BLER-SNR Curves for 5G NR MCS under AWGN Channel with Optimum Quantization

This paper contributes by providing a comprehensive set of block error rate (BLER) vs. signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) curves under additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel conditions for 5G new radio (NR) modulation and coding schemes (MCS) belonging to the 3GPP 5G NR TS 38.214 standard, with low-density parity check (LDPC) coded scenario according to TS 38.212. To enhance practical relevance in the context of O-RAN networks, this paper also introduces the effect of optimum quantization and compares the results without quantization, showing that despite system degradation, the performance remains very close to the unquantized case. By providing this comprehensive dataset, the paper offers valuable insights to support the selection of the most appropriate MCS depending on the required BLER-SNR scenario, serving as a guide in the design of 5G communication systems, for the scheduler, and as lookup tables for the physical layer (PHY) abstraction in link-level simulators (LLS).