This document outlines an 8-step process for calibrating a link-level 5G simulator based on an LTE link-level simulator. Each step validates a different component: 1) OFDM modulation, 2) channel coding, 3) SIMO configuration, 4) MIMO transmit diversity, 5) MIMO spatial multiplexing, 6) uplink, 7) alignment with 3GPP requirements, and 8) multi-link calibration. System-level calibration then occurs in two phases for LTE and LTE-Advanced technologies.

1. Calibration

2. Link-level calibration
 This section describes in detail a step-wise approach to execute the calibration
process for a link-level simulator. Hitherto there is not a typical and detailed
definition of 5G at link level.
 Therefore, as an intermediate step, the 5G link-level calibration can be done
based on a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) link-level simulator.
 This intermediate step will make it easy to develop a similar methodology for
the calibration of a fully detailed 5G technology.
 The methodology is based on breaking down the entire simulation chain of a
link-level simulator into its single building blocks.

3. Calibration step 1 – OFDM modulation
 The first step (step 1) of the calibration process consists in the validation of the
OFDM Modulation/Demodulation (OMD) unit. It includes the validation of
Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Inverse-FFT (IFFT).
 In order to do so, it is enough to focus on the inputs and outputs of this macro-
block (i.e. no coding/decoding functionalities will be considered in this case).
 The following assumptions are suggested for the calibration of the OMD unit.
Both an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel and a Rayleigh
fading channel should be considered in the assessment.
 For the latter channel, ideal channel estimation can be assumed. For both
channels, it is suggested to use a simple receiver such as a Zero Forcing (ZF)
receiver. The curves obtained by simulation in this first step should overlap the
theoretical reference curves.

4. Calibration step 2 – channel coding
 In the next step (step 2) the coding functionalities of the LTE system must be included
in the link-level simulator. The turbo coding performance depends highly on the turbo
block size.
 Hence, the actual Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) frame structure must be
implemented and different Resource Block (RB) allocations have to be tested in all
calibration steps after OMD unit calibration.
 Since the results obtained in this second step of calibration are LTE-specific, it makes
sense to refer directly to the 3GPP documentation to perform the best-suited
benchmark.
 In turbo coding is evaluated assuming an AWGN channel, a ZF receiver and a
maximum of only one Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) transmission, for
different coding rates and number of RBs allocated to the transmission.
 Once this step is assessed, the Forward Error Correction (FEC) macroblock based on
turbo coding is included in all the rest of calibration steps.

5. Calibration step 3 – SIMO configuration
 In the next step (step 3) the entire transmission chain should be simulated with
the channel model included.
 The following assumptions are suggested for this calibration step: a fixed
bandwidth of 10 MHz – 50 RBs – is simulated assuming the realistic channel
estimation and different channels – Extended Pedestrian A (EPA), Extended
Vehicular A (EVA) and Extended Typical Urban (ETU) – with a Single Input
Multiple Output (SIMO) 1x2 configuration.
 The scenario could be validated through a direct comparison with the
minimum requirements specified by the 3GPP.
 This validation refers to a threshold value for the system throughput for a given
Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) value. Other 3GPP internal
references are recommended in this validation step.

6. Calibration step 4 – MIMO configuration
for transmit diversity
 Similarly, the fourth step (step 4) validates the system by a direct comparison
with the 3GPP minimum requirements.
 The simulation assumptions for the calibration of the transmit diversity scheme
proposed in LTE includes a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) 2x2
configuration with Space-Frequency Block Coding (SFBC), maximum
bandwidth of 10 MHz, realistic channel estimation and a ZF receiver.

7. Calibration step 5 – MIMO configuration
for spatial multiplexing
 In the fifth calibration step (step 5) spatial multiplexing simulations are
assessed. These can be divided into open loop and closed-loop scenarios.
 In case of open loop, large-delay Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) precoding
must be implemented following the 3GPP standard. Although minimum
requirements for two antenna configurations – 2x2 and 4x2 – are provided, a
more detailed set of results can be found in [17] and [18], respectively.
 On the other hand, in case of the closed-loop scenario, single layer and
multiple layer spatial multiplexing configurations must be calibrated.

8. Calibration step 6 – uplink
 With the previous five steps, the macro-blocks of the complete downlink chain have
been fully validated.
 The next step (step 6) consists in assessing the system in the uplink using the Physical
Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH). Obviously, the same five steps described for the
downlink could also be valid for the reverse channel taking into account the particular
characteristic of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)- precoded OFDM that exists in
this direction.
 Provided the macro-blocks testing, the calibration process will continue with the
complete uplink transmission chain.
 The simulation assumptions will include a SIMO 1x2 antenna configuration, realistic
channel estimation based on Maximum A Posteriori (MAP), Minimum Mean Square
Error (MMSE) receiver and complete channel modeling.

9. Calibration step 7 – 3GPP minimum
requirements
 Once the block-wise validation described above has been fulfilled, the entire simulation
chain should be aligned to a valid reference for the particular system under
consideration.
 In particular, the 3GPP LTE Release 9 framework can be used as a reference for the
End-to-End (E2E) system performance comparison, by considering the minimum
values are provided.
 First, the simulator parameterization should be aligned with that of Common Test
Parameters proposed in [13] and [20] and refer to the demodulation of PDSCH/PUSCH,
in the following configurations: (1) single-antenna port, (2) transmit diversity, (3) open-
loop spatial multiplexing and (4) closed-loop spatial multiplexing. For configuration,
multiple references have been defined varying propagation conditions, Modulation and
Coding Schemes (MCS) and number of used antennas

10. Calibration step 8 – multi-link-level
calibration
 The calibration of the basic system blocks in a multi-link scenario is identical to the
method for the single-link case described previously.
 This step focuses on the calibration of some of the most representative protocols for
cooperative multi-hop transmission, which can be used as a starting point for further
contributions on this topic.
 A comprehensive comparison of multi-hop protocols was carried out in [22]–[24],
where the following protocols for two-hop relaying are considered: Amplify-and-
Forward (AF) transmission, Decode-and-Forward (DF) transmission, and Decode-and-
Reencode (DR) transmission.
 Moreover, performance results for different end-to-end spectral efficiency values and
relative positions of the relay are given. In addition, a calibration based on bit-error-rate
performance can be done using the results.

12. System-level calibration:
Calibration phase 1 – LTE technology
 The main assumptions are taken from 3GPP and ITU-R work, focusing on the urban
micro-cell case, with carrier frequency 2.5 GHz, inter-site distance of 200 m, tilt 12
degrees and bandwidth 10 MHz for downlink and uplink, respectively. Table 14.2
summarizes the characteristics of the system.
 For calibration, the following performance metrics need to be considered:
 Cell-spectral efficiency.
 Cell-edge user spectral efficiency.
 CDF of the normalized user throughput.
 CDF of the SINR. SINR will be collected after the MIMO decoder, thus resulting in a
single SINR value per resource element allocated to the user.
 The final SINR per user is calculated as the linear average of all these values

14. Calibration phase 2 – LTE-Advanced with
basic deployment
 This calibration case is based on the assumptions made by 3GPP for the
evaluation of IMT-Advanced. The basic simulation assumptions for this
calibration case are found, where the focus is on the urban micro-cell scenario
with the same assumptions as above.
 This scenario allows checking the validity of the implementation of spatial
multiplexing using MIMO.
 In order to update this baseline system to the most updated version of 4G
technologies, the assumptions summarized in Table 14.3 for the
implementation of LTE-Advanced will be assumed.
 For calibration purposes, Figure 14.5 shows the calibration material. The cell
spectral efficiency in this scenario is 1.8458 bps/Hz/cell, whereas the cell edge
user spectral efficiency is 0.0618 bps/Hz