dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaOptimizing the 4G--5G Migration: A Simulation-Driven Roadmap for Emerging Markets
| Authors | Desire Guel, Justin Pegd-Windé Kouraogo, Kouka Kouakou Nakoulma |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | 2601.06076vv1 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.06076 |
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Abstract
Deploying fifth-generation (5G) networks in emerging markets demands a balance between performance targets and constraints in budget, spectrum, and infrastructure. We use MATLAB simulations to quantify how radio and architectural levers - MIMO (beamforming, diversity, spatial multiplexing), carrier aggregation (CA), targeted spectrum refarming to New Radio (NR), mmWave propagation with blockage/rain, and Non-Standalone (NSA) versus Standalone (SA) cores - affect capacity, coverage, latency, and interference robustness, with D2D and M2M as complements to wide-area access. Beamforming improves cell-edge SNR by about 3-6 dB, while spatial multiplexing dominates at moderate/high SNR via multi-stream gains. Throughput scales strongly with CA: increasing from 1 to 5x20-MHz carriers raises peak rate from about 200 Mb/s to about 1 Gb/s at 30 dB SNR; water-filling adds 5-12% over equal power at mid-SNR. Targeted mid-band refarming to NR increases median throughput by 60-90% in urban and 40-70% in rural scenarios when sub-1-GHz layers preserve coverage. At 28 GHz, rain and human blockage add about 8-30 dB excess loss, so viable mmWave deployment concentrates in LOS hot zones with narrow-beam arrays and short inter-site distances. NSA delivers broader initial coverage than SA by reusing LTE/EPC, while SA becomes attractive as transport improves (e.g., >= 10 Gb/s and < 5 ms RTT) and site density grows. We synthesize these results into a practical roadmap: start NR on NSA, prioritize CA-centric spectrum strategies with focused refarming, densify selectively in demand hotspots, and migrate to SA as backhaul and device ecosystems mature.
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"abstract": "Deploying fifth-generation (5G) networks in emerging markets demands a balance between performance targets and constraints in budget, spectrum, and infrastructure. We use MATLAB simulations to quantify how radio and architectural levers - MIMO (beamforming, diversity, spatial multiplexing), carrier aggregation (CA), targeted spectrum refarming to New Radio (NR), mmWave propagation with blockage/rain, and Non-Standalone (NSA) versus Standalone (SA) cores - affect capacity, coverage, latency, and interference robustness, with D2D and M2M as complements to wide-area access. Beamforming improves cell-edge SNR by about 3-6 dB, while spatial multiplexing dominates at moderate/high SNR via multi-stream gains. Throughput scales strongly with CA: increasing from 1 to 5x20-MHz carriers raises peak rate from about 200 Mb/s to about 1 Gb/s at 30 dB SNR; water-filling adds 5-12% over equal power at mid-SNR. Targeted mid-band refarming to NR increases median throughput by 60-90% in urban and 40-70% in rural scenarios when sub-1-GHz layers preserve coverage. At 28 GHz, rain and human blockage add about 8-30 dB excess loss, so viable mmWave deployment concentrates in LOS hot zones with narrow-beam arrays and short inter-site distances. NSA delivers broader initial coverage than SA by reusing LTE/EPC, while SA becomes attractive as transport improves (e.g., \u003e= 10 Gb/s and \u003c 5 ms RTT) and site density grows. We synthesize these results into a practical roadmap: start NR on NSA, prioritize CA-centric spectrum strategies with focused refarming, densify selectively in demand hotspots, and migrate to SA as backhaul and device ecosystems mature.",
"arxiv_id": "2601.06076",
"authors": [
"Desire Guel",
"Justin Pegd-Wind\u00e9 Kouraogo",
"Kouka Kouakou Nakoulma"
],
"categories": [
"eess.SP"
],
"license": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
"title": "Optimizing the 4G--5G Migration: A Simulation-Driven Roadmap for Emerging Markets",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.06076",
"version": "v1"
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