Detection Performance of NR Downlink Initial Access Using Synchronization Signal Block in Millimeter-Wave Bands

This paper presents the detection performance of New Radio (NR) downlink initial access in the physical layer including physical-layer cell ID (PCID) detection, detection of the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), and demodulation and decoding of the PBCH payload using the synchronization signal block (SSB) in the millimeter (mm)-wave bands. In this paper, we take into account carrier frequency offset (CFO) due to the low frequency stability of a local oscillator of a set of user equipment (UE) and time-varying phase noise that occurs chiefly in a UE local oscillator, which are major impairments in the mm-wave bands. Link-level simulation results show that the detection error of the primary synchronization signal has a large impact on the detection probability of the PCID, the detection probability of the PBCH DMRS sequence, and on the resultant detection error of the PBCH payload using the Polar code. We also show that the residual CFO after CFO compensation affects the detection probability of the PBCH payload. We show, however, that the high detection probability of 90% for the correct radio frame timing based on the PBCH payload information is achieved at the average received signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of approximately −3 dB and −5 dB for the 3GPP Tapped Delay Line (TDL) - C and E channel models, respectively, indicating an effective SSB configuration of the NR radio interface for intermittent reception at a UE.