How many (maximum number of) Users can be simultaneously active in a 5G cell/gNodeB?

5G NR
#1

Hello Experts.

I have seen this question here, long time ago: How many (maximum number of) Users can be simultaneously active in a LTE cell/eNodeB?

Now, i would like to rise same question, but for 5G:

How many users can be simultaneously active in a 5G cell?

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I know it depends on several factors (bandwidth, hardware…). Is there also a vendor dependency on this value?

So, what would be the maximum number of concurrent (simultaneous) users - practical and theoretical value - that we can have, considering the main possible scenarios/factors?

Probably there will be some “it depends”… in this case, can we have a table, with the average and/or maximum number of 5G users per cell, for different scenarios?

1 Like
#2

Really good question. I don’t know the answer, but indeed it’s a good table to have, please share if you find.

I read and article long time ago, saying:

“5G is expected to support up to 1 million connected devices per .38 square miles, compared to around 2,000 connected devices per .38 square miles with 4G.” (This is the link for the article, but it is very old - 2017).

#3

Me too. Only have knowledge for LTE (as in this great article: LTE And The Number Of Simultaneously Connected Users – WirelessMoves).

But for 5G, no idea… :frowning:

#4

It is true to have millions of connected users in case benefitting from all functionalities of 5G (URLLC, EMBB, M2M).

You can find thousands of cars in a crowded street and hundreds of thousands of IoT devices or sensors in the same street…let’s here, as 5G global view, you can serve thousands or much more per cell (via different slices).

Coming back to the usage of 5G for BB domain only (similar to 4G or 3G), i think it is limited to SW level per vendor, BW, license capacity as well HW and configuration of the 5G cell (some alarms may affect negatively the 5G cell performances and hence the number of connected users…)

#5

Simultanously active or simultanously scheduled in one TTI?

Simultanously active have dependancy on PUCCH resources, hardware limit and hard limit set by setting

Usually, I value i saw so far is 1200 per cell.

Simultanously scheduled in one TTI: max 16 as per 3gpp.
But can be limit through parameters.

2 Likes
#6

I’ve seen a lot of answers, like:

  • depends on cell likes pico/micro/metro cell

  • haha… the magic answer for this question is “depends on traffic model”… :rofl:

  • Thousands or millions depends of the Network Slicing framework which include different services and use case escenarios.

I agree, in part… :roll_eyes:
But if i answer this to my boss, then he will tell me that only one gNB is enough… :woozy_face: