LTE vs 5G Spectrums
- Overview
According to the standards body, 3GPP, the radio frequency spectrum used by LTE networks ranges from 700 MHz to 2.7 GHz. In theory, LTE peak data rates are 75 Mb/s for the uplink and 300 Mb/s for the downlink when using a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system, also referred to as spatial multiplexing.
The frequency bands for 5G networks come in two sets. Frequency range 1 (FR1) is from 450 MHz to 6 GHz, which includes the LTE frequency range. Frequency range 2 (FR2) is from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The sub-6 GHz range is the name for FR1 and the mmWave spectrum is the name for FR2.
In theory, the peak data rates for a fully mature 5G network are 20 Gb/s downlink and a 10 Gb/s uplink, as standardized by the International Telecommunications Union.
[More to come ...]