NR in 5G stands for “New Radio” Access technology while LTE stands for “Long Term Evolution” techniques. LTE has resource block bandwidth fixed to 180 kHz but in case of NR it is not fixed and it depends on subcarrier spacing according to the transmit data. And in 5G , one NR resource block has 12 subcarriers in the frequency domain.
5G NR has a flexible air interface and the motive includes different use case families like – from enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB) and Massive machine type communication (MIoT) to Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications(URLLC), while LTE has a packet switched architecture which is used to support a wide range of data applications. They also support voice as Voice over LTE (VoLTE). The foundation of 5G NR is set only by LTE. 5G NR provides high speed data transfer, low latency and other performance improvements as compared to LTE.
There are so many technical advancements designed to improve network performance in 5G NR than 4G LTE which are as follows:
1. Shorter Scheduling Units
5G NR improves latency by minimizing the scheduling units to just two symbols.
2. Faster Time Division Duplexing(TDD)
TDD enables 5G NR to switch faster between uplink and downlink and also reduce latency.
3. Beamforming
To focus on wireless signals and to make a strong connection where connection is weak a massive MIMO (multiple input and multiple output) technology is used . Beamforming is used to extend the range of networks that use higher sub-6 spectrum.
4. Flexible Numerology
Flexible numerology is used to provide the spacing between subcarriers in a band of wireless spectrum at 15 , 30 , 60, 120 and 240 kHz , while LTE uses only 15 kHz spacing. Flexible numerology allows 5G NR to use mmWave spectrum in the 1st place.it also improves the performance of 5G NR devices. And it can adjust the subcarrier spacing for the particular spectrum according to the requirement of the transmitting data.
5. Selective Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ)
HARQ allows 5G NR to break up the large data into smaller parts so that when there is an error in a single part then there will be smaller retransmission which results in higher data transfer speeds.
6. Preemptive Scheduling
if the lower priority data is already being transmitted then it overwrites the lower priority data and allows higher priority data by reducing latency.
7. New Inactive State for Devices
There were two states in LTE i.e. idle and connected. But 5G NR includes one more state i.e. inactive- it reduces the time needed for an edge device to move inside or outside of its connected state(it is the state which is used for transmission), and it makes the device more responsive.
These all are the technical advancements made to 5G NR which offers faster data speed, low latency, more spectrum agility and better performance than LTE.
Some Brief Differences between 5G NR and 4G LTE are stated below:
| 5G NR | 4G LTE |
| In 5G NR, always-on transmissions are minimised to enable higher network energy performance and higher data rates. | 4G LTE was designed to support always -on signal in any condition or situation, which creates a lot of wastage of resources and it requires continuous evaluation. |
| NR supports licensed spectrum operation below 1GHz to 52.6GHz. | LTE supports licensed spectra at 3.5GHz and unlicensed spectra at 5GHz. |
| NR doesn’t depend on cell specific reference signals. It relies on user specific demodulation. | LTE depends on cell specific reference signals for channel estimation. |
| 5G NR consists of two frequency ranges i.e. below 6 GHz and above 6 GHz. | 4G LTE consists of only microwave frequencies. |
| 5G NR has complex cell search procedures. | 4G LTE has fast cell search procedures and low complexity. |
| 5G NR contains higher bandwidth efficiency reaching 99%. | 4G LTE has 90% bandwidth efficiency. |
| 5G NR contains beamforming. | There is no beamforming in 4G LTE. |
| 5G NR has faster time division duplexing(TDD) | There is no time division duplexing(TDD) in 4G. |
Which is better 5G NR or LTE
If we compare 5G NR and LTE then NR is better than LTE as it offers 100MHz unpaired spectrum through which it is possible to achieve higher downlink capacity eight times as compared to LTE.
It also provides improved downlink data rates i.e. both outdoors and indoors by uses of massive MIMO technologies like beamforming and multi-user MIMO.
Is 5G just 4G
No 5G is not the same as 4G as it has many more advanced technologies than 4G.LTE was developed by the International Telegraph Union Radiocommunication (ITU-R). It is like a progression in the 4G network .
The data transfer speed and uploading speed in 4G LTE is upto 150Mbps and 50 Mbps respectively. And these figures depend on various factors like location, deployment and traffic.
While 5G provides download speed up to 10Gbps.it uses different spectrum like mmWave high frequency bands which can support more bandwidth which results in more data transferred at once and provide higher speed than 4G.
Is 5G faster than 4G
Yes , 5G is faster than 4G. With 5G data can be transmitted more efficiently and effectively than 4G LTE. as it offers faster speed to download movies and other things. And we can connect so many devices at a large place with a faster signal.
5G offers 20 times faster speed than 4G LTE. 5G provides a peak speed of upto 20 Gbps which is much more than 4G LTE network.
Is 5G slower than 4G
Yes, some 5G connections are slow because the far reaching 5G signals from AT&T have used low band carrier frequencies. 5G contains a shorter wavelength that means 5G can carry a lot of data than 4G but it also means a shorter range. 4G wavelengths have a range of about 10 miles while 5G have a range of 1000 feet which is not even 2% of 4G’s range.