RedCap is being prepped for real-world deployments. What efficiency can it obtain?
Improvement and testing of 5G New Radio Diminished Functionality (RedCap) is choosing up steam, with current bulletins from Qualcomm in addition to a slew of testing bulletins up to now few months from main carriers around the globe.
RedCap is a 5G Standalone know-how, bringing IoT and lower-performance gadgets into the 5G SA world. However decrease efficiency doesn’t imply “low” efficiency because it has been understood within the NB-IoT, LPWA world. RedCap’s speeds, latency and spectrum use are largely on-par with superior LTE capabilities. Certainly, it’s seen because the 5G inheritor to LTE Cat-4 by way of:
-Speeds of tens to a whole lot of Mbps. This maps very neatly to LTE Cat-4, through which knowledge charges vary as much as 50 Mbps in uplink and as much as 150 Mbps within the downlink.
-Less complicated antenna design, with help for one transmit antenna and one or two obtain antennas.
-Compact design with improved battery life, in comparison with different fully-equipped 5G NR choices.
-Spectrum help in low-mid (Frequency Vary 1) utilizing a 20-megahertz channel and excessive (Frequency Vary 2) bands, utilizing 100 megahertz of spectrum. The preliminary RedCap chips and gadgets are anticipated to give attention to FR1.
Ericsson, which is anticipated to commercially launch its RedCap software program this month, summarizes the options of RedCap within the following chart.
So how does this map to expectations of real-world efficiency? Whereas the theoretical peak of RedCap within the downlink has been anticipated to be proper round 150 Mbps, there are indications that RedCap chipsets are being refined to enhance, somewhat than cut back, upon precise efficiency because the know-how will get nearer to launch. Contemplate, for instance, module maker Fibocom’s specification sheets for its RedCap choices introduced over the course of this 12 months. When Fibocom introduced its first RedCap FG 1322-NA module in Could, it laid out the velocity specs as as much as 220 Mbps within the downlink and as much as 100 Mbps within the uplink. By the point the corporate introduced a second module, the FG131, the marketed speeds crept even a bit increased, with Fibocom saying that each RedCap modules might help hurries up as much as 226 Mbps within the downlink and as much as 120 Mbps within the uplink in 5G SA networks.
Equally, RedCap testing by Huawei a 12 months in the past, in November 2022, achieved charges of 142 Mbps within the downlink and 35 Mbps within the uplink in mid-band TDD spectrum. Comparatively, testing by Ericsson in partnership with MediaTek performed within the fall of this 12 months yielded an FDD knowledge name with throughput of 220 Mbps within the downlink and 74 Mbps within the uplink. In TDD spectrum, Ericsson and MediaTek recorded downlink speeds of 153 Mbps and uplink speeds of 13.5 Mbps.
On the lookout for extra insights on 5G RedCap as a know-how, potential use instances and its strategic position within the 5G ecosystem? Try the editorial webinar accessible on-demand, that includes Counterpoint Analysis, Fibocom and Viavi Options—and hold a watch out for our upcoming particular report!
