Archive for August 2019
You will hear a lot more soon about Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) and its use in expediting 5G network deployments.
Paul Challoner VP of network product solutions for Ericsson North America says that “DSS changes the game by allowing operators to deploy both 4G and 5G in the same block, and dynamically allocate the right amount of spectrum to each based on demand.’ He went on to say “Using the technology can avoid setting aside large chunks of precious LTE spectrum for 5G before it is fully needed, and instead gradually load 5G users onto their LTE bands.”
There is a very good Ericsson video of a lab demonstration of DSS in action in Stockholm which highlights Swisscom’s early and network wide adoption of the technique. Swisscom plans to have full national 5G coverage by 2020 facilitated by using DSS. The video is HERE.
DSS is part of the 3GPP’s Release 15 specifications and it will appear in network software starting late in 2019 compatible handsets won’t become broadly available until the first half of 2020.
Click to see image full size
Australia, unlike many of the other leading 5G countries, has no low band dedicated 5G spectrum see graphic right.
Considering our geographic spread achieving wide 5G coverage will be impractical in the short to medium term with just the 3.6 GHz band spectrum. As such once there are sufficient DSS capable 5G mobiles in the market we expect that, like Swisscom, Australian MNO’s will deploy DSS sharing with low band spectrum to provide comparable coverage to that of LTE.