One of the most popular question that what will be my speed on 5G is explained comprehensively in this article/video, “5G NR Throughput Estimation – How much speed or data rate will I get on 5G.”
So, this video answers all the calculations and estimations required for 5G throughput calculation in a simple manner. It also shows our 5G Throughput Calculation Tool (5GTCal) as well in order to provide a feel of the 5G throughput and its relation with different factors.
5G NR Throughput Estimation – How much speed or data rate will I get on 5G?
Below are reference articles/videos for background understanding (if required) before watching 5G NR Throughput Estimation – How much speed or data rate will I get on 5G?
5G Frequency and Time Domain Structure
The simplest way to estimate 5G Throughput is to calculate the maximum data rate carried by a single Resource Block into one slot.
For instance, on the right, we have a 30KHz example. In this case:
Number of Subcarriers = 12
Number of Symbols = 14
Symbols for Data = 11 (2 for DMRS and 1 for PDCCH)
Total Data Resource Elements = 12 x 11 = 132
Maximum Bits per Symbol = 7.4063 (256QAM)
Data carried in this Resource Block over one slot = 132 x 7.4063 = 977 Bits in 0.5ms
Now, lets say that the 5G Bandwidth is 100MHz
Number of Resource Blocks in 100MHz = 100,000KHz / 360KHz = 277 (273 are used, 4 RBs are used as guard)
Total Number of Slots available in one second = 1000 ms / 0.5ms = 2000 slots
Downlink Slots = 1600 (if DL/UL Ratio is 4:1) or 1500 (if DL/UL Ratio is 3:1)
Maximum Number of MIMO layers = 4
5G Throughput = 977 bits x 273 RBs x 1600 slots x 4 layers /1024/1024 = 1627 Mbps
A slight overhead is introduced in special slots where the Downlink changes to Uplink i.e. Slot-4 shown below
The Slot-4 has some symbols used for Guard Period which is used by both transmitter and receiver sides to shift from Tx to Rx and vice versa
It also has some symbols for uplink control channels like Sounding Reference Signals or SRS
Hence, the Slot-4 has 7 symbols used for data in this example and if we incorporate that overhead in our calculation then the throughput will be slightly lower as shown by the 5G Throughput Calculator Tool
Note: These special slots can have different configurations and thus, different ratio between DL/UL/GP symbols is possible
As a reference, I am putting the 5G frequency and time domain structure details as well. Like LTE, the 5G frequency domain structure is made up of Resource Elements (REs). 12 Res in frequency domain constitute a Resource Block (RB). However, in LTE the RB is 12 sub-carriers x 7 symbols while in NR the RB is 12 sub-carriers but there is no time limit. Secondly, as LTE SCS is 15kHz so LTE RB is always 180kHz in frequency domain (12×15) but the NR SCS is flexible so the NR RB bandwidth can also vary accordingly e.g. in case of 30kHz SCS, the NR RB will be 360kHz (30×12). This also means that in case of a 20MHz channel, the LTE will have 100 RBs but the NR will only have 50 RBs.
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Ali Khalid
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Hi bro, in one of my interview in Ericsson, one guy asked me the reasons of nr having higher spectral efficiency. As u know it’s just a ratio of two quantities SE=N/D.where N is net data rate in bps and D is spectrum in Hz.Keeping D as constant for LTE (say Rel 8,12 and 13, not considering eLTE of Rel15) and NR ( Rel 15 and 16).Its just the N which decides the higher or lower bps which is simply throughout. So this question gets boiled down to the reasons for having higher throughout in NR wrt LTE. Now if we look closely to both(LTE and NR) throughout calculation formulae or algorithms, it can be said that NR has more number of RBs, it can support higher Order QAM, it can support more number of mimo layers, even massive mimo at lower frequencies, it can have more numbers of carrier components, higher number of beams in beamforming, better performance of ldpc to turbo codes over higher rates etc. But he wanted to hear a famous reason. Can u please suggest me such famous reasons which is beyond the calculation formulae.
Hello Pratap,
Thank you for your comment.
Please follow the link below and post your question/feedback in Youtube comments section so that Ali Khalid will be able to answer.
https://youtu.be/Jz5g5sIU81U – 5G NR Throughput Estimation
How to consider massive MIMO gain in 5G NR throughput estimation?
Hello Nirol,
Please follow the link below and post your question in Youtube comments section and Ali Khalid will be able to answer. Thanks
https://youtu.be/Jz5g5sIU81U
In case you are interested in Massive MIMO, please watch the video below.
5G Massive MIMO Made Simple – Learn All About Massive MIMO & Beam-Forming In 30 minutes
https://youtu.be/EDcfkegcIHs
Hi Ali Khalid, I am a student in final year. I have a question about this equation:
5G Throughput = 977 bits x 273 RBs x 1600 slots x 4 layers /1024/1024 = 1627 Mbps. Why we need to divide 1024 twice?
The throughput equation that i found online is as below link:
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcafetele.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F07%2Fimage-45-1024×405.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcafetele.com%2F5g-nr-data-rate-throughput%2F&tbnid=E_9MZzTKn-D1sM&vet=12ahUKEwiB3-b_lt7yAhWqhksFHeK9CrcQMygEegUIARC0AQ..i&docid=i9sm1OBNUHocOM&w=1024&h=405&q=5g%20tdd%20throughput&ved=2ahUKEwiB3-b_lt7yAhWqhksFHeK9CrcQMygEegUIARC0AQ
What is the different between this two equation? Could the Transport block size (TBS) affect the throughput? The FDD and TDD throughput calculation is different?
In your example, how you get the Maximum Bits per Symbol = 7.4063 (256QAM)? It is from the 3GPP TS 38.214 version 15.3.0 Release 15, Table 5.1.3.1-2: MCS index table 2 for PDSCH?
Another question about the Signal to noise ratio, Interference Margin (IM) and SINR which is not relate to this website. How can I get the SNR, IM value for each MCS state in 3GPP TS 38.214 version 15.3.0 Release 15? Is there any calculation or equation that I can use to calculate SNR and IM? The 3GPP TS 38.214 version 15.3.0 Release 15 only give the target code rate and spectrum efficiency for each MCS. I have saw an example that using this equation to calculate the SINR.
SINR=SNR+IM
Then using the SINR and others to calculate the sensitivity.
Thanks for your comment, Yi Ying. Can you please post your question under this video on YouTube (URL below) and Ali Khalid will be able to reply then 🙂
https://youtu.be/Jz5g5sIU81U
ok sure, thanks
I divided twice by 1024 or 1000 to get Mbps from bits per second
The calculation I showed is a simplistic version. The TBS version is more accurate.
The SINR and IM for MCS is not straight-forward and you would not find this in the specs. You may be able to find CQI to MCS mapping though.
Hi bro, in one of my interview in Ericsson, one guy asked me the reasons of nr having higher spectral efficiency. As u know it’s just a ratio of two quantities SE=N/D.where N is net data rate in bps and D is spectrum in Hz.Keeping D as constant for LTE (say Rel 8,12 and 13, not considering eLTE of Rel15) and NR ( Rel 15 and 16).Its just the N which decides the higher or lower bps which is simply throughout. So this question gets boiled down to the reasons for having higher throughout in NR wrt LTE. Now if we look closely to both(LTE and NR) throughout calculation formulae or algorithms, it can be said that NR has more number of RBs, it can support higher Order QAM, it can support more number of mimo layers, even massive mimo at lower frequencies, it can have more numbers of carrier components, higher number of beams in beamforming, better performance of ldpc to turbo codes over higher rates etc. But he wanted to hear a famous reason. Can u please suggest me such famous reasons which is beyond the calculation formulae.