A Comprehensive Real-World Evaluation of 5G Improvements Over 4G in Low- and Mid-Bands

With the proliferation of 5G and developments of 6G technologies already underway, understanding the realworld performance of various 5G enhancements such as higher modulation, beamforming, and MIMO of deployed 5G over 4G is vital. This work addresses this knowledge gap by conducting extensive 4G/5G measurements in low-(<1 GHz) and mid-bands (1 to 6 GHz) across Chicago and Minneapolis. As both 4G and 5G utilize low-and mid-band channels, we carefully analyze their performance and signal parameters to reveal several key observations: (i) 5G’s throughput improvement today is mainly driven by wider channel bandwidth in the mid-bands, from both single channels and channel aggregation, (ii) realizing further throughput gains necessitates better signal conditions achievable through denser deployment and/or beamforming, (iii) channel rank analysis shows real-world channel conditions rarely support the full 4x4 MIMO, (iv) advanced features like MU-MIMO and higher order modulation like 1024-QAM have yet to be widely deployed, and (v) aggregated throughput performance in LTE can be enhanced by incorporating shared and unlicensed bands, resulting in a performance similar to single-channel NR. These observations and conclusions suggest that the next generation of cellular systems should prioritize wider channels, possibly with enhanced channel aggregation, and a denser deployment architecture utilizing more beams. This would ensure consistently better signal strength across the coverage area with up to 4 MIMO layers per user.