Sunday, May 10, 2020

G's and N's in 5G

gNB, ng-eNB and en-gNB

You might come across this terms and this are utterly confusing.
Let's understand them one by one.




gNB-
gNB is the logical name for 5G radio node.
It's the pretty same as eNB in LTE.
There are various post as how the prefix arrived as 'g' here in 5G NodeB which points out towards a minutes of the RAN3#92 meeting from the year of 2016. Below are the important transcript snap from the meeting minutes.

-> Offline_46 (ZTE): – Find a proper name for “NB BS”
– various proposals, no agreement at first.
Vince Spatafora (AT&T): fNB?
Sivavakeesar Sivapathalingham (NEC): 5NB?
Sangeetha Banglae [sic] (Intel): gNB?”

Finally the award goe's to Sangeetha Bangale from Intel.
'g'  letter stands here for the generation - which interns indicates to new generation.


ng-eNB
'ng' stands for straightforward as next generation and there is no award for the guess. The 'ng' indicates a relation towards 5G. Now mind the word eNB on the second part of it. Which means this is related to LTE as well. Confusing right??
Let's make it simpler now -- This is indeed a eNB which interns uses it's conventional LTE air interface to connect with UE


en-gNB
en - stands here for enhanced. This is also similar to ng-eNB. Where instead of eB , the gNB is enhanced. Remember this is not ng-but en. Because g is already with the NB - gNB , which interns says the gNB is next generation and en indicates it is enhanced.
Which makes ir capable of talking with eNB's so that existing LTE infrastructure can be used.

gNB will be used in case of standalone 5G means in SA.
The en-gNB will be used in case of NSA/ENDC.

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