5G NR Essentials

Thanks for your interest in Intelefy’s 5G NR Essentials Guide. This guide is intended to help you
understand what aspects of 5G matter most to you and start learning.

Table of Contents
1. What is Bandwidth Part? ....................................................................................................... 2
2. What is CORESET (1)? ............................................................................................................ 3
3. What is CORESET (2)? ............................................................................................................ 4
4. What is new in the RAN Architecture of 5G? .......................................................................... 5
5. 5G Deployment Options ......................................................................................................... 6
6. 5G NR Operating Bands ......................................................................................................... 7
7. NR Bands Classification.......................................................................................................... 8
8. Key performance requirements of 5G..................................................................................... 9
9. 5G NR: Demystifying Massive MIMO ................................................................................... 10
10. Dynamic Shared Spectrum ............................................................................................... 11
11. Use cases of 5G ................................................................................................................ 12
12. Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) ............................................................................... 13
13. Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) ....................................................... 14
14. Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) ............................................................. 15

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1. What is Bandwidth Part?
What is Bandwidth Part?

Bandwidth Part (BWP) is a contiguous set of physical resource blocks (PRBs) on a given carrier.
These RBs are selected from a contiguous subset of the common resource blocks for a given
numerology (u). It is denoted by BWP. Each BWP defined for a numerology can have following
three different parameters.

• Subcarrier spacing
• Symbol duration
• Cyclic prefix (CP) length

Why is BWP Required?

A wider Bandwidth has direct impact on the peak and user experienced data rates. However, users
are not always demanding high data rate. The use of wide BW may imply higher idling power
consumption both from RF and baseband signal processing perspectives. The new concept of BWP
has been introduced for 5G-NR to provide a means of operating UEs with smaller BW than the
configured CBW, which makes NR an energy efficient solution despite the support of wideband
operation.

Alternatively, one may consider scheduling a UE such that it only transmits or receives within a
certain frequency range. Compared to this approach, the difference with BWP is that the UE is not
required to transmit or receive outside of the configured frequency range of the active BWP, which
attributes power saving from the following aspects:

BWP concept reduces baseband processing requirement to transmit or receive narrow bandwidth.

BWP enables RF-baseband interface operation with a lower sampling rate

UE RF bandwidth adaptation can provide UE power saving at least if carrier bandwidth before
adaptation is large.

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2. What is CORESET (1)?
What is CORESET?

The set of physical resources that is a time frequency resource in which device tries to decode
candidate control channels using one or more search spaces is called as the control resource set
(CORESET).

Coreset is a central concept to downlink control signaling in 5G NR.

Need to introduce CORESET:

The downlink control signaling in LTE uses the full carrier bandwidth in the first 1-3 OFDM symbols
(four for the most narrowband case). This is known as the control region in LTE.

The desire for frequency diversity and the fact that all LTE devices support the full 20 MHz carrier
bandwidth motivated the need of having control channels covering the full carrier bandwidth.

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3. What is CORESET (2)?
What is the problem with CORESET?

A problem with CORESET is that it leads to complications when introducing support for a device not
supporting the full carrier bandwidth. (EG. eMTC devices in 3GPP release 12).

The inability to handle frequency domain interference coordination between cells for the downlink
control channels is another disadvantage of LTE.

But to some extent all these disadvantages with the LTE control channel were overcome with the
introduction of EPDCCH in release 11.

However, the EPDCCH feature is not brought into practice as LTE network still needs to provide
PDCCH support for initial access and to handle non EPDCCH capable devices.

All this leads to the introduction of more flexible structure in NR called CORESET.

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4. What is new in the RAN Architecture of 5G?
What is new in the RAN Architecture of 5G?

In a 5G RAN architecture, the BaseBand Unit (BBU) is split into two functional units: a distributed
unit (DU), responsible for real-time L1 and L2 scheduling functions; and a centralized unit (CU)
responsible for non-real time, higher L2 and L3 functions.

In a 5G cloud RAN, the DU’s server and relevant software could be hosted on a site itself or can be
hosted in an edge cloud (datacenter or central office) depending on transport availability and
fronthaul interface.

The CU’s server and relevant software can be co-located with the DU or hosted in a regional cloud
data center. The actual split between DU and RU may be different depending on the specific use-
case and implementation. The overall Architecture of NR RAN (Radio Access Network) would not
look much different from LTE RAN Architecture.

However, getting into details, you would start seeing some differences as well.

There are different names for each node and interface. MME/S-GW in LTE is replaced by AMF/UPF
in NR and X2/S1 in LTE are replaced by Xn/NG-C/U in NR.

A different name means a different protocol and implementation.

Among all of these differences, out of the most outstanding one would be that the gNB internal
structure is split into two parts called CU (Central Unit) and DU (Distributed Unit) as shown below
and these two entities are connected by a new interface called F1 (For the details of F1 Interface,
refer to 3GPP 38.473).

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5. 5G Deployment Options
What are the 5G Deployment Options?

For the introduction of 5G, 3GPP has specified 5 possible configurations or ‘Options’ for connecting
to an EPC or new 5G core network (6 if the current 4G system is included).

The features that distinguish each Option are:

• Use of Dual Connectivity.

• Radio Access Technology acting as master node

• Core Network used.

The Options using Dual Connectivity are grouped together under the term “Non-standalone” (NSA)
to indicate that 5G radio access technology (NR) and LTE are used simultaneously to provide radio
access. Options where only one radio access technology is in use are referred to as “Standalone”
(SA).

It is widely expected that mobile operators will initially deploy 5G using Option 3 allowing the re-
use of existing EPC Core functionality. Option 3 has been fully specified in an early drop of 3GPP
Release 15.

The other deployment Options already fully specified by 3GPP are Option 2 and Option 5, both
standalone options differing in the type of radio access technology connected to the new mobile
core network 5GC. These options were completed in June 2018 (ASN.1 in September 2018).

In addition, 3GPP has finalized the two remaining Options, Option 4 and Option 7, completed in
March 2019 (ASN.1 in June 2019).

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6. 5G NR Operating Bands
What are the 5G NR Operating Bands?

In 5G, as per 3GPP release 15, these frequency bands are designated for different frequency ranges
(FR) and current specification (Release) defines them as FR1 and FR2.

Apart from FR (frequency range), NR bands can be classified into three categories.

• Frequency Division Duplex Bands (FDD)

• Time Division Duplex Bands (TDD)

• Supplementary Bands (SUL): Downlink Supplement Bands & Uplink Supplement Bands

NR has introduced a new notation for band which starts with “n” e.g., Band 20 is noted as n20
where in LTE it was termed as B20.

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7. NR Bands Classification
What are NR Bands Classifications?

Apart from FR (frequency range) NR bands can be classified into three into categories

1. Frequency Division Duplex Bands (FDD)

2. Time Division Duplex Bands (TDD)

3. Supplementary Bands (SUL): Downlink Supplement Bands & Uplink Supplement Bands

NR has introduced a new notation for band which starts with “n” e.g. Band 20 is noted as n20
where in LTE it was termed as B20.

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8. Key performance requirements of 5G
What about 5G key performance requirements?

Up to 10Gbps data rate - > 10 to 100x speed improvement over 4G and 4.5G networks

1-millisecond latency

1000x bandwidth per unit area

Up to 100x number of connected devices per unit area (compared with 4G LTE)

99.999% availability

100% coverage

90% reduction in network energy usage

Up to 10-year battery life for low power IoT device

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9. 5G NR: Demystifying Massive MIMO
How will Massive MIMO make 5G different?

As we are moving towards 5G, the concept of Massive MIMO and beamforming are getting much
more attention.

Like any other Access Technology, there are two aspects to this – capacity and coverage.

The essence of Massive MIMO is the massive increase in transmit antenna elements on the gNB.
This can increase capacity by increasing the number of MIMO layers or it can improve coverage by
using beamforming.

Let’s have a look how it is actually materialized in the field.

An antenna has a vertical beamwidth and a horizontal beamwidth.

If the vertical beamwidth is huge, then the horizontal beamwidth will be reduced and vice versa.

In basic beamforming or Massive MIMO, the gNB can reduce or increase the beamwidth along with
the direction of the beam.

The addition of extra transmit antenna elements increases the accuracy of the beamforming.

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10. Dynamic Shared Spectrum
Is there enough spectrum for 5G?

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) is emerging as a key part of mobile service providers’ 5G strategy.
It offers to launch 5G in bands currently used for 4G - enabling nationwide 5G coverage in a short
time after launch.

DSS allows an existing LTE carrier to operate 5G New Radio (NR) and LTE simultaneously - with a
simple software upgrade. The solution is based on innovative intelligent scheduler algorithms that
enable optimal performance as the mix of 4G and 5G devices in the network changes over time.

This is a major breakthrough for wireless communication given that frequency sharing had never
been done between any cellular generations since 2G.

This technology is poised to change how new generation radio access technologies are introduced
in operator networks using one of the most limited resources in mobile, which is spectrum.

DSS is an important technology especially for Verizon. It allows operators to use 4G spectrum and
reallocate it for 5G.

AT&T also has shown interest in DSS, and T-Mobile to a lesser degree. T-Mobile is using 600 MHz as
the basis for its 5G “layer cake” of spectrum, and already covers much of the country with it.

Verizon is using mmWave spectrum to offer super high speeds and capacity in concentrated urban
areas -some call them hot spots - to differentiate 5G from 4G.

DSS will enable Verizon to offer nationwide 5G when it’s available. They’ve promised to cover half
the U.S. population with 5G by the end of this year.

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11. Use cases of 5G
What are the use cases for 5G?

Use cases are integral elements in the development of 5G technology and the attendant 5G
standards development process.

Different use cases will have different network requirements – sometimes vastly different, so
business plans and network upgrades must progress hand-in-hand.

The number of possible use cases depends on who’s doing the counting and what they decide to
count, but it ranges from as few as three very general categories to a dozen or more specific
applications.

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12. Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB)
What is Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB)?

It is also called Extreme Mobile Broadband.

eMBB supports stable connections with extremely high peak data rates, as well as moderate rates
for cell-edge users.

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13. Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC)
What is URLLC?

URLLC (Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications) supports low-latency transmission of small

payloads with very high reliability from a limited set of terminals.

It will be used in services for latency-sensitive devices for applications like factory automation,
autonomous driving, and remote surgery. These applications require sub-millisecond latency with
error rates that are lower than 1 packet loss in 105 packets.

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14. Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC)
Does 5G consider massive machine-type communications (mMTC)?

mMTC supports a massive number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, which are only sporadically
active and send small data payloads with varying quality of service requirements.

The objective of this category is to provide very high density of connectivity where a single Base
Station can support 10,000 or more devices providing an aggregate connectivity for more than a
million devices per square kilometre at the network level.

This category offers many applications like smart cities, smart power grids, and smart farms to
mention a few.

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