  Channel-state-information-based localization in 5G networks has been a
promising way to obtain highly accurate positions compared to previous
communication networks. However, there is no unified and effective platform to
support the research on 5G localization algorithms. This paper releases a
link-level simulator for 5G localization, which can depict realistic physical
behaviors of the 5G positioning signal transmission. Specifically, we first
develop a simulation architecture considering more elaborate parameter
configuration and physical-layer processing. The architecture supports the link
modeling at sub-6GHz and millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency bands.
Subsequently, the critical physical-layer components that determine the
localization performance are designed and integrated. In particular, a
lightweight new-radio channel model and hardware impairment functions that
significantly limit the parameter estimation accuracy are developed. Finally,
we present three application cases to evaluate the simulator, i.e.
two-dimensional mobile terminal localization, mmWave beam sweeping, and
beamforming-based angle estimation. The numerical results in the application
cases present the performance diversity of localization algorithms in various
impairment conditions.
