Finland: A country with only Unlimited Data Plans

I was listening to Elisa couple of weeks back, at 5G World Summit. One of the things that surprised me was that Elisa offered unlimited data plans but the price varied based on the maximum speeds possible. The same approach was going to continue with 5G. When 5G data speeds would improve, new packages will be added with the improved speeds.

"There's no revenue upside with unlimited mobile data", say operators with bucket plans. Funny then that the all-unlimited Finnish MNOs @ElisaOyj @teliafinland @DNA_fi all had increasing ARPU in 2018 - in contrast to almost all mature market operators solely offering buckets.

— tefficient 🚥 (@tefficient) March 4, 2019

Tefficient has pointed out multiple times that even though all operators in Finland offer unlimited data plans, their ARPU has increased in 2018. This is in contrast to the other mature markets, even though they may not be offering unlimited data plans.

"Finnish operators that executed ‘unlimited everything’ strategies were the undisputed champions of the 4G era" #Rewheel https://t.co/APZXMXj7EH

— Pal Zarandy (@PZarandy) May 23, 2019

Same thing was pointed out by Rewheel research that highlighted in their May 2019 report that, "Finnish operators that executed ‘unlimited everything’ strategies were the undisputed champions of the 4G era"

A mashable article pointed out that "5G will be crazy fast, but it'll be worthless without unlimited data". This is very true.

When people talk about 8K video over 5G, most of them don't realise that it would consume roughly 7-10 GB data per hour on 8K video.

This article from @howtogeek - https://t.co/xSxvaMwKY4 shows some good calculations of up to 4K video pic.twitter.com/anJhNfUMtV

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) June 15, 2019

Mobile operators should start thinking about how they can offer unlimited data plans, especially if they keep touting applications that are going to use loads of data. As you can see from the tweet above, a 1 hour 8K video streaming would roughly use between 7 - 10 GB of data.

Let me know your thoughts.

Mobile Initiated Connection Only (MICO) mode in 5G System

Mobile Initiated Connection Only (MICO) mode is designed for IoT devices that send small amounts of data and do not need to be paged. An example of this could be a smart bin that sends a message to the waste collection company saying it is 50% full, etc. This way the bin emptying lorry can plan to empty it in the next collection round. Here there is no reason to page the bin as there is no mobile terminated data that would be required.

MICO mode has to be negotiated between the device and AMF in 5GC. A device in MICO mode cannot be paged as it would not listen to paging to conserve battery power. This extreme power saving mode can ensure that the battery can last for very long time, ideally years thereby making this vision of billions of connected IoT devices a reality.

In an earlier post on RRC Inactive state, we looked at NAS states, along with RRC states. When the UE is in MICO mode, the AMF in 5GC will consider the UE to be unreachable when it is in CM-IDLE state. In addition, a periodic registration timer is also allocated to the MICO mode UEs. The UE has to confirm the MICO mode again during registration update.

The video and presentation are embedded below:

Intermediate: Mobile Initiated Connection Only (MICO) from 3G4G

Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog: A Technical Introduction to 5G NR RRC Inactive State
• The 3G4G Blog: Anritsu Webinar on 'Evolution of 5G from 3GPP Rel-15 to Rel-17 and Testing Challenges'
• 3G4G: 3GPP 5G Specifications
• 3G4G: 5G (IMT-2020) Wireless

Top Blog Posts of 2022

The 3G4G Blog is our most popular blog, running for over 15 years with nearly 15 million views. With 2022 coming to an end, here are the top 10 most viewed posts from 2022. These posts were not necessarily posted this year, so I have added the month and year each of them was posted.

1. Network Slicing using User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP), Nov 2021
2. 5G & AI Powered Smart Hospitals, Dec 2021
3. Four Ways 5G Can Improve the Battery Life of User Equipment (UE), Sep 2022
4. 3GPP Release-18 Work Moves Into Focus as Release-17 Reaches Maturity, Jan 2022
5. What is RF Front-End (RFFE) and why is it so Important?, Jan 2022
6. How Multiband-Cells are used for MORAN RAN Sharing, Aug 2022
7. Key enablers for mass IoT adoption, Oct 2022
8. Positioning Techniques for 5G NR in 3GPP Release-16, Oct 2020
9. Impact of 5G on Lawful Interception and Law Enforcement, Dec 2021
10. 3GPP 5G Non Terrestrial Networks (NTN) Standardization Update, Jan 2022

Related Posts: 

• Free 6G Training: Top Blog Posts of 2022
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Top Blog Posts of 2022
• Operator Watch Blog: Top Posts of 2022
• Connectivity Technology Blog: Top Posts of 2022
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 Posts for 2021 and Top 5 Videos
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 Posts for 2020 and Top 5 Videos
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 posts for 2019
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 posts for 2018
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 posts for 2017 and some other 3G4G info 

Theoretical Throughput Calculation of FDD 5G New Radio (NR)

A nice video by Peter Clarke on 5G NR throughput calculation for FDD. Right now it's only in the video form but will hopefully be available as a tool on his excellent website here. A tool for 4G throughput calculation is available here.




Related Links:

• 5G SpeedTests and Theoretical Max Speeds Calculations
• Understanding the 5G NR Physical Layer
• 5G (IMT-2020) Wireless Resources

Voice over New Radio (VoNR) Establishment and Release between NG RAN and 5G Core

In this video I explain how QoS Flows for VoNR are established and released especially on N2 reference point between 5G Core and NG RAN.

The pervious video about generic aspects of "QoS Flow Establishments in 5G Standalone RAN and Core" you will find in the first link of the Related Posts listed below:

Related Posts: 

• The 3G4G Blog: QoS Flow Establishments in 5G Standalone RAN and Core
• The 3G4G Blog: Anomaly Detection and other AI Algorithms in RAN Optimization
• The 3G4G Blog: How to Identify Network Slices in NG RAN
• The 3G4G Blog: Network Slicing in NG RAN
• The 3G4G Blog: Network Slicing Tutorials and Other Resources
• The 3G4G Blog: Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) in 5G Challenge by ITU
• The 3G4G Blog: Conditional Handover (Rel. 16) Explained
• The 3G4G Blog: UE Radio Capability Signaling Optimization (RACS) in Rel. 16 

Updates from the 3GPP RAN 5G Workshop - Part 1

3GPP held a 5G Workshop in Phoenix last week. 550 delegates and over 70 presentations contributed to the discussion, which covered the full range of requirements that will feed TSG RAN work items for the next five years. I will eventually look at all the presentations and highlight the ones that I find interesting as a part of this blog. Due to the vast number of presentations, I will split them into a few blog posts.

Lets start with the chairman summary. The chair highlighted three high level use cases that 5G needs to address (This has been highlighted in many presentations, see here for example):

• Enhanced Mobile Broadbandare 
• Massive Machine Type Communications
• Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communications

As can be seen in the picture above, 3GPP is planning to split the 5G work into two phases. Phase 1 (Rel-15) will look at a subset of requirements that are important for the commercial needs of the day. Phase 2 (Rel-16) will look at more features, use cases, detailed requirements, etc.

Here is the chair summary of the workshop:

The presentation (RWS-150002) from Motorola/Lenovo highlighted the need to handle different spectrum. For sub-6GHz, the existing air interface could work with slight modifications. For spectrum between 6GHz and 30GHz, again a similar air interface like 4G may be good enough but for above 30GHz, there is a need for new one die to phase noise.

The presentation by CATT or China Academy of Telecommunication Technology (RWS-150003) is quite interesting and is embedded below. They also propose Pattern Division Multiple Access (PDMA).

Orange (RWS-150004) has definitely put a thought into what good 5G would be. Their presentation is embedded below too:

The presentation from Huawei (RWS-150006) introduced the concept of Unified Air Interface, UAI.



They presentation also explains the concept of Adaptive Frame structures and RAN slicing very well. For those who may be wondering, uMTC stands for ultra-reliable MTC and mMTC stands for massive MTC. RAN slicing enables the RAN to be partitioned such that a certain amount of carriers are always dedicated to a certain services independently of other services. This ensures that the service in the slice is always served reliably.

The final presentation is the vision and priorities by 5GPPP as follows:

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)

Have researchers moved on past 5G on to 6G Wireless?

As I am active on multiple social networks including blogs, twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc., Its always tricky to be able to share information from one on to another. Some time back I tweeted about the 6G research that seems to have started according to an article in FT.

While everyone is focusing on 5G, research has already started on 6G :-) http://t.co/FvxJvXaxXS via @FT pic.twitter.com/g50hYqsnrN

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) May 3, 2015

While I had a few retweets and interactions, I realised that its always challenging to search the tweets so I decided to add this in the blog post, always easier to look it up.

So the FT Article states that:

Even as 5G remains a distant prospect for most mobile users, some scientists have already begun to work on plans for 6G services in the future.

To an extent, terms such as 4G and 5G have become as much about marketing equipment as any single technology breakthrough, with incremental improvements to technical specifications often arbitrarily given names such as 3.5G or 4.5G.

But that has not stopped people from thinking about what 6G could look like — and in the UK at least, the prediction is for a “quantum” leap.

Britain has created a “national quantum strategy” to identify areas where advances in technology will have the greatest impact on daily lives in the future. The strategy was developed by the Quantum Technologies Strategic Advisory Board, a government funded agency, which oversees the £270m programme. 

One of the key goals will be the development of faster communications for mobile devices. The advisory board predicts that the market for quantum products and technology has the potential to become a £1bn industry, even if details of how mobile technology can use quantum theory — science at an atomic level — are thin on the ground.

So why did I suddenly think about 6G? Because I have had a few discussions where the research community feel that they should focus on technologies beyond 5G, something that would be a game changer and would change the way we do communications. To be honest, new ways of communications have been found (like LED-Fi / Li-Fi ) but they have not really been ground breaking.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions, add it as comments.

Top 10 posts for 2016

Here are top 10 3G4G blog posts for 2016:

1. 5G New Radio (NR), Architecture options and migration from LTE
   
2. M2M vs IoT
   
3. Antenna evolution: From 4G to 5G
   
4. The Art of Disguising Cellular Antennas
   
5. SDN & NFV lecture
   
6. 3GPP Release-14 & Release-15 update
   
7. End to end and top to bottom network design…
   
8. Possible 5G Network Architecture Evolution
   
9. Does 5G need 'Next Generation' of Internet Protocols?
   
10. How much spectrum would 5G need?

Demystifying and Defining the Metaverse

There is no shortage of Metaverse papers and articles as it is the latest trend in the long list of technologies promising to change the world. Couple of months back I wrote a post about it in the 6G blog here.

TOMORROW: Hear from leading experts in the field about key questions such as how this technology is evolving, how can it be leveraged to augment business and personal environments, and what socio-technical and ethical questions have to be addressed. https://t.co/NggnJPu4eU pic.twitter.com/kfmYiCdomP

— IEEE Standards Assoc (@IEEESA) July 5, 2022

IEEE hosted a Metaverse Congress with the Kickoff Session 'Demystifying and Defining the Metaverse' this month as can be seen in the Tweet above. The video embedded below covers the following talks:

• 0:01:24 - Opening Remarks by Eva Kaili (Vice President, European Parliament)
• 0:09:51 - Keynote - Metaverse Landscape and Outlook by Yu Yuan (President-Elect, IEEE Standards Association)
• 0:29:30 - Keynote - Through the Store Window by Thomas Furness (“Grandfather of Virtual Reality”)
• 0:52:30 - Keynote - XR: The origin of the Metaverse as Water-Human-Computer Interaction (WaterHCI) by Steve Mann (“Father of Wearable Computing”)
• 1:22:17 - Keynote - A Vision of the Metaverse: AI Infused, Physically Accurate Virtual Worlds by Rev Lebaredian (VP of Omniverse & Simulation Technology, NVIDIA)

Some fantastic definitions, explanations, use cases and vision on Metaverse. The final speaker nicely summarised Metaverse as shown in this slide below.

Worth highlighting point 6 that the Metaverse is device independent. I argued about something similar when we try and link everything to 6G (like we linked everything to 5G before). We are just in the beginning phase, a lot of updates and clarifications will come in the next few years before Metaverse starts taking a final shape.

Related Posts: 

• Free 6G Training: What is Metaverse and will it play a big part in 6G?
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G eXtended Reality (5G-XR) in 5G System (5GS)
• The 3G4G Blog: A look at 5G Applications, Application Functions & Application Servers
• Free 6G Training: What is Extended Reality (XR)?
• Free 6G Training: Three Degrees of Freedom (3DoF) vs Six (6DoF) in Extended Reality
• Free 6G Training: One XR Device to Rule Them All!
• Free 6G Training: The 6G devices of 2030 

Attack Surfaces for Different Generations of Mobile Technologies

At DEF CON 31 last year, Tracy Mosley, Vulnerability Researcher at Trenchant presented a talk titled "Nothin’ but a G Thang - The Evolution of Cellular Networks" (background of title). The abstract of the talk says:

In this talk we will walk through each step of cellular evolution, starting at 2G and ending at 5G. The never-ending attack and defend paradigm will be clearly laid out. In order to understand the attack surface, I’ll cover network topology and protocol. For each cellular generation, I will explain known vulnerabilities and some interesting attacks. In response to those vulnerabilities, mitigations for the subsequent cellular generation are put in place. But as we all know, new mitigations mean new opportunities for attackers to get creative. While I will explain most cellular-specific terminology, a familiarity with security concepts will help to better understand this talk. Basic foundations of communications systems, information theory or RF definitely make this talk more enjoyable, but are absolutely not necessary. It’s a dense topic that is highly applicable to those working on anything that touches the cellular network!

The talk is embedded below:

The presentation can be downloaded from here.

Related Posts: 

• The 3G4G Blog: Presentations from ETSI Security Conference 2023
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 New (2022) Security Standards That You Need to Know About!
• The 3G4G Blog: Authentication and Key Management for Applications (AKMA) based on 3GPP credentials in the 5G System (5GS)
• The 3G4G Blog: 5G and Cyber Security
• The 3G4G Blog: Lawful Intelligence and Interception in 5G World with Data and OTT Apps
• 3G4G: Security in 2G, 3G, 4G & 5G Mobile Networks 

AI/ML and Other ICT Industry Trends in the coming decades

At the Brooklyn 6G Summit (B6GS) 2023, top tier economist Dr. Jeff Shen from BlackRock, presented a talk from the industry perspective of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and investment. Jeff Shen, PhD, Managing Director, is Co-CIO and Co-Head of Systematic Active Equity (SAE) at BlackRock. He is a member of the BlackRock Global Operating Committee, BlackRock Systematic (BSYS) Management Committee and the BlackRock Asian Middle Eastern & Allies Network (AMP) Executive Committee.

How are firms reacting to AI? From 'ICT Industry Trends in the coming decades' by Jeff Shen, BlackRock at #B6GS - I am guessing the peak of mobile mention was the peak 5G hype in 2015/16. Hopefully the industry is now much wiser and won't repeat the 6G hype. pic.twitter.com/xjEiDtmSUZ

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) November 5, 2023

In his talk he covered the history of how and where AI has been traditionally used and how the thinking around AI has changed over the last few decades. He then presented his view on if AI is just a fad or it's more than that. To illustrate the fact, he provided an example of how Generative AI market is expected to grow from $40 Billion in 2022 to $1.3 Trillion in 2032. 

There are many challenges that AI faces that one should be aware of; namely regulation, cyber threats and ethical concerns. In the US, AI touches the entire economy, from legal to healthcare. In their quarterly reporting, firms are now discussing AI and the larger tech companies are not afraid to grow inorganically in order to get more exposure to the trend. 

You can watch the whole of his talk embedded below, courtesy of IEEE Tv.

Related Posts: 

• Free 6G Training: 'Impact of 6G on Metaverse' from Brooklyn 6G Summit (B6GS) 2023
• Free 6G Training: Qualcomm Keynote on 'Advancing Wireless Innovations towards 6G — from a Device’s Viewpoint' from B6GS 2023
• Operator Watch Blog: Jio 5G - Enabling India to go Digital
• Operator Watch Blog: UScellular 5G Progress and 6G Plans
• The 3G4G Blog: Presentations from 2nd IEEE Open RAN Summit
• The 3G4G Blog: AI/ML Enhancements in 5G-Advanced for Intelligent Network Automation
• The 3G4G Blog: What Is the Role of AI and ML in the Open RAN and 5G Future? 

Discussion paper on '5G innovation opportunities'

Some of you may already be aware that in my day job, we have produced a discussion paper on '5G Innovation Opportunities'. The paper has two broad aims:

• to compile and create a snap shot of the diverse range of challenges and opportunities involved in developing the next phase of mobile technologies, services and applications, given the umbrella title of '5G', and 
• to identify the UK expertise and opportunities within what will undoubtedly be a global competition and collaboration to shape 5G

I am already in process of detailing the 5G RAN workshop held by 3GPP, you can read part 1 and part 2 of that; this paper complements it by providing more information about prototypes, test beds and trials. It does make an interesting read. The paper is embedded below and is available to download from here.

Top Posts and Videos of 2024

The 3G4G Blog continues to be a favourite among tech enthusiasts, with over 17 years of content. This year, we reached a remarkable milestone: over 3 million views in 2024, pushing our total to nearly 19 million views since Blogger began tracking in July 2010.

As 2024 draws to a close, we're excited to share the Top 10 most-viewed blog posts of the year and the Top 5 most-watched videos on our YouTube channel. It’s worth noting that while these posts and videos garnered significant attention this year, many of them were published earlier. For clarity, we've included the month and year each was posted.

Top 10 Most-Viewed Blog Posts in 2024

• 6G Global - Videos & Presentations from Mobile Korea 2023, Dec 2023
• Mobile Network Architecture: How did we get here & where should we go?, Oct 2023
• Network Slicing using User Equipment Route Selection Policy (URSP), Nov 2021
• Prof. Ted Rappaport Keynote at EuCNC & 6G Summit 2023 on 'Looking Towards the 6G Era - What we may expect, and why', Aug 2023
• Difference between SDU and PDU, Mar 2009
• New 5G NTN Spectrum Bands in FR1 and FR2, May 2023
• Two Types of SMS in 5G, Sep 2020
• Introduction to 5G ATSSS - Access Traffic Steering, Switching and Splitting, Nov 2019
• LTE to 3G Handover Procedure and Signalling, Mar 2011
• What is RF Front-End (RFFE) and why is it so Important?, Jan 2022

Interestingly, none of the blog posts published in 2024 made it into the overall Top 10, despite some being highly popular. To highlight this year's efforts, here are the Top 5 blog posts published in 2024:

Top 5 Blog Posts Published in 2024

• UE Assistance Information in LTE and 5G
• 3GPP Release 18 Description and Summary of Work Items
• Resilient Timing for Critical National Infrastructure
• Disaggregation of 5G Core (5GC) Network
• A Different Approach for Mobile Network Densification

Top 5 Most-Watched Videos on Our YouTube Channel in 2024

• Beginners: Radio Frequency, Band and Spectrum, Jul 2017
• Beginners: What is Industrial IoT (IIoT), Feb.2019
• Beginners: A Quick Introduction to 3GPP, May 2023
• Beginners: Different Types of RAN Architectures - Distributed, Centralized & Cloud, Jul 2021
• Beginners: How does the mobile technology work?, Jun 2020

We’d love to hear from you! Let us know in the comments below which post or video was your favorite—or if there’s a topic you’d like us to cover in 2025. Your feedback helps shape the future of The 3G4G Blog.

Here’s to another year of insightful content—thank you for being a part of our journey!

Related Posts: 

• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Top Blog posts for 2024
• Private Networks Technology Blog: Top 5 Posts for 2024
• Free 6G Training: Top 10 Posts for 2024
• Operator Watch Blog: Top 5 Posts for 2024
• Connectivity Technology Blog: Top 5 Posts for 2024
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 Blog Posts and Top 5 Videos for 2023
• The 3G4G Blog: Top Blog Posts of 2022
• The 3G4G Blog: Top 10 Posts for 2021 and Top 5 Videos 

Edge Computing Tutorial from Transforma Insights

Jim Morrish, Founding Partner of Transforma Insights has kindly made an in-depth Edge Computing Tutorial for our channel. Slides and video is embedded below.

In this tutorial Jim covers the following topics:

• Definitions of Edge Computing.
• How and why Edge Computing is used.
• Planning for deployment of Edge Computing.
• Forecasts for Edge Computing.

Technology Introduction Series: Edge Computing tutorial.pdf from 3G4G

We would love to know if this answers your questions on this topic. If not, please feel free to post your questions below.  

Related Posts: 

• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP Standards on Edge Computing
• The 3G4G Blog: Edge Computing - Industry Vertical Viewpoints
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP Presentations from CEATEC Japan 2021
• The 3G4G Blog: What is Cloud Native and How is it Transforming the Networks?
• The 3G4G Blog - Webinar: Where Edge Meets Cloud by Dean Bubley
• The 3G4G Blog: Can Augmented & Mixed Reality be the Killer App 5G needs?
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: AWS for Public and Private 5G Networks
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Edge Computing and the Future of Small Cell Networks
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: SK Telecom’s 5G MEC Status and Plan
• Telecoms Infrastructure Blog: Operator Cloud Infrastructure and Innovation Strategy
• Free 6G Training - 6G in the sky: On-demand intelligence at the edge of 3D networks
• Operator Watch Blog: How is KT Reducing the Latency of their 5G Network
• Connectivity Technology Blog: C-V2X and 5G for Vehicular Connectivity
• The 3G4G Blog: Are there 50 Billion IoT Devices yet? 

Ultra Reliability: 5x9s (99.999%) in 3GPP Release-15 vs 6x9s (99.9999%) in 3GPP Release-16

We made a tutorial some time back explaining how to calculate reliability and what is the difference between 5x9s in 3GPP Release-15 5G vs 6x9s in 3GPP Release-16. Slides and video below

Beginners: Reliability - 5x9s vs 6x9s from 3G4G

Related posts:

• Updated 5G Terminology Presentation (Feb 2019)
• Prof. Andy Sutton: 5G Radio Access Network Architecture Evolution - Jan 2019
• Theoretical Throughput Calculation of FDD 5G New Radio (NR)
• Can Augmented & Mixed Reality be the Killer App 5G needs?
• What is Industrial IoT (IIoT) and how is it different from IoT?

6G and Other 3GPP Logos

The Project Coordination Group (PCG) of 3GPP recently approved a new logo for use on specifications for 6G, during their 52nd PCG meeting, hosted by ATIS in Reston, Virginia. As with previous logos, surely people in general will use them not just for 3GPP 6G compliant products, but for all kinds of things.

New 6G logo approved - The Project Coordination Group (PCG) of 3GPP has approved a new logo for use on specifications for 6G, during their 52nd PCG meeting this week. Learn more: https://t.co/sh2yvQtc23 via @3GPPLive#Free6Gtraining #6G #5G #B5G #5GAdvanced #3G4G5G pic.twitter.com/2CtUVBGQgd

— Free 6G Training (@6Gtraining) April 24, 2024

Over the years many people have reached out to me to ask for 3GPP logos, even though they are available publicly. All 3GPP logos, from 3G to 6G is available in the Marcoms directory here. In addition to the logo, each directory also lists guidance for use of the logos. For example, 3GPP does not allow the use of the logo as shown on the left in the image on top of the post while the one on the right is okay.

Surely there isn't an issue for general use but for anyone wishing to use the logos for their products, equipment, documentation or books, they will have to strictly comply with the rules.

Related Posts: 

• The 3G4G Blog - Tutorial: A Quick Introduction to 3GPP
• The 3G4G Blog: 3GPP RAN Plenary Update and Evolution towards 5G-Advanced
• The 3G4G Blog: IMT-2020 (5G) Requirements
• The 3G4G Blog: Why is 5G called 5G?
• The 3G4G Blog: LTE and LTE-Advanced Official Logos now available 

Free 5G Training

Many readers of this blog would be aware that I run 5G 'An Advanced Introduction to 5G Technology' training course for Cambridge Wireless at regular intervals. The next one is on 10th March 2020, in Cambridge. In fact I am also running a 'Introduction to Private 4G & 5G Networks' workshop on 4th Feb 2020 in London.

Many people ask me if they I have an online course available. While I haven't, I have quite a few videos on 3G4G YouTube channel and also have a 3G4G training page. People (mainly students or newbies) still ask me what sequence of videos they should go through, etc. So to make everyone's life simple, I created 2 YouTube playlists. Both are embedded below for ease.

Part 1. This is for people who know basic telecommunications theory and don't know much about mobile technology in general




Part 2. This is for people who understand 2G/3G/4G basics and want to learn about 5G.


I will add/remove/update videos when we add new videos on our channel. Feel free to skip videos if you already know a topic. There is quite a lot of other information on the 3G4G YouTube channel if you want to explore more

Where do you go after you have watched these videos? Go to the 3GPP homepage and start looking at specifications, news, etc. You can also start looking at the specifications on 3G4G page here.

Hopefully this is a good starting point.

SEE ALSO: https://www.free5gtraining.com/

Bandwidth Part (BWP) in 5G New Radio (NR)

I made a short tutorial explaining the concept of Bandwidth Part in 5G a while back. Slides and video embedded below.

Intermediate: Bandwidth Parts (BWP) from 3G4G

Further Reading:

• Understanding 5G New Radio Bandwidth Parts - Keysight
• 5G/NR - Carrier Bandwidth Part - ShareTechNote
• 5G NR Bandwidth Part (BWP) - TechPlayOn

5G & Accident Free Driving

ETSI recently held a workshop titled "5G: From Myth to Reality". There were some interesting presentations and discussions, hopefully I will get a chance to write a bit more about it.

One interesting presentation was how 5G will make accident free driving a reality. While the current approach is to use the 802.11p standards that uses the license exempt 5.9GHz band, there is a possibility of enhancements based on 5G

As the final 2 slides say, What could be the use cases for 5G in vehicles? The answer suggested:

• Map update for highly automatic driving - Instantly update the map of vehicle's surrounding. The challenge of this use case is that the vehicle is currently in the tile that needs to be updated, hence a very quick update is required. 
• Precise Positioning high speed, no GPS, support for vehicles without high precision location tracking like cars 
• Audio / Video Streaming (Entertainment) 
• Online Gaming - side jobs 
• Sensor- and State Map Sharing (Sensor Raw Data) - Transmit raw sensor data such that others can use their own classifiers to infer decisions
• Camera and Radar sharing to improve visibility, including See-Through Share sensor information to augment ego vehicle's view. Allows for better visibility in presence of obstructing vehicles, heavy rain / fog, etc. 
• Short-Term Sensor sharing for crash mitigation - Mitigate crash between multiple vehicle by last-minute traffic exchange 
• Traffic forwarding using cars as relays Extend coverage or improve efficiency by using the car as a relay 
• Teleoperated Driving "Let car be controlled by off-site driver / car operator e.g. car sharing, taxi operator, …“ 
• Augemented Reality, e.g. Daytime-Visibility at night)

Here is the complete presentation, let me know what you think: