Antenna, PHY and MAC Design

This chapter ventures in detail into antenna design, analog, digital and hybrid beamforming, covers novel physical layer (PHY), media access control (MAC), design paradigms and specific solutions for serving and multiplexing the main service types envisioned for 5th generation (5G). The support of multiple antennas both at the base station (BS) and at the device will be a fundamental corner stone of 5G. The chapter covers relevant criteria for the PHY and MAC design, including considerations of harmonization, for instance between different radio access technologies (RATs). It provides a more in‐depth analysis of the waveform candidates and means for multiplexing user transmissions. The chapter delves into details on waveforms, numerology, modulation schemes, and coding approaches. It also provides more details on the related options that can be drawn from both forward error correction (FEC) and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and the respective interdependencies.