HTCL 5G Test Report

Test Report
For
Trial of 5G Base Station and User Equipment
operating at
26/28 GHz bands and 3.5 GHz band

HTCL
March, 2019

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1. Introduction
On 21 March 2017, the Communications Authority (“CA”) promulgated its work plan for
making available additional radio spectrum for public mobile services to meet the increasing
aspirations of service users towards 2020 and beyond. The work plan has identified a number of
frequency bands, including the 3.4 – 3.6 GHz band (“3.5 GHz band”), the 24.25 – 27.5 GHz
band and the 27.5 – 28.35 GHz band (“26/28 GHz bands”), that can be made available for
reallocation to mobile services to prepare for the launch of 5th generation mobile (“5G”) services.

Temporary permits were issued by the CA to Hutchison Telephone Company Limited (“HTCL”)
in 2Q-2018 for conducting 5G NR in-and-outdoor network trials in the 26/28 GHz bands and 3.5
GHz in the 2nd half of 2018.

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2. Test scope

2.1) Test equipment and device

A) 26/28 GHz bands

AAU TUE

Equipment Item Specifications

Frequency Band 26/28 GHz
Max Bandwidth 8 * 100 MHz
Active Antenna Unit
TxRx Configuration 4T4R
(AAU)
Polarization +45° / -45°
Sweep Range H:120°, V:30°
Test User Equipment Frequency Band 26/28 GHz
(TUE) TxRx Configuration 2T4R

B) 3.5 GHz band

AAU TUE CPE

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Equipment Item Specifications

Frequency Band 3.5 GHz
Max Bandwidth 100 MHz
Active Antenna Unit
TxRx Configuration 64T64R
(AAU)
Polarization +45° / -45°
Sweep Range H:15° ~ 90°, V: -8° ~ 25°
Test User Equipment Frequency Band NR: 3.5 GHz, LTE: 1.8 GHz
(TUE) TxRx Configuration 8T8R
Customer Premises Frequency Band NR: 3.5 GHz, LTE: 1.8 GHz
Equipment (CPE) TxRx Configuration 2T4R

C) Scanner from Rohde & Schwarz was used for testing the coverage of 5G NR at 3.5
GHz band.

2.2) Test locations

Location Scenario Bands Antenna Configuration

Hutchison Telecom 26/28 GHz bands bearing = 60° ~ 120°
Indoor
Tower (“HTT”) 3.5 GHz band down-tilt = 0°
height = 15 meter
North Point Outdoor 26/28 GHz bands bearing = 120°
down-tilt = 0°
height = 20 meter
Causeway Bay Outdoor 3.5 GHz band bearing = 250°
down-tilt = 10°

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5G test
@ HTT lab

5G AAU
@ 26/28 GHz

5G AAU
@ 3.5 GHz

2.3) Test configuration

Frequency Band Frequency Range Carrier Bandwidth

26/28 GHz 27.95-28.35 GHz 4x 100 MHz
3.5 GHz 3.45- 3.55 GHz 100 MHz

Max EIRP (Indoor) Max EIRP (Outdoor)

Frequency Band
AAU TUE CPE AAU TUE CPE
26/28 GHz 31 dBm 29 dBm n/a 53 dBm 29 dBm n/a
3.5 GHz 24.5 dBm n/a 20 dBm 45 dBm 26 dBm 26 dBm

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2.4) Test setup diagram

A) 26/28 GHz bands

A TUE was used as the device to measure the 5G NR’s coverage and downlink speed
of air interface using a UDP (user datagram protocol) server at the testing site.

B) 3.5 GHz band

 An end-to-end 5G network architecture was built using non-standalone (NSA)

option 3x based on 3GPP standard release 15. The co-located LTE 1.8 GHz band
(2x 10 MHz bandwidth) was used as the anchoring carrier of 5G NR.
 2 test devices and test methods were used for testing the speed of 5G network.
o CPE : using OFCA’s speed test app (http://speedtest.ofca.gov.hk/)
o TUE : using a UDP (user datagram protocol) server at data center;

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3. Test Results

3.1) 26/28 GHz band

A) Test at the indoor location

a. Downlink speed test using a TUE. Max speed measured is 4.8 Gbps (MAC layer).

B) Test at the outdoor locations

a. Downlink coverage test (RSRP and SINR) using a TUE at outdoor locations;

5G AAU
@ 26/28 GHz

300 meters

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b. Downlink speed test using a TUE at various outdoor locations;

The max speed is at location 2a as 3.0 Gbps (MAC layer).

The speed at location 6 (line of sight, ~100 meters to the AAU) is ~0.45 Gbps
(MAC layer).
The speed at a non line of sight location next to location 6 is 0 Gbps.

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Location 2a

Location 6

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3.2) 3.5 GHz band

A) Test at the indoor location

Due to the limited test period and resources available, only initial configuration of test
equipment and devices were arranged at the indoor location, before moving forward
to the outdoor location for more comprehensive trial tests.

B) Test at the outdoor locations

a. Downlink coverage test (RSRP) using a scanner at outdoor locations;

5G AAU
@ 3.5 GHz

b. Speed test at various outdoor locations;

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 3.5 GHz TUE speed test results (downlink)

 3.5 GHz CPE speed test results (downlink and uplink) – Location 2

One of the test results at location 2 using OFCA’s speed test application

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Downlink speed (average figure of 3 times of test at each location)

TUE CPE
Test Location (UDP server) (OFCA App)
(MAC layer) (Application layer)
1 2.0 Gbps 340 Mbps
2 2.2 Gbps 434 Mbps
3 2.3 Gbps 359 Mbps
4 2.3 Gbps 363 Mbps
5 1.3 Gbps 356 Mbps
6 1.0 Gbps 298 Mbps

Uplink speed (average figure of 3 times of test at each location)

TUE CPE
Test Location (UDP server) (OFCA App)
(Application layer)
1 76 Mbps
2 89 Mbps
3 89 Mbps
N/A
4 89 Mbps
5 87 Mbps
6 79 Mbps

The lower speed measured using CPE was mainly due to (i) limited capability of
this device, e.g. configurations on Tx/Rx layers and system processing; (ii)
limited test period and resources for optimizing performance on other interfaces
and/or equipment, e.g. transmission backhaul, application protocol and servers.

c. It was found from the measurement results that, under the co-location
configuration (5G NR at 3.5 GHz band and anchoring 4G LTE at 1.8 GHz band)
stated above, within an area of around 200 meters in line of sight to the co-located
station site, the downlink speed of 5G NR carrier at 3.5 GHz band (100 MHz
bandwidth) is around 4~5 times larger than that of the co-located 4G LTE carrier
at 1.8 GHz band (2x 10 MHz bandwidth).

In dense urban environment in Hong Kong, the distances between HTCL’s radio
station sites are generally around 150 meters. In this connection, by deploying of
5G NR at 3.5 GHz band at our existing 4G radio station sites, it can achieve not
only continuous seamless coverage in outdoor environment, but also better user
experience than existing 4G network.

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4. Conclusions and Way Forward

The performance of 5G NR operating at 26/28 GHz bands and 3.5 GHz band in both in-and-
outdoor environments were verified in this trial test.

For the 26/28 GHz bands with 4x 100 MHz carrier bandwidth, extreme high download speed of
4.8 Gbps and 3.2 Gbps was achieved in the indoor and outdoor environment respectively, by
using a 5G TUE as testing device. It was found the high spectrum bands at 26/28 GHz would
have a small coverage range due to high propagation loss, high penetration loss and line of sight
propagation preference. The effective coverage of a cell is around 100 ~ 200 meters line of sight
in the outdoor environment.

For the 3.5 GHz bands with 100 MHz carrier bandwidth, end-to-end 5G network architecture
was built using non-standalone (NSA) option 3x based on 3GPP standardization release 15. High
download speed of 2.3 Gbps and 434 Mbps was achieved in the outdoor environment, by using a
5G TUE and a 5G CPE as testing device, respectively. It was found the 3.5 GHz band has much
better coverage range than that of the 28 GHz band, owing to radio propagation characteristics at
such middle frequency bands. Moreover, when comparing with the co-located 4G carrier at 1.8
GHz band, the measurement shows the 5G carrier has comparable coverage range and much
better speed, which implies co-location deployment with existing 4G can achieve not only
continuous seamless coverage in outdoor environment, but also better user experience.

In all, this trial test have successfully demonstrated the capability and performance of 5G NR
technology and NSA network at 26/28 GHz bands and 3.5 GHz band under both in-and outdoor
environments.

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