3GPP Minimization of Drive Test (MDT) Signaling at a Glance

There are growing numbers of UEs that are capable of reporting 3GPP-defined measurements for the purpose of minimization of drive test as defined in 3GPP TS 37.320. Although only a subset of the capable devices have this feature enabled it is worth to have a closer look at the signaling procedures and measurements.

3GPP MDT data can be gathered in two different modes: immediate and logged.

immediate mode – as illustrated in figure 1 - provides measurements for RAN and UE. The UE measurements are derived from RRC measurement reports. The RAN adds the power headroom reported on the MAC layer, and the Received Interference Power (RIP) measured on the physical radio interface layer at the cell`s antenna as well as, reports for the data volume, IP throughput, user plane packet delay, and packet loss measured by the eNodeB.

Figure 1: Immediate 3GPP MDT Measurements*

logged mode – an example is shown in Figure 2 - the UE stores information related to accessibility problems in IDLE mode, failures during RRC establishment, and handover random access as well as radio link failures including connection loss. The MDT events log is sent to the network when it is requested. After connection loss, the MDT logged mode report is sent after the next successful radio connection establishment.

Figure 2: Logged 3GPP MDT Measurements*

The RRC measurement samples and Radio Link Failure (RLF) reports also contain detailed location information for example, on GPS/GNSS coordinates, although the 3GPP Release 9 Technical Report TR 36.805 stated: “The extensive use of positioning component of the UE shall be avoided since it would significantly increase the UE power consumption.”

Although, the encoding of logged mode reports and immediate UE measurements are defined in 3GPP TS 36.331 (RRC), the message formatting of the immediate RAN measurement events follow different proprietary specifications of the network element manufacturers (NEMs).

It is also up to the NEMs which of the M2... M7 immediate reports are implemented and how often such measurements will be generated during an ongoing connection. 

* all parameter values shown in the figures have been chosen randomly for illustrative purpose and do not reflect the situation of a real call or network 

Mobile Network Cell Tower Site Construction

I attended an IET Prestige lecture by Phil Sheppard, Director of Strategy & Architecture at 3UK recently. He showed an interesting video on how a site is constructed. I combined some of his slides and video to show here. The video is as follows




Related Posts:

• What is meant by Infrastructure in a Telecoms Network?
• Mobile Network Infrastructure Sharing in Japan over Electric Power Infrastructure
• Quick tutorial on Mobile Network Sharing Options
• Network Sharing is becoming more relevant with 5G
• Vodafone UK improving coverage with Phone Boxes, Mini-masts & Manhole Covers
• NTT Docomo's Underground LTE Small Cells with possibility to deploy 5G in future

6G: Above 100 GHz and Terahertz (THz) Frequencies

A new research paper  "Wireless Communications and Applications Above 100 GHz: Opportunities and Challenges for 6G and Beyond" by T. S. Rappaport et al. is available on IEEE website here.

With 5G, we are still solving the challenges of millimeter waves (mmWaves) so it is surprising for most people to hear that there is a research going on beyond 100 GHz and in THz frequencies. Quoting from the abstract of the paper:

The paper describes many of the technical challenges and opportunities for wireless communication and sensing applications above 100 GHz, and presents a number of promising discoveries, novel approaches, and recent results that will aid in the development and implementation of the sixth generation (6G) of wireless networks, and beyond. It also shows recent regulatory and standard body rulings that are anticipating wireless products and services above 100 GHz and illustrates the viability of wireless cognition, hyper-accurate position location, sensing, and imaging. The paper also presents approaches and results that show how long distance mobile communications will be supported to above 800 GHz since the antenna gains are able to overcome air-induced attenuation, and present methods that reduce the computational complexity and simplify the signal processing used in adaptive antenna arrays, by exploiting the Special Theory of Relativity to create a cone of silence in over-sampled antenna arrays that improve performance for digital phased array antennas. Also, new results that give insights into power efcient beam steering algorithms, and new propagation and partition loss models above 100 GHz are given, and promising imaging, array processing, and position location results are presented. The implementation of spatial consistency at THz frequencies, an important component of channel modeling that considers minute changes and correlations over space, is also discussed. This paper offers the first in-depth look at the vast applications of THz wireless products and applications and provides approaches for how to reduce power and increase performance across several problem domains, giving early evidence that THz techniques are compelling and available for future wireless communications.


At Brooklyn 5G Summit 2019, NYU Wireless founder and director, Dr. Ted Rappaport, presented a keynote on his vision beyond 5G, looking at both electronics and photonics, considering applications over 100GHz, channel models, and said that he expects brain-comparative data rate transmission wirelessly over the air in future networks. The keynote is embedded as video above.

Another keynote by Gerhard Fettweis from TU Dresden, talks about terahertz starting off with a look back at the history of mobile network generations up to 5G and looking ahead to 6G. Anticipating the tactile internet revolution to come, he considers the technicalities such as spectrum, channels, efficiency and adaptability needed to achieve the expected level of computing. That keynote can be viewed here.

Related Posts and articles:

• Terahertz and Beyond 100 GHz progress
• New Tutorial on 5G Spectrum
• Keynote: Gerhard Fettweis - Terahertz Communication - B5GS 2019
• After 5G, where do we go? - Steve Taranovich, Planet Analog

5G SpeedTests and Theoretical Max Speeds Calculations

Right now, Speed Tests are being described as 5G killer apps.

SpeedTests are the 5G killer app right now 😂. Thread 👇 https://t.co/jjyk0PheT6

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) July 2, 2019

A good point by Benedict Evans

What was the killer app for 3G? The internet. What’s the killer app for 5G? More internet, mostly.

— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) January 18, 2019

Everyone is excited and want to see how fast 5G networks can go. If you use Twitter, you will notice loads and loads of speed tests being done on 5G. An example can be seen above.

I recently heard Phil Sheppard, Director of Strategy & Architecture, '3 UK' speak about their 5G launch that is coming up soon. Phil clearly mentioned that because they have a lot more spectrum (see Operator Watch blog post here and here) in Capacity Layer, their 5G network would be faster than the other UK operators. He also provided rough real world Peak Speeds for Three and other operators as can be seen above. Of course the real world speeds greatly depend on what else is going on in the network and in the cell so this is just a guideline rather than actual advertised speeds.

I have explained multiple times that all 5G networks being rolled out today are Non-Stand Alone (NSA) 5G networks. If you don't know what SA and NSA 5G networks are, check this out. As you can see, the 5G NSA networks are actually 4G Carrier Aggregated Networks + 5G Carrier Aggregated Networks. Not all 4G spectrum will be usable in 5G networks but let's assume it is.

To calculate the theoretical maximum speed of 5G NSA networks, we can calculate the theoretical maximum 4G Network speeds + theoretical maximum 5G Network speeds.

I have looked at theoretical calculation of max LTE Carrier Aggregated Speeds here. Won't do calculation here but assuming 3CA for any network is quite possible.

I also looked at theoretical calculation of 5G FDD New Radio here but then found a website that helps with 5G NR calculation here.

If we calculate just the 5G part, looking at the picture from Three, we can see that they list BT/EE & O2 speeds as 0.61 Gbps or 610 Mbps, just for the 5G part.

Looking at the calculation, if we Input Theoretical max values in this equation:

Calculating just for DL

J - number of aggregated component carriers,
maximum number (3GPP 38.802): 16
input value: 1

v(j)Layers - maximum number of MIMO layers ,
3GPP 38.802: maximum 8 in DL, maximum 4 in UL
input value: 8

Q(j)m modulation order (3GPP 38.804)
For UL and DL Q(j)m is same (QPSK-2, 16QAM-4, 64QAM-6, 256QAM-8)
input value: 8 (256QAM)

f(j) Scaling factor (3GPP 38.306)
input value: 1

FR(j) Frequency Range 3GPP 38.104:
FR1 (450 MHz – 6000 MHz) и FR2 (24250 MHz – 52600 MHz)
input value: FR1

µ(j) -value of carrier configuration (3GPP 38.211)
For DL and UL µ(j) is same (µ(0)=15kHz, µ(1)=30kHz, µ(2)=60kHz, µ(3)=120kHz)
input value: 0 (15kHz)

BW(j)- band Bandwidth, MHz (3GPP 38.104),
should be selected with Frequency Range and µ(i) configuration:
input value: BW:40MHz FR1 µ:15kHz:

Enter a PRB value (if other)
default: 0

Rmax (if you don't know what is it, don't change)
Value depends on the type of coding from 3GPP 38.212
(For LDPC code maximum number is 948/1024 = 0.92578125)
default: 0.92578125

*** Only for TDD ***
Part of the Slots allocated for DL in TDD mode,
where 1 = 100% of Slots (3GPP 38.213, taking into account Flexible slots).
Calculated as: the number of time Slots for DL divided by 14
default value: 0.857142

Part of the Slots allocated for UL in TDD mode,
where 1 = 100% of Slots (3GPP 38.213, taking into account Flexible slots).
Calculated as: 1 minus number of Slots for DL
default value: 0.14285800000000004

Calculated 5G NR Throughput, Mbps: 1584


As you may have noticed, BTE/EE has 40 MHz spectrum while Vodafone in UK have 50 MHz of spectrum.

Changing
BW(j)- band Bandwidth, MHz (3GPP 38.104),
should be selected with Frequency Range and µ(i) configuration:
input value: BW:50MHz FR1 µ:15kHz:

Calculated 5G NR Throughput, Mbps: 1982

Now Three UK has 100 MHz, immediately available for use. So changing

µ(j) -value of carrier configuration (3GPP 38.211)
For DL and UL µ(j) is same (µ(0)=15kHz, µ(1)=30kHz, µ(2)=60kHz, µ(3)=120kHz)
input value: 1 (30kHz)

BW(j)- band Bandwidth, MHz (3GPP 38.104),
should be selected with Frequency Range and µ(i) configuration:
BW:100MHz FR1 µ:30kHz:


Calculated 5G NR Throughput, Mbps: 4006

In theory, a lot of speed is possible with the 100 MHz bandwidth that Three will be able to use. We will have to wait and see who can do a theoretical max SpeedTest. In the meantime remember that a 1Gbps speed test will use over 1 GB of data.



Related Posts:

• Tutorial on 5G Spectrum
• Theoretical Throughput Calculation of FDD 5G New Radio (NR)
• Theoretical calculation of EE's announcement for 429Mbps throughput

5G and Electromagnetic energy (EME)

Every time a new generation of mobile technology is being rolled out, there are scare stories about the radiation, cancer, etc. I last wrote a post on this topic back in 2011 and also in 2009. The main thing that has changed since is that 5G is being rolled out today as 4G was being rolled out then.

The Australian operator Telstra recently completed extensive testing of their 5G network infrastructure in real-world settings using commercially available 5G devices, and their data confirms two things. Firstly, the 5G technology produces electromagnetic energy (EME) levels at around 1000 times below the safety limits in many cases. Secondly, all the testing has found 5G EME levels to be similar to 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi. You can read the details and complete report here.

Last month I went to a seminar titled 'Update on Current Knowledge of RF Safety', organised by CW Radio Technology Group and National Register of RF Workers. Richard Hargrave from BT explained the challenge with compliance when a 5G carrier is added.

The implications as he said are:

• Some sites in urban areas become increasingly difficult to provide required capacity while maintaining compliance using standard designs
• Significant time and cost can be associated with works necessary to ensure compliance – new planning permissions, physical structures, new site acquisition etc
• As 5G is deployed further, particularly as additional spectrum is auctioned in 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz bands these problems will be exacerbated

His presentation is available here. Another presentation from Moray Rumney, asking some tough question on 5G safety is available here. Simon Rockman has written a summary of this seminar on Forbes, here.

I heard the Swiss operator Sunrise mentioning in a presentation at 5G World 2019 that the EMF limit in Switzerland is 10 times stricter than the rest of the world. This implies that 5G in Switzerland is extremely safe. The slide from the presentation can be seen in the pic above.

We also have couple of related videos on this topic, maybe of interest:

• Non millimeter Wave (mmWave) 5G
• 5G Spectrum - Short Version
• 5G Spectrum - Long Version

Further Reading:

• Electromagnetic energy (EME) - Telstra Consumer Advice
• 5 surveys of 5G show EME levels well below safety limits - Telstra
• Is 5G Dangerous? - Simon Rockman, Forbes
• 5G Dangers: Myth or Science? - Apis Training
• 5G health risks: What's the evidence? - BBC

3GPP 5G Standardization Update post RAN#84 (July 2019)

3GPP recently conducted a webinar with Balazs Bertenyi, Chairman of 3GPP RAN in which he goes through some of the key features for 5G Phase 2. The webinar also goes through the details of 5G Release-15 completion, status of Release-16 and a preview of some of Release-17 features.

Slides & video embedded below. Slides can be downloaded from 3GPP website here.

3GPP Webinar: 5G Standardization update from 3G4G

Related Posts:

• The 3G4G Blog - New 3GPP Release-17 Study Item on NR-Lite
• 3GPP Release-16, Release-17 & Beyond...
• Non-public networks (NPN) - Private Networks by another name
• Evolution of Security from 4G to 5G
• Update from 3GPP on LTE & 5G Mission Critical Communications
• Updated 5G Terminology Presentation (Feb 2019)

Study of Use cases and Communications Involving IoT devices in Emergency Solutions

Came across this presentation by Michelle Wetterwald, IoT & Emergency services Working group, ETSI EMTEL from EENA (European Emergency Number Association. Thanks to Ken Rehbehn's tweet for making me aware of this. The presentation and the relevant part of video is embedded below.

EENA2019: Track2 session4 _Study of use cases and communications involving IoT devices in emergency solutions_Michelle Wetterwald from EENA (European Emergency Number Association)

Related Posts:

• 3GPP Release-16, Release-17 & Beyond...
• Update on UK's Emergency Services Network (ESN) from #BAPCO2019

What is meant by Infrastructure in a Telecoms Network?

Here is our new tutorial explaining what is meant by Infrastructure in Telecoms Network. Slides and Video embedded below.

Beginners: What is Infrastructure? from 3G4G

Related Posts:

• Mobile Network Cell Tower Site Construction
• Mobile Network Infrastructure Sharing in Japan over Electric Power Infrastructure
• Quick tutorial on Mobile Network Sharing Options
• Network Sharing is becoming more relevant with 5G
• Vodafone UK improving coverage with Phone Boxes, Mini-masts & Manhole Covers
• NTT Docomo's Underground LTE Small Cells with possibility to deploy 5G in future

Presentations from ETSI Security Week 2019 (#ETSISecurityWeek)

ETSI held their annual Security Week Seminar 17-21 June at their HQ in Sophia Antipolis, France. All the presentations are available here. Here are some I think the audience of this blog will like:

• ETSI Explainer: Overview of Quantum-Safe VPN Techniques
• ETSI Explainer: OneM2M security and Access Control (Rel.3)
• Toward a Safe Quantum Future - Michele Mosca, University of Waterloo
• Cybersecurity Challenges to Europe: Research, Policy and Standardization Effort - Fabio Di Franco, ETSI Cyber Security Landscape
• GSMA: Mobile Telecommunications Security Threat Landscape
• Hacked by Crypto - Bret Jordan, Symantec (Some good details regarding TLS, DNS, ESNI, QUIC, etc.)
• The Automotive Cyber-Threat: What the Future Will Bring Us? - Alain Baritault, iotaBEAM
• What is the Cyber Territory of a Country? - Silke Holtmanns, Nokia Bell Labs
• EU Cybersecurity Act - Martin Schaffer, SGS
• The Impact of ePrivacy Regulation to Cyber-Intelligence: Options to Consider - Ilias Chantzos, Symantec
• Applying AI to Protect 5G Control Traffic - Antonio Pastor, Telefonica I+D
• Applying AI to Detect and Hunt Advanced Attackers - Matt Walmsley, Vectra
• “Real World Adoption of AI in the Field” - Patrick Donegan, HardenStance
• 5G Providing the Secure Platform for Digitalization of Enterprises and Society - Mats Nilsson, Ericsson
• 3GPP 5G Security Vendor’s View - Marcus Wong, Futurewei Technologies (Huawei)
• 5G Security Challenges for Verticals - a Standards View - Ali Rezaki & Anja Jerichow, Nokia Bell Labs
• 5G and other stories: evolving security in an evolving world
• Challenges in Securing the IoT in a Post-Quantum World - Louis Parks, SecureRF
• SIMs, eSIMs and Secure Elements - Remy Cricco, SIMalliance
• Integrated SIMs: The next after Embedded SIM - Dr. Stephan Spitz, IAR Systems
• Deception for Continued Technical Assurance, Alex Tarter, Thales 

New abbreviation for private 5G networks - Non-Public Network (NPN) and security benefits to connected industries and automation cc @3g4gUK #EtsiSecurityWeek pic.twitter.com/Zias9e4XQ6

— Ravishankar Borgaonk (@raviborgaonkar) June 20, 2019

Looks like all presentations were not shared but the ones shared have lots of useful information.


Related Posts:

• Non-public networks (NPN) - Private Networks by another name
• 5G and IoT Security Update from ETSI Security Week 2018
• 5G Security Updates - July 2017
• Telcos: Security Is Not In Your DNA - Patrick Donegan, Principal Analyst, HardenStance

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.

3GPP Release-16, Release-17 & Beyond...

6G Summit featured quite a few talks from people looking at evolution beyond Release-16. The future releases will still be 5G, maybe become 5.5G, like 3GPP Release-13 which was known as LTE-Advanced Pro officially was unofficially known as 4.5G.

Back at the 6G Summit in Finland, Dr. Peiying Zhu from Huawei looked at the topics being discussed for Release-17 and beyond.

Thanks to Mika Klemettinen for sharing the pictures on Twitter, as the presentation was not shared.

3GPP is working towards defining Release-16. TS 21.916 - Release description; Release 16 is still not yet available on the 3GPP reflector. Once that is available, we will know for sure about all the Rel-16 changes. Release-17 is long way away. Having said that, there is no shortage of discussions as some of these Rel-17 features were discussed in the recent RAN Plenary.

Jungwon Lee, VP, Samsung also shared a summary of 3GPP Release-16 and Rel-17 features at IEEE 5G Summit in San Diego recently. Quite a few interesting features in all the pictures above that we will no doubt look at in the future posts.

3GPP also shared a presentation recently (embedded below), looking at not only Release-15 & 16 but also looking at focus areas for Release-17

5G Standards: 3GPP Release 15, 16, and beyond from 3G4G

Related Posts and Articles:

• The 3G4G Blog - Ultra Reliability: 5x9s (99.999%) in 3GPP Release-15 vs 6x9s (99.9999%) in 3GPP Release-16
• The 3G4G Blog - Update from 3GPP on LTE & 5G Mission Critical Communications
• 3GPP - Release 16
• Light Reading - 5G Standards Group Struggles to Balance Tech With Politics
• Eiko Seidel - 5G Mission Critical Networks (Proximity Services in Rel.17)
• The 3G4G Blog - Slides and Videos from the 1st 6G Wireless Summit - March 2019
• The 3G4G Blog - Couple of talks by NTT Docomo on 5G and Beyond (pre-6G)
• The 3G4G Blog - China Telecom: An examination of the current industrial trends and an outlook of 6G
• Mission Critical Communications: Mission-Critical Features for Release 17 Discussed at Latest 3GPP Meetings

New Tutorial on 5G Spectrum

We made a new tutorial on 5G spectrum. It's in 2 different formats. Short version (~13 mins) or Long version (~31 mins). Instead of embedding the slides/videos here, I am providing links to the 5G section on 3G4G page below.

Short Version (~13 mins) - click here

Long Version (~31 mins) - click here


Related posts:

• Examples of 5G Use Cases & Applications
• Bandwidth Part (BWP) in 5G New Radio (NR)
• When will 2G & 3G be switched off now that 5G is here?
• Couple of talks by NTT Docomo on 5G and Beyond (pre-6G)
• Slides and Videos from the 1st 6G Wireless Summit - March 2019
• Slides from Parallel Wireless Webinar: 5G at #MWC19

Couple of talks by NTT Docomo on 5G and Beyond (pre-6G)

The Japanese operator, NTT Docomo is a very bold MNO. Not only do they do interesting research but they are very open about what they have been doing and share it publicly. For example, last month they announced development of a safe, blade-free drone propelled by Ultrasonic Vibrations (tweet). This was just amazing as it has a potential to use drones in many new areas where the conventional drones are deemed too dangerous. This is why I was very pleased to see couple of talks by Docomo available online.

The first one is by Takehiro Nakamura, SVP and General Manager of the 5G Laboratories in NTT DOCOMO, Inc. at the 6G Summit in Finland. Slides available here. Video embedded below




The next one is by Seizo Onoe, Chief Technology Architect, NTT DOCOMO, INC. and President, DOCOMO Technology, Inc. from Brooklyn 5G Summit. Unfortunately the slides are not shared but the video is worth a watch below.

3G4G Small Cells Blog: NTT Docomo's Underground LTE Small Cells with possibility to deploy 5G in future - https://t.co/9Ud6FyqcFz #SmallCells pic.twitter.com/GOlpih2RmY

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) April 14, 2018

Related Posts:

• NTT Docomo's Green Base Stations
• Nice short articles on 5G in 25th Anniversary Special NTT Docomo Technical Journal
• Terahertz and Beyond 100 GHz progress
• 100 Gbps wireless transmission using Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) multiplexing
• Examples of 5G Use Cases & Applications
• Telus says 5G is just another 'G' (#5GJAG)
• Sprint Keynote from #B5GS 2019 - Power of Massive MIMO and Band 41 5G NR
• China Telecom: An examination of the current industrial trends and an outlook of 6G

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

Presentations on Macro Cells and Millimetre-wave Technology from recent CW (Cambridge Wireless) events

CW (Cambridge Wireless) held a couple of very interesting events from 2 very popular groups.

The first one was on "5G wide area coverage: macro cells – the why and the how". This event looked at the design and optimisation of the macro cell layer and its role within future heterogeneous networks. You can access the presentations for limited time on CW website here.

The presentations available are:

• Macro Cell developments that support LTE evolution and 5G deployments by Colin Bryce, Commscope
• Review of current macro network site types and design by Andy Sutton, British Telecommunications
• Smart rollout to maximise ROI by Mike Page, Radio Design
• Strategic planning: an overview of the role of the macro cell by Iris Barcia, Keima
• How massive MIMO can deliver the promise of new 5G Radio Networks by George Grayland, 5GFutures

Related posts that may be of interest:

• Keima: Automated 4G / 5G HetNet Design
• Prof. Andy Sutton: 5G Radio Access Network Architecture Evolution - Jan 2019
• #CWHeritage Talk: The history of synchronisation in digital cellular networks

Commercialising millimetre-wave technology - Presentations from @cambwireless #CWRadioTech event last week available now: https://t.co/PJbrBiJ8UR #4G #5G #Spectrum #Frequencies pic.twitter.com/6naiUSK1qw

— 3G4G (@3g4gUK) May 21, 2019

The second one was on "Commercialising millimetre-wave technology". The event reviewed the commercial opportunities at millimetre-wave frequencies, what bands are available and what licensing is needed. You can access the presentations on CW website for limited time here.

The presentations available are:

• ‘Measurements, Modelling and Testing Millimetre Wave Communication Systems’ by Mark Beach, University of Bristol (Communication Systems & Networks Research Group)
• The Design of a Plastic Packaged Front-end IC for mmWave 5G by Liam Devlin, Plextek RFI
• Design Considerations for the Realisation of Cost-Effective, High-Performance mmWave PCBs by James Henderson, Plextek
• Millimetre wave wireless for improved wireless connectivity in Transport by Mark Barrett, Blu Wireless Technology
• Unlicensed, unlimited: 60GHz mmWave’ by Paul Morris, CCS
• Millimetre-Wave Circuit Simulation Challenges’ by David Morris, Keysight Technologies
• Use Cases & Enabling 5G NR Technologies by Mark Beach, University of Bristol (Communication Systems & Networks Research Group)
• Whitepaper by Paul Holes, Anritsu

We recently made a video to educate people outside our industry about non-mmWave 5G. It's embedded below.

VoLTE Hacking

The 10th Annual HITB Security Conference took place from the 6th till the 10th of May 2019 in The Netherlands. The theme for the conference this year is 'The Hacks of Future Past'. One of the presentations was on the topic 'VoLTE Phreaking' by Ralph Moonen, Technical Director at Secura.

The talk covered variety of topics:

• A little history of telephony hacking (in NL/EU)
• The landscape now
• Intercepting communications in 2019
• Vulnerabilities discovered: some new, some old
• An app to monitor traffic on a phone

The talk provides details on how VoLTE can potentially be hacked. In a lot of instances it is some or the other misconfigurations that makes VoLTE less secure. One of the slides that caught my attention was the differences in VoLTE signaling from different operators (probably due to different vendors) as shown above.

Anyway, I am not going into more details here. The presentation is available here.

Another interesting talk from #HITB2019AMS:
"VoLTE Phreaking"https://t.co/KSMLen6Yb6 [PDF] pic.twitter.com/KakJMGCcVk

— Enno Rey (@Enno_Insinuator) May 9, 2019

The thread in the Tweet above also provided some good references on VoLTE hacking. They are as follows:

• ERNW: Security Analysis of VoLTE, Part 1
• ERNW: Denial of Service attacks on VoLTE
• ERNW: VoLTE Security Analysis, part 2
• ERNW: IMSecure – Attacking VoLTE (and other Stuff)
• ERNW White Paper: Practical Attacks on VoLTE and VoWiFi

Related Posts:

• 3G4G: Voice in 4G: CSFB, VoIP & VoLTE

When will 2G & 3G be switched off now that 5G is here?

I wrote this blog post '2G / 3G Switch Off: A Tale of Two Worlds' back in Oct 2017. Since then I have continued to see the same trend in 2G/3G shutdown announcements. Based on that post and also taking the GSMA Mobile Economy Report into account, we have created a short tutorial on 2G/3G switch off and how the trends are affected by the launch of KaiOS based Smart Feature phones. Presentation and video embedded below. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Beginners: When will 2G & 3G be switched off now that 5G is here? from 3G4G

Related posts:

• Operator Watch Blog: Swisscom launched 5G Fast and 5G Wide
• The 3G4G Blog: 2G / 3G Switch Off: A Tale of Two Worlds
• The 3G4G Blog: Can KaiOS accelerate the transition from 2G / 3G to 4G?

China Telecom: An examination of the current industrial trends and an outlook of 6G

Last month I posted about the slides and videos from 6G Wireless Summit. Some of the videos were added later on. The presentation by Dr. Qi Bi, President of China Telecom Technology Innovation Center and the CTO of China Telecom Research Institute, was not shared but the video of the talk is available and it is quite insightful.

Of the many gems from the talk, I wanted to highlight couple of things. One was the ARPU, that Dr. Bi pointed out has remained the same, regardless of the technology. The other being 5G performance targets, some can be achieved, some are achievable at a price and some are just not achievable. This should be taken into account while designing 6G.


Let me know what you think

Related posts:

• Slides and Videos from the 1st 6G Wireless Summit - March 2019

Examples of 5G Use Cases & Applications

I recently did another 5G training for CW (Cambridge Wireless) & UK5G. One of the sections in that was about Use Cases. A very common questions that people ask is what can 5G do that 4G can't. The answer frankly is sometimes not very straightforward.

#5G teacher extraordinaire @zahidtg from @Parallel_tw is back in action today with his popular #CWTechTrain "An Advanced Introduction to 5G". Spaces are still available for CW's next training day on #IoT (29 May) - find out more here: https://t.co/FBMECW88ge pic.twitter.com/DtMqttefg1

— Cambridge Wireless (@cambwireless) May 2, 2019

While you can get a very high speed and very reasonable latency 4G system, it's not necessarily a commonplace. Similarly 5G is a bit over-hyped. There is a lot of potential in the technology but the theory may not translate into practice. Take for example millimeter wave. There is a large amount of bandwidth that can be available to each operator in this spectrum. The laws of physics however restrict how far mmWave can travel and also the fact that mmWave does not penetrate through glass, walls, etc. Does that mean that an indoor 5G system would be required to complement an outdoor one? Would Wi-Fi be able to complement cellular in-building? There are many unanswered questions at the moment.

There is also the debate around 5G icon displayed on your smartphones. When you see 5G, would it really be 5G or just re-branded 4G? Light Reading has explained this issue nicely here.

So while there are many potential applications & use cases that will benefit from 5G in the long run, the answers are not that easily available today. Anyhow, the collection of videos and slides embedded below will provide you with an insight on how different vendors and operators are looking at potentially using 5G.

Miscellaneous: 5G Uses Cases - April 2019 from 3G4G

The latest version of these slides are available to download from UK5G website here.

Non-public networks (NPN) - Private Networks by another name

3GPP TS 22.261, Service requirements for the 5G system; Stage 1 gives a definition of non-public network which is simply defined as 'a network that is intended for non-public use'. Section 6.25 provides more info

Non-public networks are intended for the sole use of a private entity such as an enterprise, and may be deployed in a variety of configurations, utilising both virtual and physical elements. Specifically, they may be deployed as completely standalone networks, they may be hosted by a PLMN, or they may be offered as a slice of a PLMN.

In any of these deployment options, it is expected that unauthorised UEs, those that are not associated with the enterprise, will not attempt to access the non-public network, which could result in resources being used to reject that UE and thereby not be available for the UEs of the enterprise. It is also expected that UEs of the enterprise will not attempt to access a network they are not authorised to access. For example, some enterprise UEs may be restricted to only access the non-public network of the enterprise, even if PLMN coverage is available in the same geographic area. Other enterprise UEs may be able to access both a non-public network and a PLMN where specifically allowed.

The requirements section is interesting too:

• The 5G system shall support non-public networks.
• The 5G system shall support non-public networks that provide coverage within a specific geographic area.
• The 5G system shall support both physical and virtual non-public networks. 
• The 5G system shall support standalone operation of a non-public network, i.e. a non-public network may be able to operate without dependency on a PLMN.
• Subject to an agreement between the operators and service providers, operator policies and the regional or national regulatory requirements, the 5G system shall support for non-public network subscribers:
• access to subscribed PLMN services via the non-public network;
• seamless service continuity for subscribed PLMN services between a non-public network and a PLMN;
• access to selected non-public network services via a PLMN;
• seamless service continuity for non-public network services between a non-public network and a PLMN.
• A non-public network subscriber to access a PLMN service shall have a service subscription using 3GPP identifiers and credentials provided or accepted by a PLMN.
• The 5G system shall support a mechanism for a UE to identify and select a non-public network.
• NOTE: Different network selection mechanisms may be used for physical vs virtual non-public networks.
• The 5G system shall support identifiers for a large number of non-public networks to minimize collision likelihood between assigned identifiers.
• The 5G system shall support a mechanism to prevent a UE with a subscription to a non-public network from automatically selecting and attaching to a PLMN or non-public network it is not authorised to select.
• The 5G system shall support a mechanism to prevent a UE with a subscription to a PLMN from automatically selecting and attaching to a non-public network it is not authorised to select. 
• The 5G system shall support a change of host of a non-public network from one PLMN to another PLMN without changing the network selection information stored in the UEs of the non-public network.

I think it's like M2M (Machine-to-Machine) that is used commonly by the industry but the term used in 3GPP standards are MTC (Machine Type Communications)

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) May 6, 2019

5G ACIA (5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation), a Working Party of ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association) published a White Paper on '5G Non-Public Networks for Industrial Scenarios'.

This paper describes four industrial (IIoT) deployment scenarios for 3GPP-defined 5G non-public networks. The paper also considers key aspects, in particular service attributes that can help to highlight the differences between these scenarios. In contrast to a network that offers mobile network services to the general public, a 5G non-public network (NPN, also sometimes called a private network) provides 5G network services to a clearly defined user organisation or group of organisations.

The PDF of the white paper is available here.

Webinar: Where Edge Meets Cloud by Dean Bubley

Dean Bubley, Outspoken Telecoms & Mobile Industry Analyst, Consultant & Chair/Speaker on Networks, Wireless, Internet, AI & Futurism (as stated in his LinkedIn profile), recently did a webinar on Edge computing for Apis Training. The video recording is available online and embedded below.

Couple of things worth highlighting (but do listen to the webinar, it's got lots of interesting stuff) is as shown in the picture above and below. One of the benefits of Edge is Low latency. If that is the driver then you need to know where your Edge should be because latency will be affected based on the location. Another important point worth remembering is how many Edge-compute facilities can you afford. Latency & the number of facilities are linked to each other so worth thinking about in the beginning as it may not be straightforward to change later.

Anyway, here is the recording of the webinar.



Related post:

• Can Augmented & Mixed Reality be the Killer App 5G needs?

Evolution of Security from 4G to 5G

Dr. Anand Prasad, who is well known in the industry, not just as CISO of Rakuten Mobile Networks but also as the Chairman of 3GPP SA3, the mobile communications security and privacy group, recently delivered a talk on '4G to 5G Evolution: In-Depth Security Perspective'.

3GPP 5G Security via @3GPPLive - https://t.co/1r6xrpg1y0 #NewRadio #NR #NSA pic.twitter.com/AzRSB6347V

— Zahid Ghadialy (@zahidtg) August 9, 2018

The video of the talk is embedded below and the slides are available here.



An article on similar topic by Anand Prasad, et al. is also available on 3GPP website here.


Related posts and articles:

• The 3G4G Blog: Everything you need to know about 5G Security
• Security in Mobile Cellular Systems - 3G4G
• A Security Architecture for 5G Networks - IEEE Access
• Security Aspects of Network Capabilities Exposure in 5G - NGMN
• New security challenges in IMS networks - Orange
• 5G and IoT Security Update from ETSI Security Week 2018 - The 3G4G Blog
• 5G Security Updates - March 2018 - The 3G4G Blog
• Introduction to 3GPP Security in Mobile Cellular Networks - The 3G4G Blog