Standalone and Non-Standalone Beam Management for 3GPP NR at mmWaves

TL;DR

This paper reviews 3GPP NR beam management procedures at mmWave frequencies, comparing standalone and non-standalone deployments, and analyzes their impact on network performance and design parameters.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of 3GPP NR beam management schemes for mmWave, including performance comparisons and design insights for both SA and NSA deployments.

Findings

Performance varies significantly between different beam management schemes.

Proper parameter tuning is crucial for optimal beam alignment and network performance.

NSA deployments can offer advantages over SA in certain scenarios.

Abstract

The next generation of cellular networks will exploit mmWave frequencies to dramatically increase the network capacity. The communication at such high frequencies, however, requires directionality to compensate the increase in propagation loss. Users and base stations need to align their beams during both initial access and data transmissions, to ensure the maximum gain is reached. The accuracy of the beam selection, and the delay in updating the beam pair or performing initial access, impact the end-to-end performance and the quality of service. In this paper we will present the beam management procedures that 3GPP has included in the NR specifications, focusing on the different operations that can be performed in Standalone (SA) and in Non-Standalone (NSA) deployments. We will also provide a performance comparison among different schemes, along with design insights on the most important parameters related to beam management frameworks.