5G NR Frame Structure, Numerologies and Time Units

1. Numerologies

μ: subcarrier spacing configuration, Δf=2^μ∙15 [kHz]

Figure 1.1: Supported transmission numerologies (38.211)

2. Time units

• Δf: subcarrier spacing
• N_f: Number of samples
• F_s: Sampling frequency
• T_s: Basic time unit for LTE (sampling time)
• T_c: Basic time unit for NR
• κ the ratio between T_s and T_c
• T_TA: Timing advance between downlink and uplink

2.1. T_s the basic time unit for LTE

LTE system, scs=15kHz, BW=20MHz contains at most 1200 subcarrier.
Then N_f should be 2048. (2048 is the min number of 2ⁿ in digital system which is greater than 1200)

F_s = 1 / T_s = N_f * Δf

T_s = 1 / (N_f * Δf) = 1 / (2048 * 15000) = 32.552ns

2.2. T_c the basic time unit for NR

The max bandwidth for 5G sub6 is 100MHz which contains at most 3276 samples. Hence, N_f = 4096.

T_c = 1 / (Δ_fmax * N_f) = 1 / (480∙10³ * 4096) = 0.509ns

2.3. κ the ratio between T_s and T_c

κ = T_s / T_c = 64

2.4. T_TA: Timing advance between downlink and uplink

The timing advance that gNB tells UE to start UL traffic
T_TA = N_TAT_c

Figure 2.4.1: Uplink-downlink timing relation (38.211)

3. Frame structure

• Frame: 10ms duration
• Subframe: 1ms duration. 1 frame consists of 10 subframe.
• Slot
• Symbol: 14 consecutive OFDM symbols in 1 slot

Figure 3.1: Number of OFDM symbols per slot, slots per frame, and slots per subframe for normal cyclic prefix (38.211)

Figure 3.2: Number of OFDM symbols per slot, slots per frame, and slots per subframe for extended cyclic prefix (38.211)

(only when μ=2, scs=60kHz, extented cyclic prefix numerology could be suppported)
Figure 3.3: OFDM symbol duration

N_Rx-Tx Minimum time from reception to transmission for a half-duplex UE
N_Tx-Rx Minimum time from transmission to reception for a half-duplex UE

Figure 3.4: Transition time N_Rx-Tx and N_Tx-Rx (38.211)

Reference

1. 3GPP TS 38.211 V17.3.0 (2022-09)
2. 3GPP TS 38.213 V17.3.0 (2022-09)
3. http://sharetechnote.com/html/5G/5G_FrameStructure.html