1

Test report

5G Network Trial at 3.5GHz band

in Mongkok

(Temporary Permit No. T00609)

26-May-2019

2

1. Introduction

On 21 March 2017, the 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 fifth generation mobile (“5G”) services.

China Mobile Hong Kong (“CMHK”) opened the 5G Open Lab of CMCC 5G Innovation

Center in Hong Kong on 16 March 2018. After conducted a lab test of 5G network

equipment successfully, a 5G network field trial at 3.5GHz band with commercial ready

products was conducted at CMHK Flagship shop in Mongkok from October 2018.

One 5G radio site has been deployed at the rooftop of the building in Mongkok for a trial

period from 1 October 2018 to 31 March 2019. As most of the detailed 5G network

functional tests have been performed in another trial at Science Park and only one cell is

set up in Mongkok, the trial in Mongkok mainly focus on user performance tests including

speed and latency measured at various locations by using Test User Equipment (TUE) and

Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). This report provides the test results obtained during

the trial.

3

2. Trial Setup 2.1. Test Equipment

2.1.1. 5G base station

Huawei Active Antenna Unit (AAU) 5613

Technical standard 3GPP Release 15

Frequency Band 3400Mhz - 3800Mhz

TX RX channel 64T64R

Polarization +45°, '-45°

Gain (dBi) 24

Horizontal sweep range (°) -60 - 60

Vertical sweep range (°) -15 - 15

2.1.2. 5G Test User Equipment (TUE)

Huawei C-band TUE Front side and Back side

4

Technical standard 3GPP Release 15

NR Frequency Band (Mhz) 3400Mhz - 3800Mhz

TX RX channel 2T4R/4T8R

2.1.3. 5G Customer Premises Equipment (CPE)

Huawei C-Band CPE

Technical standard 3GPP Release 15

NR Frequency Band (Mhz) 3400Mhz - 3800Mhz

TX RX channel 2T4R

WIFI Frequency (Mhz)

2400MHz～2483.5MHz

5250MHz～5825MHz

5

2.2. Test Location

Test AAU location: Rooftop, 1L & 1M Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Mongkok

Test area: G/F, 1/F, 2,F, 3/F, 4/F and rooftop of CMHK Mongkok flagship shop

AAU height 30m

AAU Bearing 20°

AAU Downtilt 20°

5G AAU

TUE antenna

CPE

6

2.3. Carrier configuration

Test frequency band N78

Test frequency range 3500MHz - 3600MHz

Frequency channel bandwidth 1 x 100MHz

AAU EIRP 42dBm

Subcarrier Spacing(KHz) 30

Slot Assignment 4:1

2.4. Network Configuration

The test 5G network configuration is Non-standalone (NSA) Option 3X architecture, which

is based on 3GPP R15 specification.

TUE antenna

7

3. Test Result

Two different user performance tests were performed by using TUE and CPE to test 5G

data transfer rate respectively.

UDP test by TUE: Test the peak downlink throughput between 5G gNodeB and

TUE through air interface. The test is performed with 4T8R (Rank 8) TUE setup.

OFCA Speed test by test mobile (Samsung Note 9) connected to Wi-Fi (5GHz)

via CPE: Test the end to end downlink throughput, uplink throughput and latency

between test mobile and internet.

3.1 TUE Peak UDP Downlink Throughput

CMHK Flagship Shop Rooftop floorplan

TUE Average RSRP -67dBm

TUE Average SINR 34

TUE Peak UDP downlink MAC layer throughput at the rooftop was about

2.7Gbps.

TUE TUE antenna

5G AAU

8

3.2 CPE OFCA Speed test

A test mobile (Samsung Note 9) was being used to test the data throughput by OFCA

speed test APP through Wi-Fi (5GHz) via 5G CPE.

3.2.1 Ground Floor

Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Network Latency (ms)

512 73.7 16

525 75.3 16

506 74.4 15

556 74.9 15

471 75 16

495 76.8 15

452 75.3 15

457 74 16

518 70.3 16

482 73.1 16

DL ~ 2.74Gbps

9

3.2.2 1st Floor

3.2.3 2nd Floor

3.2.4 3rd Floor

Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Network Latency (ms)

459 74.9 16

494 74.2 16

474 74.6 17

484 74.2 16

522 74.8 16

440 75.4 16

499 75.3 17

507 75.1 16

514 74.5 17

460 73.5 16

Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Network Latency (ms)

472 73.9 17

335 73.4 17

481 73.6 18

426 77 17

410 74.8 16

421 74.9 16

485 70 16

454 74.2 17

475 73.2 17

437 75 17

Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Network Latency (ms)

433 74.1 17

450 73.1 16

422 73 17

439 71.8 17

385 75.7 17

499 73.9 17

475 74.7 16

515 74.5 17

462 73.6 17

516 74.4 21

10

3.2.5 4th Floor

3.2.6 Following is the overall test summary:

Avg Download (Mbps) Avg Upload (Mbps)

5G CPE

G/F 497.4 74.28

1/F 485.3 74.65

2/F 439.6 74

3/F 459.6 73.88

4/F 461.3 73.33

Remark: The data transfer rate of CPE was lower than that of TUE mainly due to

capability and processing power of the two devices. No speed test is done by CPE at the

rooftop.

Download (Mbps) Upload (Mbps) Network Latency (ms)

438 74.4 20

451 72.8 16

354 74.8 17

455 72.2 16

474 68.4 17

522 74.9 17

436 72.4 17

532 74.8 15

448 74.5 15

503 74.1 15

11

4. Conclusion

The 5G site at 3.5GHz C-band is successfully deployed at CMHK Flagship shop in

Mongkok. The test has verified the good coverage and high data throughput of 5G NR.

The indoor penetration of 3.5GHz signal is satisfactory, even though the transmit

power of the AAU is set to lower level in order to avoid interference to surrounding

SMATV antenna services.

By using a TUE, the peak downlink throughput with 100MHz of bandwidth at 3.5 GHz

can reach up to 2.7 Gbps. In addition, an end-to-end 5G network connectivity was

demonstrated with good user experience via a 5G CPE, with data speed above

400Mbps.

Overall, the trial results served the purpose of showing good user performance of 5G

network at 3.5GHz under outdoor and indoor environment.