5G TERMS AND ACRONYMS

Beam acquisition

What is Beam Acquisition? Beam acquisition is the process by which a 5G NR UE discovers available beams from a gNB and establishes a beam-based

Beam steering

What is Beam Steering ? Beam steering is the dynamic redirection of a focused radio beam to continuously track a moving user or adapt to

Beamforming

What is Beamforming ? Beamforming is a signal processing technique that uses multiple antenna elements to focus radio frequency energy in a specific direction toward

Binary Phase Shift Keying

Binary Phase-Shift Keying (BPSK) is a digital modulation technique that transmits data by modulating the phase of a carrier wave between two distinct phases. The

Carrier aggregation

What is Carrier Aggregation? Carrier Aggregation (CA) combines multiple component carriers (CCs) across different frequency bands or different parts of the same band to multiply

CATR – Compact antenna test range

What is CATR? CATR (Compact Antenna Test Range) is a specialized test facility used to measure antenna radiation patterns and RF performance of wireless devices

CE – Channel emulator

What is CE? A CE (Channel Emulator) is electronic test equipment that simulates real-world radio channel conditions in a controlled laboratory environment. It reproduces impairments

Cell tower

What is Cell Tower? A cell tower is a physical structure — typically a steel lattice tower, monopole, or rooftop installation — that hosts the

CIR – Channel impulse response

What is CIR? CIR (Channel Impulse Response) is a characterisation of a wireless channel obtained by correlating the received signal against the transmitted signal during

CoMP – Coordinated multipoint

What is CoMP? CoMP is a multi-cell cooperation technique where multiple base station transmission/reception points coordinate to improve coverage at cell edges and reduce inter-cell

Control plane

What is Control Plane? The control plane carries all signalling information used to establish, maintain, and manage communication sessions and network resources. It is entirely

Core network

What is Core Network? The core network is the central part of a mobile network providing subscriber management, routing, authentication, policy control, and connectivity to

CP-OFDM – Cyclic prefix orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

What is CP-OFDM? CP-OFDM is the primary waveform used in 5G NR for downlink and most uplink transmissions. It extends conventional OFDM by prepending a

CPE – Common phase error

What is CPE? CPE (Common Phase Error) is a measurement of phase noise degradation in OFDM-based systems. It represents the average of the phase noise

CPRI – Common public radio interface

What is CPRI? CPRI is an industry standard defining the electrical and logical interface between the Radio Equipment Controller (REC/BBU) and the Radio Equipment (RE/RRH)

CRS – Cell-specific reference signal

What is CRS? CRS (Cell-Specific Reference Signal) is a downlink reference signal transmitted by LTE eNodeBs across the entire cell bandwidth in every subframe. It

CSI – Channel state information

What is CSI? CSI describes the known radio propagation properties of a communication channel at a given instant — including signal strength, phase, multipath characteristics,