5G Carrier Aggregation Combining 5 Component Carriers

Nokia, Qualcomm, and T-Mobile have achieved the world’s first showcase of successfully aggregating 5G Standalone (SA) spectrum using 5CC Carrier Aggregation (5CC CA) in a sub-6 GHz spectrum. The successful trial aggregated 2 FDD and 3 TDD carriers resulting in peak downlink throughput speeds exceeding 4.2Gbps. 5G Carrier Aggregation with 5CC will enable mobile operators to deliver higher data rates and better coverage to even more customers.

The 5CC CA call was conducted on Nokia’s AirScale base station and a mobile test device powered by the new Snapdragon X75 5G Modem-RF System, the world’s first modem-RF solution to support 5G 5x carrier aggregation. During the test, five component carriers on FDD bands n71 (600MHz) and n25 (1900MHz) and TDD bands n41 (2.5GHz) and n77 (3.7GHz) were aggregated. The uplink data rates were also accelerated with 5G uplink Carrier Aggregation on bands n25 and n77. The combination of uplink and downlink carrier aggregation allows operators to keep the uplink and downlink data rates in balance.

By aggregating with 5CC, mobile network operators have more options to leverage their spectrum and network assets for a superior user experience. With ongoing subscriber migration to 5G, network operators can tap into an increasing pool of 5G FDD frequency carriers and combine these with the bandwidth of multiple mid-band (TDD) carriers. 5CC CA unlocks this potential without compromising on coverage and capacity.