Five wireless inventions that define 5G NR — the global 5G standard

3GPP standardization efforts to develop a global specification for this unified, more capable wireless
air interface called 5G New Radio (5G NR) have been ongoing since March 2016. And this week, at a
3GPP RAN Plenary meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, it is expected that 3GPP will successfully complete
the first 5G NR specification — a significant industry milestone toward making 5G NR a commercial
reality in 2019. This first 5G NR specification not only supports 2019 enhanced mobile broadband
deployments, it also establishes the foundation for expanding 5G networks to virtually every
industry, every object, and every connection.

So, what wireless technologies define this first 5G NR specification?

5G NR must meet an expanding and radically diverse set of connectivity requirements and
deployment types. 5G NR also needs to get the most out of every bit of spectrum across a wide
array of available spectrum regulatory paradigms and bands — from low bands below 1 GHz, to mid
bands from 1 GHz to 10 GHz, to high bands above 24 GHz loosely known as millimeter-wave
(mmWave). Therefore, there is no one single technology component that defines 5G NR. Instead,
5G NR will be built out of multiple technology inventions.

Qualcomm, have been developing these 5G building blocks for years — inventing new 5G
technologies that are pushing, and often redefining, the boundaries of wireless. One of the most
rewarding aspects of my work in Qualcomm Research is seeing our advanced system designs and
wireless techniques progress from theory through design, standardization, implementation, and
ultimately commercialization. And now, with the first 5G NR specification about to be completed, we
are seeing our wireless technology inventions (summarized in Figure 1 below), make 5G NR — and
our 5G vision — a reality.

Figure 1: Five wireless inventions that define 5G NR

Invention #1: Scalable OFDM numerology with 2n scaling of subcarrier spacing

One of the foremost decisions for 5G NR design is the choice of radio waveforms and multiple
access techniques. While many approaches have been evaluated and will continue to be, we have
found through extensive studies (published in a Qualcomm Research paper in November 2015) that
the OFDM family — specifically CP-OFDM1 and DFT-Spread (DFT-S) OFDM2, are the right choices
for 5G enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and beyond.

Since OFDM is used today, you might ask where’s the further innovation? One key 5G NR innovation
is scalable OFDM multi-tone numerology (Figure 2). Today, LTE supports carrier bandwidths up to
20 MHz with a mostly fixed OFDM numerology of 15 kHz spacing between OFDM tones (often called
subcarriers). With 5G NR, we have introduced scalable OFDM numerology to support diverse
spectrum bands/types and deployment models. For example, 5G NR must be able to operate in
mmWave bands that have wider channel widths (e.g., 100s of MHz). 3GPP 5G NR Rel-15
specification will utilize scalable OFDM numerology with 2N scaling of subcarrier spacing that can
scale with the channel width, so the FFT size scales such that processing complexity does not
increase unnecessarily for wider bandwidths.

Figure 2: Scalable OFDM multi-tone numerology

Invention #2: Flexible self-contained slot structure

Another key component of the 5G NR design is a flexible slot-based framework that will allow
network operators to efficiently multiplex the envisioned (and unforeseen) 5G services on the same
frequency. A key technology invention to deliver this flexible framework is the 5G NR self-contained
slot structure. With the new self-contained slot structure (see TDD example in Figure 3 below), each
5G NR transmission is a modular transaction with the ability to independently decode slots and avoid
static timing relationships across slots. By confining transmissions in time and frequency, the flexible
design simplifies adding new 5G NR features/services in future — delivering a more forward-
compatible design than previous generations.

The 5G NR self-contained slot structure also delivers significantly lower latency than LTE thanks to
support for fast UL/DL turn-around and scalable slot durations of e.g. 500 µs at 30 kHz tone spacing
to 125 µs at 120 kHz tone spacing. This slot structure framework includes the opportunity for UL/DL
scheduling, data, and acknowledgement to occur in the same slot. Beyond lower latency, this
modular slot structure design enables more adaptive TDD UL/DL configuration, advanced
reciprocity-based antenna techniques (e.g., downlink Massive MIMO steering based on fast uplink
sounding) as well as additional use cases enabled by adding subframe headers (e.g., contention
resolution headers for shared/unlicensed spectrum) — making this invention, which is part of the
3GPP 5G NR specification, a key enabler to meeting many of the 5G NR requirements.
 Figure 3: Benefits of the 5G NR TDD self-contained slot structure

Invention #3: Advanced ME-LDPC and CA-Polar channel coding

Along with the scalable numerology and flexible framework for 5G NR services, the physical layer
design should include an efficient channel coding scheme that can provide robust performance and
flexibility. Although Turbo codes have been well suited for 3G and 4G, Qualcomm Research has
demonstrated that low-density parity check (LDPC) codes, and specifically advanced Multi-Edge
LDPC (ME-LDPC) codes pioneered by Qualcomm Technologies, have advantages from both
complexity and implementation standpoints when scaling to very high throughputs and larger block
lengths as demonstrated in Figure 4. As a result, the 3GPP 5G NR Rel-15 specification will utilize ME-
LDPC as the coding scheme for the eMBB data channel.

In addition, 3GPP selected Polar channel coding as the coding scheme for the eMBB control channel.
Performance gains of CRC-Aided Polar (CA-Polar) channel coding, with significant design
contributions from Qualcomm Technologies, led to its adoption across many 5G NR control use
cases.
 Figure 4: Throughput scaling with advanced ME-LDPC codes

Invention #4: Massive MIMO

Our 5G design is also advancing MIMO antenna technologies. By using more antennas intelligently,
one can improve both network capacity and coverage. That is, more spatial data streams can
significantly increase spectral efficiency (e.g., with multiuser massive MIMO), allowing more bits to
be transmitted per Hertz, and smart beamforming techniques can extend the reach of base stations
by focusing RF energy in specific directions on the downlink and similarly enabling the base station
receiver to capture energy from a specific direction with less noise and interference on the uplink.

5G NR massive MIMO technology will make use of 2D antenna arrays at the base station capable of
3D beamforming, to make use of the higher frequency bands of mid-band spectrum. Accurate and
timely channel knowledge is essential to realizing the full benefits of this 3D beamforming. Our
optimized design for fast reciprocity-based TDD Massive MIMO, which is part of the 5G NR
specification, will make use of the self-contained slot structure and enhanced Reference Signals to
support much faster and more accurate channel feedback. Our test results have shown that it is
possible to reuse existing macro cell sites (e.g., at 2 GHz) for new 5G NR deployments that operate
in mid-bands between 3 GHz and 5 GHz. Our test results with new multiuser user 5G NR massive
MIMO designs have shown significant gains in both capacity and cell-edge user throughput as
shown in Figure 5, which is key to delivering a more uniform 5G mobile broadband user experience.
 Figure 5: 5G NR massive MIMO simulations

Invention #5: Mobile mmWave

Our 5G NR design does not only enable the use of higher frequencies in mid-band spectrum for
macro/small cell deployments, but it will also bring new mmWave opportunities at spectrum bands
above 24 GHz for mobile broadband. The abundant spectrum available at these high frequencies
supports extreme data speeds and capacity that will reshape the mobile experience. However,
increased propagation loss, susceptibility to blockage (e.g., hand, head, body, foliage, building
penetration), and RFIC complexity and power-efficiency, has historically made these high-bands not
feasible for mobile communications. That is, until now. 5G NR mmWave is changing this, and
Qualcomm is leading the way.

We have been working many years on the key design elements necessary to harness mmWave
bands for usage in mobile broadband communication systems — proving to both ourselves and the
industry what is feasible. As we demonstrated at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, our
Qualcomm Research 5G mmWave prototype system (Figure 6 below) is utilizing a large number of
antenna elements in both the base station and the device, along with intelligent/fast beamforming
and beam-tracking algorithms, to showcase sustained broadband communications even for non-line-
of-sight communications and device mobility. Although there is still work to do, we are confident
that we can achieve this next big moment in the mobile industry, making 5G NR mmWave a
commercial reality in 2019 mobile networks and mobile devices, including smartphones.
 Figure 6: Qualcomm Research 5G mmWave prototype system operating at 28 GHz

And that’s only the beginning…

The 3GPP Release-15 5G NR specification will establish the foundation for enhanced mobile
broadband and beyond, but the 5G technology roadmap has just begun. We have already begun
work on many new technology inventions that will drive future evolution and expansion of 5G NR
networks and devices. Pioneering new technologies like 5G NR Spectrum Sharing to unlock more
spectrum and support new deployment types, 5G NR Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications
(URLLC) to support new mission-critical services, 5G NR Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) to bring new
capabilities for automated driving, 5G NR Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) to reduce backhaul
costs more efficient network densification, and 5G NR massive IoT (mIoT) to address the low-
power, wide-area Internet of Things.