A Short Overview of 5G New Radio (5G NR)

5G New Radio (NR) development is part of continuous 3GPP mobile standard evolution process to meet the requirements of 5G as outlined by IMT-2020, similar to earlier evolution of 3G & 4G wireless networks.

5G NR aims to make wireless broadband equivalent to the fiber-like performance of wireline systems at a significantly lower cost-per-bit. With new levels of latency, reliability, and security, 5G NR will scale efficiently to connect the massive Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, and will offer new types of mission-critical services.

According to 3GPP, 5G New Radio (NR) features will be phased as it will not be possible to standardize all the protocols in time for Rel-15 completion and early deployments.

3GPP aims to complete initial 5G specifications with Release 15 by mid-2018 whereas Release 16 is targeted by end of 2019. Release 15 will enable the first phase of expected deployments in 2020.

Release 15 will address a more urgent subset of the commercial needs and is planned to be completed by Sep 2018.

Phase 2 is planned to be completed by Mar 2020. Rel-16 is targeted for the IMT 2020 submission and will address all identified usecases & requirements.

Some of the initial 5G NR requirements are as follows: