Revolutionise the next-generation society with 5G
Concluding a very interesting conversation with Marco Giordani, Ph.D. Candidate in Information Engineering at University of Padova, in Marco’s own words. Read on…
As we have seen in the previous posts, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has recently defined a new Radio Access Technology (RAT), i.e., 3GPP NR, that introduces novel designs and technologies that will comply with 5G requirements.
Besides extreme cell densification, deployment of multiple antennas at the transmitter and the receiver, increased system bandwidth, and more flexible spectrum usage (e.g., by resource sharing), the potential of the 5G framework will be fully unleashed by the design of a flexible physical-layer frame structure. While, in LTE, the symbol duration and the subcarrier spacing are fixed, with NR it is possible to configure different OFDM numerologies on a subframe basis, i.e., every subframe is self-contained and can be characterised by a different numerology. This makes it possible to address different 5G use cases with a single RAT: for example, a shorter OFDM symbol duration, combined with a higher subcarrier spacing, can be used for high- data-rate and low-latency traffic, while lower subcarrier spacing can be used for low-frequency narrowband communications for machine-generated traffic.
5G also incorporates two recent emerging technology trends, namely disaggregation (and Cloud-RAN (C- RAN)), and virtualisation. In 5G NR, the base station can indeed be split into separate physical units, i.e., the Distributed Unit (DU), which contains the lower layers of the protocol stack, and the Centralized Unit (CU) incorporating complete stack functionalities. This deployment allows for an ultra-dense energy-efficient small cell deployment, and guarantees centralised control of the RAN as well as throughput maximisation.
5G breakthrough technological advancements also embrace the support for network slicing, i.e., the resources of the network can be split to serve different portions of traffic, that have different Quality of Service requirements.
The 5G paradigm (and its innovations) will revolutionise next-generation society to meet ambitious demands for a fully connected, intelligent and digital world.
