CCO CelPlan Technologies Reston, Virginia, United States
This course is designed for professionals who need a clear, practical understanding of the fundamental concepts behind 4G LTE and 5G NR. The class is presented at a conceptual level and is intended for participants who want to understand how these technologies work, how they are structured, and what drives their performance, without going deeply into mathematical derivations.
The course begins with the fundamentals of wireless communication and introduces the key principles behind OFDM and OFDMA, which form the basis of modern 4G and 5G air interfaces. It then explains how 4G LTE and 5G NR use these principles in real networks, reviews the basic network architecture, and introduces the main factors that influence wireless network design, including coverage, service quality, throughput, latency, interference, and capacity.
This course is delivered at a conceptual level. It focuses on helping participants understand the principles, terminology, and design tradeoffs when working with 4G LTE and 5G NR networks, rather than detailed mathematical analysis or vendor-specific implementation details.
By the end of this course, participants should be able to:
Understand the basic principles of wireless communication behind 4G LTE and 5G NR
Explain the relationship between bandwidth, data rate, signal quality, and user performance
Distinguish between different duplexing and multiple access techniques
Understand the role of OFDM/OFDMA in 4G and 5G systems
Describe the basic air-interface concepts used in 4G LTE and 5G NR, including subcarriers, resource blocks, and frame structure
Explain Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC/MCS) and how radio conditions affect throughput
Recognize the main elements of 4G and 5G network architecture
Understand the main tradeoffs in wireless network design, including coverage, interference, and capacity
Course Outline
Introduction
Course roadmap and learning approach
How did we get here? A brief review of earlier generations
Fundamentals of Wireless Communication
Symbols and bits
Data rate, bandwidth, and their relationship
Narrowband vs. wideband vs. broadband
Noise, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), sensitivity, and error rate
What is FDD and TDD?
Multiple access techniques:
FDMA
TDMA
CDMA
OFDM/OFDMA Fundamentals
Why wireless systems evolved toward OFDM/OFDMA
Basic concept of OFDM
OFDMA as a multiple access technique
Carrier vs. subcarriers
Multipath and cyclic prefix
Why OFDM/OFDMA is important for 4G LTE and 5G NR
Air Interface Basics
Resource blocks and how radio resources are assigned
LTE frame structure
Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC/MCS)
Relationship between radio conditions and user throughput
