LTE Training

Contents

• LTE Overview
• LTE Architecture - Network Elements and Interfaces
• LTE Air Interface:
Downlink Air Interface - OFDMA
Uplink Air Interface - SC-FDMA
• Physical Layer
• LTE Mobility
• LTE-TDD Overview
• LTE Performance
• LTE Terminals
• LTE Measurements
LTE Overview
3GPP UMTS Evolution

• LTE is the next step in mobile radio communications after HSPA

• Evolution driven by data rate and latency requirements

WCDMA HSDPA/HSUPA HSPA + EUTRA

384 kbps DL 14.4 Mbps peak DL 28 Mbps peak DL 100 Mbps peak DL
384 kbps UL 5.7 Mbps peak UL 11 Mbps peak UL 50 Mbps peak UL
RTT ~150 ms RTT <100/50 ms RTT < 30 ms (2ms TTI) RTT ~10 ms
CS/PS PS PS PS

UTRA evolution: WCDMA 5MHz UTRA Long Term Evolution:

up to 20 MHz BW

3GPP 3GPP Rel. 5/6 3GPP Rel. 7 3GPP Rel. 8

Rel.99/4

2003/4 2005/06 HSDPA 2008/09 2009/10

2007/08 HSUPA
E-UTRA: Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
Main LTE Requirements [3GPP TS25.913]
• Peak data rates of uplink/downlink 50/100 Mbps
• Reduced Latency:
– Enables round trip time <10 ms
• Ensure good level of mobility and security
– Optimized for low mobile speed but also support high mobile speed
• Frequency flexibility and bandwidth scalability:
– with 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz allocations
• Improved Spectrum Efficiency:
– Capacity 2-4 times higher than with Release 6 HSPA
• Efficient support of the various types of services, especially from the PS
domain
– Packet switched optimized
• Operation in FDD and TDD modes
• Improved terminal power efficiency
• Support for inter-working with existing 3GPP system and non-3GPP specified
systems
 LTE Timing in 3GPP and in Networks

Release 8 Release 9 Release 10

150 Mbps with 150 Mbps with 1 Gbps with 40
Peak rate 20 MHz1 20 MHz1 MHz3

Average 35 Mbps with 20 35 Mbps with 20 140 Mbps with

rate MHz1 MHz1 40 MHz2

3GPP spec 2009 2010 2011

ready

Networks + 2010 2011 End-2012

first CPEs
“Small enhancements
1With 2x2 antennas
2With 4x4 antennas
“Basic LTE” including VoIP, MBMS “LTE-Advanced”
3With 8x8 antennas and positioning”
LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) in 3GPP Release 10

• LTE- Advanced will be the main feature of 3GPP Release 10

• DL Spectral efficiency 2.4 bps/Hz/cell (1.7 bps/Hz/cell in LTE) for a 2x2
antenna configuration
• Downlink data rates up to 1 Gbps (low mobility) and 100 Mbps (high
mobility)
• Uplink data rates up to 500Mbps
• Reduced Latency
• Uplink MIMO (up to 4Tx) and further DL MIMO (up to 8x8)
• Backwards compatibility and interworking with LTE and other 3GPP
legacy systems
• First LTE-A networks expected +2012

• Support for wider bandwidth (up to

100MHz) by carrier aggregation
• More info 3GPP TS36.814
What is new in LTE?

• New radio transmission schemes: • Important for Radio Planning:

– OFDMA in downlink – Frequency Reuse 1
– SC-FDMA in uplink ▪ No need for Frequency Planning
– MIMO Multiple Antenna Technology ▪ Importance of interference control
– No need to define neighbour lists
in LTE
• New radio protocol architecture:
– LTE requires Physical Layer Cell
– Complexity reduction Identity planning (504 physical
– Focus on shared channel operation, no layer cell IDs organised into 168
dedicated channels anymore groups of 3)

• New network architecture: flat

architecture
– More functionality in the base station
(eNodeB)
– Focus on packet switched domain
Evolution Path to LTE - Operator migration paths to LTE

>90% of world radio access market migrating to LTE

Enabling flat broadband architecture

LTE
TD-LTE

WCDMA /
HSPA

GSM / CDMA TD-SCDMA

(E)GPRS
LTE Architecture
Network Elements and Interfaces
Network Architecture Evolution

HSPA Direct tunnel LTE

HSPA R6 HSPA R7 LTE R8

GGSN GGSN S-GW + P-GW

SGSN SGSN MME

RNC RNC

Node B Evolved
Node B
(NB) Node B
(NB)
(eNB)

• Flat architecture: single network element in user User plane

plane in radio network and core network Control Plane
Evolved Packet System (EPS) - Subsystems
• Optimize for Packet Data (no circuit switched components)
• The EPS architecture is made up of:
– EPC: Evolved Packet Core, also referred as SAE by 3GPP
– eUTRAN: Radio Access Network, also referred as LTE
EPS Architecture

LTE or eUTRAN EPC

• eUTRAN performs all
radio interface related
functions
• EPC provides access to
external packet IP
networks and performs a
number of CN related
functions (e.g. QoS,
security, mobility and
terminal context
management) for idle
and active terminals
LTE/EPC Network Elements
Main references to architecture in 3GPP specs: TS23.401,TS23.402,TS36.300

Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

HSS
eNB
Mobility
Management
Entity Policy &
S6a Charging Rule
Function
MME S10
X2
Gx Rx
PCRF
S11

S1-U S5/S8 SGi

PDN
LTE-Uu Serving PDN
Evolved Node B
Gateway Gateway
(eNB)
LTE-UE
S-GW /P-GW
Evolved Node B (eNB)

eNB Main Functions

Inter-cell RRM: HO, load balancing between cells • Only network element defined as
part of eUTRAN
Dynamic Resource Allocation (Scheduler)
• Replaces the old Node B / RNC
Radio Admission Control combination from 3G.
User Data Routing to the S-GW/ P-GW • Provides all radio management
Transmission of Paging Msg coming from MME functions
Transmission of Broadcast Info (e.g. System info, • To enable efficient inter-cell radio
MBMS) management for cells not attached
to the same eNB, there is a inter-
Radio Bearer Control: setup, modifications and eNB interface X2 specified. It will
release of Radio Resources
allow to coordinate inter-eNB
IP Header Compression/ de-compression handovers without direct involvement
of EPC during this process.
Connection Mgt. Control: UE State Management,
MME-UE Connection

MME Selection at Attach of the UE

eNode B Meas. collection and evaluation

EPC Network Elements (1/2)
MME: Mobility Management Entity
• Pure signalling entity inside the EPC
• Subscriber attach/detach
• Tracking area updates
• Roaming Control
• Trigger and distribution of paging messages to UE
• Radio security control
• Authentication, integrity protection

Serving Gateway
• Manages the user data in the EPC
• Receives packet data from the eNodeB and sends packet data to it

S1-MME MME
S6a HSS
eNB S11
S1-U Serving
Gateway
EPC Network Elements (2/2)
Packet Data Network Gateway
• Connection between EPC and a number of external data networks (comparable to
GGSN in 2G/3G networks)
• IP Address Allocation for UE MME
S7 Rx+
PCRF
• Packet Routing/Forwarding between S6a
HSS
S11
Serving GW and external Data Network S5/S8 SGi
• Packet screening (firewall functionality) PDN

Serving PDN
Gateway Gateway
Policy and Charging Rule Function
• Quality of Service (QoS) negotiation with the external PDN
• Charging Policy: How packets should be accounted

HSS: Home Subscriber Server

• Permanent and central subscriber database
• Stores mobility and service data for every subscriber
• Contains AuC (authentication center) functionality
LTE Radio Interface and the X2 Interface

(E)-RRC User PDUs .. User PDUs LTE-Uu interface

PDCP
• Air interface of LTE
RLC
• Based on OFDMA in DL and SC-FDMA in
TS 36.300
UL
MAC
eNB
• FDD and TDD duplex methods
LTE-L1 (FDD/TDD-OFDMA/SC-FDMA)
• Scalable bandwidth 1.4MHz to currently
20 MHz
LTE-Uu
X2 interface
X2-UP
(User Plane) • Inter eNB interface
X2-CP
(Control Plane) • X2AP: special signalling protocol
User PDUs
• Functionalities:
TS 36.423 X2-AP GTP-U
X2 – In inter- eNB HO to facilitate handover
SCTP UDP
TS 36.422
TS 36.424 and provide data forwarding.
IP IP
– In RRM to provide e.g. load information
TS 36.421 L1/L2 L1/L2 TS 36.421 to neighbouring eNBs to facilitate
interference management
– Logical interface: It does not need direct
TS 36.420 site-to-site connection
[currently also in TS 36.300 §20]
eNB
S1-MME & S1-U Interfaces
S1-MME
S1 interface is divided into two parts: (Control Plane)

NAS Protocols
MME
S1-MME interface TS 36.413 S1-AP

• Control interface between eNB and TS 36.412 SCTP

MME IP
eNB
• S1AP:S1 Application Protocol L1/L2 TS 36.411

• MME and UE will exchange non- S1-U

(User Plane)
access stratum signaling via eNB User PDUs
through this interface (i.e.
GTP-U Serving
authentication, tracking area updates) TS 36.414 Gateway
UDP
IP
S1-U interface TS 36.411 L1/L2
• User plane interface between eNB and
serving gateway
TS 36.410
• Pure user data interface (U=User plane) [currently in TS 36.300 §19]
LTE Air Interface
Downlink Air Interface

OFDMA
Fast Fourier Transform
• Two characteristics define a signal:
– Time domain: represents how long the symbol lasts on air
– Frequency domain: represents the spectrum needed in terms of bandwidth

• Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) allow
to move between time and frequency domain representation and it is a
fundamental block in an OFDMA system

• OFDM signals are generated using the IFFT

Fast Fourier Transform - Rectangular Pulse

[+] Advantages:
• Simple to implement:
– No complex filter system required to detect such
pulses (simplifies receiver design) and to generate
them
• The pulse has a clearly defined duration:
– Major advantage in case of multi-path propagation
environments as it simplifies handling of inter-
symbol interference

[-] Disadvantage:
• The rectangular pulse allocates a lot of
spectrum in the frequency domain. However
the spectral power density has null points
exactly at multiples of the frequency fs = 1/Ts.
This will be important in OFDM
OFDM Basics (I)

• Transmits hundreds or even thousands of separately modulated radio signals

using orthogonal subcarriers spread across a wideband channel

Total transmission bandwidth

15 kHz in LTE: fixed

Orthogonality:

The peak (centre

frequency) of one
subcarrier …

…intercepts the
‘nulls’ of the
neighbouring
subcarriers
OFDM Basics (II)
• Data is sent in parallel across the set of subcarriers, each subcarrier only
transports a part of the whole transmission
• The throughput is the sum of the data rates of each individual (or used) subcarriers
while the power is distributed to all subcarriers
• FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) is used to create the orthogonal subcarriers. The
number of subcarriers is determined by the FFT size (by the bandwidth)
• In LTE, these subcarriers are separated 15kHZ
Power bandwidth

frequency
OFDM and Multipath
• Multipath causes Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) which affects the subcarrier
orthogonality due to phase distortion
• Solution to avoid ISI is to introduce a Guard Period (Tg) after the pulse
– Tg needs to be long enough to capture all the delayed multipath signals
• To make use of that Tg (no transmission) Cyclic Prefix is transmitted
2
1
3
Time Domain 4
Ts Tg

When the delay time

spread of the multi- 2
path is greater than
the guard period time
duration (Tg) there is 3
inter-symbol time
interference (ISI)
4

time
Cyclic Prefix (CP) and Guard Time
• Consists in copying the last part of a symbol shape for a duration of guard-time
and attaching it in front of the symbol
• CP needs to be longer than the channel multipath delay spread.
• A receiver typically uses the high correlation between the Cyclic Prefix (CP) and
the last part of the following symbol to locate the start of the symbol and begin
then with decoding
• 2 CP options in LTE:
– Normal CP: for small cells or with short multipath delay spread
– Extended CP: designed for use with large cells or those with long delay profiles
total symbol time T(s)
Note: CP represents an
Guard Time overhead resulting in symbol
rate reduction.
T(g)
Having a CP reduces the
bandwidth efficiency but the
benefits in terms of minimising
the ISI compensate for it
t
CP Useful symbol
T(g) time T(b)
Doppler in OFDM and Loss of Orthogonality
• Doppler effect (shift): Change in frequency of a wave due to the relative motion of
source and receiver.
• Symbols are distorted in the time domain
▪ Frequency shifts make symbol detection inaccurate
▪ MCS schemes with high number of bits per subcarrier (high data rates) are not suitable
for UEs moving at high speed
▪ Doppler only impacts SINRs at the higher range i.e. > 20dB

ICI in the absence of orthogonality

It reduces orthogonality
• The frequency domain
subcarriers are shifted causing
inter-carrier interference (ICI)
• The nulls of interferers and
peaks of signals will not coincide
OFDMA Symbol
• OFDMA is an extension of OFDM technique to allow multiple user transmissions
and it is used in other systems like Wi-Fi, DVB and WiMAX
• OFDMA Symbol is the Time period occupied by the modulation symbols on all
subcarriers. Represents all the data being transferred in parallel at a point in
time
• OFDM symbol duration including CP
is aprox. 71.4 µs (normal CP)
– Long duration when compared with
3.69µs for GSM and 0.26µs for
WCDMA allowing a good CP duration
▪ Robust for mobile radio channel with
the use of guard internal/cyclic prefix
Subcarrier types

Data subcarriers: used for data transmission

– Reference Signals:
▪ used for channel quality and signal strength estimates.
▪ They don’t occupy a whole subcarrier but they are periodically embedded in the stream
of data being carried on a data subcarrier.

Null subcarriers (no transmission/power):

▪ DC (centre) subcarrier: 0Hz offset from the channel’s centre frequency
▪ Guard subcarriers: Separate top and bottom subcarriers from any adjacent channel
interference and also limit the amount of interference caused by the channel. Guard
band size has an impact on the data throughput of the channel.

Guard (no power) Guard (no power)

DC (no
power)

data
OFDMA Parameters

• Channel bandwidth: Bandwidths ranging from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz

• Data subcarriers: They vary with the bandwidth
– 72 for 1.4MHz to 1200 for 20MHz
OFDMA Parameters

• Frame duration: 10ms created from slots and subframes

• Subframe duration (TTI): 1 ms (composed of 2 x 0.5ms slots)
• Subcarrier spacing: Fixed to 15kHz (7.5 kHz defined for MBMS)
• Sampling Rate: Varies with the bandwidth but always factor or
multiple of 3.84 to ensure compatibility with
WCDMA by using common clocking

1.4MHz 3 MHz 5 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz

Frame Duration 1010ms

ms

Subcarrier Spacing 15 kHz

Sampling Rate (MHz) 1.92 3.84 7.68 15.36 23.04 30.72

Data Subcarriers 72 180 300 600 900 1200

Symbols/slot Normal CP=7, extended CP=6

CP length Normal CP=4,7/5.21μsec, extended CP= 16.67μsec

Peak-to-Average Power Ratio in OFDMA

The transmitted power is the sum of the

powers of all the subcarriers

• Due to large number of subcarriers, the

peak to average power ratio (PAPR)
tends to have a large range

• The higher the peaks, the greater the

range of power levels over which the
power amplifier is required to work

• Having a UE with such a PA that works

over a big range of powers would be
expensive

• Not best suited for use with mobile

(battery-powered) devices
OFDM Summary

• Pros: – High spectral efficiency and little interference between channels

– Robust in multi-path environments thanks to Cyclic Prefix
– Frequency domain scheduling offer high potential for throughput gain

• Cons: – Severe High PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio)

– Small subcarrier spacing makes it more sensitive to frequency offset
(subcarriers may interfere each others)

• OFDMA Operation: Transmitted frequency spectrum:

Total channel bandwidth

Modulation
Modulation mapping
mapping S/ IFF CP P/ FF e.g. QPSK
CP Re-
S
e.g. QPSK P T moval T symbols
symbols

Transmitter structure Receiver structure

Uplink Air Interface

SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA in UL

• Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access:

Transmission technique used for Uplink
• Variant of OFDM that reduces the PAPR:
– Combines the PAPR of single-carrier system with
the multipath resistance and flexible subcarrier
frequency allocation offered by OFDM

OFDMA
SC-FDMA
– It can reduce the PAPR between 6…9dB compared
to OFDMA
– TS36.201 and TS36.211 provide the mathematical
description of the time domain representation of an
SC-FDMA symbol.
• Reduced PAPR means lower RF hardware
requirements (power amplifier)
SC-FDMA and OFDMA Comparison (1/2)

• OFDMA transmits data in parallel across multiple subcarriers

• SC-FDMA transmits data in series employing multiple subcarriers
• In the example:
– OFDMA: 6 modulation symbols (01,10,11,01,10 and 10) are transmitted per OFDMA
symbol, one on each subcarrier
– SC-FDMA: 6 modulation symbols are transmitted per SC-FDMA symbol using all
subcarriers per modulation symbol. The duration of each modulation symbol is 1/6th of the
modulation symbol in OFDMA

OFDMA SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA and OFDMA Comparison (2/2)
Uplink Air Interface Technology - SC-FDMA

• User multiplexing in frequency

domain, a user is allocated different
bandwidths (multiples of 180kHz)
– In OFDMA the user multiplexing is
in sub-carrier domain: user is
allocated Resource Blocks

• One user is always continuous in

frequency

• Smallest uplink bandwidth: 180 kHz

– same for OFDMA in downlink

• Largest uplink bandwidth: 20 MHz

– same for OFDMA in downlink
– Terminals are required to be able to receive & transmit up to 20 MHz
Physical Layer
Introduction

• It provides the basic bit transmission functionality over air

• LTE physical layer based on OFDMA downlink and SC-FDMA in uplink direction
– This is the same for both FDD and TDD mode of operation

• No need of RNC like functional element

– Everything radio related can be terminated in the eNodeB

• System is reuse 1, single frequency network operation is feasible

– No frequency planning required

• There are no dedicated physical (neither transport) channels anymore, as all

resource mapping is dynamically driven by the scheduler
Frame Structure (FDD)
• FDD Frame structure (also called Type 1 Frame) is common to both uplink and
downlink.
• Divided into 20 x 0.5ms slots
– Structure has been designed to facilitate short round trip time
- Frame duration =10 ms (same as UMTS)
- FDD: 10 ms radio frame for UL and 10 ms radio frame for DL
- Radio frame includes 10 subframes
0.5 ms slot - 1 Subframe represents a Transmission Time Interval (TTI)
sy0 sy1 sy2 sy3 sy4 sy5 sy6 - Each subframes includes two slots
- 1 slot = 7 (normal CP) or 6 symbols (extended CP)
10 ms frame

s0 s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 s7 ….. s18 s19

SF: SubFrame
s: slot
0.5 ms slot
Sy: symbol
SF0 SF1 SF2 SF3 ….. SF9

1 ms sub-frame
Normal and Extended Cyclic Prefix

7 × 2048 Ts Cyclic Prefix

Ts = 1/30720 ms + 6 × 144 Ts
+ 1 × 160 Ts Main Body
15360 Ts = 0.5 ms

Normal Cyclic Prefix

160 Ts 144 Ts 144 Ts 144 Ts 144 Ts 144 Ts 144 Ts

2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts

Cyclic Prefix
6 × 2048 Ts
Ts = 1/30720 ms + 6 × 512 Ts Main Body
15360 Ts = 0.5 ms

Extended Cyclic Prefix

512 Ts 512 Ts 512 Ts 512 Ts 512 Ts 512 Ts

1 sec 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts 2048 Ts

Ts =
Subcarrier spacing (15kHz) * max FFT size (2048)
Resource Block
• Physical Resource Block or Resource Block (PRB or RB):
12 subcarriers in frequency domain (180kHz) x 1 slot period in time domain (0.5ms)

Capacity allocation is based on Resource

Subcarrier 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Blocks
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
• Note: Although 3GPP definition of RB
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 refers to 0.5ms, in some cases it is
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
possible to find that RB refers to 12
180 KHz

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 subcarriers in frequency domain and 1ms

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 in time domain. In particular, since the
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 scheduler in the eNodeB works on TTI
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
basis (1ms) RBs are considered to last
1ms in time domain. They can also be
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
known as ‘scheduling resource blocks’
Subcarrier 12 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 slot 1 slot
Resource
1 ms subframe Element
Resource Element

• Theoretical minimum capacity allocation unit

• Equivalent to one subcarrier x one symbol period
• 72 or 84 Resource Elements per Resource Block
• Each Resource Element can accommodate 1 modulation symbol, e.g. 2
bits for QPSK, 4 bits for 16QAM and 6 bits for 64 QAM
• Modulation symbol rate per Resource Block is 144 ksps or 168 ksps
Case 1: Normal Cyclic Prefix Case 2: Extended Cyclic Prefix
12 subcarriers = 180 kHz

12 subcarriers = 180 kHz

Frequency Domain

7 symbols = 0.5 ms 6 symbols = 0.5 ms

Resource Element
Time Domain Time Domain
Downlink Physical Signals and Channels

• Downlink Physical Signals

– Reference Signals (RS)
– Synchronisation Signals (PSS, SSS)

• Downlink Physical Channels

– Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH)
– Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)
– Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)
– Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH)
– Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH)
– Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH)
DL Physical Channels
There are no dedicated channels in LTE, neither in UL nor DL
PBCH:
• To broadcast the MIB (Master Information
Block), RACH parameters
PDSCH:
• Carries user data, paging data, SIBs (cell
status, cell IDs, allowed services…)
PMCH:
• For multicast traffic as MBMS services
PHICH:
• Carries H-ARQ Ack/Nack messages from eNB
to UE in response to UL transmission
PCFICH:
• Carries details of PDCCH format (e.g.# of symbols)
PDCCH:
• Carries the DCI (DL control information): schedule uplink resources on the PUSCH or
downlink resources on the PDSCH.
 Reference Signals: OFDMA Channel Estimation

• Channel estimation in LTE is based on reference signals (like CPICH functionality

in WCDMA)
• Reference signals position in time domain is fixed (0 and 4 for Type 1 Frame)
whereas in frequency domain it depends on the Cell ID
• In case more than one antenna is used (e.g. MIMO) the Resource elements
allocated to reference signals on one antenna are DTX on the other antennas
• Reference signals are modulated to identify the cell to which they belong.

0 symbols 6 0 symbols 6
subcarriers

subcarriers
Antenna 1 Antenna 2
UL Physical Channels

• PUSCH: Physical Uplink Shared Channel

– Intended for the user data (carries traffic for
multiple UEs) DCCH DTCH Logical
CCCH
• PUCCH: Physical Uplink Control Channel RLC
– Carries H-ARQ Ack/Nack indications, uplink
scheduling request, CQIs and MIMO feedback
– If control data is sent when traffic data is being Transport
RACH
transmitted, UE multiplexes both streams together
MAC
– If there is only control data to be sent the UE uses UL-SCH

Resources Elements at the edges of the channel

with higher power
• PRACH: Physical Random Access Channel PHYS.

– For Random Access attempts. PDCCH indicates

PUSCH PUCCH
the Resource elements for PRACH use PRACH

– PBCH contains a list of allowed preambles (max.

64 per cell in Type 1 frame) and the required length
of the preamble
Modulation Schemes

• 3GPP standard defines the following options: QPSK,

16QAM, 64QAM in both directions (UL and DL)
• Not every physical channel is allowed to use any Physical Modulation
modulation scheme: channel
• Scheduler decides which form to use depending on carrier PDSCH QPSK,
quality feedback information from the UE 16QAM,
64QAM
QPSK: 16QAM: 64QAM: PMCH QPSK,
2 bits/symbol 4 bits/symbol 6 bits/symbol 16QAM,
64QAM
QPSK 16QAM 64QAM PBCH QPSK
b0 b1 b0 b1b2b3 b0 b1b2b3 b4 b5 PDCCH QPSK
Im Im 1111 Im (PCFICH,
01 11
PHICH)
PUSCH QPSK,
00 10Re Re 16QAM,
64QAM
Re
0000
PUCCH BPSK
and/or
QPSK
LTE Mobility
LTE Handover Principles
Only hard handovers in LTE (no soft handovers)

• Lossless
– Packets are forwarded from the source to the target

• UE-assisted
– Measurements are made and reported by the UE to the network

• Network-controlled
– Target cell is selected by the network, not by the UE
– Handover control in E-UTRAN (not in packet core)

• Late path switch

– Only once the handover is successful, the packet core is involved
Handover Measurement Procedure

✓ eNodeB sends Measurement control to UE giving Reporting thresholds

✓ UE identifies others cell ids (Physical Cell ID - PCI -) from Synchronization

Signal

✓ UE measures other cells’ signal from Reference Signals (RS)

✓ When the reporting threshold condition is fulfilled, UE sends Handover

measurements to eNodeB
Neighbour list Generation in LTE

• LTE UE can detect neighbours without neighbour lists  simpler network

management
• UE reports other cell IDs to eNodeB
• If the target cell ID is known by eNodeB, it will proceed with the handover.
• If the target is not known by eNodeB and no X2 is enabled,
– eNodeB asks UE to decode Global cell id of the target cell
– eNodeB finds out the target cell’s IP address from O&M
– eNodeB enables X2 connection to the target cell
– eNodeB proceeds with the handover
Terminology in LTE and in 3G
Connection and Mobility Management

3G LTE
Connection management

GPRS attached EMM registered

PDP context EPS bearer

Radio access bearer Radio bearer + S1 bearer

Mobility management

Location area Not relevant (no CS core)

Routing area Tracking area

Handovers (DCH) when Handovers when RRC
RRC connected connected
RNC hides mobility from Core network sees every
core network handover
LTE-TDD Overview
LTE TDD Overview

• Also known as TD-LTE

• Great harmonization between TDD and FDD modes:
– Same radio access schemes: OFDMA in DL and SC-FDMA in UL
– Same basic subframe formats
– Same set of specifications (Rel.8 3GPP) with a few differences in the PHY
Layer due to DL/UL switching operation
– Little differences in MAC and higher layer protocols due to TDD specific
physical layer parameters
– Same architecture
– Same procedures
– So similar that FDD and TDD versions could co-exist within the same
network or user device
Operating Bands

• TD-LTE has been specified to use a set of 8 operating bands

LTE TDD
bands
LTE TDD Basics

• TDD uses same frequency band for transmission

and reception and can be deployed in an unpaired
band
– FDD uses different paired bands
– Allows for channel reciprocity: easier to implement
Beamforming
• TDD supports bandwidths from 1.4MHz up to
20MHz although not all of them are available in all
frequency bands
– 2.6GHz bands not likely to support the smallest
bandwidths
• Bandwidth is shared between uplink and downlink
so maximum (peak) throughputs achievable in
TDD are lower than for FDD
• Sites need to be synchronized
(coordinated deployment) to avoid
interference
– FDD eNodeB synchronization not needed
because of the duplex separation
Frame Structure (TDD) More info: TS36.211- v8.6.0 (03/09)

• Frame Type 2 : similar in time-domain to FDD but with some specific fields to
enable also TD-SCDMA co-existence (China)
• A radio frame (10ms) contains 2 half frames of 5ms each
– Two switching point periodicities: 5m or 10 ms
• Subframes 1 and 6 are ‘special subframes’ and consist of three specialised fields
inherited from TD-SCDMA with configurable lengths subject to a total of 1ms
• Subframes 0, 5 and DwPTS are always reserved for downlink
• Subframes 2, 7 and UpPTS are reserved for uplink in case 5 ms switch-point
periodicity
• Remaining fields are dynamically assigned between UL and DL

DwPTS: Downlink Pilot time Slot

UpPTS: Uplink Pilot Time Slot
GP: Guard Period to separate between UL/DL
UL/DL Configurations (TDD)

• TDD allows for flexible bandwidth allocation between uplink and downlink to
support asymmetric traffic
– The number of subframes dedicated to uplink and downlink within the 10ms frame can be
adjusted
▪ 7 different frame configurations
– Chosen UL/DL Configuration should be the same across all cells of a network to avoid
interference between transmission directions
– In Rel.8 static or semi-static TDD system
LTE TDD Performance

• Maximum achievable data rates are lower than for FDD because the bandwidth is
shared between transmissions
Max. peak data rate **

• TDD has discontinuous transmission 350

Downlink
2x20MHz

because the available bandwidth is 300 Uplink

shared between uplink and downlink 250

– All uplink transmissions are on hold while

2x20MHz
200

Mbps
any downlink resource is used 150

– Downlink is silent when any of the UEs is 100

2x5MHz
1x20MHz

transmitting in the uplink direction 50

2x5MHz

0
HSPA R6 HSPAevo LTE TDD * LTE FDD LTE FDD
(2x2 MIMO (2x2 MIMO/ (2x2 MIMO/ (4x4 MIMO/
+ 64QAM) 16 QAM) 16 QAM) 64 QAM)

• Discontinuous transmission affects the Link Budget

– Worse coverage
▪ Cell ranges are calculated so a certain bit rate is achieved at the cell edge. Since the
transmission is discontinuous it would be necessary to transmit with larger
bandwidth in TDD than FDD to achieve similar bit rates
LTE Performance
Cell Range

• Examples of cell ranges for different LTE frequencies and clutter types
Assumptions:
• 4Mbps DL/384kbps UL
• 30m BTS antenna
• Average penetration losses:
•17dB Urban
•12dB Suburban
•10 dB Rural
• 94% loc. probability urban/suburban
• 90% location probability rural
•1.5m terminal antenna height
LTE Peak Data Rates
• Downlink: Peak Rate 172 Mbps with 2x2 MIMO and 20 MHz
Modulation coding 1.4 MHz 3.0 MHz 5.0 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz
QPSK 1/2 Single stream 0.7 2.1 3.5 7.0 10.6 14.1
16QAM 1/2 Single stream 1.4 4.1 7.0 14.1 21.2 28.3
16QAM 3/4 Single stream 2.2 6.2 10.5 21.1 31.8 42.4
64QAM 3/4 Single stream 3.3 9.3 15.7 31.7 47.7 63.6
64QAM 4/4 Single stream 4.3 12.4 21.0 42.3 63.6 84.9
64QAM 3/4 2x2 MIMO 6.6 18.9 31.9 64.3 96.7 129.1
64QAM 1/1 2x2 MIMO 8.8 25.3 42.5 85.7 128.9 172.1
64QAM 1/1 4x4 MIMO 16.6 47.7 80.3 161.9 243.5 325.1
• Uplink: Peak Rate 57 Mbps with 20 MHz and 16QAM

Modulation coding 1.4 MHz 3.0 MHz 5.0 MHz 10 MHz 15 MHz 20 MHz
QPSK 1/2 Single stream 0.7 2.0 3.5 7.1 10.8 14.3
16QAM 1/2 Single stream 1.4 4.0 6.9 14.1 21.6 28.5
16QAM 3/4 Single stream 2.2 6.0 10.4 21.2 32.4 42.8
16QAM 1/1 Single stream 2.9 8.1 13.8 28.2 43.2 57.0
64QAM 3/4 Single stream 3.2 9.1 15.6 31.8 48.6 64.2
64QAM 1/1 Single stream 4.3 12.1 20.7 42.3 64.8 85.5
64QAM 1/1 V-MIMO (cell) 8.6 24.2 41.5 84.7 129.6 171.1
LTE Terminals
 LTE UE Categories

• All categories support 20 MHz

• 64QAM mandatory in downlink, but not in uplink (except Class 5)
• 2x2 MIMO mandatory in other classes except Class 1

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5

Peak rate DL/UL 10/5 Mbps 50/25 Mbps 100/50 Mbps 150/50 Mbps 300/75 Mbps

RF bandwidth 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz

Modulation DL 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM 64QAM

Modulation UL 16QAM 16QAM 16QAM 16QAM 64QAM

Rx diversity Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

BTS Tx diversity 1-4 Tx 1-4 Tx 1-4 Tx 1-4 Tx 1-4 Tx

MIMO DL Optional 2x2 2x2 2x2 4x4

LTE Measurements
LTE Measurements

• UE measurements
– Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)
– Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ)
– Physical Cell ID (PCI)
– Channel Quality Indicator (CQI)

eNB measurements
• Non standardized (vendor specific): TA, Average RSSI, Average SINR,
detected PRACH preambles, transport channel BLER
• Standardized: DL RS Tx Power, Received Interference Power, Thermal
Noise Power
RSRP and RSRQ 3GPP RSRP Definition:
Reference signal received power (RSRP), is
RSRP: defined as the linear average over the power
contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that
• RSRP is the power of a single resource carry cell-specific reference signals within the
element. considered measurement frequency bandwidth.
• UE measures the power of multiple
resource elements used to transfer the 3GPP RSRQ Definition:
reference signal but then takes an Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) is
average of them rather than summing defined as the ratio N×RSRP/(E-UTRA carrier
RSSI), where N is the number of RBs of the E-
them. UTRA carrier RSSI measurement bandwidth. The
• Reporting range -44…-133 dBm measurements in the numerator and denominator
shall be made over the same set of resource
blocks.
RSRQ: E-UTRA Carrier Received Signal Strength
• RSRQ = RSRP / (RSSI/N) Indicator (RSSI), comprises the linear average of
the total received power (in [W]) observed only in
– N is the number of resource blocks OFDM symbols containing reference symbols for
over which the RSSI is measured antenna port 0, in the measurement bandwidth,
over N number of resource blocks by the UE from
– RSSI is wide band power, including all sources, including co-channel serving and non-
intracell power, interference and serving cells, adjacent channel interference,
noise. thermal noise etc.
• Reporting range -3…-19.5dB
PCI (Physical Cell ID)

• There are 504 unique Physical Cell IDs (PCI)

Physical Layer Cell Identity = (3 × NID1) + NID2
NID1: Physical Layer Cell Identity group. Range 0 to 167
– Defines SSS sequence
NID2: Identity within the group. Range 0 to 2
– Defines PSS sequence

• Analogous to scrambling code planning in UMTS

– Maximum isolation between cells with the same PCI
▪ To ensure that UE never simultaneously receive the same identity from more than a single cell