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Performance Comparison of 5G NR Uplink MIMO and Uplink Carrier Aggregations on Commercial Network

Henry Shao, Kasidis Arunruangsirilert

TL;DR

The paper addresses uplink bottlenecks in 5G by comparing UL-MIMO and UL-CA on a live SA network across urban, suburban, and rural environments. It employs real-world drive/walk tests on T-Mobile’s n41 spectrum, using throughput normalization and careful data filtration to compare configurations. The key findings show UL-CA delivering higher and more reliable uplink throughput, particularly under weak RF conditions, while UL-MIMO can offer adequate performance in strong RF scenarios but is limited by power sharing and lower high-order modulation usage. The results inform operator strategies on uplink optimization, suggesting broader UL-CA deployment and dynamic steering to balance sector capacity and edge-user throughput, with future work on UL Tx Switch, UL-MIMO on FDD NR, and application-specific effects.

Abstract

Demands for uplink on mobile networks are increasing with the rapid development of social media platforms, 4K/8K content creation, IoT applications, and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband. As a result, Uplink MIMO (UL-MIMO) and Uplink Carrier Aggregation (UL-CA) have been widely deployed for the first time on commercial 5G networks. UL-MIMO enables the transmission of two data streams on one frequency band in strong RF conditions, theoretically doubling throughput and efficiency. On the other hand, UL-CA allows for simultaneous upload on greater channel widths, allowing more resources to be assigned to a single UE for higher throughput. In the United States, T-Mobile USA, a mobile network operator (MNO), has deployed network-wide 5G Standalone (SA), along with UL-MIMO on Time Division Duplex (TDD) band n41 and UL-CA between TDD and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) NR bands. In this paper, the uplink throughput performance of UL-MIMO and UL-CA will be evaluated on the commercial T-Mobile 5G network on a variety of RF environments and modes of transportation. It was found that, even with the efficiency gains, UL-MIMO yields slower uplink throughput in most scenarios. However, in stronger RF conditions, UL-MIMO can provide an adequate user experience, so capacity can be conserved by reserving UL-CA for UE in weaker RF conditions.

Performance Comparison of 5G NR Uplink MIMO and Uplink Carrier Aggregations on Commercial Network

TL;DR

The paper addresses uplink bottlenecks in 5G by comparing UL-MIMO and UL-CA on a live SA network across urban, suburban, and rural environments. It employs real-world drive/walk tests on T-Mobile’s n41 spectrum, using throughput normalization and careful data filtration to compare configurations. The key findings show UL-CA delivering higher and more reliable uplink throughput, particularly under weak RF conditions, while UL-MIMO can offer adequate performance in strong RF scenarios but is limited by power sharing and lower high-order modulation usage. The results inform operator strategies on uplink optimization, suggesting broader UL-CA deployment and dynamic steering to balance sector capacity and edge-user throughput, with future work on UL Tx Switch, UL-MIMO on FDD NR, and application-specific effects.

Abstract

Demands for uplink on mobile networks are increasing with the rapid development of social media platforms, 4K/8K content creation, IoT applications, and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband. As a result, Uplink MIMO (UL-MIMO) and Uplink Carrier Aggregation (UL-CA) have been widely deployed for the first time on commercial 5G networks. UL-MIMO enables the transmission of two data streams on one frequency band in strong RF conditions, theoretically doubling throughput and efficiency. On the other hand, UL-CA allows for simultaneous upload on greater channel widths, allowing more resources to be assigned to a single UE for higher throughput. In the United States, T-Mobile USA, a mobile network operator (MNO), has deployed network-wide 5G Standalone (SA), along with UL-MIMO on Time Division Duplex (TDD) band n41 and UL-CA between TDD and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) NR bands. In this paper, the uplink throughput performance of UL-MIMO and UL-CA will be evaluated on the commercial T-Mobile 5G network on a variety of RF environments and modes of transportation. It was found that, even with the efficiency gains, UL-MIMO yields slower uplink throughput in most scenarios. However, in stronger RF conditions, UL-MIMO can provide an adequate user experience, so capacity can be conserved by reserving UL-CA for UE in weaker RF conditions.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 9 sections, 4 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Experiment Environment
  3. Network Environment
  4. User Equipment (UE) and Data Collection
  5. Test Routes
  6. Results and Analysis
  7. Physical Uplink Throughput
  8. Modulation and MIMO Performance
  9. Conclusions and Future Work

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: CDF of SS-RSRP of 100 MHz and 80 MHz Channels of Band n41
  • Figure 2: Map of Test Routes. Color shows 5G NR SS-RSRP.
  • Figure 3: Field Test Result: Uplink throughput performance by Configuration and Test Route. Sub-figures (a), (b), and (c) plot the measured Uplink Throughput (Mbps) vs 5G NR SS-RSRP (dBm) for the urban, suburban, and rural routes, respectively. Sub-figures (d), (e), and (f) show the box plots summarizing the distribution of Uplink Throughput (Mbps) for each configuration across the three test environments.
  • Figure 4: Field Test Result: Uplink Modulation by Configuration and Test Route