As a new generation of mobile communication technology, 5G NR technology‘s network structure, network capabilities, and requirements are very different from those in the past, and a large number of technologies are integrated into it.
The core 5G NR technologies are briefly described as follows:
OFDM optimized waveform and multiple access in 5G NR Technology
5G NR technology adopts OFDM-based waveform and multiple access technologies, because OFDM technology is widely used in today’s 4G LTE and Wi-Fi systems, and it can be extended to large bandwidth applications and has high spectrum efficiency, and low data complexity. It can meet the 5G requirements well.
The OFDM technology family can achieve a variety of enhancements, such as enhancing frequency localization through windowing or filtering, improving multiplex transmission efficiency between different users and services, and creating single-carrier OFDM waveforms to achieve energy-efficient uplink transmission.
Realize scalable OFDM interval parameter configuration in 5G NR Technology
With 15kHz spacing between OFDM subcarriers (fixed OFDM parameter configuration), LTE can support a carrier bandwidth of up to 20 MHz.
In order to support richer spectrum types/bands (in order to connect as many devices as possible, 5G NR technology will use all available spectrum, such as millimeter microwaves, and unlicensed frequency bands) and deployment methods.
5G NR technology will introduce scalable OFDM interval parameter configuration. This is very important because when FFT (Fast Fourier Transform, Fast Fourier Transform) expands the size to a larger bandwidth, it must be ensured that it will not increase the processing complexity.
In order to support different channel widths of multiple deployment modes, 5G NR technology must adapt to different parameter configurations under the same deployment, and improve the efficiency of multiplex transmission under a unified framework.
In addition, 5G NR technology can also implement carrier aggregation across parameters, such as aggregation of millimeter waves and carriers in the frequency band below 6 GHz.
OFDM windowing improves multiplex transmission efficiency in 5G NR Technology
5G NR will be applied to the large-scale Internet of Things, which means that billions of devices will be connected to each other. 5G NR technology is bound to improve the efficiency of multiplex transmission to meet the challenges of the large-scale Internet of Things.
In order for adjacent frequency bands not to interfere with each other, the signal radiation in and out of the frequency band must be as small as possible. OFDM can implement post-processing of waveforms, such as time-domain windowing or frequency-domain filtering, to improve frequency localization.
Flexible frame design in 5G NR technology
While designing 5G NR technology, a flexible 5G network architecture is adopted to further improve the efficiency of 5G New Radio service multiplexing. This flexibility is not only reflected in the frequency domain, but also in the time domain. The framework of 5G NR can fully meet the different services and application scenarios of 5G NR.
This includes scalable time interval (STTI, Scalable Transmission Time Interval), self-contained integrated subframe (Self-contained integrated subframe).
Advanced new wireless technology of 5G NR technology
5G NR technology Massive MIMO:
From 2×2 to the current 4×4 MIMO. More antennas also mean more space. It is obviously unrealistic to accommodate more antennas in devices with limited space, and more MIMO can only be superimposed on the base station.
From the current theory, 5G NR can use up to 256 antennas at the base station, and through the two-dimensional arrangement of the antennas, 3D beamforming can be achieved, thereby improving channel capacity and coverage.
5G NR technology Millimeter-wave:
The 5G new radio 5G NR technology is for the first time applying frequency bands above 24 GHz (commonly called millimeter waves) to mobile broadband communications. A large amount of available high-frequency spectrum can provide the ultimate data transmission speed and capacity, which will reshape the mobile experience.
However, the use of millimeter waves is not easy, and the use of millimeter wave frequency band transmission is more likely to cause path obstruction and loss (signal diffraction ability is limited).
Under normal circumstances, the signal transmitted in the millimeter wave frequency band cannot even penetrate the wall. In addition, it also faces problems such as waveform and energy consumption.
5G NR technology Spectrum sharing:
With shared spectrum and unlicensed spectrum, 5G can be extended to multiple dimensions to achieve greater capacity, use more spectrum, and support new deployment scenarios.
This will not only benefit mobile operators with licensed spectrum, but also create opportunities for manufacturers who do not have licensed spectrum, such as cable operators, enterprises, and IoT vertical industries, enabling them to make full use of 5G NR technology.
5G NR natively supports all spectrum types and flexibly utilizes new spectrum sharing modes through forward compatibility.
5G NR technology advanced channel coding design:
The current LTE network coding is not enough to cope with future data transmission needs, so there is an urgent need for a more efficient channel coding design to increase the data transmission rate and use a larger coding information block to fit the mobile broadband traffic configuration.
At the same time, the performance limit of existing channel coding technologies (such as LTE Turbo) must continue to be improved. The transmission efficiency of LDPC far exceeds that of LTE Turbo, and the easy-to-parallel decoding design can achieve higher transmission rates with low complexity and low latency.
5G NR technology ultra-dense heterogeneous network
The 5G network is an ultra-complex network. In the 2G era, tens of thousands of base stations can cover the whole country, but in 4G China, there are more than 5 million networks.
While 5G needs to support 1 million devices per square kilometer, this network must be very dense and requires a large number of small base stations to support it.
In the same network, different terminals require different rates and power consumption, and also use different frequencies, and have different requirements for QoS.
In this case, the network can easily cause mutual interference. 5G networks need to adopt a series of measures to ensure system performance: the realization of different services in the network, coordination schemes among various nodes, network selection, and energy-saving configuration methods.
In an ultra-dense network, dense deployment causes a sharp increase in the number of cell boundaries, the shape of cells is irregular, and users may switch frequently and complicatedly. In order to meet the mobility requirements, a new handover algorithm is required.
In short, a complex, dense, heterogeneous, large-capacity, multi-user network needs to be balanced, stable, and reduce interference. This requires continuous improvement of algorithms to solve these problems.
5G NR technology self-organization of the network
A self-organizing network is an important technology of 5G NR technology. This is the self-planning and self-configuration in the network deployment phase; self-optimization and self-healing in the network maintenance phase.
Self-configuration, namely the configuration of newly added network nodes, can realize plug-and-play and has the advantages of low cost and easy installation. The purpose of self-planning is to dynamically plan and execute the network while meeting the needs of system capacity expansion, service monitoring, or optimization results.
Self-healing means that the system can automatically detect, locate and troubleshoot problems, greatly reducing maintenance costs and avoiding the impact on network quality and user experience.
When SON technology is applied to mobile communication networks, its advantages are reflected in network efficiency and maintenance, while reducing operator expenditures and operating costs.
Since the existing SON technologies are all based on the perspective of their respective networks, operations such as self-deployment, self-configuration, self-optimization, and self-healing are independent and closed, and there is a lack of collaboration between multiple networks.
5G NR technology network slicing
That is, the operator’s physical network is divided into multiple virtual networks, and each network is adapted to different service requirements. This can be divided into different networks by delay, bandwidth, security, and reliability to adapt to different scenarios.
The network slicing technology splits multiple logical networks on an independent physical network, thus avoiding the construction of a dedicated physical network for each service, which can greatly save the cost of deployment.
On the same 5G network, technology telecom operators will slice the network into multiple different networks such as smart transportation, drones, smart medical, smart home, and industrial control, and open them to different operators. Such a slice of the network also has different guarantees in terms of bandwidth and reliability, and the billing system and management system are also different.
In a sliced network, each service provider does not use the same network and the same service as 4G. Many abilities become uncontrollable.
The 5G slicing network can provide users with different networks, different management, different services, and different billing so that service providers can better use 5G networks.
5G NR technology content delivery network
In 5G networks, there will be a large number of complex services, especially some audio and video services, and some services will experience instantaneous explosive growth, which will affect user experience and feelings. This requires the transformation of the network to adapt it to the explosive growth of content.
The content distribution network is to add a new level to the traditional network, namely the intelligent virtual network. The CDN system comprehensively considers the connection status of each node, load status, and user distance information, and distributes relevant content to the CDN proxy server close to the user, so that the user can obtain the required information nearby so that the network congestion can be alleviated and the response time can be shortened, 5G NR technology improves response speed.
The source server only needs to send the content to each proxy server, which is convenient for users to obtain the content from the nearby proxy server with sufficient bandwidth, reducing network delay and improving user experience.
The advantage of CDN technology is to provide users with information services quickly while helping to solve network congestion problems. CDN technology has become one of the key technologies necessary for 5G NR technology.
5G NR technology device-to-device communication
This is a direct transmission technology of short-range data based on a cellular system. Device-to-device communication (D2D) session data is directly transmitted between terminals without forwarding through the base station, and related control signaling, such as session establishment, maintenance, radio resource allocation, billing, authentication, identification, etc. The cellular network is still responsible for mobility management and so on.
The introduction of D2D communication into cellular networks can reduce the burden on base stations, reduce end-to-end transmission delay, improve spectrum efficiency, and reduce terminal transmit power.
When the wireless communication infrastructure is damaged, or in the blind area of the wireless network, the terminal can realize end-to-end communication and even access the cellular network with the help of D2D.
In 5G networks, D2D communications can be deployed in licensed frequency bands or in unlicensed frequency bands.
5G NR technology edge computing
On the side close to the source of things or data, an open platform integrating network, computing, storage, and application core capabilities is used to provide nearest-end services nearby.
Its applications are initiated on the edge side to generate faster network service responses and meet the basic needs of the industry in real-time business, application intelligence, security, and privacy protection.
5G NR needs to achieve low latency. If data is to be sent to the cloud and server for computer and storage, and then instructions are sent to the terminal, low latency cannot be achieved.
Edge computing is to establish computing and storage capabilities on the base station, complete the calculation in the shortest time, and issue instructions.
5G NR technology software-defined networking and network virtualization
The core characteristics of SDN architecture are openness, flexibility, and programmability. It is mainly divided into three layers:
The infrastructure layer is located at the bottom of the network and includes a large number of basic network equipment. This layer processes and forwards data according to the rules issued by the control layer;
The middle layer is the control layer, which is mainly responsible for orchestrating the resources of the data forwarding plane, controlling the network topology, collecting global status information, etc.;
The uppermost layer is the application layer, which includes a large number of application services and calls network resources through open northbound APIs.
As a new type of network architecture and construction technology, NFV advocates the separation of control and data, software, and virtualization ideas, which brings hope for breaking through the predicament of existing networks.
5G NR is a complex system. The network established on the basis of 5G NR technology not only needs to increase the network speed but also puts forward more requirements.
The terminal in the future 5G network is not only a mobile phone, but also a variety of devices such as automobiles, drones, home appliances, and public service equipment. 4G changes life, and 5G changes society.
5G will be an important propeller for social progress, industry promotion, and economic development.
If you have any 4G LTE 5G NR antenna questions, please read our ANTENNA FAQ section, if you still cannot get the answer you need, please contact us.
You may also be interested in the below articles.
Internal Antenna VS. External Antenna
LTE Vs. 5G: Is 5G Better Than LTE?
