Mobile Communications Beyond 52.6 GHz: Waveforms, Numerology, and Phase Noise Challenge

In this article, the 5G New Radio (NR) physical layer evolution to support beyond 52.6 GHz communications is addressed. The performance of both OFDM based and DFT-s-OFDM based networks are evaluated with special emphasis on the phase noise (PN) induced distortion. It is shown that DFT-s-OFDM is more robust against PN under 5G NR Release 15 assumptions, specifically regarding the supported phase tracking reference signal (PTRS) designs. To further improve the PN compensation capabilities, the PTRS design for DFT-s-OFDM is revised, while for the OFDM waveform a novel block PTRS structure is introduced, providing similar link performance as DFT-s-OFDM with enhanced PTRS design. We demonstrate that the existing 5G NR Release 15 solutions can be extended to support deployments at 60 GHz bands with the enhanced PTRS structures. In addition, DFT-s-OFDM based downlink for user data could be considered for beyond 52.6 GHz communications to further improve system power efficiency and performance with higher order modulation and coding schemes. Finally, network link budget and cell size considerations are provided, showing that at certain bands with specific transmit power regulation, the cell size can eventually be downlink limited.