.
industrywillalwaysinvestinstepsleadingtothe
long-termtargetarchitecture.Eventually,the
option2coveragewillbesufficienttoalsosupport
wide-areacMTCusecasesthatwillbenefitfrom
bothNRand5GC.
Atsomepointinthefuturetherewillalsobe
mMTCsolutionsbasedonNR/5GC.However,many
mMTCservicesarealreadyadequatelyservedbythe
existingmMTCsolutionsNB-IoTandLTE-M.The
mMTCservicesinthelow-endLowPowerWide
Area(LPWA)segmentarejustoneexample.Toavoid
fragmentation,thebestalternativefortheseusecases
iscontinueduseofNB-IoTandLTE-Mforalongtime.
Thetimingtoreachthislong-termtargetmayvary
betweenmarkets.Itshouldbenotedthatevenwhen
thetargetisreached,networkswillneedtocontinue
tosupportasetoflegacydevices(LTE/EPC-based),
inparticularintheareaofmMTC.WhentheUE
penetrationforNRsupportishighenough,selected
bandscanbefullyrefarmedtoNR-only,asshownin
thelaststepofFigure2.
Analysisofoptions5,7and4
Theindustryhasdecidedtobasetheinitial
deploymentof5Gonoptions3and2.Whileoptions
5,7and4mayinitiallyseembeneficialforspecific
operators’deploymentcases,itisimportantto
recognizethatnoneofthemaredirectstepsleading
towardthelong-termtargetarchitecture.Further,
theuseofoptions5,7and4wouldaddunnecessary
complexityinthetargetarchitecture,inthe
interactionwithothernetworkfunctions,andinthe
evolutionofnewfeatures,whichneedstotakethe
combinationofallexistingoptionsintoaccount.
Afterathoroughanalysisofoptions5,7and4
thatencompassedthemaindrivers,potential
benefitsanddrawbacks,wehavecometothe
conclusionthatallthreecanandshouldbeavoided.
Wehavealsoidentifiedpreferredalternative
solutionsforeachoption.
Option5
Themaindriverfordeployingoption5istoallow
devicesthatmoveoutsidetheareacoveredbyoption
2toremainconnectedto5GC,whichwouldalso
increasethe5GCcoveragetoeLTEareas.
Akeyquestiontoconsideris:whichusecases
requirenationwide5GCcoverage?Traditional
MBB/voiceobviouslyrequireswide-areasupport,
butthisiswellsupportedwithintersystemmobility
duringthebuild-outofNRcoverage,asitwasin
previousgenerationshifts.5GCprovidesarange
ofnewvaluesbuttheneedforotherwide-area
5GC-basedservicesintheneartermisundefined.
Inthelongerterm,weexpectwide-areaoption2
toenablethenewusecasesthatemerge.
Option5couldbeusedtoincreasewide-area
5GCcoverage,butreachingfullwide-area5GC
coveragewouldtaketimeandinvestment,asitwould
requirenewUEs,newRANfunctionalityand
retestingthesystem.Option5wouldhaveamajor
impactontheUEsintermsofsupportingthe5GC
non-accessstratumandthenewpartsoftheeLTE
radiointerface,aslegacyLTEdevicesarenot
supported.Inaddition,substantialinteroperability
retestingbetweennetworksandUEswouldbe
requiredtoensuretheoperationoflegacyfeatures
andservices,includingVoLTE.Further,option5
requiressubstantialupgradesoftheeNBsoftware
and,inmanycases,theeNBbasebandhardware
aswell.
THEINDUSTRYHAS
DECIDEDTOBASETHEINITIAL
DEPLOYMENTOF5GON
OPTIONS3AND2
THEMOBILEINDUSTRY
HASANOPPORTUNITY
TOSIMPLIFYTHE5G
ECOSYSTEM

Further reading
❭❭ Ericsson, 5G deployment options, 2018, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/narratives/
networks/documents/5g-deployment-considerations.pdf
❭❭ Ericsson, Core evolution from EPC to 5G Core, download available from: https://pages.digitalservices.
ericsson.com/core-evolution-to-5g
References
1. 3GPP Release 15 specifications, e.g. TS 23.501, TS 38.401, available at: http://www.3gpp.org/release-15
2. Ericsson Mobility Report, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/mobility-report
3. Ericsson Technology Review, November 2018, The advantages of combining 5G NR with LTE, available
at:https://www.ericsson.com/en/ericsson-technology-review/archive/2018/the-advantages-of-combining-5g-nr-
with-lte
theauthors
Torbjörn Cagenius
◆ is a senior expert in
network architecture
at Business Area Digital
Services. He joined Ericsson
in 1990 and has worked
in a variety of technology
areas such as fiber-to-the-
home, main-remote RBS,
fixed-mobile convergence,
IPTV, network architecture
evolution, software-defined
networking and Network
Functions Virtualization. In
his current role, he focuses
on 5G and associated
evolution. He holds an M.Sc.
Sweden.
Anders Ryde
network and service
architecture at Business
Area Digital Services,
based in Sweden. He joined
Ericsson in 1982 and has
worked in a variety of
technology areas in network
and service architecture
developmentformultimedia-
enabled telecommunication,
targeting both enterprise
and residential users. This
includes the evolution of
mobile telephony to IMS and
VoLTE. In his current role, he
focuses on bringing voice
and other communication
services into 5G, general 5G
evolution and associated
evolution. He holds an M.Sc.
Sweden.
Jari Vikberg
and the chief network
architect at CTO office.
He joined Ericsson in
1993 and has both wide
and deep technology
competence covering
network architectures for
all generations of RANs and
CNs. He is also skilled in the
application layer and other
domains, and the impact and
relation these have to mobile
networks. He holds an M.Sc.
in computer science from
the University of Helsinki,
Finland.
Per Willars
◆ is an expert in network
architecture and radio
network functionality at
Business Area Networks.
He joined Ericsson in 1991
and has worked intensively
with RAN issues ever since.
This includes leading the
definition of 3G RAN, before
and within the 3GPP, and
more lately indoor solutions.
He has also worked with
service layer research and
explored new business
models. In his current role, he
analyzes the requirements
for 5G RAN (architecture
and functionality) with the
aim of simplifying 5G. He
engineering from KTH Royal
Institute of Technology.
4T4R – 4-Branch Transmit/Receive Antenna and Radio Arrangement | 5GC – 5G Core | 5GS – 5G System |
CA – Carrier Aggregation | cMTC – Critical Machine Type Communication | CN – Core Network | DC – Dual
Connectivity | DECOR – Dedicated Core Network | DL – Downlink | E2E – End-to-end | eLTE – Evolved LTE |
eNB – Evolved Node B | EN-DC – E-UTRA – NR Dual Connectivity | EPC – Evolved Packet Core | FWA – Fixed
Wireless Access | gNB – Next Generation Node B | IoT – Internet of Things | LPWA – Low Power Wide Area |
LTE-M – LTE-MTC Standard | MBB – Mobile Broadband | mMTC – Massive Machine Type Communication |
mmW – Millimeter Wave | NB-IoT – Narrowband Internet of Things | NR – New Radio | RAT – Radio Access
Technology | UE – User Equipment | UL – Uplink

✱ DISTRIBUTED CLOUD DISTRIBUTED CLOUD ✱
ofalargeamountofdatabetweenvehiclesandthe
cloud,oftenwithreal-timecharacteristicswithin
alimitedtimeframewhilethevehicleisinactive
operation.
Highdatavolume
Lookingattheautomotiveindustry,weoftenfocus
onthereal-timeusecasesforsafety,asdefinedby
V2X/C-ITS(vehicletoeverything/cooperative
intelligenttransportsystem),wherereal-time
aspectssuchasshortlatencyarethemostsignificant
requirements.However,theautomotiveindustry’s
newmobilityservicesalsoplacehighdemandson
networkcapacityduetotheextremeamountofdata
thatmustbetransportedtoandfromhighlymobile
devices,oftenwithnear-real-timecharacteristics.
Dataneedstobetransportedwithinalimitedtime
window(~30min/day),withavaryinggeographical
concentrationofvehiclesusingamultitudeof
differentnetworktechnologiesandconditions.
Themarketforecaststhataregenerallyreferred
toindicatethattheglobalnumberofconnected
vehicleswillgrowtoapproximately700millionby
2025andthatthedatavolumetransmittedbetween
Emerging use cases in the automotive industry – as well as in manufacturing
industries where the first phases of the fourth industrial revolution are
taking place – have created a variety of new requirements for networks
and clouds. At Ericsson, we believe that distributed cloud is a key technology
to support such use cases.
CHRISTER BOBERG,
MALGORZATA
SVENSSON,
BENEDEK KOVÁCS
vehiclesandthecloudwillbearound100petabytes
permonth.AtEricsson,however,weanticipatethat
theautomotiveservicesofthenearfuturewillbe
muchmoredemanding.Weestimatethatthedata
trafficcouldreach10exabytesormorepermonthby
2025,whichisapproximately10,000timeslargerthan
thepresentvolume.Gartnerrecentlyraisedthe
expectationsfurtherinitslatestreport(June2018),
estimatingthevolumetobeashighasoneterabyte
permonthpervehicle[1].
Suchmassiveamountsofdatawillplacenew
demandsontheradionetwork,asthemainpartis
ULdata.Newbusinessmodelswillberequired,asa
resultofthehighcostofhandlingmassiveamounts
ofdata.AsexplainedintheAECC(AutomotiveEdge
ComputingConsortium)whitepaper[2],thecurrent
mobilecommunicationnetworkarchitecturesand
conventionalcloudcomputingsystemsarenotfully
optimizedtohandleallofthisdataeffectivelyona
globalscale.Thewhitepapersuggestsmanypossible
optimizationstoconsider–basedontheassumption
thatmuchofthedatacouldbeanalyzedandfiltered
atanearlystagetolimittheamountofdata
transferred.
Both 4G and 5G mobile networks are
designed to enable the fourth industrial
revolution by providing high bandwidth and
low-latency communication on the radio
interface for both downlink (DL) and uplink
(UL) data. Distributed cloud exploits these
features, enabling a distributed execution
environment for applications to ensure
performance, short latency, high reliability
and data locality.
■ Distributedcloudmaintainstheflexibilityof
cloudcomputingwhileatthesametimehidingthe
complexityoftheinfrastructure,withapplication
componentsplacedinanoptimallocationthat
utilizesthekeycharacteristicsofdistributedcloud.
Theautomotivesectorandmanymanufacturing
industriesalreadyhaveusecasesthatmakethem
verylikelytobeearlyadoptersofdistributed
cloudtechnology.
Next-generationautomotiveservices
andtheirrequirements
Mobilecommunicationinvehiclesisincreasing
inimportanceastheautomotiveindustryworks
tomakedrivingsafer,smooththeflowoftraffic,
consumeenergymoreefficientlyandlower
emissions.Automatedandintelligentdriving,
thecreationanddistributionofadvancedmaps
withreal-timedata,andadvanceddrivingassistance
usingcloud-basedanalyticsofULvideostreams
areallexamplesofemergingservicesthatrequire
vehiclestobeconnectedtothecloud.Theseservices
alsorequirenetworksthatcanfacilitatethetransfer
A KEY ENABLER OF AUTOMOTIVE
AND INDUSTRY 4.0 USE CASES
Distributed
cloud
Definition of key terms
❭❭ Distributed cloud is a cloud execution environment for applications that is distributed across multiple sites,
including the required connectivity between them, which is managed as one solution and perceived as such by
the applications.
❭❭ Edge computing refers to the possibility of providing execution resources (compute and storage)
with the adequate connectivity (networking) at close proximity to the data sources.
❭❭ The fourth industrial revolution is considered to be the fourth big step in industry modernization,
enabled by cyber-physical systems, digitalization and ubiquitous connectivity provided by 5G
and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. It is also referred to as Industry 4.0.

datalocally.Thisreducesthetotalamountofdata
exchangedbetweenvehiclesandcloudswhile
enablingtheconnectedvehiclestoobtainfaster
responses.Theconceptischaracterizedbythree
keyaspects:alocalizednetwork,edgecomputing
anddataexposure.
Alocalizednetworkisalocalnetworkthatcovers
alimitednumberofconnectedvehiclesinacertain
area.Thissplitsthehugeamountofdatatrafficinto
reasonablevolumesperareaofdatatrafficbetween
vehiclesandtheclouds.
Edgecomputingreferstothegeographical
distributionofcomputationresourceswithinthe
vicinityoftheterminationofthelocalizednetworks.
Thisreducestheconcentrationofcomputationand
shortenstheprocessingtimeneededtoconclude
atransactionwithaconnectedvehicle.
Dataexposuresecuresintegrationofthedata
producedlocallybyutilizingthecombinationofthe
localizednetworkandthedistributedcomputation.
Bynarrowingrelevantinformationdowntoa
specificarea,datacanberapidlyprocessedto
integrateinformationandnotifyconnectedvehicles
inrealtime.Theamountofdatathatneedstobe
exchangediskepttoaminimum.
Privateandlocalconnectivity
Aspartofthefourthindustrialrevolution,industry
verticalsandcommunicationserviceproviders
(CSPs)aredefiningasetofnewusecasesfor5G[3].
Privatedeploymentsand5Gnetworksprovidedby
CSPstomanufacturingcompanies,smartcitiesand
otherdigitalindustriesareonthehorizonaswell.
However,therearetwomainchallengestomobile
networkoperators’abilitytodeliver.Thefirstisthe
toughlatency,reliabilityandsecurityrequirements
ofthesenewusecases.Thesecondisfiguringout
howtoshieldtheindustriesfromthecomplexity
oftheinfrastructure,toenableeaseofusewhen
programmingandoperatingnetworks.
Secureprivatenetworkswith
centralizedoperations
Securityanddataprivacyarekeyrequirements
forindustrialnetworks.Insomecases,regulations
orcompanypoliciesstipulatethatthedatamust
notleavetheenterprisepremises.Inothercases,
someorallofthedatamustbeavailableatremote
locationsforpurposessuchasproductionanalytics
oremergencyprocedures.Atypicalindustrial
environmenthasmultipleapplicationsdeployedand
operatedbydifferentthirdparties.Whatthismeans
inpracticeisthatthesameon-premises,cloud-edge
instancethatafactoryalreadyusesforbusiness
supportandITsystemswouldalsoneedtosupport
theconnectivityforitsrobotstointeractwitheach
other.Asaresult,thereisarequirementofmulti-
tenancyforboththedevicesandtheinfrastructure.
Tactileinternetandaugmentedreality
Augmentedreality(AR)andmachinelearning(ML)
technologiesarewidelyrecognizedasthemain
pillarsofthedigitalizationofindustries[4],and
researchsuggeststhatwidedeploymentof
interactivemediaapplicationswillhappenon5G
networks.Manyobserversenvisiontheworker
oftomorrowassomeonewhoisequippedwith
eye-trackingsmartglasses[5]andtactilegloves
ratherthanscrewdriversets[6].Human-to-machine
applicationsrequirelowlatencywhiledemanding
highnetworkbandwidthandheavycompute
resources.Runningthemonthedeviceitself
wouldresultinhighbatteryconsumptionandheat
dissipation.Atthesametime,latencyrequirements
donotallowtherunningofthecompleteapplication
inlargecentraldatabasesduetothephysicallimits
oflightspeedinopticalfibers.
Topology-awarecloudcomputingandstorageis
anexampleofonesuchsolutionthatprovideswhat
wecallaglobalautomotivedistributededgecloud.
Thelimitationontheamountofdatathatcanbe
effectivelytransportedoverthecellularnetwork
mustnotbeallowedtoaffecttheserviceexperience
negatively,asthatwouldhindertheevolutionofnew
automotiveservices.Itisthereforenecessaryto
increasecapacity,availabilityandcoverageaswellas
findingappropriatemechanismstolimittheamount
ofdatatransferred.Orchestratingapplicationsand
theirdifferentcomponentsrunninginamultitudeof
differentcloudsfromdifferentvendorsisoneofthe
challenges.Vehiclesconnectingtonetworkswithout
anexistingapplicationedgeinfrastructureis
another.
Theplacementofapplicationcomponentsat
edgesdependsonthebehavioroftheapplication
andtheavailableinfrastructureresources.
Whendealingwithhighlymobiledevicesthat
connecttoamultitudeofnetworks,itmustbe
possibletomoveexecutionoftheedgeapplication
automaticallywhenamoreappropriatelocation
forthevehicleisdiscovered.Someapplications
requiretransferofpreviouslyanalyzeddataand
findingstothenewlocation,whereanewapplication
componentinstancewillseamlesslytakeovertoserve
themovingvehicle.
Distributedcomputingonalocalizednetwork
Wehavedevelopedtheconceptofdistributed
computingonalocalizednetworktosolvethe
problemsofdataprocessingandtrafficinexisting
mobileandcloudsystems.Inthisconcept,several
localizednetworksaccommodatetheconnectivity
ofvehiclesintheirrespectiveareasofcoverage.
AsshowninFigure1,computationpowerisadded
totheselocalizednetworks,sothattheycanprocess
Figure 1 High-volume data automotive services and their characteristics
Local Regional
Regional DCLocal DC
MTSO
MTSO
MTSO
H
National DC
National sitesLocal and regional sites
Service exposure
HD maps HD maps
Data exposure for automotive services
Access sites
Hub sites
Video stream
ECU sensors
HD maps
Video stream
ECU sensors
HD maps
Mobile
telephone
switching office
Intelligent driving Intelligent driving
Advanced driver
assistance
Advanced driver
assistance
Huge
amount
of data
INDUSTRYVERTICALS
ANDCOMMUNICATION
SERVICEPROVIDERSARE
DEFININGASETOFNEW
USECASESFOR5G

models.Oneexampleofapossiblescenarioisfora
CSPtoofferconnectivityandacloudexecution
environmenttoenterprisesasaservice.Inthiscase,
aCSPmanagesthecomputationandconnectivity
resources,butthesearelocatedattheenterprise
premises.Theapplicationcharacteristicsdetermine
theplacementofapplicationsatvariousgeolocations.
InthecaseofAR/VRandimagerecognition
applicationsusedbytechnicianstofixabroken
powerstation,forexample,itwouldbemosteffective
toplacethemclosetothebrokenpowerstation.
Edgecomputing
Ourdistributedcloudsolutionenablesedge
computing,whichmanyapplicationsrequire.
Wedefineedgecomputingastheabilitytoprovide
executionresources(specificallycomputeand
storage)withadequateconnectivityatclose
proximitytothedatasources.
Intheautomotiveusecase,thenetworkis
designedtosplitdatatrafficintoseverallocations
thatcoverreasonablenumbersofconnected
vehicles.Thecomputationresourcesare
hierarchicallydistributedandlayeredinatopology-
awarefashiontoaccommodatelocalizeddataandto
allowlargevolumesofdatatobeprocessedina
timelymanner.Inthisinfrastructureframework,
localizeddatacollectedvialocalandwidearea
networksisstoredinthecentralcloudandintegrated
AsimpleARapplicationanditsmaincomponents
areshowninFigure2.Thecomponentsofthe
applicationcouldbeexecutedeitheronthedevice
itself,theedgeserverorinthecentralcloud.
Deployingapplicationcomponentsatthenetwork
edgemaymakeitpossibletooffloadthedevicewhile
maintainingshortlatency.Edgecomputeisalso
optimizingtheflowwhencoordinationisrequired–
forexample,whenusingmultiplereal-timecamera
feedstodeterminethe3Dpositionofobjects,also
asshowninFigure2.Furthermore,advancedcloud
softwareasaservice–ML,analyticsandDBsasa
service,forexample–mayalsobeprovidedonthe
edgesite.
Ourdistributedcloudsolution
Ericssonhasdevelopedadistributedcloudsolution
thatprovidestherequiredcapabilitiestosupport
theusecasesofthefourthindustrialrevolution,
includingprivateandlocalizednetworks.Our
solutionsatisfiesthespecificsecurityrequirements
neededtodigitalizeindustrialoperations,with
automotivebeingoneofthekeyusecases.Ericsson’s
distributedcloudsolutionprovidesedgecomputing
andmeetsend-to-endnetworkrequirementsaswell
asofferingmanagement,orchestrationandexposure
forthenetworkandcloudresourcestogether.
AsshowninFigure3,wedefinethedistributed
cloudasacloudexecutionenvironmentthatis
geographicallydistributedacrossmultiplesites,
includingtherequiredconnectivityinbetween,
managedasoneentityandperceivedassuchby
applications.Thekeycharacteristicofour
distributedcloudisabstractionofcloud
infrastructureresources,wherethecomplexityof
resourceallocationishiddentoauserorapplication.
Ourdistributedcloudsolutionisbasedonsoftware-
definednetworking,NetworkFunctions
Virtualization(NFV)and3GPPedgecomputing
technologiestoenablemulti-accessandmulti-cloud
capabilitiesandunlocknetworkstoprovideanopen
platformforapplicationinnovations.Inthe
managementdimension,distributedcloudoffers
automateddeploymentinheterogeneousclouds.
ThiscouldbeprovidedbymultipleCSPs,where
workloadplacementispolicydrivenandbased
onvariousexternalizedcriteria.
Toenablemonetizationandapplicationinnovation,
distributedcloudcapabilitiesareexposedon
marketplacesprovidedbyEricsson,thirdparties
andCSPs.Thedistributedcloudcapabilitiescanbe
offeredaccordingtovariousbusinessandoperational Figure 3 Distributed cloud architecture
Service and resource orchestration
Any workload
Access sites
Local and regional DC sites
National sites
Anywhere in the network End-to-end orchestration
Marketplace
Service exposure
Global clouds
Public
safety
Automotive
FWA
Factory
Video
streaming
Metering
APP
APP
VNF
VNF
APP
APP
APP
VNF
VNF
VNF
VNF
VNFVNF
Figure 2 An AR application and its modules optimized for edge computing
Capturing Preprocessing Object detection
feature extraction
Recognition
database match DB
Display Tracking and
annotation
Position
estimation
Template
matching
IoT device/user equipment
-20ms
BW reduction
-20ms/frame
Computation heavy
-20ms Computation heavy
Multiple device
data aggregation
-100ms
Requires access
to central storage
Edge site National site
OURDISTRIBUTED
CLOUDSOLUTIONENABLES
EDGECOMPUTING,WHICH
MANYAPPLICATIONS
REQUIRE

Thesecondstepwillbetogainindustryacceptance
forthemechanisms,beforefinallybeingableto
implementthesolutionsandestablishthebusiness
models.
OnewaytoevolvethecloudedgesthatCSPs
currentlysupplyistoprovideanenvironmentabove
thecurrentinfrastructurethatishomogeneousfrom
aconsumptionperspectivebutdiscoverablethrough
APIsandorchestratedinthesamewayastheCSPs’
infrastructure.Thiswouldprovideanintermediate
step,whereCSPswithoutanedgecloud
infrastructurecouldbecomeapartoftheglobal
scaledistributedcloud.Followingthisapproach,
anindustryactorcouldconnecttoanyCSPaccess
networkasopposedtobeinglimitedtocertainCSPs.
Whilethesenetworkswillhavethesamefunctional
scope,theywillnotbeabletoprovidefulledge
characteristics.Thiswillalsoserveasacatalystfor
otherCSPstojointheglobalscaledistributedcloud.
Otherwise,theywillnotbecomepreferredsuppliers.
Embracingindustryinitiatives
andstandardizations
Webelievethattheevolutiontowardtheglobal
multi-operatordistributedcloudisdependentona
fewkeyactions.First,wemusttakeactiontoaddress
thefactthatthecurrentmobilecommunication
networkarchitecturesandconventionalcloud
computingsystemsarenotdesigned,orchestrated
orexposedinawaythatcanhandletheindustries’
requirementseffectively.Wemustscrutinizethe
systemarchitecturesandinvestigatenetwork
deploymentsandpreferredprofilingtobetter
accommodatetheoutlinedrequirements.The
architectureevolutionwillbedrivenbytherelevant
standardizationssuchas3GPPandETSI(European
TelecommunicationsStandardsInstitute)NFV.
Secondly,webelievethatitiscriticaltodrive
industryalignmentbygettingreference
implementationsofedgecloudsoftware.Thisiswhy
Ericssonhasjoinedtheindustrycollaboration
projectOPNFV(OpenPlatformforNFV)and
ONAP(OpenNetworkAutomationPlatform)[7],
whichprovidesthemanagementcapabilitiesof
distributedcloud.
Finally,webelievethatparticipatingin
ecosystemsthatprovidetheopportunityfor
interactionsbetweentheindustriesandvendorsis
criticaltotheevolution.Thisisparticularlytruefor
ecosystemsthatformulaterequirementsandways
ofworking,defineusecases,agreeonacommon,
easy-to-usereferenceimplementation,anddrive
alignmentinstandardizationbodiesbasedonthose
implementations.Examplesofsuchecosystemsare
theAECCand5GAA(the5GAutomotive
Association)forautomotiveand5G-ACIA(the5G
AllianceforConnectedIndustriesandAutomation)
[8],Industry4.0andtheIIoT(IndustrialInternetof
Things)forthefourthindustrialrevolution.
Conclusion
Distributedcloudisacornerstoneoftheintelligent
networksthatwillplayakeyenablingroleinthe
fourthindustrialrevolution.Arobustdistributed
cloudsolutionrequiresefficientandintelligent
managementandorchestrationcapabilitiesthat
spanheterogeneouscloudssuppliedbymultiple
actors.Serviceexposurewillenablemonetization
andapplicationinnovationthroughintegration
withthemarketplacesand/orintegrationwiththe
industries’ITsystems.
Theevolutiontowardgloballydistributedcloud
requiresactiontoaligntheindustryboththrough
traditionalstandardizationsaswellasactive
participationinopen-sourceprojectsaimedat
providingreferenceimplementations.Ecosystems
suchastheAECCplayanimportantroleby
examiningthehigh-volumedatausecasesforthe
automotiveindustry.
ontheedgecomputingarchitecturetoprovide
real-timeinformationnecessaryforservicesof
connectedvehicles.
Theexactlocationsofthemicroandsmalldata
centersmaybedependentontheCSP’snetwork
topologyandtherequirementsoftheusecases–
thisappliestocentralofficesites,basestationsand
newDCsbuiltonindustrialsites.Thisinfrastructure
shouldbeflexible,sothatitispossibletostartwitha
fewsitesandgrowbyaddingnewsitesasrequired.
Managementandorchestration
Thedistributedcloudreliesonefficientmanagement
andorchestrationcapabilitiesthatenableautomated
applicationdeploymentinheterogeneousclouds
suppliedbymultipleactors.Figure3illustrateshow
theserviceandresourceorchestrationspansacross
distributedandtechnologicallyheterogeneous
clouds.Itenablesservicecreationandinstantiation
incloudenvironmentsprovidedbymultiplepartners
andsuppliers.Discovery,onboardingandauto-
enrollmentofedgesareotherimportantcapabilities
ofdistributedcloudmanagement.
Whendeployinganapplicationoravirtual
networkfunction(VNF),theplacementdecisions
canbebasedonmultiplecriteria,wherelatency,
geolocation,throughputandcostareafewexamples.
Thesecriteriacanbedefinedeitherbyan
applicationdeveloperand/oradistributedcloud
infrastructureprovider,servingasinputtothe
placementalgorithm.Onceatargetcloudhasbeen
selected,theworkloadplacementcontinuesinany
ofthesubordinatedclouds.
Intheautomotiveapplicationsexample,the
placementdecisioncouldbemadebasedonthe
geolocationofthemovingcar,availabilityofthe
computationresourcesandabilitytomeetregulatory
requirementsattheedgesservingthemovingcar.
TactileinternetandARapplicationsthatarevery
sensitivetonetworklatencywhiledemanding
highbandwidthandhighcomputingpower
willbedeployedattheedgesthatcanfulfillthe
requirements.
Theserviceorchestrationmanagesthe
distributedcloudresourcesaswellastheefficient
distributionandreplicationoftheapplicationsthat
utilizethedistributedcloudcomputationand
connectivityresources.Theserviceandresource
managementcapabilitiesarealsodeployedina
distributedfashiontoenableefficientmanagement.
Forexample,thescalingordatafunctionswillbe
deployedclosetotheapplicationtheysupervise.
Serviceexposure
Theapplicationsdeployedinthedistributedcloud
willpresenttheircapabilitiesthroughtheservice
exposure.Withmulti-dimensionalexposure,eachof
thelayersinthedistributedcloudstackwillexpose
itscapabilities.Thecloudinfrastructurelayerand
theconnectivitylayerwillexposetheirrespective
capabilitiesthroughtheapplicationprogramming
interface(s)(API(s)),whichwillthenbeusedby
applicationdevelopersoftheindustriesmakinguse
ofthemobileconnectivity.Bysettingdeveloper
needsinfocus,theexposedAPI(s)willbeabstracted
sothattheyareeasytouse.
Evolutiontowardtheglobalmulti-operator
distributedcloud
Globalindustriessuchasautomotiverequire
solutionsthatworkseamlesslyfromlocaltoglobal
scale.Inlightofthis,theevolutiontowardtheglobal
multi-operatordistributedcloudisnotrivialmatter.
Tobepartofthegloballydistributedcloud,the
edgecloudsthatCSPsprovideataccessandlocal
sitesmustsupportastringentsetoffunctionsand
APIs.ThisimpliesthatCSPsmustjoinforcesto
createafederatedmodel.Doingsowillrequire
significanteffort,withthefirststepbeingtoreachan
agreementonthestandardmechanismstouse.
GLOBALINDUSTRIES
SUCHASAUTOMOTIVE
REQUIRESOLUTIONS
THATWORKSEAMLESSLY
FROMLOCALTOGLOBAL
SCALE
ITISCRITICALTODRIVE
INDUSTRYALIGNMENTBY
GETTINGREFERENCE
IMPLEMENTATIONSOFEDGE
CLOUDSOFTWARE

Further reading
❭❭ Ericsson Consumer IndustryLab, 5G business value: A case study on real-time control in
manufacturing, April 2018, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/reports/5g_for_industries_
report_blisk_27062018.pdf
❭❭ Ericsson, Turn on 5G: Ericsson completes 5G Platform for operators, February 8, 2018, available at:
https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2018/2/turn-on-5g-ericsson-completes-5g-platform-for-operators
❭❭ Ericsson, Going beyond edge computing with distributed cloud, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/
digital-services/trending/distributed-cloud
❭❭ Ericsson/KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Resource monitoring in a Network Embedded Cloud:
An extension to OSPF-TE, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/assets/local/publications/conference-
papers/03-cloud-ospf-camera-ready.pdf
❭❭ M2 Optics Inc., Calculating Optical Fiber Latency, January 9, 2012, Miller, K, available at:
http://www.m2optics.com/blog/bid/70587/Calculating-Optical-Fiber-Latency
❭❭ Application function placement optimization in a mobile distributed cloud environment, Anna Peale,
Péter Kiss, Charles Ferrari, Benedek Kovács, László Szilágyi, Melinda Tóth, in Studia Informatica -
Issue no. 2/2018, pp37-52, available at: http://www.studia.ubbcluj.ro/arhiva/abstract_en.
php?editie=INFORMATICAnr=2an=2018id_art=15974
References
1. TelecomTV, Gartner says 5G networks have a paramount role in autonomous vehicle connectivity,
June 21, 2018, available at: https://www.telecomtv.com/content/tracker/gartner-says-5g-networks-have-a-
paramount-role-in-autonomous-vehicle-connectivity-31356/
2. AECC White Paper, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2014/consumerlab/liberation-from-
location-ericsson-consumerlab.pdf
3. Government Technology, Making 5G a Reality Means Building Partnerships — Not Just Networks,
June 5, 2018, Descant, S, available at: http://www.govtech.com/network/Making-5G-a-Reality-Means-
Building-Partnerships--Not-Just-Networks.html
4. Wired, Eye tracking is coming to VR sooner than you think. What now?, March 23, 2018, Rubin, P,
available at: https://www.wired.com/story/eye-tracking-vr/
5. Think Act, Digital factories – The renaissance of the U.S. automotive industry, Berger, R, available at:
https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Publications/pub_digital_factories.html
6. Ericsson, Technology Trends 2018, Five technology trends augmenting the connected society, 2018,
Ekudden, E, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/ericsson-technology-review/archive/2018/technology-
trends-2018
7. Ericsson Technology Review, Open, intelligent and model-driven: evolving OSS, February 7, 2018,
Agarwal, M; Svensson, M; Terrill, S; Wallin, J, available at: https://www.ericsson.com/en/ericsson-technology-
review/archive/2018/open-intelligent-and-model-driven-evolving-oss
8. 5G-ACIA, 5G for Connected Industries and Automation, April 11, 2018, available at: https://www.5g-acia.
org/publications/5g-for-connected-industries-and-automation-white-paper/
theauthors
Malgorzata
Svensson
◆ is an expert in operations
support systems. She
joined Ericsson in 1996
and has worked in various
areas within research and
development. For the past
10 years, her work has
focused on architecture
evolution. Svensson
has broad experience in
business process, function
and information modeling,
information and cloud
technologies, analytics,
DevOps processes and tool
chains. She holds an M.Sc. in
technology from the Silesian
University of Technology in
Gliwice, Poland.
Christer Boberg
◆ serves as a director
at Ericsson’s CTO office,
responsible for IoT
technology strategies
aimed at solving networking
challenges for the industry
on a global scale. He initially
joined Ericsson in 1983 and
has in his career within and
outside Ericsson focused on
software and system design
as a developer, architect and
technical expert. In recent
years, Boberg’s work has
centered on IoT and cloud
technologies with a special
focus on the automotive
industry. As part of this
work, he drives the AECC
consortium together with
industry leading companies.
Benedek Kovács
◆ joined Ericsson in 2005
as a software developer and
tester, and later worked as
a system engineer. He was
the innovation manager
of the Budapest RD site
2011-13, where his primary
role was to establish an
innovative organizational
culture and launch internal
startups based on worthy
ideas. Kovács went on to
serve as the characteristics,
performance management
and reliability specialist in
the development of the 4G
VoLTE solution. Today he
is working on 5G networks
and distributed cloud, as
well as coordinating global
engineering projects. He
holds an M.Sc. in information
engineering and Ph.D. in
mathematics from the
Budapest University of
Technology and Economics
in Hungary.
Theauthorswould
liketothank
thefollowing
peoplefortheir
contributions
tothisarticle:
CarlosBravo,
AlaNazari,
StefanRuneson,
OlaHubertsson,
ThorstenLohmar
andTomas
Nylander.
AECC – Automotive Edge Computing Consortium | API – Application Programming Interface |
APP – Application | AR – Augmented Reality | BW – Bandwidth | CSP – Communication Service Provider
| DB – Database | DC – Data Center | ECU – Engine Control Unit |ETSI – European Telecommunications
Standards Institute | FWA – Fixed Wireless Access | IoT – Internet of Things | ML – Machine Learning |
MS – Millisecond | MTSO – Mobile Telephone Switching Office | NFV– Network Functions Virtualization |
UL – Uplink | VNF – Virtual Network Function | VR – Virtual Reality | V2X/C-ITS – Vehicle-to-everything/
Cooperative Intelligent Transport System

#01 2019 ✱ ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW 3938 ERICSSON TECHNOLOGY REVIEW ✱ #01 2019
Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution – is already transforming the
manufacturing industry, with the vision of highly efficient, connected and
flexible factories of the future quickly becoming a reality in many sectors.
Fully connected factories will rely on cloud technologies, as well as connectivity
based on Ethernet Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and wireless 5G radio.
JOACHIM SACHS,
KENNETH WALLSTEDT,
FREDRIK ALRIKSSON,
GÖRAN ENEROTH
Automation(5G-ACIA)[2]showthatindustries
recognizethisneedfor5Gtechnology.
ThelowersectionofFigure1isoftenreferred
toastheoperationaltechnology(OT)partofthe
manufacturingplant,comprisingboththefield
level(industrialdevicesandcontrollers)andthe
manufacturingexecutionsystem.Thetopsection
istheinformationtechnology(IT)part,madeup
ofgeneralenterpriseresourceplanning.For
connectivityatfieldlevel,avarietyoffieldbusand
industrialEthernettechnologiesaretypicallyused.
EthernetandIParewellestablishedcommunication
protocolsathigherlevels(ITandthetoppartofOT).
TheOTnetworkdomainiscurrentlydominated
(90percent)bywiredtechnologies[3]andisa
heavilyfragmentedmarketwithtechnologiessuchas
PROFIBUS,PROFINET,EtherCAT,Sercosand
Modbus.Currentlydeployedwirelesssolutions
(whicharetypicallywirelessLANbasedusing
unlicensedspectrum)constituteonlyasmallfraction
The goal of Industry 4.0 is to maximize
efficiency by creating full transparency
across all processes and assets at all times.
Achieving this requires communication
between goods, production systems, logistics
chains, people and processes throughout
a product’s complete life cycle, spanning
everything from design, ordering,
manufacturing, delivery and field
maintenance to recycling and reuse.
The integration of 5G ultra-reliable
low-latency communication (URLLC) in the
manufacturing process has great potential
to accelerate the transformation of the
manufacturing industry and make smart
factories more efficient and productive.
■ Today’sstate-of-the-artfactoriesare
predominantlybuiltonahierarchicalnetworkdesign
thatfollowstheindustrialautomationpyramid,as
showninFigure1.Thefourthindustrialrevolution
willrequireatransitionfromthissegmentedand
hierarchicalnetworkdesigntowardafullyconnected
one.Thistransition,incombinationwiththe
introductionof5Gwirelesscommunication
technology,willprovideveryhighflexibilityin
buildingandconfiguringproductionsystemson
demand.Theabilitytoextractmoreinformationfrom
themanufacturingprocessandfeeditintoadigital
representationknownasthe“digitaltwin”[1]enables
moreadvancedplanningprocesses,includingplant
simulationandvirtualcommissioning.Initiativeslike
the5GAllianceforConnectedIndustriesand
Figure 1 Hierarchical network design based on the industrial automation pyramid
IT domain
OT domain
Field level
Enterprise
resource
planning
Manufacturing
execution
system
GW GWIndustrial
controllers
Industrial
devices
Definition of key terms
❭❭ Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) refers to a 5G service category that provides the ability
to successfully deliver a message within a specified latency bound with a specified reliability, such as delivering
a message within 1ms with a probability of 99.9999 percent.
❭❭ The fourth industrial revolution is considered to be the fourth big step in industry modernization, enabled by
cyber-physical systems, digitalization and ubiquitous connectivity provided by 5G and Internet of Things (IoT)
technologies. It is also referred to as Industry 4.0.
smart
manufacturingWITH 5G WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY
BOOSTING
FEATURE ARTICLE – 5G AND SMART MANUFACTURING ✱✱ FEATURE ARTICLE – 5G AND SMART MANUFACTURING

PHY(physicallayer)featuresaswellasnewmulti-
connectivityarchitectureoptionshavebeenadded
tothe5GNRspecificationsin3GPPrelease15,and
additionalenhancementsarebeingstudiedin
release16.Thegoalinrelease16istoenable0.5-1ms
one-waylatencywithreliabilityofupto99.9999
percent.Newcapabilitiesincludefasterscheduling,
smallerandmorerobusttransmissions,repetitions,
fasterretransmissions,preemptionandpacket
duplication[5].Allinall,theyensureNRisequipped
withapowerfultoolboxthatcanbeusedtotailorthe
performancetothedemandsofeachspecificdevice
andtrafficflowonafactoryshopfloor.
Theachievableround-triptime(RTT)depends
bothonwhichfeaturesandspectrumareused.For
example,theRANRTTforamid-banddeployment
optimizedforMBBcanbeintheorderof5ms(FDD
15kHzSCSorTDD30kHzwithDL-DL-DL-UL
TDDconfiguration).ThecorrespondingRTTfora
URLLC-optimizedmillimeterwave(mmWave)
deployment(TDD120kHzSCS,DL-ULTDD
configuration)canbebelow2ms,thusmatchingthe
3GPPone-waylatencygoal.
Thereisatrade-offbetweenlatency,reliability
andcapacity,anddifferentschedulingstrategiescan
beusedtoachieveacertainlevelofreliabilityand
latency.Apacketcanbeencodedwithaverylowand
robustcoderate,andjustbetransmittedonce,butif
theRTTisshorterthantheapplicationlatency
constraint,itcanbemoreefficienttouseahigher,
lessrobustinitialcoderateandperform
retransmissionsbasedonfeedbackincasetheinitial
transmissionfails.Thus,theshortertheRANRTT
iscomparedwiththeapplicationlatencyconstraint,
thehigherspectralefficiency(capacity)maybe
achieved.
Licensedspectrumforinterferencecontrol
Theavailabilityofspectrumresourcesiskeyto
meetingrequirementsoncapacity,bitratesand
latency.Toprovidepredictableandreliableservice
levelsonthefactoryshopfloor,thespectrum
resourcesneedtobemanagedcarefully.The
achievableperformancedependsonseveralfactors:
❭❭ the amount of spectrum available
❭❭ which spectrum is used – low band
(below 2GHz), mid-band (2-5GHz) or
high band/mmWave (26GHz and above)
❭❭ which licensing regime applies
❭❭ whether the spectrum is FDD or TDD
❭❭ which radio access technology is used
❭❭ the coexistence scenarios that apply
for the spectrum.
Estimatesofspectrumneedsareintherangeoftens
tohundredsofmegahertz.Mostnewmid-band
spectrumthatiscurrentlybeingallocatedusesTDD,
whilelargepartsofthespectrumalreadyallocated
tomobileoperatorsareFDD.LatencyforanFDD
systemisinherentlylowerthanthatofa
correspondingTDDsystem.
Mid-bandspectrumiswellsuitedforindoor
deploymentssinceitspropagationcharacteristics
makeiteasytoprovidegoodcoveragewithalimited
setoftransmissionpoints.CoverageatmmWaveis
generallyspottier,requiringdenserradiodeployment,
butmmWaveisstillagoodcomplementtomid-band
forin-factorydeploymentssinceitenables:
❭❭ higher system capacity, as larger bandwidths
are available and as advanced antenna systems
and beamforming can be implemented in a
small form factor suitable for indoor deployment
❭❭ significantly shorter latencies (even though the
spectrum is TDD), as a higher numerology with
shorter transmission time intervals is used
❭❭ easier management of the coexistence
between indoor shop floor networks and
outdoor mobile networks, as mmWave radio
signals are easier to confine within buildings.
oftheinstalledbase;theymainlyplayarolefor
wirelesslyconnectingsensorswherecommunication
requirementsarenon-critical.
Today,thefieldlevelconsistsofconnectivity
islandsthatareseparatedbygateways(GWs),which
helpstoprovidetherequiredperformancewithin
eachconnectivityisland.TheGWsarealsoneeded
forprotocoltranslationbetweenthedifferent
industrialnetworkingtechnologies.However,this
segmenteddesignputslimitationsonthe
digitalizationoffactories,asinformationwithin
onepartofthefactorycannotbeeasilyextracted
andusedelsewhere.
Onenear-termbenefitofleveragingwireless
connectivityinfactoriesisthesignificantreduction
intheamountofcablesused,whichreducescost,
sincecablesaretypicallyveryexpensivetoinstall,
rearrangeorreplace.Inaddition,wireless
connectivityenablesnewusecasesthatcannotbe
implementedwithwiredconnectivity,suchas
movingrobots,automatedguidedvehiclesandthe
trackingofproductsastheymovethroughthe
productionprocess.Wirelessconnectivityalso
makesitpossibletoachievegreaterfloorplanlayout
flexibilityanddeployfactoryequipmentmoreeasily.
Keymanufacturingindustryrequirements
Themanufacturingindustryhasspecific5G
requirementsthatdiffersignificantlyfrompublic
mobilebroadband(MBB)services.Theseinclude
URLLCwithultra-highavailabilityandresilience,
whichcanonlybesatisfiedwithadedicatedlocal
networkdeploymentusinglicensedspectrum.
Theabilitytointegratewiththeexistingindustrial
EthernetLANandexistingindustrialnodesand
functionsisanotherfundamentalrequirement.
Dataintegrityandprivacyarealsocritical,aswellas
real-timeperformancemonitoring.Inaddition,
5Gcapabilitiesintermsofpositioning,time
synchronizationbetweendevices,securityand
networkslicingwillalsobeessentialformany
manufacturingusecases.
Ultra-reliablelow-latencycommunication
Oneofthetwoservicecategoriesofmachine-type
communication(MTC)in5G–criticalMTC(cMTC)
–isdesignedtomeetcommunicationdemandswith
stringentrequirementsonlatency,reliabilityand
availability.IntensestandardizationandRDwork
isongoingtoensure5GNewRadio(NR)technology
isabletofullyaddresstheneedforURLLC.
WithNRwewillseelarge-scaledeploymentsof
advancedantennasystemsenablingstate-of-the-art
beamformingandMIMO(multiple-input,multiple-
output)techniques,whicharepowerfultoolsfor
improvingthroughput,capacityandcoverage[4].
Multi-antennatechniqueswillalsobeimportantfor
URLLC,astheycanbeusedtoimprovereliability.
ThescalablenumerologyofNRprovidesgood
meanstoachievelowlatency,aslargersubcarrier
spacing(SCS)reducesthetransmissiontime
interval.
Tofurtherreducelatencyandincreasereliability,
severalnewMAC(mediumaccesscontrol)and
MMWAVEISAGOOD
COMPLEMENTTOMID-
BANDFORIN-FACTORY
DEPLOYMENTS
cMTC – Critical Machine-type Communication | CN – Core Network | DL – Downlink | GHz – Gigahertz |
GW – Gateway | IoT – Internet of Things | kHz – Kilohertz | LTE-M – LTE Machine-type Communication |
MBB – Mobile Broadband | mMTC – Massive Machine-type Communication | mmWave – Millimeter Wave |
ms – Millisecond | MTC – Machine-type Communication | NB-IoT – Narrowband IoT | NR – New Radio |
OT – Operational Technology | RTT – Round-trip Time | SCS – Subcarrier Spacing | TSN – Time-sensitive
Networking | UE - User Equipment | UL – Uplink | URLLC – Ultra-reliable Low-latency Communication

Ethernettransporthasbeenspecifiedwithinthe
release15standardofthe5Gsystem.
Aspartoftheongoingindustrialtransformation,
thewiredcommunicationsegmentsofindustrial
networksareexpectedtoevolvetowardacommon
openstandard:EthernetwithTSNsupport[6].
Therefore,a5Gsystemneedstobeabletointegrate
withaTSN-basedindustrialEthernet,forwhich
3GPPhasdefineddifferentstudyandworkitemsin
release16ofthe5Gstandards.
TSNisanextensionoftheIEEE802.3Ethernet
andisstandardizedwithintheTSNtaskgroupin
IEEE802.1.AprofileforTSNinindustrial
automationisbeingdevelopedbytheIEC/IEEE
60802jointproject[7].TSNincludesthemeansto
providedeterministicboundedlatencywithout
congestionlossesforprioritizedtrafficonan
Ethernetnetworkthatalsotransportstrafficoflower
priority.TSNfeaturesincludepriorityqueuingwith
resourceallocationmechanisms,time
synchronizationbetweennetworknodesand
reliabilitymechanismsviaredundanttrafficflows.
5Genhancementsincludesupportofredundant
transmissionpaths,whichcanbecombinedwiththe
TSNfeature‘Framereplicationandeliminationfor
reliability’(FRER)thatisstandardizedinIEEE
802.1CB.Oneoftheresourceallocationfeaturesof
TSNforboundingthelatencyforperiodiccontrol
trafficis‘Time-awarescheduling’(standardizedin
IEEE802.1Qbv),forwhichtransmissionqueuesare
time-gatedineveryswitchonthedatapathtocreate
aprotectedconnection.ThisrequiresallEthernet
switchestobetime-synchronizedaccordingtoIEEE
P802.1AS-Rev.Featuresthatarebeingdevelopedin
5Gstandardizationtosupporttime-aware
transmissionacrossamixedTSN-5Gnetworkareto
time-alignthe5GsystemwiththeTSNnetworkand
provide5Gtransmissionwithdeterministiclatency.
Keepingthingslocal
OntopofURLLCperformanceandintegration
withindustrialEthernetnetworks,many
manufacturersalsorequirefullcontrol(thatis,
independentofexternalparties)oftheircriticalOT
domainconnectivityinordertofulfillsystem
availabilitytargets.Fullcontrolcanbeexpressed
asrequirementsonkeepingthingslocal:
❭❭ local data – the ability to keep production-
related data locally within the factory premises
for security and trust reasons
❭❭ local management – the ability to monitor and
manage the connectivity solution locally
❭❭ local survivability – the ability to guarantee the
availability of the connectivity solution
independently of external factors (for example,
shop-floor connectivity must continue
uninterrupted even when connectivity to the
manufacturing plant is down).
Additionalrequirementsandfeaturesofinterest
One5Gfeaturethatcouldhavesignificantimportance
formanufacturingusecasesispositioning.For3GPP
release16,theobjectiveistoachieveindoor
positioningaccuraciesbelow3m,butNRdeployed
inafactoryenvironmenthasthetechnologypotential
tosupportmuchmoreprecisepositioning.Thereare
severalaspectswhichallcontributetobetter
positioningaccuracy:
❭❭ the wide bandwidths of mid- and high-band
spectrum enable better measurement accuracy
❭❭ beam-based systems enable better ranging and
angle-of-arrival/departure estimation
❭❭ the higher numerology of NR implies shorter
sampling intervals and hence improved
positioning resolution
❭❭ dense and tailored deployments with small cells
and large overlaps improve accuracy and,
together with beam-based transmissions,
provide more spatial variations that can be
exploited for radio frequency fingerprinting.
In5Grelease16,anewrequirementisbeing
introduced,wherebythe5Gsystemwillbeableto
synchronizedevicestoamasterclockofoneormore
timedomains[8].Onereasonforthisisthatseveral
Forcriticalapplications,theremustbeguarantees
againstuncontrolledinterference,whichimpliesthat
licensedspectrumisnecessary.Asillustratedin
Figure2,unlicensedtechnologiessuchasWi-Fiand
MulteFirecannotguaranteeboundedlowlatency
withhighreliabilityastheloadincreases.Thisisdue
totheuseoflisten-before-talkback-off,whichdoes
notperformwellduringuncontrolledinterference.
Unlicensedspectrummaynonethelessberelevant
forlesscriticalapplications.
Licensedspectrumcanbeprovidedbyoperators
aspartofalocalconnectivitysolution,including
networkequipment.Operatorsmayalsochooseto
leasepartsoftheirspectrumassetslocallyto
industrieswithoutprovidingtheconnectivity
solution.Anotheremergingoptionisforregulators
tosetasidededicatedspectrumforlocallicensingto
industries,asisunderconsiderationinsome
EuropeancountriessuchasGermanyandSweden
on3.7-3.8GHz.
IntegrationwithindustrialEthernetandTSN
Theintroductionof5Gonthefactoryshopfloorwill
happeninsteps.When5Gisaddedtoexisting
productionsystems,thevariouspartsofthesystem
willbemovedto5Gconnectivityatdifferentstages,
dependingontheevolutionplanoftheproduction
systemandwherethehighestbenefitsofwireless5G
communicationcanbeobtained.Overtime,more
partsoftheshopfloorcanbemigratedto5G,inpart
duetotheintroductionofnewcapabilitiesinfuture
5Greleases.Eveningreenfieldindustrial
deployments,notallcommunicationwillbebased
on5G.Theneedforwirelessconnectivitymaynotbe
prominentforsomesubsystems,whileothersmay
requireperformancelevels(isochronoussub-
millisecondlatency,forexample)thatarenot
currentlyaddressedby5G.Consequently,alocal
industrial5Gdeploymentwillcoexistandrequire
integrationwithwiredindustrialLANs.Tothisend,
thetransportofEthernettrafficisrequired,and
Figure 2 Latency and reliability aspects of spectrum and technology choice
Asset monitoring
Wireless sensors
Non-real-time
Soft real-time
Mobile robots
Automated guided vehicles
Hard real-time
Time-critical
closed-loop control Wi-Fi
Low
(milliseconds)
Low
High
High
(seconds)
End-to-end latency
Reliability
(with load)
Wi-Fi
MulteFire
LTE
NR Unlicensed
spectrum
Licensed
spectrum
MulteFire
LTE
NR

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