5G Architecture, Topology,

Implementation and Configuration

By Rodrigue BAHOKEN
03-04-2024
The Need for 5G
Programmable world

Programmable things 3
The programmable world
improves people's lives through Connected things
automation, enhanced 2
connectivity and intelligence. It
Many things
also helps industries to become 1
more efficient, agile and real-time.

Fixed internet with 1 bn places Mobile internet with 5 bn people Programmable World with 50 bn things
connected by 2005 connected by 2020 connected by 2025
Internet of Things

Pre-internet Internet of Internet of Internet of Internet of

era CONTENT SERVICES PEOPLE THINGS

WW WEB
H2H
W
SOCIAL M2M
2.0
5G potential use cases
Usage scenarios of IMT for 2020 and beyond

3 usage scenarios defined by Enhanced Mobile Broadband

ITU-R:
The usage will be more focusing on: Gigabytes in a second

• enhancing the Mobile Broadband 3D video, UHD screens

(Enhanced MBB)
Work and play in the cloud
Smart Home/Building
• massive machine type
Augmented reality
communications
Industry automation
• ultra reliable and low latency
communications. Voice Mission critical application,
e.g. e-health
Smart City Self Driving Car
Future IMT

Source: Rec. ITU-R M.[IMT.VISION Massive Machine Type Ultra - reliable and Low Latency
Communications Communications
5G Performance Requirements
From IMT Advanced to
IMT 2020 (1/2)
ITU-R Recommendation M.2083:
8 key capabilities are identified, at high level,
for IMT-2020.

The potential target requirements in this

spider chart are only targets for research and
investigation and subject to further research.

Source: Rec. ITU-R M.[IMT.VISION]

3GPP defined requirements

3GPP Potential target requirement

3GPP technical requirements Data rates DL 20 Gbps, UL 10 Gbps

in the TR 38.913: Peak spectral efficiency DL 30 bps/Hz, UL 15 bps/Hz

User:
Source: ▪0.5ms for UL, and 0.5ms for DL (URLLC)
Latency ▪User: 4ms for UL, and 4ms for DL (eMBB)
TR 38.913 on “Study Item on
Scenarios and Requirements for Next Control: 10 ms
Generation Access Technologies”
January, 2016 Reliability 10-5 = 99.999%
Network virtualization New open interfaces
Connection density 1M/km2
Mobility 500 km/h
Coverage 164 dB
LTE interworking Dual connectivity
 LTE Gap to 5G requirements

5G requirements LTE in practice (R12) • Network capabilities of 3GPP

Release-12 fall short of the 3GPP
User experienced data rate [100 Mbps] No Fundamental gap
requirements in a number of areas
Peak data rate DL 20 Gbps, UL 10 Gbps DL 1 Gbps, UL 0.5 Gbps •…BUT, LTE evolution in Rel-13/14
Spectral efficiency DL 30, UL 15 bps/Hz DL 6.1 , UL 4.3 bps/Hz will reduce the gap

User 0.5 ms (URLLC), 4ms • The gap seems to be bigger in

Latency User 10 ms, control 50 ms
(eMBB), control 10 ms TDD side (compared to FDD)
Reliability 10-5 = 99.999% Not specified
• Latency and UL peak data rate
Connection density 1M/km2 Not specified represent areas with TDD-specific
Area traffic capacity Based on deployment scenario Not specified gap

Energy efficiency 50-100 x IMT-A Not specified

Mobility (speed) 500 km/h 350 km/h

Latency

Client Network Server

Sub-1 millisecond over-the-air latency
? ms max. ? ms ? ms
processing transmission processing

From action to response

? ms max. ? ms ? ms
decoding transmission encoding

(Low power) Wide area Crowd Ultra-dense Outdoor

A trillion of devices with different needs GB transferred in an instant Mission-critical wireless control and automation
IoT
Latency

Round trip time in fiber Round trip time in fiber Latency

Latency 150 ms
10 10
150 ms 100 ms
1
60 ms
ms 100 ms
0,1
1 60 ms 20 ms
0,01 15 ms 10 ms
1000 km 100 km 10 km <1 ms
ms

• 100 km in direct fiber corresponds to 1 ms GSM UMTS HSPA HSPA+ LTE LTE
adv
5G

• 10 km corresponds 0,1to 0.1 20 ms

15 ms 10 ms
<1 ms

The content should preferably be close to the radio (within a few 10 km) to get full benefit
0,01
from the 1-ms round
GSM trip time in
1000 the
UMTS km radio HSPA+
HSPA 100 km
LTE LTE 10 km 5G
adv
Time line for 5G standards and roll-
out
Key milestones for 5G research and developments

› ITU-R embarked on › 5G PPP projects started › 3GPP 5G work in full › WRC19 outcome clear
a programme to progress with new bands for IMT
› Positive outcome at
develop “IMT-2020 WRC2015 › IMT2020 evaluation › 5G phase 2 specs ready
› co-funding of METIS process in ITU-R
› 3GPP standardization › ITU-R process nearing
kicked off for 5G › Industry agrees on 5G completion
NR acceleration
› Approved option 3
NSA EARLY DROP
2012 1st Brooklyn 2015 5G System 2017 Early drop 2019 Phase 1
5G Summit demos deployment deployment

5G Approved
5G Radio Phase 1
research NSA Early drop
demos deployment
start of Rel.15
2014 2016 2018 2020
› First 5G MWC › 5G PPP projects in full
showcase swing
› NTT DoCoMo › 5G standardization on
cooperation channel model,
requirements and
› MoU with technology option
CMCC/CMRI selection
The Need for a new architecture
Requirements guiding the 5G architecture

• Fast introduction of new services

Flexibility • Automated scaling of services

Scalability Mobility on demand

• Better network efficiency • Better use of network resources

sive Broadba
as n

d
M
Network as a Service (NaaS) Quality and user

assi
• Better network efficiency experience

ve MT
• New business opportunities, • Monetization of OTT traffic
e.g. verticals, network sharing
• More efficient network utilization

C
C ri
tica l M T C
Session on demand Latency
• Extended battery life New business opportunities in
• Efficient use of resources verticals (automotive, industry)
Towards a layered architecture for the 5G evolved core cloud

Today: 3GPP box-driven function split 5G: Layered architecture for the core cloud
HSS
1. Logical and physical separation of user plane
2. Session states separated from control plane
HSS data SPR
3. Consolidated control plane
Provisioned Dynamic
HSS
PCRF Policy
Frontend
Data
Session
States
S-GW P-GW HSS

S-GW P-GW
MME Control Plane
Ctrl Ctrl
Optimized
Session Session Session CP-Function
States States
control plane 1 CP-Function 2 CP-Function 3
C-plane
eNB States 5G
RAN
User plane
S-GW P-GW U-Plane
u-plane u-plane Local GW Centralized
u-plane GW u-plane
Quiz

1. What are the requirements for 5G Architecture?

a. Network architecture shall allow for deployment flexibility (e.g. to enable context aware service delivery, low
latency services)
b. Network architecture shall allow for C-plane/U-plane separation
c. Network architecture shall allow deployments using Network Function Virtualization
d. Network architecture shall allow for the operation of Network Slicing
e. The design of the 5G architecture shall allow the deployment of new services rapidly and efficiently
f. All of the above
Quiz

Why is the current EPC/System Architecture Evolution not ready for the 5G era?

a. The existing architecture is not able to support VoIP services natively for example, especially when they are
combined with fast mobility.
b. The existing architecture is not able to support C-RAN, to make this happen LTE will utilize virtualization
which is applied in a box-driven way.
c. The existing architecture is not able to support low latency services for example, especially when they are
combined with fast mobility.
d. LTE System supports an unified authentication framework and "stateless“ Network Functions.
5G Network deployment options
5G Network architecture options in 3GPP Release 15
Non-standalone Standalone Non-standalone Non-standalone
Option family 3 Option 2 Option family 7 Option family 4

EPC 5G-CN EPC 5G-CN EPC 5G-CN EPC 5G-CN

LTE 5G LTE 5G LTE 5G LTE 5G

User + control plane

Option 3X seems favored by Option 2 seems favored by User plane only

most operators for enhanced some operators for specific 5G-CN = 5G Control Network
mobile broadband use cases
Option 3 variants

Non-standalone Non-standalone Non-standalone

Option 3a Option 3X Option 3

EPC 5G-CN EPC 5G-CN EPC 5G-CN

• 3X seems most preferred

• 3A does not facilitate
aggregation for a single bearer,
as no user plane routing
between BTS
• Option 3 part of 12/2017 specs
LTE 5G LTE 5G LTE 5G

= User plane only = User + control plane = Control plane only

Stand-Alone Versus Non-Stand Alone
Why Dual Connectivity with NSA? Why Standalone SA?

Option 3 | LTE+5G under EPC Option 2 | SA 5G under 5GC

EPC 5G core

LTE 5G 5G

• Available 6 months earlier than SA

• 5G end-to-end for new services
• Existing EPC core used
• Lower latency without LTE leg
• Existing LTE idle mode used
• Lower setup time in 5G
• Data rate aggregation LTE + 5G
• No need for LTE network upgrades
• VoLTE in LTE
5G Architecture main migration strategy

Option 1 | SA LTE with EPC Option 2 | SA NR with 5GC Option 5 | SA LTE with 5GC

EPC 5GC 5GC

LTE NR eLTE

Option 3 | NSA LTE+NR with EPC Option 4 | NSA NR+LTE with 5GC Option 7 | NSA LTE+NR with 5GC

EPC 5GC 5GC

LTE NR NR LTE eLTE N

R
SA: StandAlone; NSA: Non StandAlone
5G Core architecture

Reference point representation: NSSF AUSF UDM

N13

N12 N10
N1: • between the UE and the AMF.
N22 N8 PCF
N15 N5
N7
N2: • between the (R)AN and the AMF.
AM N11 SMF AF
F
N14
N3: • between the (R)AN and the UPF. N4

N4
N4: • between the SMF and the UPF. N1 N2

N3 N9 N6
N6: • between the UPF and a Data Network.
UE (R) AN UPF UPF DN

N9: • between two UPFs

Practice related to Each technology
Massive MIMO and Beamforming

Massive MIMO is the extension

of traditional MIMO technology to
antenna arrays having a large
number of controllable antennas (>8)

Three-dimensional
beamforming refers to the use of
massive MIMO for steering beams
both in the horizontal and vertical
dimensions.
Massive MIMO enhances both capacity and coverage

ANTENNA ARRAYS
large number (>>8) of Enhance Coverage
controllable antennas High gain adaptive
beamforming

28 GHz
5G MAA
ANTENNA SIGNALS
adaptable by the
physical layer Benefits

Not limited Enhance Capacity

to a particular implementation High order spatial
3.5 GHz
multiplexing
5G MAA a spectral efficiency that is 3 times
that of LTE