Become a UTC Academy member today to participate in this session https://www.utcacademy.org/ 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:
1. Understand the basic principles of wireless communication behind 4G LTE and 5G NR
2. Explain the relationship between bandwidth, data rate, signal quality, and user performance
3. Distinguish between different duplexing and multiple access techniques
4. Understand the role of OFDM/OFDMA in 4G and 5G systems
5. Describe the basic air-interface concepts used in 4G LTE and 5G NR, including subcarriers, resource blocks, and frame structure
6. Explain Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC/MCS) and how radio conditions affect throughput
7. Recognize the main elements of 4G and 5G network architecture
8. Understand the main tradeoffs in wireless network design, including coverage, interference, and capacity
Course Outline
I. Introduction
a. Course roadmap and learning approach
b. How did we get here? A brief review of earlier generations
II. Fundamentals of Wireless Communication
a. Symbols and bits
b. Data rate, bandwidth, and their relationship
c. Narrowband vs. wideband vs. broadband
d. Noise, Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), sensitivity, and error rate
e. What is FDD and TDD?
f. Multiple access techniques:
i. FDMA
ii. TDMA
iii. CDMA
III. OFDM/OFDMA Fundamentals
a. Why wireless systems evolved toward OFDM/OFDMA
b. Basic concept of OFDM
c. OFDMA as a multiple access technique
d. Carrier vs. subcarriers
e. Multipath and cyclic prefix
f. Why OFDM/OFDMA is important for 4G LTE and 5G NR
IV. Air Interface Basics
a. Resource blocks and how radio resources are assigned
b. LTE frame structure
c. Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC/MCS)
d. Relationship between radio conditions and user throughput
