How do 5G base stations work?

Components of a 5G base station Figure 1. An integrated gNodeB includes a 5G Core, PHY, DFE and RF front end, as well as Layer 2 and Layer 3 packet processing . Layer 2 and Layer 3 of the OSI model are responsible for the packet processing elements and have less strict timing requirements than the Layer 1 PHY.19 Nis 2021

5G will use ‘massive’ MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) antennas that have very large numbers of antenna elements or connections to send and receive more data simultaneously . The benefit to users is that more people can simultaneously connect to the network and maintain high throughput.

The new radio access technology for 5G is called “NR” and replaces “LTE”, and the new base station is called gNB (or gNodeB) , and replaces the eNB (or eNodeB or Evolved Node B).