What is Standalone NR?
Standalone NR (SA) is the target 5G deployment architecture where the NR gNB connects directly to the 5G Core (5GC) without relying on any 4G LTE infrastructure. In SA mode, the gNB handles both control plane and user plane independently, enabling full access to 5G-specific features including network slicing, SBA, native edge computing support, and reduced latency. SA represents the complete 5G vision as defined by 3GPP, in contrast to NSA where 5G NR operates under 4G LTE control.
How Does Standalone NR Work?
In SA, the gNB connects to the 5GC via the NG interface: NG-C (control plane, connecting to AMF) and NG-U (user plane, connecting to UPF). The UE performs initial access, registration, and PDU session establishment entirely through NR — no LTE anchor is needed. This eliminates the added latency of EN-DC’s dual connection and enables pure 5G features: network slicing (where the NSSF selects slice-specific AMF/SMF/UPF instances), SBA-based core, URLLC with guaranteed low latency, native VoNR (Voice over NR), and MEC with local UPF breakout. SA requires operators to deploy a full 5GC, which represents a larger initial investment than NSA but is essential for advanced 5G services and enterprise use cases.
Use Cases
Full 5G service delivery (network slicing, uRLLC, MEC), enterprise private 5G networks, VoNR native voice service, IoT and mMTC with 5GC optimizations, and FWA with 5G QoS capabilities.
3GPP / Standards Reference
3GPP TS 38.300 (NR overall description — SA architecture), 3GPP TS 23.501 (5G System architecture), 3GPP TS 38.401 (NG-RAN architecture)
Related Terms
NSA | NSA NR | gNB | NGC | SBA
Learn More
This glossary entry is part of the 5GWorldPro Complete 5G Glossary. To go deeper into 5G architecture and technology, explore our 5G Training courses.
