GSMAi Webinar: Is the Industry Moving Fast Enough on Standalone 5G?

I recently participated in a webinar, discussing one of my favourite topics, 5G Standalone (5G SA). If you do not know about 5G SA, you may want to quickly watch my short and simple video on the topic here.

Next week I am participating in a webinar, "Open for Debate: Is the Industry Moving Fast Enough on Standalone 5G?" along with Peter Jarich, Radhika Gupta and Tim Hatt. Hope to see you there: https://t.co/TQ8Aa5LXYP #3G4G5G #5G #5GNetworks #5GTechnology #5GNR #5GStandalone #5GSA pic.twitter.com/Rd7hGvvCNe

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) July 15, 2022

Last year I blogged about GSA's 5G Standalone webinar here. That time we were discussing why 5G SA is taking time to deliver, it was sort of a similar story this time. Things are changing though and you will see a lot more of these standalone networks later this year and even early next year. 

The slides of the webinar are available here and the video is embedded below:

Here are some of my thoughts on why 5G SA is taking much longer than most people anticipated:

• 5G SA will force operators to move to 5G core which is a completely new architecture. The transition to this is taking much longer than expected, especially if there are a lot of legacy services that needs to be supported.
• Many operators are moving towards converged core with 4G & 5G support to simply the core. This transition is taking long.
• For taking complete advantage of 5G architecture, cloud native implementation is required. Some operators have already started the transition to cloud native but others are lagging.
• 5G SA speeds will be lower than NSA speeds hence some operators who don't have a lot of mid-band spectrum are delaying their 5G SA rollouts.
• Many operators have managed to reduce their latency as they start to move to edge datacentres, hence the urgency for 5G standalone has reduced.
• Most operators do not see any new revenue opportunities because of 5G SA, hence they want to be completely ready before rolling out 5G SA
• Finally, you may hear a lot about not enough devices supporting 5G SA but that's not the device manufacturers views.  See this tweet from GSA 👇

#Supporting5Gstandalone

With 5G SA networks now being launched, GSA is already aware of 842 announced devices with claimed support for 5G SA, up 202% from 278 at the end of 2020.

Full report on: https://t.co/8f1fw4R2fI#5G | #SA | #Devices | #GSA pic.twitter.com/7LEoyasplm

— GSA (@gsacom) July 11, 2022

Do you agree with my reasoning? If not, please let me know in the comments.

Related Posts: 

• The 3G4G Blog: The Status of 5G Standalone (5G SA) Networks - March 2021
• The 3G4G Blog: What will 5G Standalone deliver?
• The 3G4G Blog: The Politics of Standalone vs Non-Standalone 5G & 4G Speeds
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Reality Check - Data Rates
• Operator Watch Blog: Germany gets Two 5G Standalone Networks
• The 3G4G Blog: Minimum Bandwidth Requirement for 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) Deployment
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Dual Connectivity, Webinar and Architecture Overview
• The 3G4G Blog: What about 5G Network Architecture Option 4 (a.k.a. NE-DC) ?
• Free 5G Training: 5G Use Cases
• Free 5G Training: 5G Adverts
• 3G4G: 5G for Absolute Beginners 

3GPP Release-18 Work Moves Into Focus as Release-17 Reaches Maturity

In early December 2021, 3GPP reached a consensus on the scope of 5G NR Release-18. With the 3GPP Rel-17 functional freeze set for March 2022, Release-18 work is moving into focus. This is being billed as a significant milestone marking the beginning of 5G Advanced — the second wave of wireless innovations that will fulfil the 5G vision. Release 18 is expected to build on the solid foundation set by 3GPP Releases 15, 16, and 17, and it sets the longer-term evolution direction of 5G and beyond.

(click on the image to enlarge - PDF here)

The 3GPP Release-18 page has a concise summary of all that you need to know, including the timeline. For anyone interested in going through features one-by-one, start navigating from here, select Rel-18 from the top.

New white paper from Nokia, "5G-Advanced: Expanding 5G for the connected world" - https://t.co/7HADpzHhAS #Free5Gtraining #3G4G5G #3GPP #Release18 #5G #5GAdvanced #5GTechnology #5GNetworks #5Gexperience #5Gextension #5Gexpansion #OperationalExcellence #XR #WWC #NetworkSlicing pic.twitter.com/6CYyKPp1Ff

— Free 5G Training (@5Gtraining) January 21, 2022

For others who may be more interested in summary rather than a lot of details, here are some good links to navigate:

• Nokia whitepaper - 5G-Advanced: Expanding 5G for the connected world (link)
• Paper by Ericsson researcher, Xingqin Lin, 'An Overview of 5G Advanced Evolution in 3GPP Release 18' (link)
• Marcin Dryjański, Rimedo Labs - 3GPP Rel-18: 5G-Advanced RAN Features (link)
• Bevin Fletcher, FierceWireless: Next 3GPP standard tees up 5G Advanced (link)

As always, Qualcomm has a fantastic summary of 5G evolution and features in 3GPP Release-18 on their page here. The image above nicely shows the evolution of 5G from Release-15 all the way to Release-18. The image below shows a summary of 3GPP Release-18, 5G-Advanced features.

They also hosted a webinar with RCR wireless. The webinar is embedded below.

The slides can be downloaded from GSA website (account required, free to register) here.

Related Posts: 

• The 3G4G Blog: Will Wi-Fi Help 3GPP Bring Reliable Connectivity Indoors?
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP Presentations from CEATEC Japan 2021
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G-Advanced Flagship Features
• The 3G4G Blog: An Early View of 3GPP Release-18 5G-Advanced Topics
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP's 5G-Advanced Workshop Summary
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP's 5G-Advanced Technology Evolution from a Network Perspective Whitepaper
• The 3G4G Blog: '5G RAN Release 18 for Industry Verticals' Webinar Highlights
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP RAN Plenary Update and Evolution towards 5G-Advanced
• The 3G4G Blog: Initiative to Remove Non-inclusive terms from 3GPP Specifications
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP Release 16 Description and Summary of Work Items
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP Standards on Edge Computing
• The 3G4G Blog: Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) in 5G Challenge by ITU
• The 3G4G Blog: ITU Standardization Bureau on Machine Learning for 5G
• The 3G4G Blog: Introduction to 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) Devices
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G eXtended Reality (5G-XR) in 5G System (5GS)
• The 3G4G Blog: Energy Consumption in Mobile Networks and RAN Power Saving Schemes 

The Status of 5G Standalone (5G SA) Networks - March 2021

I wonder if you have seen as many adverts talking about the 5G revolution as I have. In fact I have collected many of them here. The problem is that most of these promised 5G awesomeness can only be delivered when 5G Standalone networks are launched. 

Before going further, if you don't know what 5G standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) networks are, then you may want to check one of my tutorials/video. For beginners here and slightly advanced version here. If you just want to learn about the 5G core, tutorial here.

I believe that the 5G Non-standalone networks are a hack that were designed mainly to show just the 5G icon and in some cases it also provided enhanced speeds. Some operators have realised this and are thinking about the 5G NSA sunset. There are some potential issues with 5G SA speeds that need sorting out though.

The transition from NSA to SA 5G may happen sooner than most people expect. This keynote from ZTE at Layer123 World Congress provides insights from China - https://t.co/Q0Sm7AkS3r via @layer123live#Free5Gtraining #5G #5GNetworks #5GC #5GCore #5GTechnology #5GSA #5GNSA #ZTE pic.twitter.com/R0jeixFKCf

— 5G Training (@5Gtraining) November 2, 2020

GSA recently held a webinar looking at the status of 5G Standalone networks. The video of the webinar is embedded at the end of the post. The webinar summarised the stats as following:

• By mid-March 2021, 428 operators in 132 countries/territories were investing in 5G
• 176 operators in 76 countries/territories had announced they had deployed 3GPP compliant 5G technology in their live networks
• Of those, a total of 153 operators in 64 countries/territories had launched one or more 3GPP-compliant 5G services
• 145 operators in 60 countries/territories had launched 3GPP-compliant 5G mobile services
• 51 operators in 29 countries/territories had launched 3GPP-compliant 5G FWA or home broadband services
• For comparison, there are 807 public LTE networks worldwide
• GSA has identified 68 operators in 38 countries/territories that are investing in 5G standalone for public mobile networks
• Of those, a total of 7 operators in 5 countries/territories had launched 5G SA networks
• Operators in China have deployed/upgraded hundreds of thousands of base stations 
• T-Mobile has a nationwide network
• Plus China Mobile HK, Rain (South Africa) and DirecTV (Colombia)
• Also ITC KSA (soft launch), STC KSA deployed, Telstra 5G core deployed, plus various contracts for 5G core systems

Private Networks, Non-public networks (NPN) and Industrial 5G Networks are also expected to make use of standalone 5G networks. As 5G networks get virtualized and open, we will see a lot more of these.

The webinar also highlighted the progress of 5G devices:

• There has been rapid growth in the numbers and types of 5G devices being announced and launched
• As of end February:
• 628 5G devices announced
• 404 commercially available (up from 303 at the end of November)
• 104 vendors
• 21 announced form factors
• Majority are phones (306 announced, 274 commercial)
• 5G SA devices are also appearing
• 298 devices announced with 5G SA support
• 204 commercial devices state support for 5G SA
• Software upgrades likely to be required
• Steadily climbing up as % of all 5G devices
• Now >47% of announced
• >50% of commercial

Here is the webinar:

Related Posts: 

• Free 5G Training: 5G Adverts
• 3G4G: 5G for Absolute Beginners
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Network Architecture Options 
• The 3G4G Blog: The Politics of Standalone vs Non-Standalone 5G & 4G Speeds
• The 3G4G Blog - Tutorial: Service Based Architecture (SBA) for 5G Core (5GC)
• The 3G4G Blog: When does your 5G NSA Device Show 5G Icon?
• The 3G4G Blog: Would 5G NSA undergo Sunset? When?
• Operator Watch Blog: The Many Firsts of STC Kuwait
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Private and Non-Public Network (NPN)
• The 3G4G Blog: Challenges and Future Perspectives of Industrial 5G
• The 3G4G Blog: Open RAN Explanation, Videos, White papers and Other Resources
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G Remote Surgery and Telehealth Solutions 

LTE / 5G Broadcast Evolution

It's been a while since I last wrote about eMBMS. A report by GSA last month identified:
- 41 operators known to have been investing in eMBMS
- 5 operators have now deployed eMBMS or launched some sort of commercial service using eMBMS
- GSA identified 69 chipsets supporting eMBMS, and at least 59 devices that support eMBMS

#eMBMS
- 41 operators known to have been investing in eMBMS
- 5 operators have now deployed eMBMS or launched some sort of commercial service using eMBMS
- GSA identified 69 chipsets supporting eMBMS, and at least 59 devices that support eMBMShttps://t.co/EjjOH1tQxy pic.twitter.com/Gcc35BFC8H

— GSA (@gsacom) August 6, 2019

BBC R&D are testing the use of 4G/5G broadcast technology to deliver live radio services to members of the public as part of 5G RuralFirst - one of 6 projects funded under the UK Government’s 5G Phase 1 testbeds and trials programme (link).

A press release by Samsung Electronics back in May announced that it has signed an expansion contract with KT Corporation (KT) to provide public safety (PS-LTE) network solutions based on 3GPP standard Release 13 for 10 major metropolitan regions in South Korea including Seoul by 2020. One of the features of PS-LTE that the PR listed was LTE Broadcast (eMBMS): A feature which allows real time feeds to hundreds of devices simultaneously. It enables thousands of devices to be connected at once to transfer video, images and voice simultaneously using multicast technology

Dr. Belkacem Mouhouche – Samsung Electronics Chief Standards Engineer  and Technical Manager of 5G projects: 5G-Xcast and 5G-Tours Presented an excellent overview on this topic at IEEE 5G Summit Istanbul, June 2019. His presentation is embedded below.

Recent advances in Broadcasting standards and research from 3G4G

5G-Xcast is a 5GPPP Phase II project focused on Broadcast and Multicast Communication Enablers For the Fifth Generation of Wireless Systems.

They have a YouTube channel here and this video below is an introduction to project and the problems it looks to address.




Further Reading:

• GSA Report: LTE Broadcast (eMBMS) Market Update – July 2019
• GSA Snapshot: LTE Broadcast – eMBMS – Snapshot July 2019

Related posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: Multicast Operation on Demand (MooD) and Service Continuity for eMBMS
• Operator Watch Blog: Telstra's LTE-B Push
• Operator Watch Blog: Reliance Jio getting ready for LTE-Broadcast (eMBMS) rollout
• The 3G4G Blog: Mission Critical Services update from 3GPP - June 2017

Introduction to Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)

We have just produced a new tutorial on Fixed Wireless Access (FWA). The high level introductory tutorial looks at what is meant by Fixed Wireless Access, which is being touted as one of the initial 5G use cases. This presentation introduces FWA and looks at a practical deployment example.

According to GSA report, "Global Progress to 5G – Trials, Deployments and Launches", July 2018:

One use-case that has gained prominence is the use of 5G to deliver fixed wireless broadband services. We have identified 20 tests so far that have specifically focused on the fixed wireless access (FWA) use-case, which is five more than three months ago.

Embedded below is the video and presentation of the FWA tutorial.

Beginners: Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) from 3G4G

If you found this useful, you would be interested in other tutorials on the 3G4G website here.

Related Posts:

• Keima: Automated 4G / 5G HetNet Design
• 5G Network Architecture Options (Updated)

Multicast Operation on Demand (MooD) and Service Continuity for eMBMS

Many regular readers of this blog are aware that back in 2014 I wrote a post looking critically at LTE-Broadcast business case and suggested a few approaches to make it a success. Back in those days, 2014 was being billed as the year of LTE-Broadcast or eMBMS (see here and here for example). I was just cautioning people against jumping on the LTE-B bandwagon.

According to a recent GSA report 'LTE Broadcast (eMBMS) Market Update – March 2018':

• thirty-nine operators are known to have been investing in eMBMS demonstrations, trials, deployments or launches
• five operators have now deployed eMBMS or launched some sort of commercial service using eMBMS

Its good to see some operators now getting ready to deploy eMBMS for broadcast TV scenarios. eMBMS will also be used in Mission Critical Communications for the features described here.

In a recent news from the Australian operator Telstra:

Telstra is now streaming live sports content to a massive base of around 1.2 million devices each weekend and sports fans consume 37 million minutes of live content over our apps on any given weekend.

This increase brings new challenges to the way traffic on our mobile network is managed. Even though a large group of people might be streaming the same real-time content at the same time, we still need to ensure a high quality streaming experience for our customers.

This challenge makes our sporting apps a prime use case for LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B).

Earlier this year, we announced we would be turning on LTE-B functionality on the AFL Live Official app for Telstra customers with Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9 devices. Following extensive testing, Telstra is the only operator in Australia – and one of the first in the world – to deploy LTE-B into its mobile network.

At a live demonstration in Sydney, over 100 Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9 devices were on display showing simultaneous high definition content from the AFL Live Official app using LTE-B.

Its interesting to note here that the broadcast functionality (and probably intelligence) is built into the app.

According to another Telstra news item (emphasis mine):

The use of LTE-Broadcast technology changes the underlying efficiency of live video delivery as each cell can now support an unlimited number of users watching the same content with improved overall quality. To date though, LTE-B technology has required that a dedicated part of each cell’s capacity be set aside for broadcasting. This had made the LTE-B business case harder to prove in for lower streaming demand rates.

This has now changed as Telstra and our partners have enabled the world’s first implementation of the Multicast Operation on Demand (MooD) feature whereby cells in the network only need to configure for LTE-B when there are multiple users watching the same content.

This combined with the Service Continuity feature allows mobile users to move around the network seamlessly between cells configured for LTE-B and those which are not.

Earlier this year we announced our intention to enable LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B) across our entire mobile network in 2018. With MooD and service continuity we are one step closer to that goal as we head into another year of major growth in sporting content demand.

Supported by technology partners Ericsson and Qualcomm, Telstra has now delivered world first capability to ensure LTE-B can be delivered as efficiently as possible.

Service Continuity will allow devices to transition in and out of LTE-B coverage areas without interruption. For instance, you might be at a music festival streaming an event on your phone but need to leave the venue and make your way back home (where LTE-B is not in use). Service Continuity means you can continue to watch the stream and the transition will be seamless – even though you have the left the broadcast area.

Taking that a step further, MooD allows the network to determine how many LTE-B compatible devices in any given area are consuming the same content. MooD then intelligently activates or deactivates LTE-B, ensuring the mobile network is as efficient as possible in that location.

For example, if a die-hard football fan is streaming a match we will likely service that one user with unicast, as that is the most efficient way of delivering the content. However if more users in the same cell decide to watch the match, MooD makes the decision automatically as to whether it is more efficient to service those users by switching the stream to broadcasting instead of individual unicast streams.

Its good to see Ericsson & Qualcomm finally taking eMBMS to commercial deployment. Back in 2015, I added their videos from MWC that year. See post here.

I think the Telstra post already provides info on why MooD is needed but this picture from Qualcomm whitepaper above makes it much clearer. Back in 3G MBMS and early days or eMBMS, there used to be a feature called counting, MooD is effectively doing the same thing.

For Service Continuity, this paper 'Service Continuity for eMBMS in LTE/LTE-Advanced Network: Standard Analysis and Supplement' by Ngoc-Duy Nguyen and Christian Bonnet has interesting proposal on how it should be done. I cannot be sure if this is correct as per the latest specifications but its interesting to learn how this would be done when the user moves out of coverage area in Idle or connected mode.

Note that this Expway paper also refers to Service continuity as Session continuity.

Related posts:

• Telstra's LTE-B Push
• Reliance Jio getting ready for LTE-Broadcast (eMBMS) rollout