Configurable distributed physical downlink control channel for 5G new radio: Resource bundling and diversity trade-off

New radio technologies for the fifth generation of wireless system have been extensively studied globally. Specifically, air interface protocols for 5G radio access network will be standardized in coming years by 3GPP. Due to its crucial function in scheduled system, physical layer downlink control channel (PDCCH) is a core element to enable all physical layer data transmissions. Recently, configurable distributed PDCCH with the intention to cope with different scenarios has been developed in 3GPP. To have comprehensive understanding of respective technical advantages and potential scenario dependent limitations, detailed performance analysis and evaluations of configurable distributed PDCCH are thoroughly studied in this paper. In particular, exponential effective SNR mapping (EESM) has been employed as the performance metric of configurable distributed PDCCH in different scenarios. It is demonstrated from EESM results that configurable distributed PDCCH offers additional degree of freedom for the trade-off between achieved frequency diversity and channel estimation gain by adjusting resource bundling level according to the channel and interference scenario experienced by the control channel transmission.