ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)

5G; NR; User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception; Part 5: Satellite access Radio Frequency (RF) and performance requirements (3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17)

RTS/TSGR-0438101-5vhe0

General Information

• Status: Not Published
• Technical Committee: 3GPP RAN 4 - Specification for radio performance
• Current Stage: 12 - Citation in the OJ (auto-insert)
• Completion Date: 15-Apr-2026

Standards Content (Sample)

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
5G;
NR;
User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception;
Part 5: Satellite access Radio Frequency (RF)
and performance requirements
(3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17)

3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 1 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)

Reference
RTS/TSGR-0438101-5vhe0
Keywords
5G
ETSI
650 Route des Lucioles
F-06921 Sophia Antipolis Cedex - FRANCE

Tel.: [phone]  Fax: [phone]

Siret N° 348 623 562 00017 - APE 7112B
Association à but non lucratif enregistrée à la
Sous-Préfecture de Grasse (06) N° w061004871

Important notice
The present document can be downloaded from the
ETSI Search & Browse Standards application.
The present document may be made available in electronic versions and/or in print. The content of any electronic and/or
print versions of the present document shall not be modified without the prior written authorization of ETSI. In case of any
existing or perceived difference in contents between such versions and/or in print, the prevailing version of an ETSI
deliverable is the one made publicly available in PDF format on ETSI deliver repository.
Users should be aware that the present document may be revised or have its status changed,
this information is available in the Milestones listing.
If you find errors in the present document, please send your comments to
the relevant service listed under Committee Support Staff.
If you find a security vulnerability in the present document, please report it through our
Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure (CVD) program.
Notice of disclaimer & limitation of liability
The information provided in the present deliverable is directed solely to professionals who have the appropriate degree of
experience to understand and interpret its content in accordance with generally accepted engineering or
other professional standard and applicable regulations.
No recommendation as to products and services or vendors is made or should be implied.
No representation or warranty is made that this deliverable is technically accurate or sufficient or conforms to any law
and/or governmental rule and/or regulation and further, no representation or warranty is made of merchantability or fitness
for any particular purpose or against infringement of intellectual property rights.
In no event shall ETSI be held liable for loss of profits or any other incidental or consequential damages.

Any software contained in this deliverable is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, express or implied, including but not
limited to, the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement of intellectual property
rights and ETSI shall not be held liable in any event for any damages whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages
for loss of profits, business interruption, loss of information, or any other pecuniary loss) arising out of or related to the use
of or inability to use the software.
Copyright Notification
No part may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
microfilm except as authorized by written permission of ETSI.
The content of the PDF version shall not be modified without the written authorization of ETSI.
The copyright and the foregoing restriction extend to reproduction in all media.

© ETSI 2026.
All rights reserved.
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 2 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
Intellectual Property Rights
Essential patents
IPRs essential or potentially essential to normative deliverables may have been declared to ETSI. The declarations
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, are publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be
found in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to
ETSI in respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the
ETSI IPR online database.
Pursuant to the ETSI Directives including the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation regarding the essentiality of IPRs,
including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not
referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web server) which are, or may be, or may become,
essential to the present document.
Trademarks
The present document may include trademarks and/or tradenames which are asserted and/or registered by their owners.
ETSI claims no ownership of these except for any which are indicated as being the property of ETSI, and conveys no
right to use or reproduce any trademark and/or tradename. Mention of those trademarks in the present document does
not constitute an endorsement by ETSI of products, services or organizations associated with those trademarks.
DECT™, PLUGTESTS™, UMTS™ and the ETSI logo are trademarks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its
Members. 3GPP™, LTE™ and 5G™ logo are trademarks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of the
3GPP Organizational Partners. oneM2M™ logo is a trademark of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and of ®
the oneM2M Partners. GSM and the GSM logo are trademarks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
Legal Notice
This Technical Specification (TS) has been produced by ETSI 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
The present document may refer to technical specifications or reports using their 3GPP identities. These shall be
interpreted as being references to the corresponding ETSI deliverables.
The cross reference between 3GPP and ETSI identities can be found at 3GPP to ETSI numbering cross-referencing.
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 3 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 2
Legal Notice . 2
Modal verbs terminology . 2
Foreword . 7
1 Scope . 9
2 References . 9
3 Definitions of terms, symbols and abbreviations . 10
3.1 Terms . 10
3.2 Symbols . 10
3.3 Abbreviations . 11
4 General . 12
4.1 Relationship between minimum requirements and test requirements . 12
4.2 Applicability of minimum requirements . 12
4.3 Specification suffix information . 12
4.4 Relationship with other core specifications . 12
5 Operating bands and channel arrangement . 12
5.1 General . 12
5.2 Operating bands . 13
5.2.1 General . 13
5.2.2 Operating bands with conducted requirements . 13
5.2.3 reserved (for radiated requirements) . 13
5.3 UE channel bandwidth . 13
5.3.1 General . 13
5.3.2 Maximum transmission bandwidth configuration . 14
5.3.3 Minimum guardband and transmission bandwidth configuration . 14
5.3.4 RB alignment . 15
5.3.5 UE channel bandwidth per operating band . 15
5.4 Channel arrangement . 16
5.4.1 Channel spacing . 16
5.4.1.1 Channel spacing for adjacent NTN satellite carriers . 16
5.4.2 Channel raster . 16
5.4.2.1 NR-ARFCN and channel raster. 16
5.4.2.2 Channel raster to resource element mapping. 17
5.4.2.3 Channel raster entries for each operating band . 17
5.4.3 Synchronization raster . 17
5.4.3.1 Synchronization raster and numbering . 17
5.4.3.2 Synchronization raster to synchronization block resource element mapping . 17
5.4.3.3 Synchronization raster entries for each operating band. 17
5.4.4 TX–RX frequency separation . 18
6 Conducted transmitter characteristics . 18
6.1 General . 18
6.2 Transmitter power . 18
6.2.1 UE maximum output power . 18
6.2.2 UE maximum output power reduction . 19
6.2.3 UE additional maximum output power reduction . 19
6.2.3.1 General . 19
6.2.4 Configured transmitted power . 20
6.3 Output power dynamics. . 20
6.3.1 Minimum output power . 20
6.3.2 Transmit OFF power . 20
6.3.3 Transmit ON/OFF time mask . 20
6.3.4 Power control . 20
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 4 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
6.4 Transmit signal quality . 20
6.4.1 Frequency error . 20
6.4.2 Transmit modulation quality . 21
6.5 Output RF spectrum emissions . 21
6.5.1 Occupied bandwidth . 21
6.5.2 Out of band emission . 21
6.5.2.1 General . 21
6.5.2.2 Spectrum emission mask . 21
6.5.2.3 Additional spectrum emission mask . 22
6.5.2.3.0 Requirements for network signalling value "NS_02N" . 22
6.5.2.4 Adjacent channel leakage ratio . 22
6.5.2.4.1 NR ACLR . 22
6.5.2.4.2 UTRA ACLR . 23
6.5.3 Spurious emission . 23
6.5.3.1 General spurious emissions . 23
6.5.3.2 Spurious emissions for UE co-existence . 24
6.5.3.3 Additional spurious emissions . 24
6.5.3.3.1 General . 24
6.5.3.3.2 Requirement for network signalling value "NS_02N" . 24
6.5.4 Transmit intermodulation . 25
7 Conducted receiver characteristics . 25
7.1 General . 25
7.2 Diversity characteristics . 26
7.3 Reference sensitivity . 26
7.3.1 General . 26
7.3.2 Reference sensitivity power level . 26
7.4 Maximum input level . 27
7.5 Adjacent channel selectivity . 27
7.6 Blocking characteristics . 29
7.6.1 General . 29
7.6.2 In-band blocking . 29
7.6.3 Out-of-band blocking . 30
7.6.4 Narrow band blocking . 30
7.7 Spurious response . 31
7.8 Intermodulation characteristics . 31
7.9 Spurious emissions . 32
8 Conducted performance requirements . 32
8.1 General . 32
8.1.1 Relationship between minimum requirements and test requirements . 32
8.1.2 Applicability of minimum requirements . 32
8.1.3 Conducted requirements . 32
8.1.3.1 Introduction . 32
8.1.3.2 Reference point . 33
8.1.3.3 SNR definition . 33
8.1.3.4 Noc . 33
8.1.3.4.1 Introduction . 33
8.1.3.4.2 Noc for NR operating bands in FR1 . 33
8.2 Demodulation performance requirements . 34
8.2.1 General . 34
8.2.1.1 Applicability of requirements. 34
8.2.1.1.1 General . 34
8.2.1.1.2 Applicability of requirements for optional UE features . 34
8.2.1.2 PDSCH demodulation requirements . 34
8.2.1.2.1 1RX requirements . 37
8.2.1.2.2 2RX requirements . 37
8.2.1.2.2.1.1 Minimum requirements for PDSCH Mapping Type A . 37
8.3 CSI reporting requirements . 39
Annex A (normative): Measurement channels . 40
A.1 General . 40
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 5 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
A.1.1 Throughput definition . 40
A.2 UL reference measurement channels . 40
A.2.1 General . 40
A.2.2 Reference measurement channels for FDD . 41
A.2.2.1 DFT-s-OFDM Pi/2-BPSK . 41
A.2.2.2 DFT-s-OFDM QPSK . 42
A.2.2.3 DFT-s-OFDM 16QAM . 43
A.2.2.4 DFT-s-OFDM 64QAM . 44
A.2.2.5 Void . 45
A.2.2.6 CP-OFDM QPSK . 45
A.2.2.7 CP-OFDM 16QAM . 46
A.2.2.8 CP-OFDM 64QAM . 47
A.2.2.9 Void . 47
A.3 DL reference measurement channels . 47
A.3.1 General . 47
A.3.2 Reference measurement channels for PDSCH performance requirements . 48
A.3.2.1 FDD . 48
A.3.2.1.1 Reference measurement channels for SCS 15 kHz FR1 . 48
A.3.4 Reference measurement channels for receiver requirements . 50
A.3.4.1 FDD . 50
A.3.4.1.1 Fixed reference channels for SCS 15kHz FR1-NTN . 50
A.3.4.1.1A Fixed reference channels for SCS 30kHz FR1-NTN . 53
A.3.4.1.1B Fixed reference channels for SCS 60kHz FR1-NTN . 57
A.4 Testing related to Satellite Access . 57
A.4.1 General . 57
A.4.2 Test condition for transmitter characteristics . 58
A.4.3 Test condition for receiver characteristics . 58
A.4.4 Test condition for performance requirements. 58
Annex B (normative): Propagation conditions . 59
B.1 Static propagation condition . 59
B.1.1 UE Receiver with 1Rx . 59
B.1.2 UE Receiver with 2Rx . 59
B.2.1 Delay profiles . 59
B.2.2 Combinations of channel model parameters . 60
B.2.3 MIMO Channel Correlation Matrices . 60
B.2.3.1 MIMO Correlation Matrices using Uniform Linear Array (ULA) . 60
B.2.3.1.1 Definition of MIMO Correlation Matrices . 60
B.2.3.1.2 MIMO Correlation Matrices at High, Medium and Low Level . 61
Annex C (normative): Downlink physical channels . 62
C.1 General . 62
C.2 Setup (Conducted) . 62
C.3 Connection (Conducted). 62
C.3.1 Measurement of Performance requirements . 62
Annex D (informative): Void . 64
Annex E (normative): Environmental conditions . 65
E.1 General . 65
E.2 Environmental (Conducted) . 65
E.2.1 Temperature . 65
E.2.2 Voltage . 65
E.2.3 Vibration. 66
Annex F (informative): Change history . 67
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 6 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
History . 69

ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 7 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
Foreword
This Technical Specification has been produced by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
The contents of the present document are subject to continuing work within the TSG and may change following formal
TSG approval. Should the TSG modify the contents of the present document, it will be re-released by the TSG with an
identifying change of release date and an increase in version number as follows:
Version x.y.z
where:
x the first digit:
1 presented to TSG for information;
2 presented to TSG for approval;
3 or greater indicates TSG approved document under change control.
y the second digit is incremented for all changes of substance, i.e. technical enhancements, corrections,
updates, etc.
z the third digit is incremented when editorial only changes have been incorporated in the document.
In the present document, modal verbs have the following meanings:
shall indicates a mandatory requirement to do something
shall not indicates an interdiction (prohibition) to do something
The constructions "shall" and "shall not" are confined to the context of normative provisions, and do not appear in
Technical Reports.
The constructions "must" and "must not" are not used as substitutes for "shall" and "shall not". Their use is avoided
insofar as possible, and they are not used in a normative context except in a direct citation from an external, referenced,
non-3GPP document, or so as to maintain continuity of style when extending or modifying the provisions of such a
referenced document.
should indicates a recommendation to do something
should not indicates a recommendation not to do something
may indicates permission to do something
need not indicates permission not to do something
The construction "may not" is ambiguous and is not used in normative elements. The unambiguous constructions
"might not" or "shall not" are used instead, depending upon the meaning intended.
can indicates that something is possible
cannot indicates that something is impossible
The constructions "can" and "cannot" are not substitutes for "may" and "need not".
will indicates that something is certain or expected to happen as a result of action taken by an agency
the behaviour of which is outside the scope of the present document
will not indicates that something is certain or expected not to happen as a result of action taken by an
agency the behaviour of which is outside the scope of the present document
might indicates a likelihood that something will happen as a result of action taken by some agency the
behaviour of which is outside the scope of the present document
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 8 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
might not indicates a likelihood that something will not happen as a result of action taken by some agency
the behaviour of which is outside the scope of the present document
In addition:
is (or any other verb in the indicative mood) indicates a statement of fact
is not (or any other negative verb in the indicative mood) indicates a statement of fact
The constructions "is" and "is not" do not indicate requirements.

ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 9 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
1 Scope
The present document establishes the minimum RF and performance requirements for NR User Equipment (UE)
supporting satellite access operation.
2 References
The following documents contain provisions which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions of the present
document.
- References are either specific (identified by date of publication, edition number, version number, etc.) or
non-specific.
- For a specific reference, subsequent revisions do not apply.
- For a non-specific reference, the latest version applies. In the case of a reference to a 3GPP document (including
a GSM document), a non-specific reference implicitly refers to the latest version of that document in the same
Release as the present document.
[1] 3GPP TR 21.905: "Vocabulary for 3GPP Specifications".
[2] 3GPP TS 38.521-5: "NR; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Radio transmission
and reception; Part 5: Satellite access Radio Frequency (RF) and performance requirements".
[3] Recommendation ITU-R M.1545: "Measurement uncertainty as it applies to test limits for the
terrestrial component of International Mobile Telecommunications-2000".
[4] 3GPP TS 38.108: "NR; Satellite Node radio transmission and reception"
[5] 3GPP TS 38.101-1: "NR; User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception; Part 1: Range 1
Standalone".
[6] 3GPP TS 38.101-4: "NR; User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception; Part 4:
Performance requirements".
[7] 3GPP TS 38.213: "NR; Physical layer procedures for control"
[8] 3GPP TS 38.331: " Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification".
[9] 3GPP TS 38.300: "NR; NR and NG-RAN Overall description; Stage-2".
[10] 3GPP TS 36.101: "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE)
radio transmission and reception".
[11] 3GPP TS 38.306: "User Equipment (UE) radio access capabilities".
[12] 3GPP TR 38.811: "Study on New Radio (NR) to support non-terrestrial networks".
[13] 3GPP TS 38.508-1: "5GS; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Part 1: Common test
environment".
[14] 3GPP TS 38.214: "NR; Physical layer procedures for data".

ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 10 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
3 Definitions of terms, symbols and abbreviations
3.1 Terms
For the purposes of the present document, the terms given in 3GPP TR 21.905 [1] and the following apply. A term
defined in the present document takes precedence over the definition of the same term, if any, in 3GPP TR 21.905 [1].
Geostationary satellite: A geosynchronous satellite whose circular and direct orbit lies in the plane of the Earth’s
equator and which thus remains fixed relative to the Earth; by extension, a geosynchronous satellite which remains
approximately fixed relative to the Earth.
Geostationary-Satellite Orbit: The orbit of a geosynchronous satellite whose circular and direct orbit lies in the plane
of the Earth's equator.
Geosynchronous Earth Orbit: Earth-centered orbit at approximately 35786 kilometres above Earth's surface and
synchronised with Earth's rotation. A geostationary orbit is a non-inclined geosynchronous orbit, i.e. in the Earth’s
equator plane.
Geosynchronous satellite: An earth satellite whose period of revolution is equal to the period of rotation of the Earth
about its axis.
Low Earth Orbit: Orbit around the Earth with an altitude between 300 km, and 1500 km.
Non-terrestrial networks: Networks, or segments of networks, using an airborne or space-borne vehicle to embark a
transmission equipment relay node or SAN.
Satellite: A space-borne vehicle embarking a transparent payload, or a regenerative payload telecommunication
transmitter, placed into Low-Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO), or Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO).
Satellite Access Node: node providing NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations towards NTN satellite
capable UE, and connected via the NG interface to the 5GC. It encompasses a transparent payload on board a NTN
platform, with satellite-gateway and gNB functions.
UE transmission bandwidth configuration: Set of resource blocks located within the UE channel bandwidth which
may be used for transmitting or receiving by the UE.
3.2 Symbols
For the purposes of the present document, the following symbols apply:
ΔF Granularity of the global frequency raster
Global
ΔF Band dependent channel raster granularity
Raster
BW Channel bandwidth
Channel
BW Bandwidth of the interferer
interferer
F The lowest frequency of the downlink operating band
DL_low
F The highest frequency of the downlink operating band
DL_high
F The lowest frequency of the uplink operating band
UL_low
The highest frequency of the uplink operating band
FUL_high
F Frequency of the interferer
Interferer
F (offset) Frequency offset of the interferer (between the center frequency of the interferer and the carrier
Interferer
frequency of the carrier measured)
F Frequency offset of the interferer (between the center frequency of the interferer and the closest
Ioffset
edge of the carrier measured)
The boundary between the NR out of band emission and spurious emission domains
FOOB
F RF reference frequency
REF
F Offset used for calculating F
REF-Offs REF
F (offset) The frequency separation of the center frequency of the carrier closest to the interferer and the
uw
center frequency of the interferer
N Transmission bandwidth configuration, expressed in units of resource blocks
RB
NR Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (NR-ARFCN)
NREF
N Offset used for calculating N
REF-Offs REF
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 11 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
P Modulated mean power of the interferer
Interferer
P Power of an unwanted DL signal
uw
3.3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the abbreviations given in 3GPP TR 21.905 [1] and the following apply. An
abbreviation defined in the present document takes precedence over the definition of the same abbreviation, if any, in
3GPP TR 21.905 [1].
ACLR Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio
ACS Adjacent Channel Selectivity
A-MPR Additional Maximum Power Reduction
BW Bandwidth
BWP Bandwidth Part
CP-OFDM Cyclic Prefix-OFDM
CW Continuous Wave
DFT-s-OFDM Discrete Fourier Transform-spread-OFDM
DM-RS Demodulation Reference Signal
DTX Discontinuous Transmission
EIRP Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power
EVM Error Vector Magnitude
FR Frequency Range
FRC Fixed Reference Channel
GEO Geosynchronous Earth Orbit
GSCN Global Synchronization Channel Number
GSO Geostationary-Satellite Orbit
IBB In-band Blocking
ITU-R Radiocommunication Sector of the International Telecommunication Union
LEO Low Earth Orbiting
MBW Measurement bandwidth defined for the protected band
MOP Maximum Output Power
MPR Allowed maximum power reduction
MSD Maximum Sensitivity Degradation
NGEO Non-Geostationary Earth Orbiting
NGSO Non-Geostationary-Satellite Orbit
NR New Radio
NR-ARFCN NR Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number
NS Network Signalling
NTN Non-Terrestrial Network
OCNG OFDMA Channel Noise Generator
OOB Out-of-band
PRB Physical Resource Block
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
RAN Radio Access Network
RE Resource Element
REFSENS REFerence SENSitivity
RF Radio Frequency
RMS Root Mean Square (value)
RSRP Reference Signal Receive Power
RSRQ Reference Signal Receive Quality
RX Receiver
SAN Satellite Access Node
SC Single Carrier
SCS Subcarrier spacing
SEM Spectrum Emission Mask
SNR Signal-to-Noise Ratio
SRS Sounding Reference Symbol
SS Synchronization Symbol
TN Terrestrial Network
TX Transmitter
TxD Tx Diversity
ETSI
3GPP TS 38.101-5 version 17.14.0 Release 17 12 ETSI TS 138 101-5 V17.14.0 (2026-04)
UE User Equipment
4 General
4.1 Relationship between minimum requirements and test
requirements
The present document is a Single-RAT specification for satellite NR UE, covering RF characteristics and minimum
performance requirements. Conformance to the present specification is demonstrated by fulfilling the test requirements
specified in the conformance specification 3GPP TS 38.521-5 [2].
The Minimum Requirements given in this specification make no allowance for measurement uncertainty. The test
specification 3GPP TS 38.521-5 [2] defines test tolerances. These test tolerances are individually calculated for each
test. The test tolerances are used to relax the minimum requirements in this specification to create test requirements. For
some requirements, including regulatory requirements, the test tolerance is set to zero.
The measurement results returned by the test system are compared - without any modification - against the test
requirements as defined by the shared risk principle.
The shared risk principle is
...