The publisher just completed its 32nd 5G benchmark study. For this endeavor they collaborated with Accuver Americas and Spirent Communications to conduct an independent benchmark study of 5G mmWave 4 component carrier (4CC) uplink performance, using AT&T's commercial network in Glendale, AZ.
Highlights of the Report include the following:
Acknowledgements
This study was conducted in collaboration with Accuver Americas (XCAL5/XCAL-Solo and XCAP) and Spirent Communications (Umetrix Data). The publisher is responsible for the data collection and all analysis and commentary provided in this report.
Methodology
The publisher tested within State Farm stadium and around the Glendale Entertainment District. Nokia [and some Corning] is the infrastructure supplier in this market. They used four flagship Samsung smartphones, from the Galaxy S23 back to the Galaxy S20 Plus. They used Umetrix Data to generate the uplink/downlink data transfers and XCAL-Solo to log the chipset data. They also used various Android applications to measure and record the battery current drain.
Temperamental
The publisher can best describe the 4CC uplink performance as being temperamental. Although it was possible to obtain reasonably good performance when directly facing the serving cell, the uplink speeds were highly dependent on the phone's orientation to the serving site and body blockage. The variability in the uplink [and downlink] speeds was directly related to the signal strength (RSRP).
Battery Temperature
Despite the publisher's use of the ice cube bath, they found that high bandwidth downlink and uplink data transfers only had a modest impact on battery temperature. However, the glaring sun was a killer, meaning that a 5G smartphone could hit its thermal limit even before transferring a single byte of data over 5G. The publisher quantifies these comments.
Battery Current Drain
Once again, the higher the throughput the higher the current efficiency or the achieved throughput for a given amount of current (Mbps/mA). While it is true higher data speeds increase the battery current drain, it is more than offset by the increase in data speeds. The Galaxy S23 meaningfully outperformed the S20 Ultra and other legacy phones in this category.
Around the Corner
Future topics include Open RAN (multiple studies, including scheduler efficiency), uplink MU-MIMO, another downlink MU-MIMO, and uplink 5G carrier aggregation (FR1), in no particular order.
Table of Contents
1.0 Executive Summary
2.0 Key Observations
3.0 Detailed Results and Analysis
3.1 Before and After
3.2 Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22 Ultra Comparative Results
3.3 Verizon 5G mmWave Uplink Performance - Sample Results
3.4 4CC Uplink and the Impact on Current Drain
3.5 5G mmWave Data Transfers and the Impact on Battery Temperature
3.6 5G mmWave Downlink Performance
3.7 State Farm Stadium Performance Results
4.0 Test Methodology
5.0 Final Thoughts
Index of Figures & Tables
Figure 1. 5G mmWave and Band n77 Coverage - Before
Figure 2. 5G mmWave and Band n77 Coverage - After
Figure 3. Average Uplink Throughput - Total and by Component Carrier (Before)
Figure 4. Distribution of Uplink Throughput - Total and by Component Carrier (Before)
Figure 5. Average Uplink Throughput - Total and by Component Carrier (After)
Figure 6. Distribution of Uplink Throughput - Total and by Component Carrier (After)
Figure 7. Average and Distribution of RSRP -by Component Carrier (Before)
Figure 8. Average and Distribution of RSRP - by Component Carrier (Before)18
Figure 9. Geo Plot of 5G P Cell RSRP (Before)
Figure 10. Geo Plot of 5G P Cell RSRP (After)
Figure 11. Uplink Throughput Versus RSRP -by component carrier (Before)
Figure 12. Uplink Throughput Versus RSRP -by component carrier (After)
Figure 13. Average and Distribution of Uplink PUSCH Transmit Power - by component carrier (Before)
Figure 14. Average and Distribution of Uplink PUSCH Transmit Power - by component carrier (After)
Figure 15. PUSCH Transmit Power Versus RSRP -by component carrier (Before)
Figure 16. PUSCH Transmit Power Versus RSRP -by component carrier (After)
Figure 17. Uplink Throughput Versus PUSCH Transmit Power - by component carrier (Before)
Figure 18. Uplink Throughput Versus PUSCH Transmit Power - by component carrier (After)
Figure 19. Average and Distribution of Uplink Resource Block Allocations Versus RSRP - by component carrier (Before)
Figure 20. Average and Distribution of Uplink Resource Block Allocations Versus RSRP - by component carrier (After)
Figure 21. Average and Distribution of Uplink MCS Versus RSRP - by component carrier (Before)
Figure 22. Average and Distribution of Uplink MCS Versus RSRP - by component carrier (After)
Figure 23. Distribution of 5G and Component Carrier Usage
Figure 24. Transmission Type Versus RSRP (After)
Figure 25. 5G mmWave Usage - 1CC and 4CC (S23 versus S22 Ultra)
Figure 26. P Cell PUSCH Throughput Versus RSRP - Galaxy S23 versus Galaxy S22 Ultra
Figure 27. LTE and 5G PUSCH Throughput Versus RSRP Time Series Plot
Figure 28. P Cell RSRP and the Impact of Body Blockage and Phone Orientation
Figure 29. PUSCH Throughput - Total and by Component Carrier (Verizon)
Figure 30. RSRP Time Series - by Component Carrier (Sensitivity Study)
Figure 31. Average RSRP - by Component Carrier (Sensitivity Study)
Figure 32. PUSCH Throughput Time Series - by Component Carrier (Sensitivity Study)32
Figure 33. Average PUSCH Throughput - by Component Carrier (Sensitivity Study)32
Figure 34. Battery Current Drain in Airplane Mode
Figure 35. Uplink Application Layer Throughput after Dark - by smartphone
Figure 36. Battery Current Drain During Uplink Data Transfer after Dark Time Series - by smartphone
Figure 37. Average Adjusted Battery Current Drain During Uplink Data Transfer after Dark - by smartphone
Figure 38. 5G mmWave Uplink Data Transfer Current Efficiency after Dark - by smartphone
Figure 39. View of the 5G mmWave Radio at Lunch
Figure 40. Uplink Application Layer Throughput after Lunch Time Series - by smartphone
Figure 41. Average Uplink Application Layer Throughput after Lunch - by smartphone37
Figure 42. Average Adjusted Battery Current Drain During Uplink Data Transfer after Lunch - by smartphone
Figure 43. 5G mmWave Uplink Data Transfer Current Efficiency after Lunch - by smartphone
Figure 44. Uplink Application Layer Throughput on Bench - by smartphone
Figure 45. Average Adjusted Battery Current Drain During Uplink Data Transfer on Bench - by smartphone
Figure 46. 5G mmWave Uplink Data Transfer Current Efficiency on Bench - by smartphone
Figure 47. Taking a Refreshing Ice Bath
Figure 48. 5G mmWave Uplink Data Transfers and the “Ice Cube” Effect
Figure 49. 5G mmWave Downlink Data Transfers
Figure 50. 5G mmWave Uplink Data Transfers
Figure 51. 5G mmWave Downlink Walk Test
Figure 52. P Cell 5G mmWave PDSCH Throughput Versus P Cell SINR
Figure 53. Total 5G mmWave PDSCH Throughput Versus P Cell SINR
Figure 54. P Cell RSRP Versus Cell Site Distance - PCI 65
Figure 55. Total 5G mmWave PDSCH Throughput Versus Cell Site Distance - PCI 65
Figure 56. Total 5G mmWave PDSCH Throughput Geo Plot
Figure 57. Stadium Map PCI Values
Figure 58. Stadium Map 5G Downlink Throughput
Figure 59. 5G P Cell SINR by PCI
Figure 60. 5G Total Throughput by PCI
Figure 61. 5G P Cell RSRP by PCI
Figure 62. Umetrix Data Platform
Figure 63. XCAL-Solo
Companies Mentioned
- AT&T
- Accuver Americas
- Spirent Communications
- State Farm
- Nokia
- Samsung
