Channel Spacing
- Updated2025-04-07
- 2 minute(s) read
Channel spacing is the distance between center frequencies of two adjacent component carriers for intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation.
The channel spacing between the center frequencies of contiguously aggregated component carriers is a multiple of 300 KHz, in order to be compatible with the 100 KHz frequency raster of LTE Rel-8 and to preserve orthogonality of the subcarriers with 15 KHz spacing.
For more information about channel spacing, refer to section 5.4.1A of the 3GPP TS 36.521-1 specification.
Nominal Channel Spacing
Nominal channel spacing is the maximum allowed spacing between the center frequencies of two adjacent component carriers for intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation. Set the Component Carrier Spacing Type property to Nominal to configure nominal channel spacing.
where BWChannel(1) and BWChannel(2) are the channel bandwidths, in MHz, of the two adjacent E-UTRA component carriers.
For example, in a 20 MHz + 20 MHz intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation scenario, the nominal spacing is 19.8 MHz.
Refer to section 5.4.1A of the 3GPP specification for more information about nominal channel spacing.
The following table denotes the nominal channel spacing between adjacent carriers for specified channel bandwidths.
| Channel Bandwidth (MHz) | Nominal Channel Spacing Between Adjacent Carriers (MHz) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4 | 3.0 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | |
| 1.4 | 1.20 | 2.10 | 3.00 | 5.10 | 7.50 | 9.60 |
| 3 | — | 3.00 | 3.90 | 6.00 | 8.40 | 10.50 |
| 5 | — | — | 4.80 | 7.20 | 9.30 | 11.70 |
| 10 | — | — | — | 9.90 | 12.00 | 14.40 |
| 15 | — | — | — | — | 15.00 | 17.10 |
| 20 | — | — | — | — | — | 19.80 |
Minimum Channel Spacing
Minimum channel spacing is the smallest possible value of channel spacing. Minimum channel spacing ensures that the transmission bandwidth configurations do not overlap when setting the channel spacing to a multiple of 300 KHz. To configure minimum channel spacing, set the Component Carrier Spacing Type property to Minimum.
Refer to table 5.7.1-2 of the 3GPP TS 36.808 specification for more information about minimum channel spacing.
The following table denotes the minimum channel spacing between adjacent carriers for specified channel bandwidths.
| Channel Bandwidth (MHz) | Minimum Channel Spacing between Adjacent Carriers (MHz) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.4 | 3.0 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 20 | |
| 1.4 | 1.20 | 2.10 | 3.00 | 5.10 | 7.50 | 9.60 |
| 3 | — | 3.00 | 3.90 | 6.00 | 8.40 | 10.50 |
| 5 | — | — | 4.80 | 6.90 | 9.30 | 11.40 |
| 10 | — | — | — | 9.30 | 11.40 | 13.80 |
| 15 | — | — | — | — | 13.80 | 15.90 |
| 20 | — | — | — | — | — | 18.30 |
User-Specific Channel Spacing
You can configure the spacing type between component carriers by setting the Component Carrier Spacing Type property to User and configuring the component carrier frequency for each component carrier.