Whitepaper

Extending Existing
Spectrum Analysis
Equipment into 5G
Wireless

Why RF Equipment Providers Should Integrate

with a Third-Party RF Downconverter
 Introduction
After plenty of hype, build up, and expectations, the first 5G deployments
are finally being rolled out in major cities around the world. As the
pace of deployments accelerates over the next few years, the scale of
the investment in infrastructure, spectrum resources, and testing and
optimization is hard to ignore. Accenture estimates that mobile operators
will invest as much as $275 billion in the US alone by 2025 on 5G
networks, and 5G is expected to create up to 3 million jobs and add
approximately $500 billion to US GDP.1

For RF equipment manufacturers and system
integrators (SIs), this represents a huge
opportunity. Mobile operators are in a race to
be the first to provide reliable 5G coverage
to new markets, and they need spectrum
analysis equipment for test and measurement,
mobile drive testing, and coverage mapping
that provides the frequency and bandwidth
performance required for new 5G signals.
As competitive pressure intensifies, the
equipment manufacturer who can meet these
performance requirements in a cost-effective
and easily deployable solution will be able to
retain existing customers and gain new revenue
streams.
For companies that already have equipment
designed for 3G/4G/LTE, an RF downconverter
can extend your performance into the
frequencies needed for 5G. By integrating
this existing equipment with a third-party
downconverter, your customer gets the
performance they need quickly without
the expense of fully replacing their existing
hardware.
This whitepaper will introduce the signals being
considered and used for 5G wireless and
explain why these signals have created a need
for new spectrum analysis solutions. It will then
discuss the challenges mobile operators are
facing when deploying 5G networks, and show
how you can adapt your products to address
these challenges. The last section will highlight
the benefits of working with a third-party RF
downconverter over building an entirely new
product.

1
https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/new-research-from-accenture-strategy-highlights-economic-and-societal-impact-of-investing-in-5g-infrastructure.htm

2 | thinkRF.com
 Additionally, the deployment of 5G networks
What’s Driving the will not be linear or universal, and full,
Need for Increased RF worldwide 5G coverage is still many years
away. In the mean time, 4G and 5G networks
Performance? will exist side-by-side, with some mobile
operators building on top of existing 4G
Existing 3G/4G/LTE networks use a limited
infrastructure in the near-term before moving
number of relatively low frequency signals.
to higher frequency signals and new towers in
These are typically between 450 MHz and
the long-term.
3.7 GHz, and in practice only include a
limited number of bands. In-turn, most
Many companies are deploying their initial
RF and spectrum analysis equipment is
networks in densely populated and major
designed to be used in these frequency
cities. Deployments in less densely populated
ranges. With years of testing and use, these
areas, including suburban and rural areas, will
standards are well understood and proven
take time, and the design of these networks
in various different environments, and the
will, by necessity, be different.
job of RF Engineers or technicians in the
field is to identify, diagnose, and repair any
All of this means that the requirements for
issues caused by interference or equipment
SIs and RF equipment manufacturers have
malfunction.
changed dramatically. Today’s equipment
must have the frequency performance
5G represents a significant change to
required to capture and analyze high
how the industry approaches wireless
frequency signals well above what was
communications. Instead of being limited to
traditionally required. Equipment must be
a small number of frequency bands, 5G will
flexible and able to quickly switch between
use a variety of signals depending on the
signal standards and frequencies, while
location of the deployment, the performance
accommodating the wider bandwidths used
requirements, and the types of devices
by 5G. And mobile operators need to be
connecting to the network. 5G deployments
able to deploy these new solutions quickly
will use signals from as low as below 2 GHz
and cost-effectively to keep up with the
all the way to signals more than 30 GHz,
competitive pressures of a rapidly shifting
with future deployments looking at millimeter
market.
waves (mmW) as high as potentially 90 GHz.

3 | thinkRF.com

What Signals are Being
Considered for 5G
The 3GPP has finished developing the initial
standards for 5G, although technicalities are
expected to be worked out with continued
testing.2 The first agreement was for the
Non-Standalone (NSA) standard, which was
approved in late 2017 and utilizes existing LTE
infrastructure for earlier implementations in
the short term. The second is the standalone
standard called 5G New Radio (5G NR),
which will require new infrastructure but will
allow mobile operators to move forward with
deployments and research.
The chart below details the breakdown of the
major frequencies established for use in 5G
networks.3 FR1 will likely be used more for
initial implementations, though some carriers
are already deploying networks based on
FR2 standards. The FCC has also opened up
spectrum from 64 GHz – 71 GHz for future
activity.
Beyond these standards, 5G is generally
considered to be made up of three distinct
bands of spectrum resources: low-band,
mid-band, and high-band. To achieve
widespread coverage and support all use
cases, frequencies in all of these bands
will need to be used depending on the
performance requirements and location of the
deployment.
Low-Band
Low-band spectrum is generally considered
to be below 2 GHz, with North America
primarily focused on the 470-512 MHz
T-Band as well as the 1300-1350 MHz,
1780-1830 MHz, and 1675-1695 MHz
bands.4 T-Mobile in the U.S. is considering
using the 600-MHz band for initial 5G
deployments.
The properties of these lower frequency
signals are already well understood,
and mobile operators can use existing
infrastructure to transition to 5G. The range

Band Frequency (MHz) Type

FR1 450 – 6000 Sub-6 GHz

FR2 24250 – 52600 mm-Wave

Band Alias Uplink Band Downlink Band Bandwidth

5G NR Band Type
(GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (GHz)

n257 28 26.5 – 29.5 26.5 – 29.5 3 TDD

n258 26 24.25 – 27.5 24.25 – 27.5 3.25 TDD
n260 39 37 – 40 37 – 40 3 TDD

2
https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/3gpp-puts-finishing-touch-standalone-version-5g-standard
3
https://www.everythingrf.com/community/5g-nr-new-radio-frequency-bands
4
http://www.5gamericas.org/files/4015/4958/3330/5G_Americas_5G_Spectrum_Vision_Whitepaper.pdf

4 | thinkRF.com
 and penetrability of these signals make them
a good fit for coverage and mobility in rural
networks, and they are valuable for high
aggregation and low bandwidth applications,
such as Internet of Things (IoT) and massive
Machine Type Communications (mMTC). With
5G, the number of devices that can connect
to the network increases dramatically, and the
GSMA recommends that mMTC applications
need the ability to support at least one million
IoT connections per square kilometer.5
Low-band signals will see data speeds top
out around 100 Mbps, compared to the faster
speeds possible with higher bands.
Mid-Band
Mid-band signals are generally considered
to be between 2 GHz and 6 GHz. Globally,
5G deployments will likely be centered
on these bands. They balance capacity,
propagation, and speed, making them ideal
for everyday applications and deployments in
suburban and urban areas where coverage
and reliability are more important than ultra-
high speeds. Mid-band spectrum resources
considered for 5G include the 3.45-3.55
GHz and 3.70-4.20 GHz C-Band for possible
mobile broadband use and 5.925-6.425 GHz
and 6.425-7.125 GHz bands for more flexible
use, as well as the 2.70-2.90 GHz, 2.90-3.11
GHz, 3.45-3.55 GHz, and 4.94-4.99 GHz
bands.6
Mid-band deployments typically use a smaller
number of macro base stations, in contrast
to the larger number of small cells required to
support mmW 5G deployments, making them
easier for mobile operators to deploy across
wider geographic areas. Mid-band spectrum
promises speeds up to 1Gbps, which
represents a significant improvement over
current speeds but not the level achieved by
higher frequencies. The GSMA states that
regulators should aim to make 80-100 MHz
of contiguous spectrum available in these
mid-bands.7
High-Band
High-band spectrum includes everything
above 6 GHz, including mmW above 24
GHz. It’s in these frequencies that the major
improvements in speed, bandwidth, and
latency will be achieved by 5G wireless.
These high frequency bands offer peak
speeds up to 10 Gbps, and latency will
improve from the current 25 to 40 ms to
approximately 1 ms.8 However, the higher the
frequency, the shorter the distance a signal
will travel. These propagation issues lead to
limited range and penetrability, and signals
are significantly impacted by objects such
as buildings, walls, trees, weather, and even
people. Mobile operators need to deploy
small-cell networks with a large number of
antennas close together, making these bands
suitable for dense urban areas or applications
where speed and latency are critical.
In the US, AT&T is starting its initial trials on
the 15 GHz band before switching to 28
GHz, while the 28 GHz band is already being
used by Verizon. The 39 GHz band has also
undergone trials,9 while the 26 GHz, 32 GHz,
42 GHz, 50 GHz, 70 GHz, and 80 GHz bands
have emerged as potential 5G bands in
regional and international forums.10

5
https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/5G-Spectrum-Positions.pdf
6
http://www.5gamericas.org/files/4015/4958/3330/5G_Americas_5G_Spectrum_Vision_Whitepaper.pdf
7
https://www.gsma.com/spectrum/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/5G-Spectrum-Positions.pdf
8
https://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded-revolution/many-frequencies-5g
9
https://www.electronicdesign.com/embedded-revolution/many-frequencies-5g
10
http://www.5gamericas.org/files/4015/4958/3330/5G_Americas_5G_Spectrum_Vision_Whitepaper.pdf

5 | thinkRF.com
 Challenges for Mobile
Operators Deploying 5G
The shift toward high frequency, high
bandwidth signals well above what was
traditionally required for 3G/4G/LTE is creating
new challenges for mobile operators as they
race to be the first to deploy 5G networks.
Similarly, the wide range of signals being
considered and used, as well as the fact that
standards are still being developed, tested,
and finalized, means that mobile operators
need to be able to monitor and analyze a
much larger portion of the spectrum than
before. These challenges are creating new
requirements for the RF equipment that
companies are using.
Managing 4G and 5G Networks
Simultaneously
Upgrading thousands of cell towers and
building new ones to meet the coverage
requirements for 5G networks will take years.
As a result, full 5G coverage is a long way
away. Until then, companies will need to
manage 3G/4G/LTE networks alongside 5G
networks simultaneously while continuing
to upgrade these networks to remain
competitive.
This means that, for the foreseeable future,
existing spectrum analysis equipment
designed for lower frequencies cannot
be disposed of and will continue to play
an important role in managing wireless
communication networks.
6 | thinkRF.com
Limited Range and Penetrability of
High Frequency Signals
High-band signals enable the performance
improvements promised by 5G. But to
achieve this, mobile operators must sacrifice
range and penetrability. Mobile operators
will need to ensure coverage across their
entire 5G network and consistently evaluate
network performance to ensure customers
are receiving the performance they expect,
especially since early customers are paying a
premium to connect to 5G.
Small cell networks will require testing,
optimization, coverage mapping, and
mobile drive testing on a regular basis,
and interference, channel emulation, and
multiple-input and multiple output (MIMO)
configurations need to be analyzed to
determine user experience. The equipment
used to conduct these tests needs to be
portable, flexible, and easily deployed across
a variety of environments.
Variety of Signals
5G is not a single standard. Instead,
deployments will consist of a low, mid, and
high-band approach to provide coverage and
capacity. IoT and mMTC, for example, will use
low-band signals, while autonomous vehicles
and virtual reality applications may take
advantage of the latency and speed benefits
of high-band signals.
Ideally, mobile operators and the field
engineers monitoring these networks will have
 equipment that can cover the entire spectrum
and easily switch between signal standards,
measure multiple signals at once, and
detect issues in the network without having
to change hardware or reconfigure the
equipment.

Being First to Market

Now that the first small-scale 5G

deployments have been realized, mobile
operators are under pressure to be first to
deploy 5G into new markets around the
world. The advantages of being first include
new revenue opportunities, a larger customer
base, and the prestige of being a market
leader.

This means that speed and time-to-market

are significant drivers for companies when
evaluating RF equipment providers, and they
may not be willing to replace their existing
equipment or wait for new hardware to be
developed.

7 | thinkRF.com

How RF Equipment
Manufacturers and SIs can
Address These Challenges
In response to these challenges, companies
will need new capabilities from their
spectrum analysis equipment. RF equipment
manufacturers and system integrators will
need to decide whether it’s best to build
or buy new hardware that meets these
performance requirements, or extend the life
of their existing equipment using a third-party
RF downconverter.
An RF downconverter takes high frequency
signals and down-converts them to a lower
intermediate frequency (IF) that can be
analyzed by existing equipment. It maintains
all of the signal properties and information
needed to conduct analysis but brings the
signals down to a lower frequency.
In the short-to-mid-term, integrating with an
RF downconverter can quickly extend the
performance of existing equipment already
sold and deployed with customers. It allows
you to meet your customers’ needs for
frequency performance without requiring
them to fully replace their investments
in hardware. It also gives you additional
time to develop new hardware without
risking customers switching to one of your
competitors.
Integrating an RF downconverter addresses
the challenges faced by mobile operators in a
number of ways.
Faster to Deploy
With speed being a major driver for mobile
operators, integrating with a third-party RF
8 | thinkRF.com
downconverter is significantly faster than
building new hardware from scratch. RF
equipment providers and SIs can remain
competitive and extend the performance of
existing hardware that’s already deployed at
a customer, or sell to new customers looking
for an immediate solution.
More Cost-Effective
Compared to fully replacing existing hardware
and buying a full suite of new equipment,
purchasing RF downconverters to extend
existing hardware is significantly more cost-
effective. When dealing with hundreds or
thousands of devices that are still usable,
this adds up to a substantial savings for the
customer.
Single Solution Across 4G and 5G
Networks
As we discussed, 4G and 5G networks will
operate simultaneously for the foreseeable
future. Mobile operators benefit from
using the same equipment across these
deployments and getting consistent
measurements rather than switching
back-and-forth depending on what type of
signal they are capturing.
Reduced Training Requirements
RF engineers and technicians working in
the field are already familiar with existing
equipment. An RF downconverter allows
them to continue using this hardware with
limited additional training, reducing overall
deployment costs and maintaining their
efficiency when compared to introducing
entirely new hardware.
 RF equipment manufacturers and SIs should
Meeting the Needs of look for RF downconverters that are open and
5G Wireless for Your easily integrated with third-party hardware
using simple commands, such as SCPI. The
Customers downconverters should be lightweight and
portable to limit the impact of additional size
Mobile operators are rapidly deploying 5G
and weight on existing hardware, and they
networks around the world, and the pace of
should provide frequency performance that
this investment in infrastructure, spectrum
extends into the range commonly used by 5G
resources, and equipment is increasing.
signal standards.
5G represents a significant opportunity for
RF equipment manufacturers and system
5G is here, and the potential impact it will have
integrators who provide spectrum analysis
on society is only now becoming clear. The
solutions to these companies. However,
companies enabling this future need the right
if existing equipment is designed around
equipment to test and optimize networks,
3G/4G/LTE standards and does not meet
map coverage areas, and ensure performance
the performance requirements of new 5G
is up to customers’ expectations. RF
signals, you’re at risk of losing customers to
equipment manufacturers using third-party RF
competitors.
downconverters can provide this equipment
quickly and cost-effectively.
RF downconverters make it possible to extend
the range of existing equipment already
sold and deployed to customers without
forcing them to fully replace their investment
in hardware. It provides the frequency
performance needed for high-band signals
faster and at a lower cost than developing and
building a new device from scratch.

ABOUT THINKRF

ThinkRF is the leader in software-defined spectrum analysis platforms that monitor, detect and analyze complex
waveforms in today’s rapidly evolving wireless landscape. By providing more flexibility, greater coverage, increased
functionality and better ROI, ThinkRF solutions are ideal for regulatory and intelligence monitoring, telecom deployment
optimization and RF application development. With open APIs and proven integrations, ThinkRF offers the only compact
and networkable spectrum analyzer that can be deployed without a PC and the best price to performance on the market.
Founded in 2006, ThinkRF is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with offices and partners globally.

For more information, visit www.thinkrf.com, contact info@thinkrf.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

© 2019 by ThinkRF Corp., Ottawa, Canada

Trade names are trademarks of the owners
These specifications are preliminary, non-warranted, and subject to change without notice.