Technical Principles and Simulations of the 5G

NR Physical Layer Standard

Marco Roggero Houman Zarrinkoub
Application Engineering Product Marketing
MathWorks GmbH MathWorks
Aachen, Germany Natick, MA, United States
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—Development of 5G products is accelerating, with • Massive machine type communications (mMTC)

the first device and network deployments in 2019. 5G New needing support for a large number of connections and
Radio (NR) technology introduces a flexible architecture energy efficiency and low-power operation
that will enable the ultra-fast, low-latency communications • Ultra-reliable and low-latency communications
needed for next-generation mobile broadband networks (URLLC) needed, for example, for autonomous
and applications such as connected autonomous cars, smart
vehicles or remote surgery
buildings and communities, digital health care, and
industrial IoT. The flexibility of the 5G NR standard will
make design and test more complex. Engineers developing
5G enabling technologies and connected devices need a solid B. Main Physical Layer Differences between 5G and LTE
understanding of the fundamental concepts behind the 5G
NR specification as well as standard compliant functions While 5G retains some similarities to LTE, you can see in
and reference examples. In this paper, we introduce the key Figure 1 that these requirements have resulted in significant
5G physical layer technologies and concepts. You will learn differences. Several have a direct impact on the physical layer.
about the structure of 5G waveforms; how the waveforms For example, 5G will operate in higher frequency bands and use
are constructed, modulated, and processed; beam larger bandwidths than LTE, which affects the design of RF
management in massive MIMO systems; and methods for front ends as well as baseband operation. 5G is significantly
simulating and measuring link-level performance. more flexible than LTE to accommodate the range of use cases,
data rates, and latency. This is accomplished by using variable
subcarrier spacing and bandwidth parts to make more efficient
Keywords—5G; New Radio; Physical Layer; Simulation use of the available bandwidth under different circumstances.
I. INTRODUCTION TO KEY CONCEPTS IN THE 5G NEW
RADIO PHYSICAL LAYER STANDARD 5G NR is defined from the start to support more use cases than
LTE was initially conceived for, and the latency requirement is
much more stringent. This leads to several key changes in the
First, we will review the requirements and use cases for 5G, organization of the resource grid for 5G NR that are explained
followed by an overview of key 5G physical layer features. below:
Finally, we will introduce 5G ToolboxTM, which implements • Delay requirements: 5G NR supports a physical layer
the 5G physical layer specification for simulation and roundtrip latency of 1 ms for URLLC cases.
waveform generation.
• Spectral and throughput requirements: 5G NR requires
higher throughput. More throughput is achieved by
A. 5G Use Cases either more bandwidth or more spectral efficiency.
5G is meant to support multiple use cases. The specification is Higher bandwidth requires frequency bands with large
designed to enable mobile networks and devices that support an “contiguous” bandwidths. That is available only at
ambitious range of applications, including: carrier frequencies as high as 60 or 70 GHz, whereas
• Enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) requiring LTE is deployed only below 6 GHz. Here again, this
extremely high mobile broadband data rates and has significant consequences for the design of the
increased bandwidth efficiency physical layer, as beamforming becomes required to
support those higher frequencies. At higher

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 frequencies, more spectrum is available, and 5G NR is • 5G waveforms, frame structure, and numerology
set to take advantage of this spectrum with up to 400 • Downlink data
MHz of bandwidth. Moving on to more detailed points • Uplink data
of the physical layer, the subcarrier spacing, fixed in
LTE at 15 kHz, can now take values between 15 and Additional information is available on the topics mentioned
240 kHz. above as well as the following features of the 5G physical layer
[1]:
• Efficient signaling: Regarding frequency allocation,
• Downlink control
an LTE UE, placed in a 20 MHz cell, is required to
• CORESETs
decode the whole bandwidth, and signals of interest • Uplink control
can span the whole bandwidth. On the other hand, 5G • DMRS
UEs do no need to support the whole bandwidth. • Synchronization signal block
Remember that the bandwidth in 5G NR can be much • Initial acquisition procedures: cell search and RACH
larger, which would have compounded that problem. • Signals for channel sounding
Signals of interest can be confined to a subsection of • Hybrid beamforming
the bandwidth, and bandwidth parts are one of the new
concepts that help with this capability.
• Energy/power efficiency: Finally, the number of A. 5G Transport Channels, Physical Channels, and Physical
always-on signals has been reduced in 5G NR in order Signals
to save energy. The main casualty is the cell-specific
The 5G PHY, like LTE, is organized into a set of channels and
reference signals, or CRSs, which are provided in LTE signals that serve specific purposes, such as establishing
as a cell-wide reference for demodulation and channel- connections between UEs and base stations, carrying
quality estimation. CRSs are no longer present in 5G information, and implementing control functions. The 5G
NR. Another motivation for that change is that, at standard defines different channels that are used to provide
higher carrier frequencies, signals need to be different kinds of data transfer and control services in the MAC
beamformed in order to overcome propagation losses. layer of the 5G protocol stack.
As a result, it is both difficult and not useful to provide
cell-wide reference signals: the signal strength would In the next paragraphs, we provide a quick overview of the
be low and each channel is beamformed anyway, relevant terminology. For a complete discussion of these topics,
which means that the UE would need to be informed please view the “5G Explained” page on mathworks.com [1].
of the precoding matrix separately. Instead, UEs in 5G
rely on reference signals that undergo the same 1) Transport Channels
beamforming as the associated channel. Transport channels in 5G have several different functions:
• Provide information transport services from the
physical layer to the MAC layer (broadcast channel).
• Carry control and signaling information and data in the
downlink and uplink information.
• Define scrambling, channel coding, interleaving, and
rate matching to apply to information in each
direction.
• Establish an uplink connection from a UE to 5G base
stations (RACH, or random-access channel).

Fig 1: Comparison of 5G and LTE physical layer parameters

II. 5G PHYSICAL LAYER FEATURES

We have produced a series of educational videos that explain
all components and features of the 5G physical layer. This paper
provides a lighter treatment of the following topics: Fig 2: Downlink and uplink transport channels
• Transport channels, physical channels, and physical
signals 2) Physical Layer Channels and Signals
Physical layer channels in 5G define the mechanism for elements. A resource element is one OFDM symbol within one
mapping data messages to specific time and frequency subcarrier.
locations. There are three types of physical layer channels for
downlink and uplink: shared, control, and broadcast.
Shared, control, and broadcast channels are DL-SCH/PDSCH,
PDCCH, BCH/PBCH for Downlink and UL-SCH, PUSCH,
PUCCH for Uplink

The synchronization and reference signals enable the USE and

base station to establish a connection, coordinate the time
location of information, and demodulate signals.
Synchronization and reference signals are PSS, SSS, and DM-
RS.
Fig 4: Resource elements and blocks are mapped onto a time-
frequency grid

2) Frame Structure
The 5G frame structure is conceptually like LTE, but it is more
flexible to accommodate the different requirements for high-
speed and low-latency operation.
5G frames are 10 ms in duration, with 10 subframes per frame.
There can be a variable number of slots per subframe, with 14
OFDM symbols per slot.
As a result, there can be a variable number of OFDM symbols
per subframe.

a) Variable Subcarrier Spacing

One of the main innovations in the 5G standard is the concept
of flexible numerology and subcarrier spacings to enable a
range of bandwidths and latency. In the 5G standard, subcarrier
spacing can be a power-of-two multiple of 15 kHz, so spacings
can vary from 15 to 240 kHz. 5G waveforms can contain
Fig 3: Example of channels mapped onto the 5G OFDM grid variable subcarrier spacings. That means that within a 5G
waveform, different time and frequency resource blocks can be
specified.
B. 5G Waveforms, Frame Structure, and Numerology One of the requirements of 5G is to increase the maximum
supported bandwidth. By providing for a larger subcarrier
This section provides a brief overview of the structure of 5G
spacing as well as a higher number of downlink resource
waveforms and numerology. While the structure has many
blocks, we can achieve a larger overall bandwidth compared
similarities to LTE, there are important differences to note.
with LTE. In LTE, the maximum bandwidth is 20 MHz, while
in 5G the bandwidth can be 397.4 MHz.
This flexibility is designed to meet the requirements of different
1) Waveforms
services in 5G (enhanced mobile broadband, massive machine
5G waveforms, like LTE, use OFDM waveforms with cyclic
type communications, and ultra-reliable and low-latency
prefix (CP-OFDM). However, there are many more details and
communications). The increased subcarrier spacing can also -
greater flexibility in 5G. These features include mixed-frame
help operation at millimeter-wave frequencies.
numerology, multiple bandwidth parts, multiple shared
channels, fully parameterizable SS bursts, and multiple
CORESETs (control resource sets) and search spaces.

a) Resource Elements and Resource Blocks

Information in 5G is mapped onto a time vs. frequency grid.
The unit of time is an OFDM symbol, and the unit of frequency
is a subcarrier.
Within this grid, information-carrying physical layer resources Fig 5: Flexible numerology and subcarrier spacing in 5G
are divided into resource blocks (a collection of 12 subcarriers standard
in the frequency domain), which in turn consist of resource

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 The coded data is then mapped to the physical downlink shared
b) Slots and OFDM Symbols channel, or PDSCH.
As the resolution in frequency is changed by varying the
subcarrier spacing, the frame or time domain duration also is
affected. In the 4G LTE standard, one subframe has a duration
of 1 ms. In 5G, at 15 kHz, 1 ms corresponds to one slot. As you
increase the spacing by power-of-two multiples, the slot
duration is also divided by 2, 4, and so on. Fig 7: Coding chain for the downlink shared channel

2) Physical Downlink Shared Channel

The physical downlink shared channel is highly configurable—
much more than in LTE—and we will see some of the detail in
the next paragraphs. It is configured by both downlink control
information, which can change from slot to slot, and radio
resource control, which can set up some parameters as well.
This is very similar to LTE. In this channel, we find scrambling,
modulation, layer mapping, precoding for MIMO processing,
resource mapping, and mapping to physical antennas.
While those are all known blocks, there are a few differences
Fig 6: A change in subcarrier spacing corresponds to a change
worth pointing out. The precoding step is not specified
in the number of time slots per frame
explicitly in the standard, although it is fully expected to be
present. NR uses the exact same list of modulations on the
3) Bandwidth Parts
downlink as LTE: from QPSK through 256 QAM.
Another important aspect of flexibility in 5G is the ability to
divide the bandwidth into bandwidth parts (BWPs), which are
3) PDSCH Multi-antenna Precoding
sets of consecutive resource blocks characterized by their own
After one or two codewords are mapped to between one and
subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix.
eight layers, the layers undergo precoding, which, interestingly,
The availability of BWPs helps to address two issues. First,
is not specified in the standard for downlink.
some devices may not be able to receive the full bandwidth.
Precoding is the operation that maps the layers to as many or
Second, BWPs permit bandwidth adaptation to reduce energy
more antenna ports, using a matrix multiplication with the
consumption when only narrow bandwidth is required. 5G UEs
precoder. A special case of precoding is mapping one layer to
can be configured with up to four bandwidth parts, but only one
multiple antennas, which enables beamforming. For line-of-
can be active at a time. UEs are not expected to receive data
sight transmission, this would likely mean targeting a specific
outside of the active bandwidth part.
direction. Another case of precoding is mapping several layers
to multiple antennas. This more general case is sometimes
referred to as spatial multiplexing.
One key aspect of precoding in 5G is that the associated
C. Downlink Data in 5G NR demodulation reference signals, or DMRSs, must undergo the
In this section, we take a closer look at downlink data same precoding. As a result, the UE doesn’t need to be made
transmission in 5G New Radio. aware of the precoder, as the effect of the precoder is included
in channel estimation.
1) Downlink Shared Channel The precoder output is then mapped to physical resource
The downlink shared channel, or DL-SCH, is the channel that blocks, as we will see in the next paragraph. Downlink channels
carries user data. It also carries other pieces of information, such and signals, including the PDSCH and associated DMRS, share
as the different types of system information blocks, or SIBs. the OFDM grid.
The coding chain includes the usual steps, such as CRC, code
block segmentation, rate matching, and concatenation. All of 4) PDSCH Allocation
these steps are already known from LTE. The main difference Here we see examples of PDSCH resource allocation in time.
with LTE is the use of LDPC coding. The output of the coding The PDSCH may span the whole slot, as shown at the bottom
chain is a codeword. of the grid in Figure 8). It may also use only part of a slot. This
5G supports transmission of up to eight layers to a single user is sometimes referred to as partial slot allocation, and it is a new
on the downlink. This means that there can be up to eight capability in 5G New Radio compared with LTE. As you may
streams transmitted in parallel. Those streams are coming for remember, LTE always allocates a full subframe of 1 ms for
one or two codewords: one codeword for the first four layers PDSCH.
and a second one for the next four.
Fig 8: Partial and full slot allocation on the OFDM grid

It is possible to explore some of those allocation options

Fig 10: If the allocation is changed to i[0:5 to 8], slots 6, 7, and
interactively with a user interface that uses 5G Toolbox from
9 will not have PDSCH transmission
MathWorks.
Figure 9 shows 10 subframes with 30 kHz subcarrier spacing,
Notice that, within each slot, the PDSCH uses only symbols 2
which means a total of 20 slots. The PDSCH is shown in
through 10. This is called partial slot allocation. You can choose
greenish blue.
to allocate the full slot, in which case there is no break between
Resource block allocation does not have to be contiguous,
PDSCH transmissions.
although it is easier to signal when it is. If it is contiguous from
Notice also that the reference signals for PDSCH are shown in
0 to 20, there will be PDSCH transmission in the first 10 slots,
yellow. Those locations are not available for PDSCH mapping.
followed by five empty slots. This is because we allocated slots
0 through 9 with a periodicity of 15 slots.

III. METHODS FOR SIMULATING 5G PHYSICAL LAYERS AND

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

The best way to understand 5G PHY is to explore it by running

simulations as you can do with 5G Toolbox in the MATLAB®
environment.
The proposed simulation environment addresses three primary
use cases:

• End-to-end link simulation, enabling you to model the

full transmitter/channel/receiver chain to analyze
system performance, including BER and throughput.
• Waveform generation and analysis, including the NR
subcarrier spaces and frame numerologies. You can
use the waveforms to test designs of RF transceivers
and other components, and to provide I/Q samples for
over-the-air testing with RF instruments.
Fig 9: Allocation of slots 0 through 9 with a periodicity of 15
• Golden reference design verification. 5G Toolbox is
slots leads to a PDSCH transmission in the first 10 slots,
followed by five empty slots customizable and editable MATLAB code, so you can
see how the algorithms work, modify them for your
own design, and verify the behavior of your design.

Functions to model all aspects of the physical layer discussed

If the allocation is changed to something different (for example,
in this paper are available. These functions mirror the structure
i[0:5 to 8]), slots 6, 7, and 9 will not have PDSCH transmission.
of 5G waveforms, uplink and downlink channels, and physical
signals, and give you access to the details of the processing
subsystems. In addition, the channel models specified in the 5G
standard are available [2].
All functions in 5G Toolbox are open, editable, and
customizable. This allows to see the implementation and
understand the mathematics of 5G algorithms. They provide an
excellent starting point for the verification of user-specific
implementations.

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The MATLAB code provided with the tool can be IoT Internet of Things
automatically translated into C/C++ code to accelerate I/Q In-Phase and Quadrature
simulations and to use in external simulation and test LDPC Low Density Parity Check
environments. LTE Long-Term Evolution
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
mMTC Massive Machine Type Communications
To help the user get started, comprehensive reference examples NR New Radio
covering NR synchronization procedures, downlink processing, OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
and uplink processing are available and ready for use [3]. PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel
PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel
PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel
PSS Primary Synchronization Signal
PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel
PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel
QPSK Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
RF Radio Frequency
RS Reference Signal
SIB System Information Block
SS Synchronization Signal
SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal
UE User Equipment
UL-SCH Uplink Shared Channel
URLLC Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications

Fig 11: Comprehensive reference examples covering NR MATLAB and Simulink are registered trademarks of The MathWorks, Inc. See
mathworks.com/trademarks for a list of additional trademarks. Other product
synchronization procedures, downlink processing, and uplink or brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
processing are available and ready for use holders.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this short paper we introduced key concepts in the complex
5G physical layer, explaining how 5G features are related to
specific application requirements for future mobile
communication systems. Also, we introduced an efficient
environment for modeling and simulating 5G New Radio
systems.

REFERENCES

[1] https://de.mathworks.com/videos/series/5g-explained.html
[2] https://de.mathworks.com/help/5g/referencelist.html?type=function&s_c
id=doc_ftr
[3] https://de.mathworks.com/help/5g/examples.html?&s_tid=CRUX_gn_e
xample

ACRONYMS
BCH Broadcast Channel
BER Bit Error Rate
BWP Bandwidth Part
CORESET Control Resource Set
CP-OFDM Cyclic Prefix-OFDM
CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRS Cell Reference Signal
DL-SCH Downlink Shared Channel
DM-RS Demodulation Reference Signal
eMBB Enhanced Mobile Broadband

© 2020 The MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB and Simulink are registered trademarks of The MathWorks, Inc.
See www.mathworks.com/trademarks for a list of additional trademarks. Other product or brand names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.