Methodology for network capacity assessment of 5G NSA EN-DC network

As mobile network operators are aiming to provide high-grade user experience and to achieve low operating costs, it is important to assess the radio network capacity to balance it with traffic demand. For evaluation of national-scale capacity, it is necessary to consider the regional statistical distribution of spectrum usage on a national scale since there is an overestimation problem when estimating network capacity simply by multiplying spectrum bandwidth, spectral efficiency, and number of cells. Meanwhile, 5G non-standalone network which was launched recently supports tight 4G-5G interworking which allows some portion of the 5G user traffic to be transmitted through 4G radio networks. In such a 5G dual-connected environment, both 4G and 5G network capacities should be considered together when evaluating the total capacity of 5G dual connectivity network. This Letter proposes a methodology for evaluating the spectrum index driven network capacity based on statistical distribution of spectrum usage for 5G dual connectivity network. According to the analysis of this paper, the 4G capacity margin is estimated at 12.6 % in 2020 and is expected to increase to 63.0% in 2026. Due to this 4G margin, 5G dual-connected network is predicted to be saturated in early 2026 if there is no additional spectral supply, while 5G network's saturation is expected in early 2024