What is physical layer in 5G?

Current 5G systems only supports maximum 16 layers .

NR physical layer design. A physical layer forms the backbone of any wireless technology . The NR physical layer has a flexible and scalable design to support diverse use cases with extreme (and sometimes contradictory) requirements, as well as a wide range of frequencies and deployment options.

PHY layer sits at the bottom of the 5G NR protocol stack, interfacing to MAC sublayer higher up via transport channels . It provides its services to MAC and is configured by RRC . PHY supports downlink ( gNB -to- UE ), uplink ( UE -to- gNB ) and sidelink ( UE -to- UE ) communications.5 Nis 2021