INTERLEAVING BEFORE CRC CODING A NR PBCH PAYLOAD INCLUDING KNOWN BITS TO ENHANCE POLAR CODE PERFORMANCE

Systems and methods are described herein that allow information carrying bits of a transmission block to be placed at higher-reliability positions prior to transmission. An exemplary method includes generating a set of payload bits to be encoded for transmission, wherein the set of payload bits includes at least one known bit, interleaving the set of payload bits to generate an interleaved set of payload bits, wherein the interleaved set includes the at least one known bit in a predetermined position in the interleaved set, providing the interleaved set to a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) encoder to generate CRC-interleaved set of payload bits, wherein the CRC-interleaved set includes the at least one known bit in a predetermined position within the CRC-interleaved set, and encoding the CRC-interleaved set for transmission to a wireless device. Associated network nodes and wireless devices are included.