Radio access technology in the context of Radio communication

5G NR (5G New Radio) is a radio access technology (RAT) developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for the 5G (fifth generation) mobile network. It was designed to be the global standard for the air interface of 5G networks. It is based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), as is the 4G (fourth generation) long-term evolution (LTE) standard.

The 3GPP specification 38 series provides the technical details behind 5G NR, the successor of LTE.

Frequency bands for 5G New Radio (5G NR), which is the air interface or radio access technology of the 5G mobile networks, are separated into two different frequency ranges. First there is Frequency Range 1 (FR1), which includes sub-6 GHz frequency bands, some of which are traditionally used by previous standards, but has been extended to cover potential new spectrum offerings from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz. The other is Frequency Range 2 (FR2), which includes frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 71.0 GHz. In November and December 2023, a third band, Frequency Range 3 (FR3), covering frequencies from 7.125 GHz to 24.25 GHz, was proposed by the World Radio Conference; as of September 2024, this band has not been added to the official standard. Frequency bands are also available for non-terrestrial networks (NTN) in both the sub-6 GHz and in the 17.3 GHz to 30 GHz ranges.