Private 5G Test at NCL spectrum in Canada
Project Canadalink is expected to run a field test of private 5G under Non-Competitive Local Licensing Framework (NCL) in Southern Ontario area, with more than 12 million people and 11 regions.
Several phases are planned:
Indoor lab test;
Indoor and outdoor lab test;
Outdoor street test;
Outdoor and field test.
I will share the test results phase by phase in the following blogs.
This is 1st blog about indoor lab test.
Context:
According to ISED, the Canadian federal agency, Canada became the latest country in 2023 to make spectrum available for enterprise private wireless networks (see here for the global market). Using a 80 MHz slice of C-band spectrum between 3900 MHz – 3980 MHz, enterprises and service providers will be able to apply for a spectrum license under the Non-Competitive Local Licensing Framework (NCL).
"Licensees are capped at maximum 20 MHz in a license area, which will consequently cap performance. Service providers with more than 100k subscribers will not be able to operate in upper 40 MHz of the band (3940-3980 MHz).
Another concern is the uplink speed, which is widely accepted to be asymmetric in 5G service. The downlink speed is typically multiple times or ten times faster than the uplink speed. However, in Canada, an increasing number of people expect high-speed connectivity comparable to fiber Internet."
According to the ETTelecom report on “‘Asymmetric’ 5G upload and download speeds needing improvement,” as well as the OpenSignal Canadian operator’s “5G experience report,” an uplink speed of less than 30 Mbps is already considered a champion by worldwide standards..
Solution:
Open Radio Station (ORS), designed by Rapid.Space, is used for the test. The N77 band is newly supported for the ORS series in early 2024 at MWC 2024. The solution is feasibly to be made in Canada when the requirement in the market are validated and the scale takes off.
User equipment (UE) in the test is Archos X67 phone. Magic IPerf is used for performance test.
Target:
Data performance test: Uplink up to 60 Mbps and Downlink up to 100 Mbps indoor environment for private 5G at N77 with 20MHz TDD mode.
Results:
Initial Lab Results:
DL (Downlink) speed: 245 Mbps
UL (Uplink) speed: 33 Mbps
After Tuning:
Using a single N77 ORS (Open Radio Station) with low-gain antennae and under 1W power, we’ve achieved impressive results:
UL and DL speeds exceeding 100 Mbps.
It is an amazing result.
A sector antenna with about 10 dBm will be used for next phase of outdoor lab test in June 2024.
Conclusions:
Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is quite popular and practical in the North American market, especially in areas where people live scattered across a wide expanse. FWA contributes to the Internet access market with a growth rate of up to 122% CAGR during the period from 2017 to 2022 [Source: Marketline].
However, there are some challenges. The lack of NCL band solutions in the market may hinder innovation and discourage small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) operators from transitioning away from the previous WBS band. Our test proves ORS works well at N77 for replacement of the legacy system. Moreover, FWA with ORS makes it possible to provide 5G connectivity to underserved neighborhoods where traditional methods have resulted in low-speed or unstable coverage.
Orginal URL:
https://canadalinkspace.blogspot.com/2024/05/private-5g-test-at-ncl-spectrum-in.html