5G Air Interface and Physical Layer Procedures – Part 2

The next New Radio (NR) concept that we will cover in this chapter is the initial access to a network and beam management procedures. These procedures are new to NR, and there is nothing similar in Long-Term Evolution (LTE), especially for initial access. As we will see during this chapter, both millimeter wave operation and reducing the number of signals that are always transmitted are the two main drivers for this initial access procedure design. Upon completion of this chapter, we will understand the concept of beam sweeping and especially its relationship with Millimeter Wave (mmWave) frequency. We will focus on how a device and the gNB can identify the best special beams to be used for transmission. We will also describe the beamforming’s effect on the initial access procedure. Upon completion of this chapter, we will understand some of the design decisions regarding initial access, as well as how decisions...