What is 5G New Radio (5G NR)?

Importance of 5G NR

As the number and diversity of mobile and wireless applications increase, a standard, flexible wireless air interface and scalable network architecture are needed to support these applications. Here's where 5G NR comes in. The 5G NR standard provides a reliable, unified wireless air interface that expands the capabilities and utility of mobile networks, devices and applications across a wide range of industries. It covers both the technologies and infrastructure that facilitate and control data transmission between devices over 5G wireless networks.

An important goal of 5G NR is to support the growth of wireless communication and 5G networks by enhancing the amount of data transmitted over a given spectrum -- i.e., the electromagnetic radiation spectrum efficiency -- for mobile broadband. As the foundational backbone of 5G, 5G NR provides improved connectivity, higher speeds, lower latency and more enhanced mobile experiences than previous wireless standards like 4G and 4G LTE. It also enhances signal strength and energy efficiency, reduces interference and improves 5G scalability. These are critical requirements in highly interconnected environments where multiple devices must communicate simultaneously with many other devices with maximum speed, minimal interference and minimal latency.

5G NR is also important because it facilitates cost-effective 5G rollout. Through support for dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) and the use of a flexible service-based architecture (SBA), 5G NR supports the deployment of 5G on the same frequencies as its predecessor, 4G LTE. This means there's no -- or minimal -- need to rip and replace existing wireless infrastructure, so users can benefit from the higher speeds, better performance and reliability of 5G even in areas where 5G-specific infrastructure is still evolving.

How does 5G NR work?

5G NR works using the same radio access technology LTE networks use: orthogonal frequency-division multiple access, or OFDMA. However, 5G NR uses techniques such as quadrature amplitude monitoring, beamforming and other new features that increase the efficiency of a network and lower its latency.

5G NR also employs new engineering techniques that move more data through the core network faster and update the discrete operations of the air interface -- that is, the client device's interaction with the network provider radio hardware. The frequency of the electromagnetic waves 5G NR uses varies along the wireless spectrum in defined sub-6 GHz and mmWave frequency bands. These higher frequency ranges, along with advanced antenna systems like massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), improve wireless performance in throughput, latency and scalability.

Applications of 5G NR

5G NR is designed to provide higher coverage and capacity for cellular routers. It also supports fiber-equivalent bandwidth transmissions required for data-intensive applications such as streaming video, self-driving vehicles, healthcare monitors and low-bandwidth transmissions used in machine-to-machine communications at a massive scale, also known as massive machine-type communication or mMTC.

Continuous improvements in 5G NR also facilitate other applications, such as the following:

• Deployment of private 5G networks.
• Deployment of campus-wide 5G networks.
• Boundless extended reality, augmented reality and virtual reality.
• Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones.
• Satellite communications.
• Industrial IoT (IIoT) and industrial automation.
• Smart cities.
• Predictive maintenance for critical infrastructure.
• Smart logistics.
• Remote surgery and telehealth.
• Autonomous vehicles.

For all these, plus other advanced applications, 5G NR offers the following:

• Faster communication and data transfer speeds.
• Improved network performance and scalability to deliver enhanced wireless experiences.
• Support for technologies like AI to improve wireless communications and mitigate wireless challenges, such as modeling of nonlinear functions and optimization of modem parameters.

Primary requirements for 5G NR

For a connection to qualify as 5G NR, several performance and connectivity requirements must be met:

• The connection must support wireless mobile connections.
• Connectivity must support IoT that includes all of the various devices and wired or wireless connections that make up a user's digital experience, as well as sensor-type headless client devices.
• It must implement a lean signaling design. This means signals are only switched on when needed, lowering the overall processing power required of client devices.
• The connection must use adaptive bandwidth, which enables devices to switch to a low bandwidth and lower power when possible, saving energy for when higher bandwidths are necessary.
• 5G NR should also enforce strict data transmission requirements. Forcing all users and connections to respect specific rules makes the entire network faster and more efficient.

Time synchronization is another essential requirement to optimize 5G network performance, particularly for demanding use cases like industrial automation. Many different approaches can help ensure accurate and reliable synchronization in a 5G network's evolved radio access network (RAN) architecture. One approach is precision time protocol, which uses a master-slave architecture to ensure all network elements -- radios, base stations, edge devices and more -- are precisely time-aligned. Radio interface-based methods can also be used to synchronize distributed radio units in the RAN.

Benefits of 5G NR

The benefits of 5G NR over even the best LTE networks include the following:

• Larger network capacity, more extensive coverage, and improved 5G penetration.
• Increased energy savings per device.
• Shorter time between updates, reducing the average service creation time cycle.
• Improved technology for maintaining the quality of a connection over a broad geographical area.
• Enhanced speed and data rates, meaning more bits are processed over a unit of time.
• Improved efficiency in data sharing.
• Improved latency over 4G.
• Support for network slicing, enabling network operators to create multiple virtual networks over a common physical infrastructure, with each network tailored for a specific application.
• Support for edge computing, which reduces latency and improves the performance of real-time applications.

In addition, 5G NR introduces several improvements over older wireless networks:

• Diversity of spectrum, ranging from several hundred kilohertz to mmWave, to enable various use cases, cell sizes and data rates.
• Efficient modulation, involving new orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing methods and channel-coding techniques to facilitate high-data-rate communications.
• Frequency reuse algorithms, even in dense environments, to increase available network capacity and spectrum efficiency.
• Beamforming, a signal processing technique in 5G NR, to improve signal quality and coverage.
• Massive MIMO capabilities to improve network capacity as well as enhance signal quality, range and reliability.
• Slot time operations to deliver ultralow-latency communications.

All these capabilities are key underpinnings of 5G NR's significant gains in capacity, throughput and network coverage.

5G NR deployment modes

There are various ways 5G NR can be brought to life at a given site. Which deployment mode to use depends on several factors, including the existing infrastructure, whether a greenfield project is in play and what client types are expected in the 5G NR service area.

The three main 5G NR deployment modes are the following:

1. Standalone mode. In this mode, the full 5G technical paradigm is deployed. No residual 4G technical underpinnings are involved. If the clients can take advantage of the deployment, then all 5G benefits are realized.
2. Non-standalone mode. In this mode, a site is essentially a hybrid. Some 4G network infrastructure remains. While the radio frequency side of 5G NR presents benefits, what it uplinks into results in a worse overall experience compared with standalone mode. This model permits carriers to phase in full 5G architecture at sites and tout their 5G progress.
3. Dynamic spectrum sharing. In DSS, the same frequency can do time-sliced duty in both 4G and 5G modes, using advanced antenna and transceiver processing. This means no single spectrum band must be dedicated to just 4G or 5G.

5G NR spectrum

The 5G NR standard supports several low-, mid- and high-frequency bands. They are broken into two categories:

1. Frequency Range 1 (FR 1), which includes frequency bands less than 6 GHz (i.e., sub-6 GHz).
2. Frequency Range 2 (FR 2), which includes bands with a low range combined with a high bandwidth and mmWaves. This range is 24-71 GHz.

FR 1 has been extended to cover new spectrum offerings from 410 MHz to 7 GHz. Many 5G deployments use the sub-6 frequency of 450 MHz to 6 GHz for its longer transmission distance and ease of deployment. The high bands above 24 GHz, known as mmWaves, offer lower latency and performance as high as 20 Gbps. They also have shorter wavelengths, making them suitable for high-density deployments and high-demand applications. However, mmWaves have limited penetration, since objects like walls can block them easily.

The bands 5G NR supports also encompass licensed spectrum and unlicensed spectrum 5G NR-U, which includes bands anyone can access. This wide diversity of spectrum slices in 5G helps meet the coverage and speed demands of many modern applications that previous standards (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G) could not satisfy due to their narrower spectrum availability.

5G and LTE: Key differences and bridging the gap

5G NR network architecture diverges somewhat from LTE's tower-centric model because the higher frequencies require high quantities of smaller pole- and building-mounted nodes to get the network to users. While carrier mobile networks go through the rigors of updating their infrastructures for 5G NR, consumers and businesses can follow the progress at several websites.

A 5G NR network is based on a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)-defined SBA. Unlike previous standards, the 5G SBA is more flexible, since it uses a set of interconnected network functions (NFs) to deliver the control plane functionality and common data repositories of the network. The NFs are exposed as services, and they are independent as well as reusable. This architecture delivers network scalability and eases integration with external applications like cloud-based services.

Among the key architectural components of the 5G RAN is the gNodeB. This is the core base station of the 5G NR network that connects user devices (e.g., smartphones) to the 5G network. Unlike the eNodeB core base station in 4G LTE networks, the gNodeB in 5G NR separates the central unit (CU) and the distributed unit (DU). This helps to improve network performance and efficiency while reducing interference and latency.

For private 5G NR deployments, Citizens Broadband Radio Service provides a compelling option. 5G networks need compatible clients to truly take advantage of the new technology's promise, and more 5G client devices are being sold. 5G NR continues to develop in phases, just as 4G/LTE did. Not all 5G NR networks will have the same capabilities and capacities.

5G NR brings in cellular technologies not found in 4G that deliver impressive benefits and outstanding reliability. Some of these advancements include the following:

• Flexible numerology. This complex engineering concept enables dynamic adaptation of time slots and subcarrier spacing to achieve low latency for applications that need it, as well as coexistence between LTE and NR where required.
• Beamforming. This technique involves aiming wireless signals in the direction of a device to extend the range of mmWave networks.
• Hybrid automatic repeat request. HARQ works at the lowest network layers to adaptively optimize forward error correction and retransmit functions for lower bit error rates.
• Time-division duplexing. TDD is a technique in which uplink and downlink functions happen on the same frequency. In 5G NR, TDD has been retooled for speed and flexibility.
• Preemptive scheduling. This advancement lets higher-priority data overwrite lower-priority data, which lowers latency.
• Inactive state. This power-saving enhancement in 5G NR augments 4G's idle and connected states. At its simplest, the new inactive state reduces load on the control plane at scale, where many devices need to come out of sleep mode to transmit data.

History of 5G NR

Similar to its predecessors, the 5G NR standard was created by 3GPP, a coalition of telecommunications organizations that create technical standards for wireless technology. While work on developing 5G NR started in 2016, the first iteration of the full set of 5G standards appeared in 2019 under 3GPP Release 15. Release 15 expanded the initial 5G specifications to include a new radio system that would be complemented by a next-generation core network ("standalone" 5G). This release also provided the basis to evolve 5G NR technology, improving 5G performance and supporting new 5G use cases.

In 2018, several 3GPP working groups began to develop 5G NR Release 16. This new release contained even more features than Release 15, including multi-antenna transmission, remote interference management, MTC enhancements, non-orthogonal multiple access and narrowband IoT improvements. These advancements mostly addressed mobile broadband, although they apply to many other use cases, including industrial and machine-type scenarios like ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) and IIoT.

The 3GPP completed 5G NR Release 17 in 2022 and Release 18 two years later. Release 17, which reached stage 3 functional freeze in March 2022, included the following:

• Enhancements to multi-TRP (i.e., transmission reception point) and multi-beam operations.
• Coverage improvements to support diverse deployments in sub-7 GHz, mmWave and non-terrestrial networks.
• Power savings that extend the battery life of mobile devices.
• Spectrum expansion of the mmWave upper limit from 52.6 GHz to 71 GHz.
• Support for stringent applications like IIoT and URLLC.

Release 17 also delivered reduced capability (RedCap), a 5G standard developed for IoT device mid-speed IoT use cases. RedCap devices support moderate data rates, are energy-efficient, have simplified features and have lower bandwidth requirements. With RedCap, 5G NR offers a balance between speed and performance for mid-tier IoT applications.

5G NR Release 18, also known as 5G Advanced Release 18, 3GPP continued to enhance the 5G system foundation. This release extends 5G's reach into many new use cases and devices. It supports IoT and MTC, and it includes key improvements to mobility, network slicing, and multicast and broadcast services. Other improvements include the following:

• Evolved duplexing.
• Expanded sidelink.
• Expanded positioning.
• Support for green networking and devices.
• AI and machine learning data-driven designs.
• Advanced DL/UL MIMO.

Wireless networking improves continuously. Learn more about the basics behind 5G.