A Discrete-Time Model of the 5G New Radio Uplink Channel

The introduction of 5G comes with significant advancements over LTE in both core and radio domains, with a shift to microservices in the core and enhanced flexibility in the radio access network. While these changes boost performance, it comes at the cost of increased complexity in the radio access and core configuration, particularly in the radio domain. This complexity is heightened by use case-specific 5G deployments in campus and industrial networks, making the selection of optimal configuration parameters a challenging task. To address this, we present a discrete-time queueing model for the 5G New Radio uplink channel, capable of predicting key performance indicators (KPIs) such as the one-way delay as well as analyzing the channel’s impact on traffic streams. The model is validated through simulations and comparisons with 5G campus network measurements.