Coverage Enhancement and Fundamental Performance of 5G: Analysis and Field Trial

To meet the demands of mobile networks toward 2020, 5G has emerged. Compared to 4G, the 5G network will be deployed in higher-frequency bands, such as 3.5 GHz. Meanwhile, in order to save costs, operators expect to deploy the 5G network by reusing the legacy sites of 4G networks. Note that the coverage of base stations decreases with the increase of carrier frequency, and coverage enhancement techniques are required in 5G to cope with the coverage loss. In this article, coverage enhancement techniques are first analyzed. A field trial adopting pre-commercial 5G systems is then set up to assess the coverage performance. The analysis along with the promising field trial results indicate that the coverage of the 3.5 GHz frequency band can be guaranteed in the 5G network deployed with 4G legacy sites.