Spectrum for Private Networks: Challenges and Opportunities—A Case Study Based on Danish Regulation

This paper investigates the challenges and opportunities for assigning spectrum for private 5G networks, with particular emphasis on the 3.5 GHz band and regulation issued by the Danish spectrum authority Energistyrelsen. We are chiefly interested in the dilemma between providing sufficient and clean spectrum for a private network versus ensuring that high network density can be supported. Indoor and outdoor scenarios are considered, and the performance impact of interference on different levels of service availability are investigated. We develop and propose new solutions for enhanced spectrum regulation options leveraging native 5G features, such as bandwidth part, to support denser outdoor and indoor deployments that can enhance best effort traffic and simultaneously protect spectrum for critical and delay sensitive traffic. System-level simulations show that our proposals can protect critical services and significantly increase the capacity per network in dense deployments.