Nokia 5G Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Plans Gain Dynamics

Nokia is undeniably behind in the development of dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) but the Finnish vendor is making strides to catch up with its competitors and says it will have the technology commercially ready for deployment sometime next year. Nokia is undeniably behind in the development of dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) but the Finnish vendor is making strides to catch up with its competitors and says it will have the technology commercially ready for deployment sometime next year. While the company is lagging behind Ericsson, which last month announced a successful demonstration of DSS in partnership with Qualcomm and Verizon, Nokia doesn’t expect the technology to deliver meaningful performance gains on 5G standalone networks until 2021. Verizon says it will deploy DSS in the “near future” to make use of its full portfolio of spectrum for customers on 4G LTE and 5G and analysts expect it to be enabled across the operator’s network in the second half of 2020. “DSS between 4G and 5G will become an important technology with the introduction of 5G to the Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) bands,” Harri Holma, a fellow a Nokia Bell Rabs, wrote in a blog post announcing the vendor’s DSS advancements. Nokia claims to be powering the first 5G FDD network in the United States, which was launched this month. Holma didn’t name the operator but T-Mobile US is likely that unidentified carrier because it activated its nationwide 5G service last week. The network equipment vendor is also “the only vendor that already supports different variants of dynamic sharing between 2G, 3G, and 4G,” Holma wrote. Indeed, spectrum sharing isn’t new but the “dynamic” component is because it enables operators to deploy software that will automatically allocate spectrum from multiple spectrum bands on the same radio depending on real-time requirements within range of that equipment. DSS won’t reach widespread adoption until it gains more support from silicon vendors, network operators, and radio access network (RAN) vendors. These efforts are underway on separate tracks but are expected to enter commercial availability next year. “5G FDD devices supporting DSS will become available during 2020,” Holma wrote. “Nokia will introduce DSS as a software upgrade in line with commercial 5G FDD mass market device availability in 2020.” Nokia will likely have to conduct some tests and earn business with network operators before that occurs. This also underlines some key areas where Ericsson is decidedly in the lead on DSS. In addition to its recent demonstration with Verizon and Qualcomm, the Swedish vendor commercially deployed DSS with Swisscom earlier this year. And earlier this month, Ericsson successfully demonstrated a transglobal 5G data call on live commercial 5G networks with participation from Qualcomm, Swisscom, and the Australian operator Telstra. Because the majority of 5G deployments in the United States ride on millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum, operators like Verizon and AT&T will initially turn to DSS to augment their 5G networks with more robust 5G coverage on low- and mid-band spectrum that’s been exclusively reserved for 3G and 4G LTE service. “The practical benefits of using DSS varies between operators due to their differing radio spectrum assets and their strategies for 5G services,” Holma wrote. “DSS provides a flexible way to extend 5G services using an operator’s legacy frequency bands.” Nokia’s DSS offering will also enable operators to maintain legacy performance benchmarks while adding capacity to previous generations of network technology, Holma explained.