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5G Tool box in MATLAB: Possibilities and Limitations
MATLAB has introduced its 5G Toolbox, which provides standards compliant waveforms and reference examples for modeling, simulation, and verification of the physical layer of 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) communications systems. 5G Toolbox can be used to design algorithms and predict end-to-end link performance of systems that conform to the 5G Release 15 standard. It consists various modules such as LDPC Processing for DL-SCH, modeling of downlink control information (DCI) processing for the 5G New Radio communications system, generation of a synchronization signal block (SSB) and generate multiple SSBs to form a synchronization signal burst (SS burst), measurement of the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) throughput of a 5G New Radio (NR) link. Further more, 5G toolbox also describes on downlink control processing and procedures, NR Synchronization Procedures by passing waveform through a fading channel and then blindly synchronize to the received waveform to decode the master information block (MIB), a 5G NR downlink carrier waveform generator, new polar channel coding technique chosen for 5G New Radio (NR) communications system specified by 3GPP etc..
By adopting 5G tool box, wireless engineers can verify their new architectures and algorithms, to develop proof-of-concept prototypes and prepare the new designs for field trials. Typically, the models are manufactured utilizing FPGA equipment with implanted processors for a few bits of the plans. These stages are ordinarily known as equipment testbeds, and they empower fast prototyping and testing of new advances and configuration changes in the field.
However, MATLAB 5G toolbox has some limitations such as it does not discuss on MATLAB code of small cell, application of millimeter wave in small cell, 3D beam forming : beam selection beam indication , CSI-RS such as non precoded CSI-RS, various schemes of non-precoded beam forming, beam formed CSI-RS, Hybrid CSI-RS, DM-RS enhancement to MU-MIMO, sounding reference signal (SRS) to improve capacity. Many more MATLAB codes can be added in the next version of 5G MATLAB tool box.