FANTASTIC-5G: Flexible Air Interface for Scalable Service Delivery within Wireless Communication Networks of the 5th Generation

5th generation mobile networks will have to cope with a high degree of heterogeneity in terms of: services, mobility, number of devices, etc. Thus diverse and often contradicting key performance indicators need to be supported, but having multiple radio access technologies for multi-service support below 6GHz will be too costly. FANTASTIC-5G will develop a new multi-service Air Interface (AI) through a modular design. To allow the system to adapt to the anticipated heterogeneity, some properties need to be pursued, like: simplicity, flexibility, scalability, versatility, efficiency and futureproofness. Based on these properties a selected set of use cases and link and network design will be presented. The paper will also comprise validation and system level simulations through some indicative results; and will conclude with the overall impact to 5G standardization.