By Powered By SmileMbb | 07 April 2023 | 0 Comments
The Concept introduction of 5G EN-DC/NE-DC/NGEN-DC
Let's start with a brief introduction to the development stages of 5G communication standards
5G network communication technology standards are divided into Release 15 and Release 16 phases.
The standard of Release 15 is divided into 3 parts:
• Early drop: NSA (Non-Stand-Alone) Standard (Option-series), Released in 2018.03;
• Main drop： SA (Standalone) Standard (Option-2 series), Released in 2018.09;
• Late drop: Other migration architectures (Option-4, Option-7 and 5G-5G dual connection), Released in 2020.07.
The evolution from 3G to 4G is called the "overall evolution", where the wireless access network and core network packaging evolve from 3G to 4G.
Now, things are different in the 5G era.
As 4G evolved to 5G, wireless access networks and core networks were separated, and 5G wireless Access Networks (NR), 5G core networks, 4G core networks, and 4G wireless Access networks (LTE) were mixed and matched, forming an evolutionary path of multiple network deployment options.
These options mainly include (below) :
| Option | Core network | Base station | Auxiliary station | Deployment mode |
| 2 | 5G Core network | 5G Base station | / | Standalone deployment |
| 3 | 4G Core network | 4G Base station | 5G Base station | Non- Standalone deployment(EN-DC) |
| 4 | 5G Core network | 5G Base station | 4G Base station | Non- Standalone deployment( NE-DC) |
| 5 | 5G Core network | 4G Base station | / | Standalone deployment |
| 7 | 5G Core network | 4G Base station | 5G Base station | Non- Standalone deployment (NGEN-DC) |
• Option 2: Standalone (SA) mode, with 5G core network introduced and only 5G base stations connected to the 5G core network.
• Option 3: Non- Standalone (NSA) mode, connects with 4G core network, 4G base station as the main station, 5G base station as the auxiliary station.
• Option 4: Non- Standalone (NSA) mode, with 5G core network introduced, 5G base station as the main station and 4G base station as the auxiliary station.
• Option 5: Standalone (SA) mode, with 5G core network introduced, but only 4G base stations connected to the 5G core network.
• Option 7: Non- Standalone (NSA) mode, with 5G core network introduced, 4G base station as the main station and 5G base station as the auxiliary station.
As can be seen from the above table, the so-called Non- Standalone refers to the dual connection of LTE and NR new wireless. Due to the differences in specific implementation, it contains 3 architectures: EN-DC (option 3), NE-DC (Option 4) and NGEN-DC (Option 7).
DC stands for Dual Connectivity; E stands for E-UTRA: 4G wireless Access network; N stands for NR: 5G new wireless; NG stands for the next generation core network: 5G core network.
EN-DC refers to the dual connection of 4G wireless access network and 5G NR, NE-DC refers to the dual connection of 5G NR and 4G wireless access network, and NGEN-DC refers to the dual connection of 4G wireless access network and 5G NR under 5G core network.
What is NR-NR dual connection?
Due to some operators plan with low frequencies (700/800/900 MHZ band, for example) to build 5G network layer, with a high frequency band (such as millimeter wave frequency) to supplement the network capacity, but due to the wireless transmission characteristic difference is too big between low and high frequency, thus it is unrealistic to achieve carrier aggregation technology via low and high frequency dual connection, therefore NR- NR dual connection technique is proposed.
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