Summary

In this chapter, we introduced you to NR general physical layer procedures and channel structure. We made comparisons of bandwidths, energy efficiency, and spectral efficiency between LTE and NR.

Then, we covered all the important aspects regarding the NR waveform, numerology, and frame structure. We learned that NR is OFDM-based with scalable subcarrier spacing. This changes the slot durations to allow for different kinds of services, but it also presents challenges regarding how these different subcarrier spacings can be multiplexed in the frequency domain without interfering between them. We have also discovered that NR supports a slot-based scheduling mode. We saw that there are several interesting use cases that necessitate the introduction of this scheduling mode, such as LTE/NR coexistence or forward compatibility. Finally, we have described the dynamic TDD duplexing mode that NR introduces and how it is signaled to devices by using the slot format indication.

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