The 5G New Radio (NR) air interface lies at the heart of 5G’s transformative capabilities, enabling high data rates, low latency, and the flexibility to support a wide range of services - from enhanced mobile broadband to ultra-reliable low-latency communications and massive IoT. Unlike previous generations, 5G NR has been designed from the ground up without the constraint of backward compatibility, freeing it to address the diverse and demanding requirements of next-generation mobile networks.

This course offers a technical deep dive into the architecture and operation of the 5G air interface. It explores how key design decisions - such as the adoption of flexible OFDMA, use of millimetre wave frequencies, large-scale antenna arrays, and adaptable subcarrier spacing - combine to deliver major improvements in spectral and energy efficiency. You'll also learn how 5G NR accommodates a wide variety of use cases through its advanced protocol stack, modulation schemes, duplexing methods, and dynamic bandwidth configurations.

By the end of the course, participants will understand the principles behind 5G NR’s physical layer, its use of spectrum (including FR1 and FR2 bands), and the challenges and opportunities associated with operating at high radio frequencies.

Whether you're a telecom engineer, network architect, or systems analyst, this course provides the foundational knowledge needed to work confidently with the 5G air interface.

Course Contents                        

• 5G Objective and Performance Requirements
  
• Air Interface Protocol Stack
  
• Wireless Capacity Growth
  
• 5G Spectrum Overview
  
• TDD and FDD Overview
  
• Millimeter Wave and Antenna Overview
  
• mmWave Propagation Characteristics
  
• Capacity and Modulation
  
• Principles of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA)
  
• Inter-Symbol-Interference
  
• Bandwidth Parts
  
• Time Domain Structure
  
• PHY Resource Grid
  
• Physical Channels and Signals