The 21st Meeting of the APT Wireless Group (AWG-21) / AWG-21/INP-10
3 – 7 April 2017, Bangkok, Thailand /
27March 2017
NTT DOCOMO, INC., SoftBank Corporation, Spark New Zealand
3GPP specification development for an FDD band plan
in the frequency band 1 427-1 518 MHz
- Introduction
At the 20th meeting of APT Wireless Group (AWG-20), Sub-WG Spectrum Arrangement and Harmonization (SA&H) initiated work on the development of a draft new Report on harmonized frequency arrangement for the frequency band 1 427-1 518 MHz.
In relation to this work, this contribution provides information on FDD band plan development by 3GPP Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network (TSG RAN) for this frequency band.
- Discussion
2.1A new work item proposal for an FDD band plan
At the 74th meeting of TSGRAN plenary in December 2016, a new work item proposal on an FDD operating band in the L-band for LTE was approved. The purpose of this work item is to:
specify a new LTE FDD operating band to include band numbering and core requirements with support of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz channel bandwidths to operate in at least Japan and possibly some other countries outside of Japan by considering that
—UE transmit: 1 427 – 1 470 MHz, BS transmit: 1 475 – 1 518 MHz
—Both Bands 11 and 21 requirements shall be met in order to achieve economies of scale considering the existing FDD-LTE deployment market in Japan,
—If not, the upper edges of the band (1 470 and 1 518 MHz) are reconsidered.
specify relevant requirements for protection of the EESS below 1 427 MHz based on the results of studies of the Study Item “Feasibility study on global application of LTE Band 11 and of LTE Band 21 UEs”,
specify relevant requirements for Category M1 and NB1 for the developed FDD band.
After the approval of this work item, TSG RAN Working Group 4 (RAN4) has initiated the development of relevant 3GPP specifications. In its 82nd meeting, the assumption to implement the FDD band plan using dual-duplexer configurationwas agreed, which is summarized in the Attachment to this contribution.
This work item is planned to be completed at the 76th meeting of TSG RAN Plenary in June 2017.
2.2Protection of EESS (passive) from mobile station transmission
One of the issues for the development of an FDD frequency arrangement in the 1 427-1 518 MHz is how to satisfy the mandatory limit stipulated for IMT mobile stations in Resolution 750 (Rev.WRC-15), i.e, −62 dBW in the 27 MHz of the EESS (passive) band in the 1 420-1 427 MHz.
In order to satisfy this limit, 3GPP has already completed studies on the required restriction for FDD-LTE UEs based on 3GPP Bands 11 and 21. The summary of the studies are provided in Attachment to this contribution.
Based on these studies, necessary specifications to protect the EESS (passive) from mobile station transmissionwill be implemented in the 3GPP specifications through the work item explained in Section 2.1 above.
- Proposals
The Attachment to this contribution summarizes the on-going development of an FDD band plan by 3GPP. We believe that the information contained in the Attachment would be useful as supporting information for the AWG’s studies on the development of frequency arrangements in the frequency band 1 427-1 518 MHz in the Asia-Pacific region.
We propose to include this Attachment as an annex to the working document towards a draft new Report on harmonized frequency arrangement for the frequency band 1 427-1 518 MHz.
Attachment
Summary of3GPP specification development for an FDD band plan
in the frequency band 1 427-1 518 MHz
- General information
As shown in Figure 1, 3GPP is now developing a new FDD operating band for those countries who wish to deploy FDD-LTE networks in the frequency band 1 427-1 518 MHz (2 ×43 MHz, uplink: 1 427 – 1 470 MHz, downlink: 1 475 – 1 518 MHz). The size of pass bandwidth is maximized to 43 MHz per link with support of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20MHz channel bandwidths. Within the 43 MHz bandwidth, 5 MHz × 8 blocks could be used for mobile broadband applications, while the remaining 3 MHz could be used for IoTapplications using narrower channel bandwidth (< 5 MHz).
Figure 1
A new FDD band plan in the 1 427-1 518 MHz being developed by 3GPP
It should be noted that this new FDD operating band is extension of the existing FDD operating bands in Japan, i.e., Bands 11 (2 ×10 MHz,uplink: 1 427.9 – 1 447.9 MHz, downlink: 1 475.9 – 1 495.9 MHz), and 21 (2 ×15 MHz, uplink: 1 447.9 – 1 462.9 MHz, downlink: 1 495.9 – 1 510.9 MHz) and is compatible with them.
- Duplexer configuration
3GPP agreed to specify relevant requirements for thenew FDD band plan (2×43 MHz) based on dual duplexer configuration using a lower duplexer of 2×33MHz and an upper duplexer of 2 ×30MHz as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2
Agreed duplexer configuration to specify relevant requirements for the FDD band plan
- Required transmission restriction for user equipment (mobile station)
3GPP finished the study to evaluate possible methods and conditions for the existing Bands 11 and 21 UEs to comply with themandatory EESS protection requirement inResolution 750 (Rev.WRC-15).
The study concluded that there may be no restriction when UEs transmit the upper 10 MHz of Band 11 (1437.9 – 1447.9MHz) and 15 MHz of Band 21 (1447.9 – 1462.9 MHz) and the following mitigation techniques in the uplink would be needed when UEs transmit in the lower 10 MHz of Band 11 (i.e., 1 427.9 – 1 437.9 MHz):
For the cases of transmit bandwidth ≤ 1.44 MHz, no uplink transmission resource restriction or power back-off is required,
For the cases of transmit bandwidth 1.44 MHz, some power back-off and/or uplink transmission resource restrictionare required.
In addition, the study observed that the enhanced MTC (eMTC) technology (transmit bandwidth ≤ 1.08 MHz) orthe in-band Narrow Band-IoT(NB-IoT) technology(transmit bandwidth ≤ 180 kHz) by 3GPP could also be accommodated without restriction due to the results above.
Based on these conclusions of the study and further work in the work item, necessary specifications to protect the EESS (passive) from mobile station transmission will be implemented in the 3GPP specifications for the FDD band plan indicated in Figure 1 above.
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