We would like to start off by saying thanks to our teachers who guided us along our journey.

Also we are grateful for the help we received from Huawei radio department team during our 3
month long internship in their headquarters.

Our mentor for the effort and the hours he put up with us for this work to be finished.

And finally and most importantly our parents who, once again, provided understanding and
support during our long hours of work and studying and helped us with everything in their power
and reach and sacrificed all for us to become what we are today for that we are forever grateful.

We would like to thank our friends and colleagues that were there for us and always provided
comfort and aid to us in our time of need and hardships, thank you.

We are also very grateful for each other and all the hard work we’ve done and the hardships
we endured during our internship period and studying in general, also the support we provided
each other with and how we motivated each other to exceed.
Chapter I LTE Introduction
1. Introduction 1
2. Drivers for LTE 2
3. LTE Main Objectives 3
4. LTE network architecture 4
4.1 User Equipment (UE) 5
4.2 eNodeB functionality 6
4.3 Serving Gateway (S-GW) 7
4.4 PDN Gateway (P-GW) 7
4.5 Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 7
4.6 Mobility Management Equipment (MME) 7
4.7 Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) 7
Summary 8

1. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing 9

1.1 Notions of orthogonality 9
1.2 OFDM Basic Signal Construction 10
1.3 Cyclic Prefix and Immunity from Delay spread 11
1.4 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access 13
2. Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access 14
3. Link Adaptation 15
3.1 Adaptive Modulation and Coding 16
3.2 Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) 17
4. Multi-Antenna techniques used in LTE 18
4.1 Diversity processing 19
4.1.1 Receive diversity 19
 4.1.2 Closed Loop Transmit Diversity 20
4.1.3 Open Loop Transmit Diversity 21
4.2 spatial multiplexing: 21
4.2.1 Principles of Operation 21
4.2.2 Multiple User MIMO 21
4.3 Beamforming 22
4.3.1 Principle of function 22
Summary 23

1. LTE Air interface protocol stack 24

1.1 Non access stratum layer 25
1.2 LTE Radio Resource Control (RRC) 25
1.3 LTE Packet Data Convergence Protocol Layer (PDCP) 26
1.4 LTE Radio Link Control (RLC) 26
1.5 LTE Medium Access Control (MAC) 26
1.6 LTE Physical Layer (PHY) 26
2. LTE frame structure 27
3. LTE Radio channels 29
3.1 Logical channels 30
3.2 Transport Channels 31
3.3 Physical Channels 31
4. LTE Parameters 32
4.1 Reference signal received power (RSRP) 32
4.2 Reference Signal Receive Quality (RSRQ) 32
4.3 Received signal strength indicator (RSSI) 33
4.4 Signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) 33
Summary 23

1. Overview of the planning process 34

1.1 Pre-planning 34
1.2 Planning 35
1.3 Detailed Planning 35
 1.4 Verification and Acceptance 35
1.5 Optimization 35
2. LTE Optimization process 36
2.1 Optimization Overview 36
2.2 Basic process of RF optimization 38
2.2.1 TEST preparation 40
2.2.2 DATA Collection 41
2.2.3 Problem Analysis 44
Summary 47

1. Coverage Troubleshooting 48
2. Throughput Troubleshooting 54
2.1 Channel Quality Indicator 54
2.2 BLER “Block Error Rate” 55
2.3 Transmission Mode 55
2.4 Throughput 56
Figure 1. The increasing demand on mobile broadband 2
Figure 2. LTE Targets 4
Figure 3. LTE Architecture 5
Figure 4. Orthogonality 10
Figure 5. Spectrum of a single modulated OFDM subcarrier 10
Figure 6. OFDM 11
Figure 7. Inter-symbol interference effect 12
Figure 8. Cyclic prefix 12
Figure 9. Cyclic prefix insertion 13
Figure 10. OFDMA 13
Figure 11. Comparison between OFDMA and SC-FDMA 15
Figure 12. Adaptive modulation 17
Figure 13. Radio channel access modes 19
Figure 14. Receive diversity 20
Figure 15. Closed loop transmit diversity 20
Figure 16. Spatial multiplexing 21
Figure 17. MU-MIMO 22
Figure 18. Beamforming 23
Figure 19. Radio protocol stack 25
Figure 20. Radio frame 27
Figure 21. FDD frame structure 28
Figure 22. TDD frame structure 28
Figure 23. Resource block 29
Figure 24. LTE channels mapping 30
Figure 25. LTE KPIs 37
Figure 26. RF optimization flowchart 39
Figure 27. GENEX- probe interface 48
Figure 28. Coverage troubleshooting process 49
Figure 29. Arial view of subscriber location 50
Figure 30. Serving PCI before optimization 50
Figure 31. RSRP level before optimization 51
Figure 32. Unet prediction correction 52
Figure 33. RSRP level after optimization 53
Figure 34. Serving PCI after optimization 53
Figure 35. Throughput troubleshooting process 57
Figure 36. DL Throughput on map 58
Figure 37. DL Throughput on histogram 58
Figure 38. DL Throughput on histogram of the cell in question 59
Figure 39. SINR 59
Figure 40. CQI 60
Figure 41. BLER 60
Figure 42. Transmission mode 61
Figure 43. RRC Connection 61
Figure 44. RRC Connection success 61
Figure 45. User DL Throughput 62
Figure 46. Cell DL Throughput 62
Table 1. Ue categories 5

Table 2. Top 6 phone-based measurements for LTE drive testing 43

Table 3. CQI index 54

Table 4. TM modes 55
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

1. Introduction

Mobile communications has become an everyday commodity. In the last decades, it has evolved
from being an expensive technology for a few selected individuals to today’s ubiquitous systems
used by a majority of the world’s population. From the first experiments with radio
communication by Guglielmo Marconi in the 1890s, the road to truly mobile radio communication
has been quite long. To understand the complex mobile-communication systems of today, it is
important to understand where they came from and how cellular systems have evolved. The
task of developing mobile technologies has also changed, from being a national or regional
concern, to becoming an increasingly complex task undertaken by global standards-developing
organizations such as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and involving thousands
of people. Mobile communication technologies are often divided into generations, with 1G being
the analog mobile radio systems of the 1980s, 2G the first digital mobile systems, and 3G the first
mobile system’s handling broadband data. The Long-Term Evolution (LTE) is often called “4G”,
but many also claim that LTE release 10, also referred to as LTE-Advanced, is the true 4G
evolution step, with the first release of LTE (release 8) then being labeled as “3.9G”. This
continuing race of increasing sequence numbers of mobile system generations is in fact just a
matter of labels.

In this final project, we will highlight first, the integrated technology that has allowed the LTE to
achieve performance required by the standard, such as high data rate, reduced delay and totally
IP-based network. Second, we will give a presentation on the optimization process in details
and taking two cases obtained from the actual LTE network installed.

1
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

2. Drivers for LTE

The evolution of 3G systems into 4G is driven by the creation and development of new services
for mobile devices, and is enabled by advancement of the technology available for mobile
systems. There has also been an evolution of the environment in which mobile systems are
deployed and operated, in terms of competition between mobile operators, challenges from
other mobile technologies, and new regulation of spectrum use and market aspects of mobile
systems. The rapid evolution of the technology used in telecommunication systems, consumer
electronics, and specifically mobile devices has been remarkable in the last 20 years. Moore’s
law illustrates this and indicates a continuing evolution of processor performance and
increased memory size, often combined with reduced size, power consumption, and cost for
devices. High-resolution color displays and megapixel camera sensors are also coming into all
types of mobile devices. Combined with a high-speed internet backbone often based on optical
fiber networks, we see that a range of technology enablers are in place to go hand-in-hand with
advancement in mobile communications technology such as LTE.

The rapid increase in use of the internet to provide all kinds of services since the 1990s started
at the same time as 2G and 3G mobile systems came into widespread use. The natural next step
was that those internet-based services also moved to the mobile devices, creating what is today
know as mobile broadband. Being able to support the same Internet Protocol (IP)-based
services in a mobile device that people use at home with a fixed broadband connection is a
major challenge and a prime driver for the evolution of LTE as shown in the figure below. A few
services were already supported by the evolved 2.5G systems, but it is not until the systems are
designed primarily for IP-based services that the real mobile IP revolution can take off. An
interesting aspect of the migration of broadband services to mobile devices is that a mobile
“flavor” is also added. The mobile position and the mobility and roaming capabilities do in fact
create a whole new range of services tailored to the mobile environment.

Figure 1. The increasing demand on mobile broadband

2
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

The main service-related design parameters for a radio interface supporting a variety of
services are:

Data rate: Many services with lower data rates such as voice services are important and still
occupy a large part of a mobile network’s overall capacity, but it is the higher data rate services
that drive the design of the radio interface. The ever increasing demand for higher data rates
for web browsing, streaming and file transfer pushes the peak data rates for mobile systems
from Kbps for 2G, to Mbps for 3G and getting close to Gbps for 4G.

Delay: Interactive services such as real-time gaming, but also web browsing and interactive
file transfer, have requirements for very low delay, making it a primary design target. There are,
however, many applications such as e-mail and television where the delay requirements are not
as strict. The delay for a packet sent from a server to a client and back is called latency.

Capacity: From the mobile system operator’s point of view, it is not only the peak data rates
provided to the end-user that are of importance, but also the total data rate that can be provided
on average from each deployed base station site and per hertz of licensed spectrum. This
measure of capacity is called spectral efficiency. In the case of capacity shortage in a mobile
system, the Quality-of-Service (QoS) for the individual end-users may be degraded.

3. LTE Main Objectives

LTE must be able to deliver superior performance compared to existing 3GPP networks based
on High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology. The performance targets in 3GPP are defined
relative to HSPA in Release 6, the figure 2 shows the LTE targets.

1. Increased downlink and uplink peak data rates: up to 100 Mbps with 20 MHz bandwidth
in the downlink, and uplink peak data rate up to 50 Mbps. Some vendors have already
demonstrated peak data rate higher than this level-for example: Ericsson has
demonstrated 150 Mbps
2. Scalable bandwidth: 1.4/3/5/10/15/20 MHz
3. Improved spectral efficiency: 5 bps/Hz for DL and 2.5 bps/Hz for UL
4. All IP network
5. A standard’s based interface that can support a multitude of user types: such as mobiles,
PCs, gaming devices
6. Decreased CAPEX and OPEX: via simple architecture that reduced the total number of
nodes needed to construct the network
7. Reduced latency: (to 10 ms) for better user experience
8. Mobility: LTE is optimized to work perfectly with speeds up to 350kph
9. More simple network architecture (Flat Architecture)

3
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

Figure 2. LTE Targets

4. LTE network architecture

At a high level, the network is comprised of the CN (EPC) and the access network E- UTRAN.
While the CN consists of many logical nodes, the access network is made up of essentially just
one eNodeB, the evolved NodeB (eNodeB), which connects to the UEs. Each of these network
elements are interconnecting by means of interfaces that are standardized in order to allow
multi-vendor interoperability. This gives network operators the possibility to source different
network elements from different vendors. In fact, network operators may choose in their
physical implementations to split or merge these logical network elements depending on
commercial considerations.

The LTE access network is simply a network of base stations, evolved NodeB (eNB), generating
a flat architecture. There is no centralized intelligent controller, and the eNBs are normally inter-
connected via the X2-interface and towards the core network by the S1-interface. The reason
for distributing the intelligence amongst the base-stations in LTE is to speed up the connection
set-up and reduce the time required for a handover. For an end-user the connection set-up time
for a real time data session is in many cases crucial, especially in on-line gaming. The time for
a handover is essential for real-time services where end-users tend to end calls if the handover
takes too long.

Figure 3 shows the overall architecture of LTE network.

4
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

Figure 3. LTE Architecture

4.1 User Equipment (UE)

UE is the device that the end user uses for communication. Typically it is a hand held device
such as a smart phone or a data card such as those used currently in 2G and 3G, or it could be
embedded, e.g. to a laptop. UE also contains the Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM)
that is a separate module from the rest of the UE, which is often called the Terminal Equipment
(TE). USIM is an application placed into a removable smart card called the Universal Integrated
Circuit Card (UICC). USIM is used to identify and authenticate the user and to derive security
keys for protecting the radio interface transmission. There are five different LTE UE categories
that are defined. As can be seen in the table below, the different LTE UE categories have a wide
range in the supported parameters and performance. LTE category 1, for example does not
support MIMO, but LTE UE category five supports 4x4 MIMO.

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5

Peak rate 10/5 50/25 100/50 150/50 300/75
DL/UL Mbps Mbps Mbps Mbps Mbps
RF 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz 20 MHz
Bandwidth
Modulation 64 QAM 64 QAM 64 QAM 64 QAM 64 QAM
DL
Modulation 16 QAM 16 QAM 16 QAM 16 QAM 16 QAM
UL
MIMO DL Optional 2x2 2x2 2x2 4x4
MIMO UL No No No No No
Table 1. Ue categories

5
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

4.2 eNodeB functionality

ENodeB is the RAN node in the EPS architecture that is responsible for radio transmission to
and reception from UEs in one or more cells. The eNodeB is connected to EPC nodes by means
of an S1 interface. The eNodeB is also connected to its neighbor eNodeBs by means of the X2
interface. Some significant changes have been made to the eNodeB functional allocation
compared to UTRAN. Most Rel-6 RNC functionality has been moved to the E-UTRAN eNodeB.
Below follows a description of the functionality provided by eNodeB.

 Cell control and MME pool support: eNodeB owns and controls the radio resources of
its own cells. Cell resources are requested by and granted to MMEs in an ordered
fashion. This arrangement supports the MME pooling concept. S-GW pooling is
managed by the MMEs and is not really seen in the eNodeB.
 Mobility control: The eNodeB is responsible for controlling the mobility for terminals in
active state. This is done by ordering the UE to perform measurement and then
performing handover when necessary.
 Control and User Plane security: The ciphering of user plane data over the radio
interface is terminated in the eNodeB. In addition, the ciphering and integrity protection
of RRC signaling is terminated in the eNodeB.
 Shared Channel handling: Since the eNodeB owns the cell resources, the eNodeB also
handles the shared and random access channels used for signaling and initial access.
 Segmentation/Concatenation : Radio Link Control (RLC) Service Data Units (SDUs)
received from the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer consist of whole IP
packets and may be larger than the transport block size provided by the physical layer.
 Thus, the RLC layer must support segmentation and concatenation to adapt the payload
to the transport block size.
 HARQ: A Medium Access Control (MAC) Hybrid Automatic Repeat request (HARQ) layer
with fast feedback provides a means for quickly correcting most errors from the radio
channel. To achieve low delay and efficient use of radio resources, the HARQ operates
with a native error rate which is sufficient only for services with moderate error rate
requirements such as for instance VoIP. Lower error rates are achieved by letting an
outer Automatic Repeat request (ARQ) layer in the eNodeB handle the HARQ errors.
 Scheduling: A scheduling with support for QoS provides for efficient scheduling of UP
and CP data.
 Multiplexing and Mapping: The eNodeB performs mapping of logical channels onto
transport channels.
 Physical layer functionality: The eNodeB handles the physical layer such as scrambling,
TX diversity, beam forming processing and OFDM modulation. The eNodeB also handles
layer one functions like link adaptation and power control.
 Measurements and reporting: eNodeB provides functions for configuring and making
measurements on the radio environment and eNodeB-internal variables and conditions.

6
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

The collected data is used internally for Radio Resource Management (RRM) but can be
reported for the purpose of multi-cell RRM.
 Automated operation and maintenance: eNodeB provides functions for Automated
Neighbor Relations (ANR) and Automatic Integration of RBS.

4.3 Serving Gateway (S-GW)

All user IP packets are transferred through the Serving Gateway, which serves as the local
mobility anchor for the data bearers when the UE moves between eNodeBs. It also retains the
information about the bearers when the UE is in the idle state (known as “EPS Connection
Management — IDLE” [ECM-IDLE]) and temporarily buffers downlink data while the MME
initiates paging of the UE to reestablish the bearers.

4.4 PDN Gateway (P-GW)

The PDN Gateway is responsible for IP address allocation for the UE, as well as QoS
enforcement and flow-based charging according to rules from the PCRF. It is responsible for
the filtering of downlink user IP packets into the different QoS-based bearers. This is performed
based on Traffic Flow Templates (TFTs). The P-GW performs QoS enforcement for guaranteed
bit rate (GBR) bearers. It also serves as the mobility anchor for interworking with non-3GPP
technologies such as CDMA2000 and WiMAX networks.

4.5 Home Subscriber Server (HSS)

The Home Subscriber Server contains users’ SAE subscription data such as the EPS subscribed
QoS profile. It also holds information about the PDNs to which the user can connect. This could
be in the form of an access point name (APN) or a PDN address (indicating subscribed IP
address (es)). In addition the HSS holds dynamic information such as the identity of the MME to
which the user is currently attached or registered. The HSS may also integrate the
authentication center (AUC), which generates the vectors for authentication and security keys.

4.6 Mobility Management Equipment (MME)

The Mobility Management Entity (MME) is the control node that processes the signaling
between the UE and the CN. The protocols running between the UE and the CN are known as
the Non Access Stratum (NAS) protocols.

4.7 Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

The Policy Control and Charging Rules Function is responsible for policy control decision-
making, as well as for controlling the flow-based charging functionalities in the Policy Control
Enforcement Function (PCEF), which resides in the P-GW. The PCRF provides the QoS

7
 Chapter I | LTE Overview

authorization (QoS class identifier [QCI] and bit rates) that decides how a certain data flow will
be treated in the PCRF and ensures that this is in accordance with the user’s subscription profile.

Summary
We described previously the overall EPS network architecture, giving an overview
of the functions provided by the core network and E-UTRAN.

The remainder of this chapter presents the network elements in detail, with
particular focus on the E-UTRAN elements and its functions.

It has been seen that LTE architecture is designed to be simple to deploy and operate, through
flexible technology that can be deployed in a wide variety of frequency bands. The LTE/SAE
architecture reduces the number of nodes, supports flexible network configurations, and
provides a high level of service availability. In parallel with the LTE radio access, packet core
networks are also evolving to the SAE architecture. This new architecture is designed to
optimize network performance, improve cost efficiency and facilitate the uptake of mass market
IP-based services.

8
 Chapter II | Air interface

In LTE the downlink multiple access is based on the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple
Access (OFDMA) and the uplink multiple access is based on the Single Carrier Frequency
Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA). This chapter will introduce the selection background and
the basis for both SC-FDMA and OFDMA operation. The basic principles behind the multi-
antenna transmission in LTE, using Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology, is also
introduced. The intention of this chapter is to illustrate this enabling technologies in a
descriptive way without too much mathematics.

1. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is the modulation scheme chosen for the
LTE downlink. It is a digital multicarrier scheme that uses a large number of closely spaced
subcarriers to carry data and control information. Each individual subcarrier is modulated at a
low symbol rate with a conventional modulation format such as quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM), normally these sub-carriers would be expected to interfere with each other,
but by making the signals orthogonal to each other’s there is no mutual interference. The
combination of the many low-rate subcarriers provides overall data rates similar to conventional
single-carrier modulation schemes using the same bandwidth.

1.1 Notions of orthogonality

In OFDM, the sub-carrier frequencies are chosen so that the sub-carriers are orthogonal to
each other, meaning that cross-talk between the sub-channels is eliminated and inter-carrier
guard bands are not required. This greatly simplifies the design of both the transmitter and the
receiver; unlike conventional FDM a separate filter for each sub-channel is not required. The
benefit of orthogonality is to bring a better spectrum efficiency as show in the figure below.

9
 Chapter II | Air interface

Figure 4. Orthogonality

1.2 OFDM Basic Signal Construction

The basic OFDM signal comprises a large number of closely spaced continuous wave (CW)
tones in the frequency domain. The most basic form of modulation applied to the subcarriers is
square wave phase modulation, which produces a frequency spectrum represented by a 𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑐
function that has been convolved around the subcarrier frequency. A truncated 𝑆𝑖𝑛𝑐 function
is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Spectrum of a single modulated OFDM subcarrier

The trick that makes OFDM a practical transmission system is to link the subcarrier modulation
rate to the subcarrier spacing such that the nulls in the spectrum of one subcarrier line up with
the peaks of the adjacent subcarriers.

For standard LTE each modulating symbol lasts 66.7 µs. By setting the subcarrier spacing to be
15 kHz, which is the reciprocal of the symbol rate, the peaks and nulls line up perfectly such that

10
 Chapter II | Air interface

at any subcarrier frequency, the subcarriers are orthogonal; i.e., there is no interference
between them. This can be seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6. OFDM

1.3 Cyclic Prefix and Immunity from Delay spread

The term delay spread describes the amount of time delay at the receiver from a signal traveling
from the transmitter along different paths. In cellular applications, delay spreads can be several
microseconds. The delay induced by multipath can cause a symbol received along a delayed
path to “bleed” into a subsequent symbol arriving at the receiver via a more direct path. This
effect is depicted in Figure 7 and is referred to as inter-symbol interference (ISI). In a
conventional single carrier system symbol times decrease as data rates increase. At very high
data rates (with correspondingly shorter symbol periods), it is quite possible for ISI to exceed
an entire symbol period and spill into a second or third subsequent symbol.

11
 Chapter II | Air interface

Figure 7. Inter-symbol interference effect

Cyclic prefix insertion is an important function during OFDM signal generation. A cyclic prefix is
necessary to prevent interference from previously transmitted OFDM symbols. The inter-symbol
interference can be viewed as a direct result of multipath propagation. At first glance, cyclic
prefix insertion may be regarded as a useless operation since it is merely repeats a copy of the
existing data in the OFDM symbol and does not add any new information, this can be seen in the
figures 8 and 9. However, it is instrumental for multiple reasons. First, it helps maintain the
orthogonality between subcarriers in the receiver, which is one of the foundations of an
orthogonal frequency division transmission. Second, the cyclic prefix eliminate the inter-symbol
interference.

Figure 8. Cyclic prefix

12
 Chapter II | Air interface

Figure 9. Cyclic prefix insertion

The length of the cyclic prefix is an important design parameter for a multicarrier transmission
system. On one hand, the length of the cyclic prefix must be sufficient to cover typical delay
spreads encountered in most propagation scenarios within a cellular environment. On the other
hand, the cyclic prefix represents redundant data and a necessary overhead. As the name
“prefix” implies, the first portion of the received OFDM signal is discarded at the receiver.
Therefore, LTE must specify as small a cyclic prefix as possible in order to minimize the
overhead and maximize the spectral efficiency. To resolve this tradeoff, LTE specifies the cyclic
prefix length as the expected delay spread of the propagation channel and provides a margin
for error to account for imperfect timing alignment.

1.4 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access

Until now the discussion has been about OFDM, but LTE uses a variant of OFDM for the downlink
called Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA).

Figure 10. OFDMA

13
 Chapter II | Air interface

With standard OFDM, the subcarrier allocations are fixed for each user and performance can
suffer from narrowband fading and interference. OFDMA incorporates elements of time division
multiple access (TDMA) so that the subcarriers can be allocated dynamically among the
different users of the channel as shown in the figure above. The result is a more robust system
with increased capacity. The capacity comes from the trunking efficiency gained by
multiplexing low rate users onto a wider channel to provide dynamic capacity when needed,
and the robustness comes from the ability to schedule users by frequency to avoid narrowband
interference and multipath fading.

PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio):

The OFDM signal is made by the sum of many sub-carriers and the resulting signal is subject to
rather large variation. The ratio between the average and the peak power ratio is called the
PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio). These power variations can cause problems for the
transmitter’s power amplifier. If the amplifier is linear, then the output power is proportional to
the input, so the output wave form is exactly the shape that we require. If the amplifier is non-
linear, then the output power is no longer proportional to the input, so the output waveform is
distorted. Any distortion of the time-domain waveform will distort the frequency-domain power
spectrum as well, so the signal will leak into adjacent frequency bands and will cause
interference to other receivers.

In the downlink, the base station transmitters are large, expensive devices, so they can avoid
the problem by using expensive power amplifiers that are very close to linear. In the uplink, a
mobile transmitter has to be cheap, so does not have this option. This makes OFDMA unsuitable
for the LTE uplink.

2. Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

The high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) associated with OFDM led 3GPP to look for an
alternative modulation scheme for the LTE uplink.

The power variations described above arise because there is a one-to-one mapping between
symbols and sub-carriers. If we mixed the symbols together before placing them on the sub-
carriers, then we might be able to adjust the transmitted signal and reduce its power variations.
For example, when transmitting two symbols x1 and x2 on two sub-carriers, we might send their
sum x1 + x2 on one sub-carrier, and their difference x1 − x2 on the other. We can use any mixing
operation at all, as the receiver can reverse it: we just need to find one that minimizes the power
variations in the transmitted signal.

A mathematical description of an SC-FDMA symbol in the time domain. A brief description is as

follows: data symbols in the time domain are converted to the frequency domain using a discrete
Fourier transform (DFT); once in the frequency domain they are mapped to the desired location
in the overall channel bandwidth before being converted back to the time domain using an
inverse FFT (IFFT). Finally, the CP is inserted. SC-FDMA is sometimes called discrete Fourier

14
 Chapter II | Air interface

transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM) because of this process, although this terminology is
becoming less common.

Figure 11. Comparison between OFDMA and SC-FDMA

3. Link Adaptation
In LTE, the quality of the received signal depends, among other factors, on the path loss, the
presence of interfering signals, the sensitivity of the receiver, and the multipath propagation
phenomenon. All these phenomena (that are inherent to wireless environments) may cause
strong variations in the quality of the received signal. The main purpose of link adaptation
techniques is to compensate such variations in order to guarantee the required quality of
service (QoS) of each UE (e.g., user data rate, packet error rate, latency) as well as to maximize
the system throughput. Several techniques used in LTE to cope with channel variations are
introduced.

In the uplink, the different UEs transmit to a common receiver, the eNodeB, which is able to
measure the quality of the receiver signals. Based on these measurements (among other
factors), the eNodeB makes decisions regarding scheduling, selection of modulation and coding
scheme, or transmission power control.

In the downlink, adaptation techniques require certain feedback information from the receiver
in order to adapt adequately the transmitted signal to the channels’ conditions. In that sense,
the UE is responsible for measuring and reporting periodically the instantaneous channel quality
of one (or a group of) resource block(s) to the transmitter by means of channel quality indicators

15
 Chapter II | Air interface

(CQIs). These indicators are designed to achieve an efficient trade-off between link-adaptation
performance and uplink signaling overhead. The CQI reporting frequency is adjustable in terms
of sub-frame units and may be defined on a per-UE or per-UE-group basis.

The reported CQIs from UEs indicating the downlink channel quality can be used at the eNodeB
for the following purposes:

 Selection of modulation and coding schemes

 Error management (HARQ)

3.1 Adaptive Modulation and Coding

Different-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) modulations have been chosen for LTE,
ranging from Quadrature phase key shifting (QPSK) to 64 QAM. Higher-order modulations allow
for achieving higher data rates at the expense of decreasing robustness (i.e., they are suitable
under good channel conditions). The adaptive modulation technique is aimed to improve data
throughput while keeping the bit error rate (BER) below a predefined target value (BERT). In
order to achieve that, the transmitted signal is modified according to the instantaneous channel
quality as illustrated in the figure below (Figure 12). Additionally, the coding scheme may be
dynamically modified to match the instantaneous channel conditions for each user, then being
denoted as AMC. In this case, both modulation and coding schemes are jointly changed by the
transmitter to adapt the transmitted signal to the varying channel conditions in both time and
frequency domains. The coding scheme establishes the amount of redundancy that is added to
the transmitted data in order to increase transmission reliability. The ratio between original data
length and coded data length establishes the effective coding rate R. Hence, good link quality
conditions lead to the use of a high-order modulation scheme (more bits per symbol) as well as
a low coding rate (less redundancy on transmitted data). In contrast, lower modulation schemes
together with higher coding rates are needed under poor link conditions in order to maintain the
requested QoS level. In LTE specifications (3GPP 36.213), a predefined set of modulation and
coding schemes (MCSs) corresponding to each CQI level is defined.

16
 Chapter II | Air interface

Figure 12. Adaptive modulation

3.2 Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ)

Hybrid automatic repeat request, a combination of traditional ARQ and error correction codes
(such as the turbo code), is a common element in the physical layer of LTE. At the expense of a
higher complexity in its implementation than required for a traditional ARQ strategy, HARQ
achieves a better performance than ordinary ARQ techniques. In addition to the error-detection
information added to the data, forward error correction (FEC) bits are appended before
transmission. Whenever an error is detected, hybrid ARQ is requested to perform a
retransmission.

Typically, two types of HARQ retransmission strategies are implemented. In the first one, known
as chase combining or type I HARQ, each retransmission is identical to the original transmission.
Once a transport block is received, its integrity is checked by calculating its CRC and comparing
it with the CRC sequence. A decoding error raises a retransmission request that is answered by
the transmitter by sending again the same transport block.

In the second one, known as incremental redundancy or type II HARQ, a coded transport block
(i.e., a code word) is sent to the receiver. This code word is compounded by most of the
systematic bits and a few parity bits for error correction. If an error occurs in the decoding
process, a retransmission request is sent to the transmitter. Additional parity bits are
transmitted and combined upon arrival with the previous received version of the coded
transport block, resulting in a lower coding rate. The process is repeated until a successful

17
 Chapter II | Air interface

decoding is performed or until the transport block is discarded when the retransmission limit is
reached.

In LTE, HARQ retransmission strategy is only supported for share channels in uplink (physical
uplink shared channel—PUSCH) and downlink (PDSCH), and it is based on multiple parallel
stop-and-wait processes. Transport blocks are decoded upon arrival. An acknowledgement
(ACK) command is reported to the transmitter when a transport block is successfully decoded.
On the other hand, a negative acknowledge (NACK) is reported in cases of unsuccessful
decoding, implying a retransmission request for the particular transport block. Once an
ACK/NACK message is received at the transmitter, its timing is used to associate it with its
correspondent HARQ process.

4. Multi-Antenna techniques used in LTE

LTE was designed so that the base station and mobile could both use multiple antennas for radio
transmission and reception, Adding antennas to a radio system gives the possibility of
fundamental performance improvements because the radiated signals will take different
physical paths and undergo variations in polarization. This chapter covers the three main
multiple antenna techniques, which have different objectives and which are implemented in
different ways.

The most familiar of the techniques is diversity processing, which increases the received signal
power and reduces the amount of fading by using multiple antennas at the transmitter, the
receiver or both. It makes direct use of path diversity in which one radiated path may be subject
to fading loss and another may not.

In spatial multiplexing, the transmitter and receiver both use multiple antennas so as to increase
the data rate relying on path diversity—introduced by separating the antennas in space or by
polarization—to enable the use of spatial multiplexing. Spatial multiplexing allows for the
simultaneous transmission of more than one stream of data in the same time and frequency.

Spatial multiplexing is often described as the use of multiple input multiple output (MIMO)
antennas. This name is derived from the inputs and outputs to the air interface, so that ‘multiple
input’ refers to the transmitter and ‘multiple output’ to the receiver.

Finally, beamforming uses multiple antennas at the base station in order to increase the
coverage of the cell by controlling the phase relationship of the electrical signals radiated at
the antennas to direct transmitted energy toward the physical location of the receiver.

18
 Chapter II | Air interface

Figure 13. Radio channel access modes

4.1 Diversity processing

4.1.1 Receive diversity

Receive diversity is most often used in the uplink, in the manner shown in Figure 14. Here, the
base station uses two antennas to pick up two copies of the received signal. The signals reach
the receive antennas with different phase shifts, but these can be removed by antenna-specific
channel estimation. The base station can then add the signals together in phase, without any
risk of destructive interference between them.

The signals are both made up from several smaller rays, so they are both subject to fading.
If the two individual signals undergo fades at the same time, then the power of the combined
signal will be low. But if the antennas are far enough apart (a few wavelengths of the carrier
frequency), then the two sets of fading geometries will be very different, so the signals
will be far more likely to undergo fades at completely different times. We have therefore
reduced the amount of fading in the combined signal, which in turn reduces the error rate.
Base stations usually have more than one receive antenna. In LTE, the mobile’s test
specifications assume that the mobile is using two receive antennas, so LTE systems are
expected to use receive diversity on the downlink as well as the uplink.

19
 Chapter II | Air interface

Figure 14. Receive diversity

4.1.2 Closed Loop Transmit Diversity

Transmit diversity reduces the amount of fading by using two or more antennas at the
transmitter. It is superficially similar to receive diversity, but with a crucial problem:
the signals add together at the single receive antenna, which brings a risk of destructive
interference. There are two ways to solve the problem, the first of which is closed loop
transmit diversity here, the transmitter sends two copies of the signal in the expected way, but
it also applies a phase shift to one or both signals before transmission. By doing this, it can
ensure that the two signals reach the receiver in phase, without any risk of destructive
interference. The phase shift is determined by a pre-coding matrix indicator (PMI), which is
calculated by the receiver and fed back to the transmitter.

For fast moving mobiles, the PMI is delivered too late and the mobile would have changed
position. The figure 15 illustrate the closed loop transmit diversity.

Figure 15. Closed loop transmit diversity

20
 Chapter II | Air interface

4.1.3 Open Loop Transmit Diversity

A technique which allows achieving spatial diversity with two transmit antennas, the transmitter
antennas send two symbols in two successive time stamps, the antennas send S1 and S2
respectively in the first time stamp, and for the second –S2* and S1* respectively from the two
antennas, this way the data rate is not affected, the receiver can now make two successive
measurements of the received signal, which correspond to two different combinations of S1 and
S2. It can then solve the resulting equations, so as to recover the two transmitted symbols this
technique is known as Alamouti Space Time Block coding.

4.2 spatial multiplexing:

4.2.1 Principles of Operation

Spatial multiplexing has a different purpose from diversity processing. If the transmitter
and receiver both have multiple antennas, then we can set up multiple parallel data streams
between them, so as to increase the data rate.

Figure 16, shows a basic spatial multiplexing system, in which the transmitter and receiver both
have two antennas. In the transmitter, the antenna mapper takes symbols from the modulator
two at a time, and sends one symbol to each antenna. The antennas transmit the two symbols
simultaneously, so as to double the transmitted data rate the symbols travel to the receive
antennas by way of four separate radio paths.

Figure 16. Spatial multiplexing

4.2.2 Multiple User MIMO

Figure 17, shows a slightly different technique. Here, two transmit and two receive antennas are
sharing the same transmission times and frequencies, in the same way as before.

This time, however, the mobile antennas are on two different mobiles instead of one.
This technique is known as multiple user MIMO (MU-MIMO), in contrast with the earlier spatial
multiplexing techniques, which are sometimes known as single user MIMO (SU-MIMO). Figure
17, specifically shows the implementation of multiple user MIMO on the uplink, which is the

21
 Chapter II | Air interface

more common situation. Here, the mobiles transmit at the same time and on the same carrier
frequency, but without using any pre-coding and without even knowing that they are part of a
spatial multiplexing system. The base station receives their transmissions and separates.

Uplink multiple user MIMO does not increase the peak data rate of an individual mobile, but it
is still beneficial because of the increase in cell throughput. It can also be implemented using
inexpensive mobiles that just have one power amplifier and one transmit antenna, not two. For
these reasons, multiple user MIMO is the standard technique in the uplink of LTE Release 8,
single user MIMO is not introduced into the uplink until Release 10.

Figure 17. MU-MIMO

4.3 Beamforming
4.3.1 Principle of function

Beamforming uses multiple antennas to control the direction of a wave front by

appropriately weighting the magnitude and phase of individual antenna signals (transmit
beamforming) as described in the figure below. For example this makes it possible to provide
better coverage to specific areas along the edges of cells. Because every single antenna in
the array makes a contribution to the steered signal, an array gain (also called beamforming
gain) is achieved.

To form the beam, at least two antennas are required that are separated by a multiple of
the wavelength. At 2.5 GHz, the wavelength is equal to (1/2.5 GHz) × speed of light = 12 cm.
In practice, antennas are typically separated by around 1.5 m.

22
 Chapter II | Air interface

Figure 18. Beamforming

Summary
This chapter addressed the advanced radio characteristics of LTE including the following:

 LTE’s use of orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and multiple input
multiple output (MIMO) in the downlink transmission effectively eliminates intra-cell
multiuser interference and minimizes inter-cell multiuser interference, thereby
maximizing performance. Similarly, the single-carrier frequency division multiple access
(SC-FDMA) uplink transmission allows for user equipment to transmit low power signals
without the need for expensive power amplifiers.
 Improvement in battery power consumption in UEs is a side-benefit of the coverage and
multipath/power performance advantages offered by LTE.
 Providing the ability to perform two-dimensional resource scheduling (in time and
frequency), allowing support of multiple users in a time slot.
 Protecting data against channel errors using adaptive modulation and coding
(AMC) schemes based on channel conditions.
 Multiple antennas at the UE are supported with the two receive and one transmit
antenna configuration being mandatory.

23
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

1. LTE Air interface protocol stack

Figure 19, bellow reviews the protocols that are used in the air interface, from the viewpoint of
the mobile and the Evolved NodeB, the figure adds some detail to the physical layer and shows
the information flows between the different levels of the protocol stack. Let us consider the
transmitter. In the user plane, the application creates data packets that are processed by
protocols such as TCP, UDP and IP, while in the control plane, the radio resource control (RRC)
protocol writes the signaling messages that are exchanged between the base station and the
mobile. In both cases, the information is processed by the packet data convergence protocol
(PDCP), the radio link control (RLC) protocol and the medium access control (MAC) protocol,
before being passed to the physical layer for transmission. The physical layer has three parts.
The transport channel processor applies the error management procedures while the physical
channel processor applies the techniques of OFDMA, SC-FDMA and multiple antenna
transmission. Finally, the analogue processor converts the information to analogue form, filters
it and mixes it up to radio frequency for transmission, the information flows between the
different protocols are known as channels and signals. Data and signaling messages are carried
on logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols, transport channels between the MAC
and the physical layer, and physical data channels between the different levels of the physical
layer. LTE uses several different types of logical, transport and physical channel, which are
distinguished by the kind of information they carry and by the way in which the information is
processed. In the transmitter, the transport channel processor also creates control information
that supports the low-level operation of the physical layer and sends this information to the
physical channel processor in the form of physical control channels. The information travels as
far as the transport channel processor in the receiver, but is completely invisible to higher
layers. Similarly, the physical channel processor creates physical signals, which support the
lowest-level aspects of the system. These travel as far as the physical channel processor in the
receiver, but once again are invisible to higher layers.

24
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

Figure 19. Radio protocol stack

1.1 Non access stratum layer

NAS is the layer above the Access Stratum layers (AS). There are also two planes in NAS, the
higher layer signaling related to the control plane and the IP data packets of the user plane.
NAS signaling exists in two protocol layers, EMM (EPS mobility management) and ESM (EPS
session management The NAS user plane is IP-based. The IP data packets pass directly into
the PDCP layer for processing and transmission to or from the user.

1.2 LTE Radio Resource Control (RRC)

The RRC constitutes the main air interface protocol for the control plane signaling messages.
In general, signaling messages are needed to regulate the UE behavior in order to comply with
the network procedures. Each signaling message the EPS (evolved packet system), sends to the
UE, or vice versa, is comprised of a set of system parameters. For example, the eNB needs to
communicate the parameters related to mobility procedures when the UE needs to hand over
from one cell to another. These parameters will be sent to the UE in a specific RRC message.
In order for the messages to be transferred between the UE and the eNB, the RRC layer uses

25
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

the services of the PDCP, RLC, MAC, and PHY. During this mapping, the packets are directed on
a radio bearer, referred to as the signaling radio bearer, SRB.

1.3 LTE Packet Data Convergence Protocol Layer (PDCP)

The packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer acts as a portal between the various higher
layers of the protocol stack (RRC, RTP, UDP, TCP, etc.) and the RLC layer, the PDCP is
responsible for transferring user and control layer data to and from upper layers.

It’s also responsible for the security functions such as cyphering the user and control plane
bearers, the PDCP also does the header compression services to improve the efficiency over
the Air interface using the Robust Header Compression (ROHC).

1.4 LTE Radio Link Control (RLC)

The RLC is part of the protocol layers in both the UE and the eNB. In the downlink, it uses the
services of PDCP and offers services to the MAC layer. In the uplink, it uses the services of the
MAC layer and offers services to the PDCP layer, this layer is also responsible for both user and
control plane functions such as the error correction through ARQ, protocol error detection and
recovery, as for the normal functions such as the reception and segmentation and re-assembly
of PDCP service data units and the re-segmentation of RLC protocol data units in order to send
them to the lower layer MAC.

1.5 LTE Medium Access Control (MAC)

MAC is another part of the protocol layers in the UE and the eNB. It provides the interface
between the RLC and the PHY layer. MAC performs some of the most basic functions for LTE
such as the channel mapping from logical channels to transport channels going to physical
layer, it’s also responsible for the multiplexing which will be later executed by the physical layer,
also the role extends to the random access procedure in the uplink for the call establishment or
handover.

1.6 LTE Physical Layer (PHY)

The LTE physical layer is the last layer before the data is sent throught the AIR interface to the
receiver thus it needs to handle all the sticky lower layer actions, in LTE it consists of three sub-
layers which help define its job, the transport channel processor receives the information from
the Medium access channel and applies error correction protocols on them, then comes the
physical channel processor which in turn applies the transmission technique(OFDMA or SC-

26
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

FDMA) and the multiple antenna techniques and mapping, then comes the analog processor
which is the last piece of the puzzle as it converts the data to analog form, filters and mixes the
data up to Radio frequency ready for transmission.

2. LTE frame structure

Before we get to the frame structure for LTE, we must first get to know the slot structure in LTE
as it is completely different from its predecessors given that OFDM was introduced making it
more efficient in terms of specter allocation and time interval speeds.

LTE maps the physical channels and physical signals onto the OFDMA symbols and subcarriers
that we introduced in Chapter II, the timing of the LTE transmissions is based on a time unit Ts,
which is the shortest time interval that is of interest to the physical channel processor, each
sampling contains 2048 points which means every symbols duration is 2048 xTs giving roughly
66.7 ms which is the time duration of each OFDM symbol.

The symbols are grouped into slots, whose duration is 0.5 ms. this can be done in two ways, as
shown in Figure 20. With the normal cyclic prefix, each symbol is preceded by a cyclic prefix
that is usually (4.7 ms) long. The first cyclic prefix has a longer duration of (5.2 ms), to tidy up the
unevenness that results from fitting seven symbols into a slot. Using the normal cyclic prefix,
the receiver can remove inter-symbol interference with a delay spread of 4.7 ms, corresponding
to a path difference of 1.4 km between the lengths of the longest and shortest rays. This is
normally plenty, but may not be enough if the cell is unusually large or cluttered. To deal with
this possibility, LTE also supports an extended cyclic prefix, in which the number of symbols per
slot is reduced to six. This allows the cyclic prefix to be extended to (16.7 ms), to support a
maximum path difference of 5 km.

Now as we move to the frame structure in a higher level the slots are grouped into sub-frames
and frames as shown in the following figure.

Figure 20. Radio frame

27
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

In FDD mode, this is done using frame structure type 1, which is shown in figure 21, two slots
make one sub-frame, which is 1 ms long .Sub-frames are used for scheduling. When a base
station transmits to a mobile on the downlink, it schedules its PDSCH transmissions one sub-
frame at a time, and maps each block of data onto a set of sub-carriers within that sub-frame.
A similar process happens on the uplink. In turn, 10 sub-frames make one frame, which is 10 ms.

Figure 21. FDD frame structure

TDD mode uses frame structure type 2. In this structure, the slots, sub-frames and frames have
the same duration as before, but each sub-frame can be allocated to either the uplink or
downlink based on already set configurations, Different cells can have different TDD
configurations, which are advertised as part of the cells’ system information. The TDD frame
structure is described in Figure 22.

Figure 22. TDD frame structure

28
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

Finally users are allocated a specific number of subcarriers for a predetermined amount of time
as shown in the figure below. These are referred to as physical resource blocks (PRBs) in the
LTE specifications. PRBs thus have both a time and frequency dimension. Allocation of PRBs is
handled by a scheduling function at the 3GPP base station (eNodeB).

Figure 23. Resource block

3. LTE Radio channels

The concept of “channels” is not new. Both GSM (Global System for Mobile communications)
and UMTS define various channel categories, however, LTE terminology is closer to UMTS.
Figure 24 illustrates the overall structure of the LTE channel mapping across all layers. There
are three main categories of channels.

29
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

Figure 24. LTE channels mapping

3.1 Logical channels

The interface between the MAC and the RLC provides the logical channels. Logical channels
are classified as either control logical channels, which carry control data such as RRC signaling,
or traffic logical channels which carry user plane data.

 Control logical channels: The various forms of these channels include:

- BCCH (Broadcast Control Channel) - A downlink channel used to send SI (system
information) messages from the eNB. These are defined by RRC.
- PCCH (Paging Control Channel) - A downlink channel used by the eNB to send paging
information.
- CCCH (Common Control Channel) - Used to establish a RRC connection
- DCCH (Dedicated Control Channel); Provides a bidirectional channel for signaling.
There are two DCCH activated.
 Traffic logical channels: The DTCH (dedicated traffic channel) is used to carry DRB IP
packets (default radio bearer). The DTCH is configured for uplink and downlink.

30
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

3.2 Transport Channels

LTE has moved away from dedicated channels as used in the previous UMTS network in favor
of the common/shared channels. As the data being constructed at transport channels, the
MAC builds the time block based on the size of the packets coming from the RLC. Multiple RLC
PDUs can go into one Time Block to be sent into the PHY layer.
The main LTE Transport Channels include:

 BCH (broadcast channel) - A fixed format channel which occurs once per frame and
carries the MIB (master information block). Note that the majority of system
information messages are carried on the DL-SCH (downlink-shared channel).
 PCH (Paging Channel) - Used to carry the PCCH, that is, paging messages.
 DL-SCH - This is the main downlink channel for data and signaling. It supports dynamic
scheduling, as well as dynamic link adaptation. In addition, it supports HARQ operation
to improve performance
 RACH - Carries limited information and is used in conjunction with PHY channels and
preambles to provide contention resolution procedures.
 UL-SCH - Similar to the DL-SCH, this channel supports dynamic scheduling (eNB
controlled) and dynamic link adaptation by varying the modulation and coding. In
addition, it supports HARQ operation to improve the link performance.

3.3 Physical Channels

The PHY Layer facilitates transportation of the MAC Transport Channels, as well as providing
scheduling, formatting, and control indicators. The TB coming from the MAC layer is mapped
into the corresponding PHY channel to be sent over the air, it also performs other functions such
as channel coding in order to ensure a reliable transmission over the air.

For the Physical channels it would be more convenient if we divided them up into Data and
control channels.

Here are the LTE physical Data channels:

 PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel) carries data and signaling messages from
the downlink shared channel, as well as paging messages from the paging channel
 PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel).carries data and signaling messages from
the uplink shared channel and can sometimes carry the uplink control information.
 PBCH (The physical broadcast channel) carries the master information block from the
broadcast channel
 PRACH (physical random access channel) carries random access transmissions from
the random access channel.
 PMCH (The physical multicast channel) carries data from the multicast channel, but
is not usable until Release 9.

31
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

At this point we should mention that The PDSCH and PUSCH are the only physical channels that
can adapt their modulation schemes in response to changes in the received SINR. The other
physical channels all use a fixed modulation scheme, usually QPSK. At least in LTE Release 8,
the PDSCH is the only physical channel that uses the techniques of spatial multiplexing and
beam forming from Chapter II, or the technique of closed loop transmit diversity. The other
channels are sent from a single antenna, or can use open loop transmit diversity in the case of
the downlink.
LTE physical control channels

 PDCCH (the physical downlink control channel) carry the downlink control information.
 PCFICH (physical control format indicator channel) carry the control format indicators.
 PHICH (physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel) carry the hybrid ARQ indicators
respectively.
 PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel) carries the control information for the UE if the
UE is transmitting uplink data on the same time.
 PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) carries control information in any other case.

4. LTE Parameters
4.1 Reference signal received power (RSRP)
Reference signal receive power (RSRP) is the most basic of the UE physical layer measurements
and is the linear average (in watts) of the downlink reference signals (RS) across the channel
bandwidth which is the average power per resource element that the mobile is receiving on the
cell specific reference signals. Since the RS exist only for one symbol at a time, the
measurement is made only on those resource elements (RE) that contain cell-specific RS. It is
not mandated for the UE to measure every RS symbol on the relevant subcarriers. Instead,
accuracy requirements have to be met.

Knowledge of absolute RSRP provides the UE with essential information about the strength of
cells from which path loss can be calculated and used in the algorithms for determining the
optimum power settings for operating the network. Reference signal receive power is used both
in idle and connected states. The relative RSRP is used as a parameter in multi-cell scenarios.

4.2 Reference Signal Receive Quality (RSRQ)

Although RSRP is an important measure, on its own it gives no indication of signal quality.
Reference signal receive quality (RSRQ) provides this measure and is defined as a ratio of RSRP
and E-UTRA carrier received signal strength indicator (RSSI).
The formula is as follows:

RSSQ = N ∗ RSRP / (E − UTRA Carrier RSSI )

32
 Chapter III | LTE AIR interface protocols

Where N is the number of RBs of the E-UTRA carrier RSSI measurement bandwidth.
The E-UTRA carrier RSSI parameter represents the entire received power measured only on
OFDM symbols containing reference symbols for antenna port 0, including the wanted power
from the serving cell as well as all co-channel power and other sources of noise. Measuring
RSRQ becomes particularly important near the cell edge when decisions need to be made,
regardless of absolute RSRP, to perform a handover to the next cell. Reference signal receive
quality is used only during connected states.

4.3 Received signal strength indicator (RSSI)

RSSI is inherited from UMTS. It is a measure of the total received power, including thermal noise
and noise generated in the receiver, within the bandwidth defined by the receiver pulse shaping
filter.

4.4 Signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR)

More important is the fourth parameter, which is the SINR. The SINR is the ratio of the average
received modulated carrier power to the sum of the average co-channel interference power
and the noise power from other sources. The UE is be able to identify new intra-frequency cells
and perform the RSRP and the RSRQ measurements of identified intra-frequency cells without
an explicit intra-frequency neighbor list containing PCIs. The minimum RSRP
and corresponding SINR depend on the frequency band, the minimum SINR is for all bands while
the RSRP depends on the frequency band. This is why the SINR is more important and it provides
precious indication on coverage and expected throughput. Therefore, the coverage maps
generated by the SINR is more accurate than RSRP or RSSI coverage maps. Also, the
throughput maps is generated from mapping table with SINR.

Summary
LTE introduced a new air interface with high-level architecture that's very reliable in packet
switching protocols allowing maximum mobility with the introduction of the non-access stratum
layer, the frame structure for LTE is different in both FDD and TDD modes and is allocated in
both the frequency and time domain in what is known as a resource grid to allow maximum
resource use.

Also a set of refined channels was introduced in LTE with simple mapping in both up and
downlink which was very useful when implementing different techniques for LTE.

The parameters at the end of the chapter are what are considered when optimizing an LTE
network cluster which will be discussed in our application part.

33
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

In this chapter we will give an overview of the planning process by giving a brief description of
each phase, then we will give in details the RF optimization process phases, from the test
preparation to the solution of the problem.

1. Overview of the planning process

The network planning process consists of several phases, which can be combined at a higher
level to main phases that differ depending on the logics. The radio network planning process is
divided into five main steps, from which four are before the network launch and the last one
after the network has been launched. The five main phases then include sub phases. After
detailed planning the network is ready for commercial launch, but the post planning phase
continues the process and targets the most optimal network configuration. Actually the network
planning process is a never ending cycle due to changes in the design parameters.

1.1 Pre-planning
The initial planning phase takes its offset in the business plan and clarifies the objectives and
requirements for the network to be provided. In this phase we may assist in technology
evaluations, conceptual designs, tendering, vendor selection, budgeting, process setup and
organization setup .The network planning criteria is used as an input for network dimensioning.
In the following basic inputs for dimensioning are listed:

 Coverage requirements, the signal level for outdoor, in-car and indoor with the coverage
probabilities
 Cell edge quality of service criteria
 Frequency spectrum, number of channels, including information about
possible needed guard bands
 Subscriber information, number of users and growth figures.
 Traffic per user, busy hour traffic
 Expected services.

Dimensioning provides the evaluation of the number of network elements that are needed to
fulfill the quality of service requirements set by the operator, e.g. in LTE number of E-NBs. This
is done with the help of dimensioning tool for both access and core networks. Dimensioning
uses relatively simpler models for modeling of the actual conditions as compared to the detailed

34
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

planning. Simpler models and methods reduce the time required for dimensioning. On the other
hand, dimensioning tool should be accurate enough to provide results with an acceptable level
of accuracy, when loaded with expected traffic profile and subscriber base.

1.2 Planning
The planning phase takes inputs from the dimensioning process, initial network configuration
these are the basis for nominal planning. A nominal plan is an ideal scenario, and in the practical
world a range of constraints and restrictions may appear that forces the actual plan do deviate
from the nominal plan. To becomes an iterative process where the objectives and requirements
must be maintained. The planning process interacts with authorities, site acquisition process,
building process and transmission planning. It also interacts with the optimization process
which provides feedback to future planning and accordingly improves the planning quality over
time, the target for the coverage planning phase is to find optimal locations for ENBs to build
continuous coverage according to the planning requirements. In the capacity planning phase
the final coverage plan including sites locations is combined with the user density information;
in this way the capacity can be allocated. The output of the planning phase is the final and
detailed coverage and capacity plans .Coverage maps are made for the planned area and final
site locations and configurations.

1.3 Detailed Planning

In this phase, link budget, capacity dimensioning, and RF prediction are conducted. The
outcomes of these exercises include cell radius for different clutters, supported number of
subscribers, number of required sites for each clutter, and coverage maps for target areas. We
need to verify the nominal planning by identifying the site coordinates, conducting site surveys,
and selecting the proper candidates that meet the coverage targets. Also, neighbor list
preparation and cell parameters are defined as per vendor recommendation in this stage.
Finally, the antenna type selection, antenna height, azimuth, and tilt need to be finalized in this
phase to meet the required converge and to minimize the interference.

1.4 Verification and Acceptance

After the planning phase has been finished the aim of the prelaunch optimization phase is to
ensure optimal operation of the network. In addition to fine-tuning a search is made for possible
mistakes that might have occurred during the installation. Prelaunch optimization is high level
optimization but does not go into detail. Network optimization continues after the launch and
goes into a more detailed level. At that point the detailed level is easier to reach due to growing
traffic.

1.5 Optimization
After the network has been launched the planning and optimization related activities do not end
because network optimization is a continuous process. For the optimization the needed input is

35
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

all available information about the network and its status. The network statistic figures, alarms
and traffic itself are monitored carefully. Customer complaints are also a source of input to the
network optimization team. The optimization process includes both network level
measurements and also field test measurements in order to analyze problem locations and also
to indicate potential problems. The quality of service requirements for the cellular network,
coverage, capacity and quality requirements need to be optimal. The targets are specified with
key performance indicators (KPIs). Drive testing is used as the testing method for the network
functionality verification. During the verification the functionality of different services agreed
with the operator has to be tested.

2. LTE Optimization process

2.1 Optimization Overview
Optimization involves monitoring, verifying and improving the performance of the radio network.
It starts near the last phase of radio network planning, for example during parameter cell
planning. A cellular network covers a large area and provides capacity to many people, so there
are lots of parameters involved that are variable and have to be continuously monitored and
corrected. Apart from this, the network is always growing through increasing subscriber
numbers and increases in traffic. This means that the optimization process should be on-going,
to increase the efficiency of the network leading to revenue generation from the network.

As we have seen, radio network planners first focus on three main areas: coverage, capacity
and frequency planning. Then follows: site selection, parameter cell planning, etc. In the
optimization process the same issues are addressed, with the difference that sites are already
selected and antenna locations are fixed, but subscribers are as mobile as ever, with continuous
growth taking place. Optimization tasks become more and more difficult as time passes.

Once a radio network is designed and operational, its performance is monitored. The
performance is compared against chosen key performance indicators (KPIs). After fine-tuning,
the results (parameters) are then applied to the network to get the desired performance.

Optimization can be considered to be a separate process or as a part of the network planning

process. The main focus of radio network optimization is on areas such as coverage,
accessibility, delay, mobility, retainability and service integrity as shown in the figure 25.

Key Performance Indicators: For radio network optimization, it is necessary to have decided on
key performance indicators (KPI). These KPIs are parameters that are to be observed closely
when the network monitoring process is going on. Mainly, the term KPI is used for parameters
related to voice and data channels, but network performance can be broadly characterized into
coverage, capacity and quality criteria also that cover the speech and data aspects.

LTE support the following KPI:

- Accessibility

36
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

- Coverage
- Delay
- Retainability
- Service integrity
- Custom

Figure 25. LTE KPIs

Radio frequency optimization is intended to optimize signal coverage while controlling cross-
area coverage and reducing ping-pong handovers, so as to ensure normal distribution of radio
signals during subsequent optimization of service parameters. RF optimization involves the tasks
as follows:

 Reference signal (RS) coverage optimization

Optimization of pilot signal coverage involves two tasks. One is optimizing weak
coverage areas to ensure continuous coverage of pilot signal in the network, and the
other is optimizing dominant cells to ensure that the dominant cells do not have too big
or too small coverage area.
 Handover optimization
This process includes two tasks. One is to check whether any neighboring is not created
as expected, verify and improve the neighboring cell list. The other one is to adjust the
engineering parameters as required.
 Interference optimization

37
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

Interference optimization means to eliminate downlink interference resulting from pilot pollution
or missing neighbor cell, and effectively detect interference resulting from coverage and
handover that may occur in the network.

2.2 Basic process of RF optimization

RF optimization needs to be performed for phase-specific purposes according to the nature and
implementation progress of the network optimization project. Currently, it consists of the
following phases:

 Cluster optimization phase

RF optimization starts upon completion of installation and verification of all stations in
the planned area. Generally, RF optimization is allowed to start when over 80% of the
total stations in a cluster have been built. This phase is intended to optimize signal
coverage while controlling pilot pollution. Specifically, it also involves optimization of the
cell parameter list and engineering parameters. If key performance indicators (KPIs)
collected after RF optimization, such as drive test and traffic statistics, meet KPI
requirements, the RF optimization phase ends. Otherwise, the data must be analyzed and
adjusted repeatedly until it meets the KPI requirements.
 Whole Network optimization phase
This phase usually starts upon completion of the cluster optimization phase.it is intended
to make the whole-network signal coverage meet the target values by meeting KPI-
related test requirements, this phase must be solve the problems of coverage or
interference that are likely to arise between neighboring clusters.
 Network performance improvement phase
 Phase of effort of continual network optimization service

The RF optimization phase consists of four phase: test preparation, data collection, problem
analysis and adjustment and implementation, as shown in Figure 26. Data collection, problem
analysis and adjustment and implementation need to be performed repeatedly according to the
optimization target requirements and actual optimization process, until the network situation
meets the optimization KPI targets.

In the test preparation phase, first determine the optimization KPI targets and then divide
clusters properly. Prepare tool and materials needed for RF optimization to ensure that RF
optimization can be performed smoothly.

In the data collection phase, collect UE data by means of Drive Test, indoor test and signaling
trace to locate problems, for the purpose of preparing for the subsequent problem analysis
phase.

By analyzing data, find out problems existing in the network, especially the coverage,
interference and handover problems.
38
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

During the RF optimization, the following principals must be followed:

 Resolve the problem from major to minor

 Be cautions with coverage adjustment
 Definite solution objective
 Test and verification
 RF optimization in combination with system (hardware) optimization

Figure 26. RF optimization flowchart

39
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

2.2.1 TEST preparation

2.2.1.1 Establishing Optimization objectives

RF optimization is intended mainly to solve such problems as signal coverage and pilot pollution.
Therefore, the objectives of RF optimization are to improve and optimize KPI of the existing
network according to the KPI requirements on coverage, call drop and handover. KPIs are
defined in the following format: the proportion of the sampling points of a KPI (such as RSRP,
RSRQ, SINR and call drop) to all sampling points is larger than a certain percentage.

2.2.1.2 Dividing eNodeBs into Clusters

RF optimization is performed concurrently for a group/cluster of eNodeBs, rather than for each
single eNodeB seperately. In this way, the interference from intra-frequency neighboring cells
is taken into consideration during the optimization. Before an eNodeB is adjusted, analyze in
detail the impact of this adjustement on the adjacent eNodeB in order to prevent any negative
impact.

Dividing eNodeB into clusters must take in consideration some factors such as:

o The number of clusters should not be too large or too small.

o One cluster should not span different area of the test
o Terrain influence: Terrain has an impact on signal propagation. A mountain may block
signal propagation, and is a natural border for cluster division. A river may enable farther
propagation of radio signals and influence cluster division in a many aspects.
o Impact of drive test workload: during cluster division, consider whether the drive test for
each cluster can be completed within one day. Usually, it is preferable to complete a
drive test within four hours.

2.2.1.3 Determining Test Routes

Before a drive test, confirm the KPI drive test acceptance route with the customer. When
making a test route, pay keen attention to the conditions of the VIP areas that the costumer is
concerned about. The test route must include the following consideration:

 The test route must cover main streets, important places, and VIP/VIC.
 To guarantee basic optimization effects, the test route must cover all cells if possible,
and there should be at least two tests (first and final tests) traversing cells.
 Test route must cover the borders of neighboring clusters.
 For accurate comparison of performance changes, it is better to use the same drive test
route for every drive test.

40
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

2.2.1.4 Preparing tools and materials

Before RF optimization, prepare necessary software, hardware and materials to guarantee

smooth performance of subsequent test and analysis tasks.

So the tools used in the drive test are:

 GENEX Probe: which is used to collect data.

 GENEX Assistant: which is used for DT data analysis and neighboring cell check.
 GENEX U-net: used for coverage predictions.
 Google Earth: Display of geographic location and environment of an eNodeB.

The materials used for the drive test are:

 GPS: it’s used to obtain the coordinates.

 Test terminal (UE).
 Laptop.

There are some other requirements for the drive test such as:

 Engineering Parameters.
 MapInfo Map.
 File Transfer server and protocol to test the throughput during the test.

2.2.2 DATA Collection

2.2.2.1 Drive test

 The Need of DT in LTE

In Long Term Evolution (LTE), as with other cellular technologies, drive testing is a part of the
network deployment and management life cycle from the early onset. Drive testing provides an
accurate real world capture of the RF environment under a particular set of network and
environmental conditions. The main benefit of drive testing is that it measures the actual
network coverage and performance that a user on the actual drive route would experience. It
is argued that in today’s networks with modern simulations, network engineers can
mathematically model how a network will perform. While this is true to a certain extent, it is also
essential to conduct drive testing as network parameter settings alter how the user equipment
(UE) interacts and deals with the network environment. Such interactions cannot be wholly
predicted through mathematical modeling.

 Components of a Drive Test System

Drive test systems are generally built around two measurement components: instrumented
mobile phones (test engineering phones) and measurement receivers. Each has its own
characteristics with associated benefits and drawbacks. Phone-based systems can respond to

41
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

problems within network controlled constraints. Receiver-based systems give a complete

overview of RF activity. These measurement devices are controlled with data logging software
on a laptop PC together with a GPS receiver to provide geo-location of the collected data. The
collected data can be analyzed using software that allows the results to be plotted on digital
maps, which allows visualization of the RF environment.

The measurements carried out during drive testing have evolved over time, from the early days
when the focus was purely on parametric RF measurements, to the wide variety of application-
based data performance measurements integrated into modern drive test systems. Many of
these changes in test methodology have been driven by the growing complexity in services that
LTE intends to enable. Network operators have shifted their focus from purely measuring RF
performance to measuring customer experience, and this has driven the integration of many
data application tests—such as video streaming and VoIP—into drive test systems so that
engineers can correlate end-user application performance with detailed RF measurements.
With LTE, many of the measurements themselves have had to take into account the much higher
data rates that LTE provides.

 Drive Test Importance

As the industry has moved ahead with LTE technologies, more of the network intelligence has
moved out from the core to the edge of the network and into the eNBs, taking the traffic
management also towards the network edge. The consequence is that much of the control and
decision making is now deployed within the eNBs, and interaction between the UE and base
stations can no longer be observed using network monitoring tools but has to be monitored by
instrumented phones involved in the actual transactions. This move of the decision point in
traffic management is needed to realize the reduced latency requirements for LTE
performance—signaling control traffic no longer has to traverse multiple network nodes when
a change is made for a UE.

While the term “drive test” comes from the fact that measurement equipment is generally driven
around in a vehicle, the importance of measuring indoor coverage is increasing. For indoor
performance measurements, the meaning GPS cannot be used for positional information.

 UE-based DT

User equipment’s drive test systems are useful for evaluating basic network performance and
are essential for characterizing how the end user experiences the network. It addresses the
need to verify network settings such as cell selection and reselection boundaries and to
measure voice and data application performance in the live network. Most modern UE chipsets
have engineering measurement capabilities built into them, which were used during the UE’s
design process. These same parameters are exploited in drive test software to provide new
value to the RF engineers deploying the final network.

42
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

Measurement Description Use

Protocol log RRC and NAS protocol log Capture of cell broadcast and system
information messages. Used to perform
calculation of timing of events such as
handover latency and cell re
selections.
Verification of network management
procedures and
Troubleshooting failures.
Cell-ID/E-ARFCN Physical cell identity/E-ARFCN Identifies the cell sector and base
station in use.
Confirmation of the specific carrier in
use.

RSRP Reference signal receive 3GPP-defined measure of the downlink

power power received by the UE
RSRQ Reference signal receive 3GPP-defined measure of the downlink
quality signal quality received by the UE
SINR/CINR/SNR Signal quality measures Supplemental to RSRQ. Mobile-
manufacturer-specific
implementations (not defined by 3GPP)
UE TX Power Mobile transmit power UE report of current uplink power.
Used for link adaption.
Table 2. Top 6 phone-based measurements for LTE drive testing

Verifying LTE Application Performance Using Drive Test

Delivering user data rates of 100 Mbps and above is one of the key challenges for LTE. Therefore,
in addition to RF measurements, data application testing is a critical activity during network
deployment. LTE moves wireless communications to an all-IP network. Bridging the gap
between RF performance and end-user IP services such as VoIP, video telephony, and video
streaming is a challenge for network operators who need to ensure that these new offerings
can be added to their infrastructure without affecting the quality of existing services.

Drive test solutions need to include a broad portfolio of instrumented data test applications for
services such as video streaming, video telephony, HTTP, FTP, e-mail, SMS, MMS, and WAP.
These test applications are essential to allow network engineering departments to measure
application performance in conjunction with the RF environment. Many such test applications
have been used in deploying previous technologies but changes have been made to
accommodate the higher data rates associated with LTE. An example is the simple FTP test,
which has long been a favorite of RF engineering departments to measure the end user TCP
throughput. However, as a result of LTE's massive increase in available data bandwidth, a single
FTP connection is no longer sufficient to fully exercise the channel capacity. For this reason,

43
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

multi-segment FTP testing has been introduced, wherein multiple simultaneous socket
connections are established between the drive test UE and the network based FTP server.

2.2.3 Problem Analysis

2.2.3.1 Coverage Problem

Coverage problem analysis is a key task of RF optimization, which focuses on signal distribution.
It involves weak coverage, cross coverage and lack of dominant cell.

2.2.3.1.1 Weak Coverage

Weak coverage means the RSRP of the reference signal in a coverage area is smaller than -110
dBm. If the RSRP of pilot signal is lower than the threshold of access of UE to a coverage area,
the UE cannot stay in the cell, nor can it initiate location update or registration, resulting in
disconnection from the network. So to judge the weak coverage, we need to follow the following
principles:

1. Observe the best RSRP distribution diagram when the network runs idly. The
RSRP quality standard must be combined with the optimization standard, the
corresponding quality standards are defined as follows:
 Good: RSRP ≥ -90 dBm.
 Fair: -110 dBm ≤ RSRP < -90 dBm.
 Poor: RSRP < -110 dBm.
2. If there is an area with poor signal quality, find out which PCIs have poor signal
and thus cause weak coverage and then comparing the PCI for RSRP distribution
diagram one by one.

Resolving Weak Coverage Problem

 Analyze geographical environments and check the receive levels of adjacent eNodeBs.
 Analyze the EIRP of each sector based on parameter configurations and ensure EIRPs
can reach maximum values if possible.
 Increase pilot power.
 Adjust antenna azimuths and tilts, increase antenna height, and use high-gain antennas.
 Deploy new eNodeBs if coverage hole problems cannot be resolved by adjusting
antennas. Note: Increasing coverage may lead to co-channel and adjacent-channel
interference.
 Use RRUs, indoor distribution systems, leaky feeders, and directional antennas to
resolve the problem with blind spots in elevator shafts, tunnels, underground garages or
basements, and high buildings.
 Analyze the impact of scenarios and terrains on coverage.

44
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

2.2.3.1.2 Cross Coverage

Cross coverage means that the coverage scope of an eNodeB exceeds the planned area and
generates discontinuous dominant areas in the coverage scope of other eNodeBs. For example,
if the height of a site is much higher than the average height of surrounding buildings, its transmit
signals propagate far along hills or roads and form dominant coverage in the coverage scope
of other eNodeBs. This is an “island” phenomenon. If a call is connected to an island that is far
away from an eNodeB but is still served by the eNodeB, and cells around the island are not
configured as neighboring cells of the current cell when cell handover parameters are
configured, call drops may occur immediately once UEs leave the island. If neighboring cells
are configured but the island is excessively small, call drops may also occur because UEs are
not promptly handed over. In addition, cross coverage occurs on two sides of a bay because a
short distance between the two sides. Therefore, eNodeBs on two sides of a bay must be
specifically designed.

There is no absolute discrimination between cross coverage and weak coverage. If the PCI of
an area has poor signal quality, the PCI of a faraway area becomes a PCI of the area
aforementioned due to cross coverage. It is reasonable to judge this phenomenon as a result of
either cross coverage or weak coverage or both of them.

Resolving Cross Coverage Problem

 Adjust antenna azimuths properly so that the direction of the main lobe slightly obliques
from the direction of a street. This reduces excessively far coverage by electric waves
because of reflection from buildings on two sides of the street.
 Adjust antenna tilts or replace antennas with large-tilt antennas while ensuring proper
antenna azimuths. Tilt adjustment is the most effective approach to control coverage.
Tilts are classified into electrical tilts and mechanical tilts. Electrical tilts are
preferentially adjusted if possible.
 Decrease the antenna height for a high site.
 Decrease transmit power of carriers when cell performance is not affected.

2.2.3.1.3 Lack of dominant cell

In an area without a dominant cell, the receive level of the serving cell is similar to the receive
levels of its neighboring cells and the receive levels of downlink signals between different cells
are close to cell reselection thresholds. Receive levels in an area without a dominant cell are
also unsatisfactory. The SINR of the serving cell becomes unstable because of frequency reuse,
and even receive quality becomes unsatisfactory. In this situation, a dominant cell is frequently
reselected and changed in idle mode. As a result, frequent handovers or service drops occur
on UEs in connected mode because of poor signal quality. An area without a dominant cell can
also be regarded as a weak coverage area.

45
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

Resolving Lack of Dominant cell Problem

 Determine cells covering an area without a dominant cell during network planning, and
adjust antenna tilts and azimuths to increase coverage by a cell with strong signals and
decrease coverage of other cells with weak signals.
 Adjust engineering parameters of a cell that can optimally cover the area as required.

2.2.3.1.4 Imbalance between Uplink and Downlink

When UE transmit power is less than eNodeB transmit power, UEs in idle mode may receive
eNodeB signals and successfully register in cells. However, the eNodeB cannot receive uplink
signals because of limited power when UEs perform random access or upload data. In this
situation, the uplink coverage distance is less than the downlink coverage distance. Imbalance
between uplink and downlink involves limited uplink or downlink coverage. In limited uplink
coverage, UE transmit power reaches its maximum but still cannot meet the requirement for
uplink BLERs. In limited downlink coverage, the downlink DCH transmit code power reaches its
maximum but still cannot meet the requirement for the downlink BLER. Imbalance between
uplink and downlink leads to service drops. The most common cause is limited uplink coverage.

Resolving Imbalance between Uplink and Downlink Problem

 If no performance data is available for RF optimization, trace a single user in the OMC
equipment room to obtain uplink measurement reports on the Uu interface, and then
analyze the measurement reports and drive test files.
 If performance data is available, check each carrier in each cell for imbalance between
uplink and downlink based on uplink and downlink balance measurements.
 If uplink interference leads to imbalance between uplink and downlink, monitor eNodeB
alarms to check for interference.

Check whether equipment works properly and whether alarms are generated if imbalance
between uplink and downlink is caused by other factors, for example, uplink and downlink gains
of repeaters and trunk amplifiers are set incorrectly, the antenna system for receive diversity is
faulty when reception and transmission are separated, or power amplifiers are faulty. If
equipment works properly or alarms are generated, take measures such as replacement,
isolation, and adjustment.

2.2.3.2 Pilot Pollution

Simply speaking, when the number of strong cells exceeds the active set size, there is “pilot
pollution” in the area. Typically the active set size is 3, so if there are more than 3 strong cells
then there is pilot pollution. Definition of “strong cell”: pilots within the handover window size
from the strongest cell. Typical handover window size is between 4 to 6dB. For example, if there

46
 Chapter IV | LTE Planning and optimization

are more than 2 cells (besides the strongest cell) within 4dB of the strongest cell then there is
pilot pollution.

Summary
In this chapter we presented the planning process of an LTE network, detailing the optimization
part. The optimization process begins with test preparation including the objectives
establishment , material preparation and determination of the test route, in purpose to collect
data through drive test, in order to analyze and solve problems, when the collected KPIs doesn't
meet the required KPIs, by making actual adjustments in the network.

So in the next chapter, we will take two cases and solve them by going through the optimization
process discussed above.

47
 Chapter V | Application Part

In our application part, we will focus on two parameters, which are widely renowned by the end
user, the two parameters are coverage and throughput.

1. Coverage Troubleshooting
The customer received a complaint from a VIP User about losing the LTE signal and not being
able to connect to the network as usual, the customer sent us a report to check the problem and
provide a suitable solution. The company assigned the Radio Network Optimizing team to the
case.

1- To verify that the problem is due to the customer’s part not the user, we start off by
sending a drive testing team to the area to verify the existence of the problem.

Figure 27. GENEX- probe interface

48
 Chapter V | Application Part

2- From the drive test we have seen that the coverage is in fact lost for the user in question
and certain other users in the same area as our main user, however the coverage isn’t
lost for any of the users in the 2 remaining sectors which means a problem with the
sector in question.

3- we must now refer to the coverage problem flowchart to figure out how to deal with the
problem:

Figure 28. Coverage troubleshooting process

49
 Chapter V | Application Part

The position of the subscriber is determined using GPS coordinates:

Figure 29. Arial view of subscriber location

We will now consult the drive test data serving PCI:

Figure 30. Serving PCI before optimization

50
 Chapter V | Application Part

the results show only 2 different serving PCIs corresponding with two of the site’s cells

Now for the serving RSRP:

Figure 31. RSRP level before optimization

The serving RSRP level show a very low RSRP level near the complaint area suggesting that the
users near this area are connected to different cells than already planned, and the low RSRP
means they’re on the secondary lobes of the two remaining cells.

4- After a close physical verification of the site in question we noticed a new urban
obstacle newly constructed that interrupted the direct line of sight of the antenna
responsible for the cell in question

5- We need to go back to Unet (planning software used by Huawei) and optimize our link in
a way to recover the lost coverage without compromising the already covered users

51
 Chapter V | Application Part

Figure 32. Unet prediction correction

6- After applying a height adjustment to the site to avoid the obstacle and a mechanical
down-tilt and also an electrical down-tilt we avoided the obstacle and we now have
recovered and resolved the coverage problem without any additional cost to the
company.

7- We need to verify that the solution worked by performing another drive test after the
solution is applied

52
 Chapter V | Application Part

Figure 33. RSRP level after optimization

Figure 34. Serving PCI after optimization

8- The drive test shows that the coverage problem is now resolved.

53
 Chapter V | Application Part

2. Throughput Troubleshooting
Before starting the second part of our application, we need to define some parameters.

2.1 Channel Quality Indicator

The CQI plays a central role in LTE scheduling and link adaptation. The CQI is computed at the
UE receiver for each code-word on either the full transmission bandwidth configuration
(wideband CQI) or on groups of resource blocks known as sub-bands. The CQI reflects the level
of noise and interference experienced by the receiver on a particular portion of the channel. It
can be thought of as a measure of signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) but in fact is
coded in terms of the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) required for a particular error-rate
probability. Moreover, some compression is used when reporting sub-band CQI using
differential encoding.

Depending on the reporting mode (all sub-bands, wideband, or preferred sub-bands) the CQI is
used by the eNB as an input to the process for scheduling traffic. When the eNB receives the
indices of those sub-bands in which the receiver experiences the highest CQI, it can allocate
those sub-bands to efficiently schedule user transmissions. This technique is called frequency
selective scheduling. The table below shows the choice of the modulation and the coding rate
based on the CQI index:

CQI index Modulation Coding rate

1 QPSK 78
2 QPSK 120
3 QPSK 193
4 QPSK 308
5 QPSK 449
6 QPSK 602
7 16 QAM 378
8 16 QAM 490
9 16 QAM 616
10 64 QAM 466
11 64 QAM 567
12 64 QAM 666
13 64 QAM 772
14 64 QAM 873
15 64 QAM 948
Table 3. CQI index

54
 Chapter V | Application Part

2.2 BLER “Block Error Rate”

A Block Error Ratio is defined as the ratio of the number of erroneous blocks received to the
total number of blocks sent. An erroneous block is defined as a Transport Block, the cyclic
redundancy check (CRC) of which is wrong. The 3GPP sets that the BLER must be smaller than
10% (BLER ≤ 10%).

2.3 Transmission Mode

LTE specifies the way the downlink radio channel will be used by defining a set of transmission
modes, there are nine different modes, all of which have different benefits in different use cases
depending on the radio environment.

Transmission Description Primary benefit

mode
1 Basic SIMO Basic single
transmit antenna
operation
2 Transmit Diversity Improved signal
robustness in
low power/SINR
conditions
3 Open-loop Potential for
SU-MIMO Increased
throughput in good
conditions
4 Closed-loop Potential for
SU-MIMO Increased
throughput in good
conditions
5 MU-MIMO Improved cell
spectral efficiency
6 Closed loop Rank 1 Improved signal
beamsteering robustness
7 UE-specific RS Improved signal
beamforming robustness with
non-codebook
pre-coding
Table 4. TM modes

55
 Chapter V | Application Part

2.4 Throughput
As throughput is a very important aspect of the LTE air interface assessment it has no real time
formula to calculate it, it is based on the above parameters directly, however the theoretical
throughput of the system can be calculated like follows:

We can calculate the maximum data rate at the physical layer. The data rate always depends
on the channel bandwidth. For example, in case of 5 MHz channel bandwidth, 300
subcarriers are used.

 For a perfect idle condition 64 QAM can be used. That means each symbol is now
allowed to carry 6 bits.
 So the total bits carried by 300 subcarriers for the duration of a symbol is 300 X 6 = 1800
bits.
 Again 1 symbol is of 71.4 microseconds for LTE. So the data rate is 1800 / 71.4 = 25.2
Mbps.
 So the formula for calculating maximum data rate at physical layer is:
(Number of subcarriers X 6) / 71.4 microseconds
 For 10 MHz using the same formula the maximum data rate in downlink is 50.4 Mbps and
for 20 MHz it is 100.8 Mbps

However this is the theoretical value and is never obtained in real time due to propagation loss,
cell congestion, and distance from cell.

In this application the aim is to analyze the low downlink throughput in a cell, which is a
service integrity KPI, for that the analysis process that we are going to use is shown in the
following figure:

56
 Chapter V | Application Part

Figure 35. Throughput troubleshooting process

57
 Chapter V | Application Part

1. Identify the cell with low Downlink throughput: By using the GENEX-Assistant, we can
highlight the cell which has the low throughput according to the legend. In our case the
low throughput is in the range of 1 Mbps – 5 Mbps which is low.

Figure 36. DL Throughput on map

Figure 37. DL Throughput on histogram

58
 Chapter V | Application Part

Figure 38. DL Throughput on histogram of the cell in question

2. Check the SINR parameter. According to the legend, the SINR in the location in
question is good, which means that there is not interference on the frequency used in
the cell.

Figure 39. SINR

3. Identify the downlink interference: Cells with downlink interference are those whose CQI
values are low. In our case the CQI value is high as shown in the figure below.

59
 Chapter V | Application Part

Figure 40. CQI

4. Display a BLER distribution histogram in the cell identified, the BLER must be smaller
than 10% which is in fact the case as shown in the figure below.

Figure 41. BLER

5. Identify the transmission mode of the cell, in our case the transmission mode used is
TM3 which is suitable.

60
 Chapter V | Application Part

Figure 42. Transmission mode

6. Analyze the maximum number of RRC connections supported per cell to see if the active
users can access to the network. If the maximum number of RRC connections active per
cell is close or equal to the maximum number of RRC connections supported, then. The
cause for low throughput is load.

Figure 43. RRC Connection

Figure 44. RRC Connection success

7. Check the capacity of the cell by investigating on the Downlink Physical Resources
Blocks. Figure 37 shows the cell DL Throughput in relation with DL PRB Usage rate, we
can note that there is a proportional relationship between Cell DL throughput and the DL
PRB.

61
 Chapter V | Application Part

Figure 38 shows the relationship between User cell Throughput and the DL PRB Usage
rate, we can note in the rush hours, the capacity of the cell is maximum (100 PRB), so
from this point we can deduce that there is a problem with the capacity.

Figure 46. Cell DL Throughput

Figure 45. User DL Throughput

Solution: The problem of the low throughput can be solved by adding a new site in the
location in question.

62
The LTE technology is nothing less than ground breaking. The advancements that have been
made from 3G to LTE alone are mind blowing. With the data processing speed being increased
to at least 100 Mbit/sec the possibilities are limitless in the wireless communication world.
Everything with this new technology has been brought to a new standard. The security, with the
complete IP-based solutions allows the user to use the full capability of the phone as well as
feel completely secure at the same time, this is one of the most vital aspects that has been
upgraded from the previous wireless communication technologies, also the enhanced coverage
and user adaptation schemes that mostly rely on the LTE’s efficient air interface protocols and
the multipath avoidance using MIMO also the link adaptation techniques that change the
modulation and coding scheme based on the location of the subscriber, Even though the
hardware and coverage areas aren’t up to par yet though, isn’t that big of a setback. The
technology is still considered brand new and has been widely improved in the post 8 releases
to very efficient new features allowing the data rate to go very high compared to standard LTE
and the optimization process to go smoother considering that the ENodeB is intelligent enough
to do all the work and the legacy fallback towards it’s frequency bands.

63
1G First Generation
2G First Generation
3G First Generation
3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project
4G First Generation
ANR Automated Neighbor Relations
BER Bit Error Rate
CAPEX Capital expenditure
CN Core Network
CP Cyclic Prefix
CQI Channel Quality Indicator
CW Continuous wave
DL Downlink
DT Drive Test
E-ARFCN Evolved- Absolute Radio-Frequency Channel Number
EIRP Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power
eNodeB Evolved NodeB
EPC Evolved Packet Core
EPS Evolved Packet System
E-UTRAN Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
FDD Frequency Division Duplex
FDM Frequency Division Multiplexing
FTP File Transfer Protocol
Gbps Giga bit per second
GBR Guaranteed Bit Rate
GPS Global Positioning System
HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat request
HSPA High Speed Packet Access
HSS Home Subscriber Server
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
IFFT Inverse FFT

64
IP Internet Protocol
ISI Inter symbol Interference
KPI Key Performance Indicators
LTE Long Term Evolution
MAC Medium Access Control
Mbps Mega bit per second
MCS Modulation and coding schemes
MIB Master Information Block
MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output
MME Mobility Management Equipment
MU-MIMO Multiple User MIMO
NACK Negative Acknowledgement
NAS Non Access Stratum
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OMC Operations and Maintenance Center
OPEX Operating Expense
PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio
PCEF Policy Control Enforcement Function
PCI Physical Cell Identity
PCRF Policy Control and Charging Rules Function
PDCP Packet Data Convergence Protocol
P-GW PDN Gateway
PHY Physical
PMI Pre-coding Matrix Indicator
PRB Physical Resource Blocks
QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QCI QoS class Identifier
QoS Quality of service
QPSK Quadrature phase key shifting
RF Radio Frequency
RLC Radio Link Control
RNC Radio Network Controller
ROHC Robust Header Compression
RRC Radio Resource Control
RRM Radio Resource Management
RS Reference Signals
RSRP Reference signal received power
RSRQ Reference Signal Receive Quality
RSSI Received signal strength indicator
SAE System Architecture Evolution
SC – FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access
65
SDU Service Data Units
S-GW Serving Gateway
SIB System Information Block
SINR Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio
SMS Short Message Service
SU-MIMO Single User MIMO
TB Transport Block
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
TDD Time Division Duplex
TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
TE Terminal Equipment
UE User Equipment
UICC Universal Integrated Circuit Card
UL Uplink
USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module
VIC Very Important Cell
VIP Very Important Person
VOIP Voice Over IP

66
 1. Moray Rumney, “LTE and the Evolution 4G Wireless”, Wiley and Agilent Technologies,
2013.
2. Harri Holma and Antti Toskala, “LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA Based Radio
Access, Wiley, 2009.
3. Tara Ali-Yahiya, “Understanding LTE and its Performance”, Springer, 2011.
4. Borko Furht and Syed A. Ahson, “LONG TERM EVOLUTION 3GPP LTE Radio and Cellular
Technology”, CRC Press, 2009.
5. Farooq Khan, “Cambridge LTE for 4G Mobile Broadband”, Cambridge University Press,
April 2009.
6. Ayman Elnashar, Mohamed A. El-saidny and Mahmoud R. Sherif, “DESIGN,
DEPLOYMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF 4G-LTE NETWORK A PRACTICAL APPROACH”,
Wiley & Sons, 2014.
7. Christopher Cox, “AN INTRODUCTION TO LTE, LTE, LTE-Advanced, SAE and 4G Mobile
Communications”, Wiley & Sons, 2012.
8. Ajay R. Mishra, “Fundamentals of Cellular Network Planning and Optimization”, John
Wiley & Sons, 2004.
9. “LTE RF Optimization Guide V1.0”, Huawei Technologies, 5/5/2012.
10. Amr Khaled.M, Islam Ashraf.F and al, “LTE Planning Tool”, Ain Shams University, 2013.

67