2021 February 17th, Systemics-PAB, a leading provider of independent Quality of Experience benchmarking services for mobile operators and regulators, conducted various testing of 5G networks in Germany, Ireland, UK, Denmark, Spain, Poland, and Australia. Analysis of the data collected shows there are several technical challenges related to the implementation of 5G New Radio and 4G/5G interoperability. Also, it has become more important to know whether the network is capable of meeting customer needs and service availability. Therefore, in parallel with the current international standards, Systemics-PAB has been implementing its own methodology for assessing the readiness of 5G networks to provide 5G services.
Jan Kondej, CTO, Systemics-PAB
“In the recent project in Australia, aimed at verifying 5G networks in Sydney and Melbourne, we observed the first use of carrier aggregation in 5G. Moreover, a larger bandwidth of the 5G radio spectrum was used in a single data test and the resulting data throughputs were really impressive. The fastest data connection our measurement system recorded was 1,431 Mb/s. The pandemic period hasn’t stopped 5G measurement requests among the company’s customers. Looking forward we see 2021 will continue to be a year of rapid 5G expansion. We expect to be testing the first 5G standalone networks in the second half of 2021.”
5G new testing approach
It is required to have a new approach for testing 5G with its service-based architecture and hundreds of use cases. 5G technology drives changes across the entire network including flexible RAN architecture and 3D beamforming as vital components. 5G NR will introduce flexible spectrum usage with scalable numerology, dynamic TDD, massive MIMO, and active beamforming antennas which introduce challenges in the field of network engineering. Thus deploying and supporting 5G’s complexity is not a trivial exercise. 5G NR requires from network operators and equipment vendors to quickly identify any anomalies such as variability in next-generation Node B behaviour, channel power, degraded modulation quality, beamforming performance, and any antenna and cable issues.
With hundreds of use cases and tens of industries already on the 5G radar, the key is to identify those of the highest importance and make a test strategy around it. Top 5G use cases e.g. very high throughput, millisecond latency, massive IoT connections, remote surgery, enhance video services all have different test architecture requirements. A legacy testing approach using in 3G/4G networks has to be optimized to be part of the new 5G approach for testing thereby enabling legacy, inter-RAT, and Inter-System-Handover testing scenarios.
Systemics-PAB’s own methodology for assessing the readiness of 5G networks to provide 5G services
At each stage of network development, it is important to know whether the network is capable of meeting customer needs and service availability. Systemics-PAB has for some time been implementing its own methodology for assessing the readiness of 5G networks to provide 5G services. This methodology is based on measuring quality indicators specific to each of the use cases and then determining to what extent this corresponds to meeting the minimum expectations for a given group of cases. Such an assessment allows answering at what stage of development the operator’s network is. This type of assessment has already been offered to several operators and has met with a positive response.
About Systemics-PAB
Systemics-PAB is a leading provider of independent Quality of Experience benchmarking services for mobile operators and regulators. Our mission is to assist customers to understand and address the variety of issues affecting quality in mobile and fixed telecommunication networks.
We have conducted various benchmarking campaigns of mobile networks in more than 50 countries representing among others Eurasia, Middle East, Africa, and Australia.
Examples of news related to 5G coverage and speed
From Australia:
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Source: 7 News.com.au recorded by Mobizon
From Ireland:
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Source: Irishtimes.com
