Enabling Efficient 5G NR and 4G LTE Coexistence

Abstract

This article introduces the efficient coexistence between LTE and 5G-NR. Through the UL only sharing known as UUDL decoupiing, 5G-NR provides a tool to extend its coverage with C -Band deployment, and makes it possible to deploy a C-Band 5G-NR network using existing LTE sites for seamless coverage. Moreover, the co -site deployment of 5G-NR and LTE greatly reduces the 5G-NR network cost and speeds up the 5G-NR commercialization. The UL sharing between LTE and 5G -NR also provides a powerful tool to strike a good balance between spectrum efficiency and low latency, and between coverage and channel bandwidth. The simultaneous 5G-NR DUUL sharing with an LTE DUUL carrier provides the possibility of early and low load 5G-NR deployment since the FDD LTE DL may have such high traffic load that only a shared low traffic load on 5G-NR DL can be accommodated. The 5G -NR is also designed to coexist with a TD-LTE system in the same TDD band to align the UUDL transmission direction. Overall, 5G-NR is designed to allow efficient coexistence with 4G LTE for very flexible deployments and use cases.