5G-LENA simulator is calibrated according to Phase 1 indoor hotspot system-level calibration for multi-antenna systems, as per Annex A.2 in [TS38802]. Details of the evaluation assumptions for Phase 1 NR MIMO system level calibration are provided in [R11703534], with further clarifications in [R11700144], and are summarized in what follows.

Simulation parameters and deployment

The deployment scenario is composed of 12 sites at 20 m distance, and 120 UEs (100% indoor) randomly dropped in a 50 m x 120 m area. Simulation parameters are:

  • Carrier frequency: 30 GHz
  • Mode: downlink only
  • Bandwidth: 40 MHz
  • Sub-carrier spacing: 60 kHz
  • Channel model: Indoor TR 38.900
  • gNB transmit Power: 23 dBm
  • gNB antenna configuration: M=4, N=8 (32 antenna elements), 1 sector, vertical polarization
  • UE antenna configuration: M=2, N=4 (8 antenna elements), 1 panel, vertical polarization
  • gNB antenna height: 3 m
  • UE antenna height: 1,5 m
  • gNB noise figure: 7 dB
  • UE noise figure: 10 dB
  • UE speed: 3 km/h
  • Scheduler: TDMA PF
  • Traffic model: full buffer

Simulation results

As reference curves, we use the results provided by the companies in [R11709828]. We consider the CDF of the wideband SINR with beamforming, and the CDF of the wideband SNR with step b (i.e., with analog TX/RX beamforming, using a single digital TX/RX port). For each case, we depict as reference the average of the companies contributing to 3GPP as well as the company that gets the minimum and the maximum of the average wideband SNR/SINR, so that a region for calibration is defined.

We have tested different configurations, varying the InH path loss model {InH office-mixed, InH office-open, InH shopping-mall}, shadowing {enabled, disabled}, gNB antenna orientation {Z0-plane, X0-plane}, beamforming method {optimal, beam search}, gNB element antenna model {3GPP single-sector, 3GPP wall-mount, ISO}, and UE element antenna model {3GPP, ISO}. In the following figures, we depict the CDF of wideband SNR and SINR, for a configuration that matches the 3GPP calibration region. We can see that the SINR is close to the lowest 3GPP reference curve. Regarding SNR, it lies entirely within the 3GPP calibration region, with a perfect match with the average 3GPP SNR.

SNR CDF. Config1.
SINR CDF. Config1
TS38802.
^ 3GPP TR 38.802, “TSG RAN; NR; Study on new radio access technology Physical layer aspects”, Release 14, v14.2.0, Sept. 2017.
R11703534.
^ R1-1703534, “Evaluation assumptions for Phase 1 NR MIMO system level calibration”, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 88 Meeting, Feb. 2017.
R11700144.
^ R1-1700144, “Further clarification on assumptions for Phase 1 NR MIMO calibration”, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 NR1 Meeting, Jan. 2017.
R11709828.
^ R1-1709828, “Calibration results for Phase 1 NR MIMO system level calibration”, 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 89 Meeting, May 2017.