A comprehensive study on the synchronization procedure in 5G NR with 3GPP-compliant link-level simulator

The 5G New Radio synchronization procedure is the first step that the user must complete to access the mobile network. It mainly consists of the detection of the primary and secondary synchronization signals (PSS and SSS, respectively) and the decoding of the physical broadcast channel (PBCH). Our g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:EURASIP journal on wireless communications and networking 2023-10, Vol.2023 (1), p.111-29, Article 111
Main Authors: Tuninato, Riccardo, Riviello, Daniel Gaetano, Garello, Roberto, Melis, Bruno, Fantini, Roberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
5G mobile communication
5G NR
Cell search
Coding
Communication
Communications Engineering
Decoding
Doppler effect
Engineering
Frequency offset
Information Systems Applications (incl.Internet)
Initial access
Investigations
Networks
Radio
Receivers & amplifiers
Robustness (mathematics)
Signal,Image and Speech Processing
Simulation
SSB
Synchronism
Synchronization procedure
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Summary:The 5G New Radio synchronization procedure is the first step that the user must complete to access the mobile network. It mainly consists of the detection of the primary and secondary synchronization signals (PSS and SSS, respectively) and the decoding of the physical broadcast channel (PBCH). Our goal is to provide a comprehensive study of the synchronization procedure and investigate different techniques and approaches, through the implementation of a 5G New Radio-compliant simulator. Of significant interest is the investigation of impairments such as the fading channel, the frequency offset, and the delay spread. The results are provided in terms of detection probability for the PSS and SSS detection, and in terms of block error rate for the PBCH. From the data collected, there is evidence that choosing M-sequences for the PSS leads to an appreciably robust solution against frequency offset. The structure of the Gold sequences for SSS generation can be exploited to reduce the detection complexity, and different approaches can be chosen to improve reliability against delay spread. Moreover, the polar coding for 5G PBCH outperforms the former 4G coding technique, but they are still sensible to frequency offset. Finally, the simulator functionalities are validated through real captures of 5G signals.
ISSN:1687-1499
1687-1472
1687-1499
DOI:10.1186/s13638-023-02317-5