5G NR

5G-NR Protocol Layer

• When we closely see both the protocol stack we could see many
similarities between LTE protocol stack and 5G-NR protocol stack because
LTE protocol stack is being taken as the base line for the development 5G-
NR.
• 5G-NR User plane contains PHY, MAC, RLC, and PDCP same as LTE and has
introduced a new layer named as SDAP (Service Data Adaptation Protocol).
• On the control plane of 5G-NR is identical to LTE, here MME equivalent
node named as AMF (Access and Management Mobility Function).
5G-NR Architecture
5G-NR Layer 3 (RRC) Functions
• Broadcast of System Information related to AS and NAS;
• Paging initiated by 5GC or NG-RAN;
• Establishment, maintenance, and release of an RRC connection between the UE and NG-RAN
including Addition, modification, and release of carrier aggregation, Addition, modification, and
release of Dual Connectivity in NR or between E-UTRA and NR.
• Security functions including key management;
• Establishment, configuration, maintenance, and release of Signalling Radio Bearers (SRBs) and Data
Radio Bearers (DRBs);
• Mobility functions including Handover and context transfer; UE cell selection and reselection and control
of cell selection and reselection; Inter-RAT mobility.
• QoS management functions;
• UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting;
• Detection of and recovery from radio link failure;
• NAS message transfer to/from NAS from/to UE.
5G-NR Layer 2 Functions
The layer 2 of NR is split into the following sub layers:
• Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP)
• Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
• Radio Link Control (RLC)
• and Medium Access Control (MAC)
The two figures below depict the Layer 2 architecture for downlink
and uplink, where:
• The physical layer offers to the MAC sublayer transport channels;
• The MAC sub layer offers to the RLC sublayer logical channels;
• The RLC sub layer offers to the PDCP sublayer RLC channels;
• The PDCP sublayer offers to the SDAP sublayer radio bearers;
• The SDAP sublayer offers to 5GC QoS flows;
• Comp. refers to header compression and segm. to segmentation;
• Control channels (BCCH, PCCH are not depicted for clarity).
5G-NR Layer 2 Functions
PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) Layer Functions: RLC (Radio Link Control ) Layer Functions:

• The main services and functions of the PDCP sublayer for the user plane include: • The main services and functions of the RLC sublayer depend on the transmission mode and include:

• Sequence Numbering • Transfer of upper layer PDUs

• Header compression and decompression: ROHC only • Sequence numbering independent of the one in PDCP

• Transfer of user data • Error Correction through ARQ

• Reordering and Duplicate detection (if in order delivery to layers above PDCP is required) • Segmentation and re-segmentation

• PDCP PDU routing (in case of split bearers) • Reassembly of SDU

• Retransmission of PDCP SDUs • RLC SDU discard

• Ciphering and Deciphering • RLC re-establishment

• PDCP SDU discard • Note: no concatenation and no reordering

• PDCP re-establishment and data recovery for RLC AM MAC (Media Access Control) Layer Functions

• Duplication of PDCP PDUs • The main services and functions of the MAC sub layer include:

The main services and functions of the PDCP sublayer for the control plane include: • Mapping between logical channels and transport channels

• Sequence Numbering; • Multiplexing/de-multiplexing of MAC SDUs belonging to one or different logical channels into/from transport
blocks (TB) delivered to/from the physical layer on transport channels
• Ciphering, deciphering and integrity protection;
• Scheduling Information Reporting
• Transfer of control plane data;
• Error correction through HARQ
• Duplicate detection;
• Priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling
• Duplication of PDCP PDUs.
• Priority handling between logical channels of one UE by means of logical channel prioritization

• Padding

A single MAC entity can support one or multiple numerologies and/or TTI durations and mapping restrictions in
logical channel prioritization controls which numerology and/or TTI duration a logical channel can use.
5G-NR User Plane Protocol
SDAP (Service Data Adaptation Protocol) Protocol Functions :

• The main services and functions of SDAP include:

• Mapping between a QoS flow and a data radio
bearer (Due to new QoS framework)
• Marking QoS flow ID (QFI) in both DL and UL packets ( DL:
due to reflective QoS and UL: due to new QoS framework)
• A single protocol entity of SDAP is configured for each
individual PDU session, except for DC where two entities
can be configured
• In the uplink, the NG-RAN may control the mapping of
QoS Flows to DRB in two different ways:
• Reflective mapping: for each DRB, the UE monitors the
QoS flow ID(s) of the downlink packets and applies the
same mapping in the uplink; that is, for a DRB, the UE
maps the uplink packets belonging to the QoS flows(s)
corresponding to the QoS flow ID(s) and PDU Session
observed in the downlink packets for that DRB. To enable
this reflective mapping, the NG-RAN marks downlink
packets over Uu with QoS flow ID.
• Explicit Configuration: besides the reflective mapping,
the NG-RAN may configure by RRC an uplink “QoS Flow to
DRB mapping”.
5G-NR Layer 2 Functions
PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol) Layer Functions
The main services and functions of the PDCP sublayer for the PDCP Out-of-Order Deciphering Drawback in LTE
user plane include: • In-sequence delivery from RLC layer (i.e. reordering in RLC) might incur high
• Sequence Numbering latency due to deciphering

• Header compression and decompression: ROHC only Enhancement in NR

• Complete PDCP PDUs can be delivered out-of-order from RLC to PDCP. RLC
• Transfer of user data delivers PDCP PDUs to PDCP after the PDU reassembling
• Reordering and Duplicate detection (if order delivery to • PDCP reordering is always enabled if in sequence delivery to layers above PDCP
layers above PDCP is required) is needed (i.e. even in non-DC case)
• PDCP PDU routing (in case of split bearers) RLC Rx window operation in NR
• Retransmission of PDCP SDUs • RLC Rx entity needs to keep track of each packet in the window to determine if
any of them has been completed and delivered to PDCP
• Ciphering and Deciphering
Duplication of PDCP PDUs
• PDCP SDU discard
• RLC retransmission (ARQ) is not assumed to be used in 5G NR to meet the strict
• PDCP re-establishment and data recovery for RLC AM user plane latency requirements of URLLC applications

• Duplication of PDCP PDUs How it will work for 5G-NR

• Duplication applies in case of multi-connectivity and carrier aggregation (CA).
• In case of CA, duplication for more than one logical channel is used for Carrier
Aggregation so that the duplicated PDCP PDUs are sent over different carriers.
• PDCP duplication solution for CA requires only one MAC entity.
• Logical channel mapping restrictions need to be introduced to handle
duplicates in within one MAC entity (CA).
5G-NR Layer 2 Functions
RLC (Radio Link Control) Layer Functions
The main services and functions of the RLC sublayer depend on the transmission
mode and include:
• Transfer of upper layer PDUs
• Sequence numbering independent of the one in PDCP
• Error Correction through ARQ
• Segmentation and re-segmentation
• Reassembly of SDU
• RLC SDU discard
• RLC re-establishment
Note: no concatenation and no reordering
To meet Extreme latency requirement in 5G
• For URLLC the target for user plane latency should be 0.5ms for UL, and
0.5ms for DL
• For eMBB, the target for user plane latency should be 4ms for UL, and 4ms
for DL.
• RAN1 intends to reduce the delay from the end of the reception of the DCI
(UL grant) to the beginning of the transmission of the corresponding UL
transport block to 1-2 OFDM symbol durations
Limitation in LTE: In order to perform TB filling, RLC and MAC PDUs are
generated after reception of UL grant
Removing RLC concatenation enables the preprocessing procedure of both RLC
and MAC layer
5G-NR Layer 2 Functions
MAC (Medium Access Control) Layer Functions
The main services and functions of the MAC sub layer include:
• Mapping between logical channels and transport channels
• Multiplexing/de-multiplexing of MAC SDUs belonging to one or different
logical channels into/from transport blocks (TB) delivered to/from the
physical layer on transport channels
• Scheduling Information Reporting
• Error correction through HARQ
• Priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling
• Priority handling between logical channels of one UE by means of logical
channel prioritization
• Padding
MAC New PDU Format
• Drawback in LTET MAC PDU format is that it does not facilitate MAC/PHY
parallel processing
Enhancement in NR
• MAC sub-headers are placed immediately in front of the corresponding MAC
SDUs, MAC CEs, or padding. The possibility to parse the MAC PDU from the
back is not precluded.
• UL MAC CE(s) is placed after all the MAC SDUs. For DL the placement will be
deterministic (i.e. it should not be up to the network to decide). FFS if we
have the same behavior for both or for DL the MAC CE is placed at the front
5G-NR Layer 2 Functions
MAC (Medium Access Control) Layer Functions
LCP Enhancement
• The motivation behind LCP enhancement is Multiple numerologies/TTI
durations are supported and different numerologies/TTI durations may be
suitable for different kinds of traffic
Enhancement in NR
• A single logical channel can be mapped to one or more numerology/TTI
duration
• For the purpose of LCP, the MAC entity learns the TTI duration/numerology
from the PHY layer. FFS on the details of how it is signaled. This can be done
explicitly (i.e. some field in the DCI) or implicitly (e.g. the TTI duration of the
UL transmission is the same as the DL transmission of the UL grant)
• LCP takes into account the mapping of the logical channel to one or more
numerology/TTI duration. This includes Priority, PBR concept is used in NR
as a baseline and Logical channel priority is configured per UE as a baseline.
FFS is anything needs to be done to treat logical channels differently
SR/BSR Enhancement
• Motivation for SR/BSR enhancement is that it should at least distinguish the
“numerology/TTI type” of the logical channel that triggered the SR/BSR
• Enhancement in NR
• Multiple-bit SR or Single-bit SR with multiple SR configurations
• The existing LTE BSR framework is used as the baseline for NR BSR
framework. Further enhancements at least related to numerologies and
granularity are in further discussion
• Numerologies: Extend the number of LCGs to link an LCG to a specific
numerology
• Granularity: increasing the number of bits in the BS field, increasing the
number of LCGs, reporting BSR per logical channel
HARQ Enhancement
• In LTE Performance of HARQ degraded due to large transport block size
Enhancement in NR
• Code Block Group (CBG)-based transmission with single/multi-bit HARQ-ACK
feedback is
supported
• The UE is semi-statically configured by RRC signaling to enable CBG-based
retransmission.
• The above semi-static configuration to enable CBG-based retransmission is
separate for DL
and UL
• Asynchronous and adaptive UL HARQ is supported at least for eMBB
• Flexible timing
• Timing between DL assignment and corresponding DL data transmission is
indicated by a field in the DCI from a set of values
Timing between UL assignment and corresponding UL data transmission is
indicated by a field in the DCI from a set of values
• Timing between DL data reception and corresponding acknowledgment is
indicated by a field in the DCI from a set of values and this set of values is
configured by higher layer
• NR UE supports a set of minimum HARQ processing time, this shall include Delay
between DL data reception timing to the corresponding HARQ-ACK transmission
timing, Delay between UL grant reception timing to the corresponding UL data
transmission timing and NR UE is required to indicate its capability of minimum
HARQ processing time to gNB
Latency Reduction
• Another important aspect of LTE enhancement is the implementation of latency reduction techniques
for the user and control planes (UPs and CPs). Latency reduction not only contributes to data rate
enhancements but also enables new use cases such as critical communication and ITS.
User plane latency reduction
• Implementing fast UL access is the first step toward reducing UP latency. As specified in Rel-14, fast UL
access makes it possible to configure a terminal with an uplink grant available in each millisecond, to be
used only when there is uplink data to transmit. Using the current scheduling request (SR) based access,
the terminal must transmit a request, wait for a grant, and then wait to use the grant. A comparison of
fast UL access with SR access is illustrated in the a and b tracks of Figure 6. The pre-configured grant in
fast UL access minimizes the waiting time, which reduces the average radio access delay for uplink data
by more than half.
• The other latency reduction step consists of two enhancements that are both targeted for specification
in Rel-15.
• first is reduced processing time: making the terminal respond to downlink data and uplink grants in three milliseconds
instead of four.
• second is the introduction of shorter transmission time intervals (TTIs): speeding up the whole chain of waiting for a transmit
opportunity, scheduling and preparing for a transmission, transmitting the data, and ultimately processing the received data
and sending feedback.
Latency Reduction

With a short TTI, as illustrated in the c track, transmissions can be made with a shorter duration (as little as one-seventh of the length of a normal
LTE TTI). Each of these short transmissions can be scheduled separately with a new DL in-band control channel, with feedback sent in a new UL control
channel. The scheduling and feedback are sent in adjacent subframes for the shortest transmission time, resulting in a total radio access one-way transmission
delay of about 0.5ms, including data processing time.
Signaling Reduction
• LTE state transitions involve significant signaling: going from RRC_IDLE to RRC_CONNECTED comprises 9 transmissions over the air
interface. Two options for signaling reduction were introduced in Rel-13: RRC connection suspend/ resume for use with UP based
data transfer over data radio bearers (DRBs) and data over non-access stratum (DoNAS) for CP-based data transfer over the
signaling radio bearer (SRB).
• The suspend/resume feature allows the data connection to be suspended temporarily and the context to be stored in the RAN and
core network (CN) during RRC_IDLE. At the next transition to RRC_CONNECTED, the connection is resumed with the stored
context, significantly reducing the signaling to four or five transmissions. The DoNAS feature achieves a similar reduction of
signaling by omitting access stratum (AS) security and by transferring data over the CP instead of establishing traditional UP radio
bearers.
• To accommodate the ever increasing number of devices, small and/or infrequent data volumes and stricter delay requirements,
Rel-14 and Rel- 15 aim for further reduction of signaling between terminals and network nodes (RAN and CN).
• In Rel-14, the suspend/resume feature is being improved by reducing the signaling between the base station (BS) and the CN. In
Rel-13, the BS-CN connection was released together with the air interface connection. In Rel-14, the BS-CN connection can be kept
when the BS-terminal connection is suspended. The RAN takes over the responsibility of paging the terminal upon the arrival of DL
data, for example.
• Two additional control plane latency reduction improvements are expected in Rel-14 or Rel-15. The first is an enhancement that
would enable earlier data transmission by making it possible to multiplex UP radio bearer data with connection resume signaling.
The second is known as release assistance indication, which would allow the terminal to indicate that it has no more UL data and
that it does not anticipate DL data, thereby enabling early transition to RRC_IDLE.
Channel Mapping
Overall architecture & Functional split– 3GPP 38.300
• An NG-RAN node is either:
• gNB: node providing NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE, and connected via the NG interface to the 5GC.
• ng-eNB: node providing E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards the UE, and connected via the NG interface to the 5GC.
• NG-C: control plane interface between NG-RAN and 5GC.
• NG-U: user plane interface between NG-RAN and 5GC.
• NG-RAN node: either a gNB or an ng-eNB.

• The gNBs and ng-eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of the Xn interface. The gNBs and ng-eNBs are also
connected by means of the NG interfaces to the 5GC, more specifically to the AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) by
means of the NG-C interface and to the UPF (User Plane Function) by means of the NG-U interface (see 3GPP TS 23.501 [3]).
NOTE: The architecture and the F1 interface for a functional split are defined in 3GPP TS 38.401 [4].
AMF/UPF AMF/UPF

5GC

NG
NG
NG

NG
NG NG

NG
NG
Xn NG-RAN
gNB gNB
Xn

Xn
Xn
ng-eNB ng-eNB
5G NR Physical Layer – Frame Structure
Frame Structure Agreement - 3GPP RP 38.802, 38.804

• Maximum channel bandwidth per NR carrier is 400 Mhz in Rel 15.

• All details for channel bandwidth up to 100 Mhz per NR Carrier are to be specified in Rel 15

• One Numerology corresponds to one subcarrier spacing in frequency domain

• At least for single numerology case, candidates of the maximum numbers of subcarrier is 3300 or 6600 in Rel
15

• Subframe Duration is fixed to be 1 ms <== this is a little different from what many people expected. It
is likely that one TTI length is much shorter than this to meet the latency requirement

• One TTI duration corresponds to a number of consecutive symbols for one transmission in time domain (TR
38.804 5.4.7)

• The combination of one numerology and one TTI duration determines how transmission is made on physical
layer.

• Frame Length is fixed to be 10 ms

• Scalable numerology should allow the subcarrier spacing from 15 Khz to 480 Khz.

• Number of subcarrier per PRB is 12

• Number of OFDM symbols per slot may vary depending on subcarrier spacing
• For subcarrier spacing <= 60, the number of OFDM symbols / slot = 7 or 14
• For subcarrier spacing > 60, the number of OFDM symbols / slot = 14

• Slot Aggregation (data transmission scheduling to span one or multiple slots

• No explicit DC subcarrier is reserved for both Downlink and Uplink

• All numerologies align on symbol boundaries every 1 ms in NR carrier (regardless of subcarrier spacing
and CP-overhead)
Split Options and Justification (1)
Option 1 (RRC/PDCP, 1A-like split)
• Description:
• In this split option, RRC is in the central unit. PDCP, RLC, MAC, physical layer and RF are in the distributed unit, thus the entire user plane is in the distributed unit.

• Benefits and Justification:

• This option allows a separate U-plane while having a centralised RRC/RRM.
• It may in some circumstances provide benefits in handling some edge computing or low latency use cases where the user data needs to be located close to the
transmission point.

• Cons:
• Because of the separation of RRC and PDCP, securing the interface in practical deployments may or may not affect performance of this option.
• It needs to be clarified whether and how this option can support aggregation based on alternative 3C.

Option 2 (PDCP/RLC split)

• Option 2 may be a base on an X2-like design due to similarity on U-plane but some functionality may be different e.g. C-plane since
some new procedures may be needed.
Option 2-1 Split U-plane only (3C like split)
• Description:
• In this split option, RRC, PDCP are in the central unit. RLC, MAC, physical layer and RF are in the distributed unit.

• Benefits and Justification:

• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load
between NR and E-UTRA transmission points. Fundamentals for achieving a PDCP-RLC split have already been standardized for LTE Dual Connectivity, alternative 3C.
Therefore this split option should be the most straightforward option to standardize and the incremental effort required to standardize it should be relatively small.
• NOTE 1: U-plane aspect was justified in the study phase. C-plane aspect was not addressed in the study phase. The alignment between LTE-NR tight interworking and functional split may be beneficial at least in user-plane, considering
migration.
• NOTE 2: An enhancement for the fast-centralized retransmission of lost RLC PDUs in this option was identified, but the solution details were not discussed in this study.
Split Options and Justification (2)
Option 2-2: In this split option, RRC, PDCP are in the central unit. RLC, MAC, physical layer and RF are in the distributed unit. In
addition, this option can be achieved by separating the RRC and PDCP for the CP stack and the PDCP for the UP stack into different
central entities.
• Benefits and Justification:
• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load
between NR and E-UTRA transmission points. Enables centralization of the PDCP layer, which may be predominantly affected by UP process and may scale with UP
traffic load. This option allows a separate U-plane while having a centralised RRC/RRM.

• Cons:
• Coordination of security configurations between different PDCP instances for Option 2-2 needs to be ensured.

Option 3 (High RLC/Low RLC Split)

• Two approaches based on Real-time/Non Real-time function split are as follows:
Option 3-1 Split based on ARQ
• Description:
• Low RLC may be composed of segmentation functions;
• High RLC may be composed of ARQ and other RLC functions;
• This option splits the RLC sublayer into High RLC and Low RLC sublayers such that for RLC Acknowledge Mode operation, all RLC functions may be performed at the
High RLC sublayer residing in the central unit, while the segmentation may be performed at the Low RLC sublayer residing in the distributed unit. Here, High RLC
segments RLC PDU based on the status reports while Low RLC segments RLC PDU into the available MAC PDU resources.
Split Options and Justification (3)
• Benefits and Justification:
• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load
between NR and E-UTRA transmission points.
• This split option may also have better flow control across the split.
• Centralization gains: ARQ located in the CU may provide centralization or pooling gains.
• The failure over transport network may also be recovered using the end-to-end ARQ mechanism at CU. This may provide protection for critical data and C-plane
signaling.
• DUs without functions of RLC may handle more connected mode UEs as there is no RLC state information stored and hence no need for UE context.
• This option may provide an efficient means for implementing integrated access and backhaul to support self-backhauled NR TRPs.
• NOTE: As part of the analysis with RAN2, there is no consensus on the following benefits and drawbacks from RAN2 point of view.

• Benefits and Justification:

• This option may have the advantage of being more robust under non-ideal transport conditions because the ARQ and packet ordering is performed at the central unit.
• It may reduce processing and buffer requirements in DU due to absence of ARQ protocol
• Could be used over multiple radio legs of different DUs for higher reliability (U-Plane and C-Plane) [Pending to multi-connectivity]
• This option may provide an efficient way for implementing intra-gNB RAN-based mobility.

• Cons:
• Comparatively, the split is more latency sensitive than the split with ARQ in DU, since re-transmissions are susceptible to transport network latency over a split
transport network.

Option 3-2 Split based on TX RLC and RX RLC

• Description:
• Low RLC may be composed of transmitting TM RLC entity, transmitting UM RLC entity, a transmitting side of AM and the routing function of a receiving side of AM,
which are related with downlink transmission.
• High RLC may be composed of receiving TM RLC entity, receiving UM RLC entity and a receiving side of AM except the routing function and reception of RLC status
report, which are related with uplink transmission.
Split Options and Justification (4)
• Transmitting: Tx RLC receives RLC SDU from PDCP and transmits these packets under the format indicator of MAC.As soon as RLC receives the PDU request from MAC,
RLC must assemble the MAC SDU under the format indicator of MAC and submit the MAC SDU to MAC. In order to adapt the transport network between CU and DU, it
is critical that Tx RLC is placed in DU.
• Receiving: Routing receives RLC PDU from MAC and judges CONTROL PDU/DATA PDU, then submits DATA PDU to Rx RLC and CONTROL PDU to Tx RLC. When PDCP/RLC
reestablishment procedure is triggered, placing Rx RLC in CU is critical in order to real-timely deliver data packets to PDCP.

• Benefits and Justification:

• Option3-2 not only is insensitive to the transmission network latency between CU and DU, but also uses interface format inherited from the legacy interfaces of PDCP-
RLC and MAC-RLC. Some benefits of Option3-2 are as follows:
• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load
between NR and E-UTRA transmission points.
• Flow control is in the CU and for that a buffer in the CU is needed. The TX buffer is placed in the DU, so that the flow controlled traffic from the CU can be buffered
before being transmitted. Flow control can be done depending on fronthaul conditions
• As Rx RLC is placed in CU, there is no additional transmission delay of PDCP/RLC reestablishment procedure when submitting the RLC SDUs to PDCP
• This option does not induce any transport constraint, e.g. transport network congestion. MAC submits RLC PDUs as a whole packet to RLC rather than RLC sending RLC
SDUs to PDCP.

• Cons:
• Compared to the case where RLC is not split, STATUS PDU of AM Rx RLC may lead to additional time delay. Because STATUS PDU must be submitted through PDCP-Tx
RLC interface from CU to DU before Tx RLC in DU transmits it over air interface, which may lead to additional transport delay.
• Due to performing flow control in the CU and RLC Tx in the DU two buffers are needed for transmission, one at the CU, which allows to flow control data submission to
the RLC Tx, and one at the DU in order to perform RLC TX

Option 4 (RLC-MAC split)

• Description: In this split option, RRC, PDCP and RLC are in the central unit.MAC, physical layer and RF are in the distributed unit.
• Benefits and Justification: In the context of the LTE protocol stack a benefit is not foreseen for option 4. This might be revised with
NR protocol stack knowledge.
Split Options and Justification (5)
Option 5 (intra MAC split)
• Description:
• Option 5 assumes the following distribution: RF, physical layer and lower part of the MAC layer (Low-MAC) in the Distributed Unit
• Higher part of the MAC layer (High-MAC), RLC and PDCP in the Central Unit
• Therefore by splitting the MAC layer into 2 entities (e.g. High-MAC and Low-MAC), the services and functions provided by the MAC layer will be located in the Central
Unit (CU), in the Distributed Unit (DU), or in both. An example of this distribution and its justification is given below.
• In High-MAC sublayer: The centralized scheduling in the High-MAC sublayer will be in charge of the control of multiple Low-MAC sublayers. It takes high-level
centralized scheduling decision.
• The inter-cell interference coordination in the High-MAC sublayer will be in charge of interference coordination methods such as JP/CS CoMP.
• In Low-MAC sublayer: Time critical functions in the Low-MAC sublayer include the functions with stringent delay requirements (e.g. HARQ) or the functions where
performance is proportional to latency (e.g. radio channel and signal measurements from PHY, random access control). It reduces the delay requirements on the front
haul interface.
• Radio specific functions in the Low-MAC sublayer can for perform scheduling-related information processing and reporting. It can also measure/estimate the activities
on the configured operations or the served UE’s statistics and report periodically or as requested to the High-MAC sublayer.

Depending on the different implementations of the intra-MAC functional split, the following pros and cons can be defined:
• Benefits and Justification:
• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load
between NR and E-UTRA transmission points.
• Reduce the bandwidth needed on front haul, dependent on the load of RAN-CN interface;
• Reducing latency requirement on front haul (if HARQ processing and cell-specific MAC functionalities are performed in the DU);
• Efficient interference management across multiple cells and enhanced scheduling technologies such as CoMP, CA, etc., with multi-cell view;

• Cons:
• Complexity of the interface between CU and DU;
• Difficulty in defining scheduling operations over CU and DU;
• Scheduling decision between CU and DU will be subject to front haul delays, which can impact performances in case of non-ideal front haul and short TTI;
• Limitations for some CoMP schemes (e.g. UL JR).
Split Options and
Option 6 (MAC-PHY split)
Justification (6)
• Description:
• The MAC and upper layers are in the central unit (CU). PHY layer and RF are in the DU. The interface between the CU and DUs carries data, configuration, and scheduling-
related information (e.g. MCS, Layer Mapping, Beamforming, Antenna Configuration, resource block allocation, etc.) and measurements.

• Benefits and Justification:

• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load between NR
and E-UTRA transmission points.
• This option is expected to reduce the front haul requirements in terms of throughput to the baseband bitrates as the payload for Option 6 is transport block bits.
• Joint Transmission is possible with this option as MAC is in CU.
• Centralized scheduling is possible for Option 6 as MAC is in CU.
• It allows resource pooling for layers including and above MAC.

• Cons:
• This split may require subframe-level timing interactions between MAC layer in CU and PHY layers in DUs. Round trip front haul delay may affect HARQ timing and scheduling.

Option 7 (intra PHY split)

• Description:
• Multiple realizations of this option are possible, including asymmetrical options which allow to obtain benefits of different sub-options for UL and DL independently (e.g.
Option 7-1 is used in the UL and Option 7-2 is used in the DL). A compression technique may be able to reduce the required transport bandwidth between the DU and CU.
• In the UL, FFT, and CP removal reside in the DU. Two sub-variants are described below. Remaining functions reside in the CU. In the downlink, iFFT and CP addition reside in
the DU. Three sub-variants are described below. The rest of the PHY resides in the CU.

• Benefits and Justification (common among Option 7-1, 7-2 and 7-3):
• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load between NR
and E-UTRA transmission points. These options are expected to reduce the fronthaul requirements in terms of throughput.
• Centralized scheduling is possible as MAC is in CU. e.g. CoMP Joint processing (both transmit and receive) is possible with these options as MAC is in CU.

• Cons:
• This split may require subframe-level timing interactions between part of PHY layer in CU and part of PHY layer in DUs.
Split Options and Justification (7)
Option 7-1
• Description:
• In the UL, FFT, CP removal and possibly PRACH filtering functions reside in the DU, the rest of PHY functions reside in the CU. The details of the meaning of PRACH filtering
were not discussed in the study phase.
• In the DL, iFFT and CP addition functions reside in the DU, the rest of PHY functions reside in the CU.

• Benefits and Justification:

• Allows the implementation of advanced receivers

Option 7-2
• Description:
• In the UL, FFT, CP removal, resource de-mapping and possibly pre-filtering functions reside in the DU, the rest of PHY functions reside in the CU. The details of the meaning
of pre-filtering were not discussed in the study phase.
• In the DL, iFFT, CP addition, resource mapping and precoding functions reside in the DU, the rest of PHY functions reside in the CU.
• It is a requirement that both options allow the optimal use of advanced receivers. Whether or not these variants meets this requirement was not discussed in the study
phase.

Option 7-3 (Only for DL)

• Description:
• Only the encoder resides in the CU, and the rest of PHY functions reside in the DU.

• Benefits and Justification

• This option is expected to reduce the front haul requirements in terms of throughput to the baseband bitrates as the payload for Option 7-3 is encoded data.
Split Options and Justification (8)
Option 8 (PHY-RF split)
• Option 8 allows to separate the RF and the PHY layer. This split permits centralisation of processes at all protocol layer levels, resulting in very tight coordination of the RAN.
This allows efficient support of functions such as CoMP, MIMO, load balancing, mobility.

• Benefits and Justification:

• This option will allow traffic aggregation from NR and E-UTRA transmission points to be centralized. Additionally, it can facilitate the management of traffic load between NR
and E-UTRA transmission points.
• High levels of centralization and coordination across the whole protocol stack, which may enable a more efficient resource management and radio performance
• Separation between RF and PHY enables to isolate the RF components from updates to PHY, which may improve RF/PHY scalability
• Separation of RF and PHY allows reuse of the RF components to serve PHY layers of different radio access technologies (e.g. GSM, 3G, LTE)
• Separation of RF and PHY allows pooling of PHY resources, which may enable a more cost efficient dimensioning of the PHY layer
• Separation of RF and PHY allows operators to share RF components, which may reduce system and site costs

• Cons:
• High requirements on front haul latency, which may cause constraints on network deployments with respect to network topology and available transport options
• High requirements on front haul bandwidth, which may imply higher resource consumption and costs in transport dimensioning (link capacity, equipment, etc)
 Opt.
Opt. Opt. Opt. Opt. Opt. Opt. Opt. Opt. Opt.
7-3
1 2 3-2 3-1 5 6 7-2 7-1 8
(only for DL)

Baseline available No Yes (LTE DC) No Yes (CPRI)

Traffic aggregation No Yes

CU
ARQ location DU
May be more robust under non-ideal transport conditions
Lowest in between (higher on the right) Highest
Resource pooling in CU
RRC only RRC + L2 (partial) RRC + L2 RRC + L2 + PHY (partial) RRC + L2 + PHY

Transport NW
Loose NOTE 7 Tight
latency requirement

N/A Lowest in between (higher on the right) Highest

Transport NW Peak BW No UP req. baseband bits Quantized IQ (f) Quant. IQ (t)

requirement
- Scales with MIMO layers Scales with antenna ports

Multi-cell/freq. multiple schedulers centralized scheduler

coordination (independent per DU) (can be common per CU)

UL Adv. Rx NOTE 7 NA NOTE 7 Yes

Remarks NOTE 4 NOTE 5/6 NOTE 5 NOTE 5 NOTE 5