5G New Radio for spectrum allocations below 5 MHz


Since its introduction, 5G New Radio (NR) has been a great success story, especially in consumer markets. There are also specialized networks serving industry verticals that will benefit from 5G NR capabilities. 5G NR offers low communication latency, high reliability, flexibility and efficiency that enable mission-critical applications to be modernized and enhanced to meet the challenges of the future. Key use cases include communications for critical infrastructure such as railways, smart electrical power distribution grids and public safety. These networks often use dedicated spectrum allocations that are narrower than the original minimum operating bandwidth of 5 MHz for 5G NR. This paper describes how new flexibility is being introduced to the 5G NR design as part of 5G-Advanced to allow operation in these dedicated spectrum allocations with bandwidths between 3 and 5 MHz.