Overview of 5G New Radio and Carrier Aggregation: 5G and Beyond Networks

Recent pandemic has affected the telecom industries with the need for connectivity more than before. It has accelerated the research and innovation activities towards 5G and beyond networks. The purpose of the presented work is to provide the urgency of the situation and state the development with the 5G NR (New Radio). 3GPP launched the standardization activity for 5G system in Release 15, 5G New Radio (NR). This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the development of NR, including deployment scenarios, numerologies, frame structure, new waveform and enhanced carrier aggregation (CA). Since coverage and capacity are the key elements of an optimal 5G user experience. Carrier aggregation is visualized as critical for 5G and upcoming networks. It enhances data capacity by aggregating carriers from same/different spectrum bands. Release 10 introduced carrier aggregation and in LTE-Advance, up to five component carriers can be aggregated but commercial solutions use up to three component carriers providing a maximum downlink speed of up to 450Mbps. This paper provides an overview of carrier aggregation, its needs and set of potential solutions and research scope to mitigate the foreseen challenges with CA.