UNIT – IV

Evolution of Cellular Technologies: First generation cellular systems,

2G Digital cellular systems, 3G Broadband wireless systems, Beyond
3G: HSPA+, WiMAX, and LTE.

LTE: Demand drivers for LTE, Key requirements of LTE design, LTE
Network architecture, Future of mobile broadband-Beyond LTE.
abha Ghosh, Jan Zhang, Jefferey Andrews, Riaz Mohammed, Fundamentals of LTE, Pearson Education, 2011.

Source: Arunabha Ghosh, Jan Zhang, Jefferey Andrews, Riaz Mohammed, Fundamentals of LTE, Pearson Education, 2011.
1. First Generation (1G) Cellular Systems
• The United States, Japan, and parts of Europe led the development of the first
generation of cellular wireless systems.
• The first generation systems were characterized by their analog modulation
schemes and were designed primarily for delivering voice services.
• Japan’s Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company (NTT) implemented the
world’s first commercial cellular system in 1979.
• Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT-400) system, deployed in Europe in 1981, was
the first system that supported automatic handover and international
roaming.
• NMT-400 was deployed in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Austria, and
Spain.
• Most NMT-400 subscribers used car phones that transmitted up to 15 watts of
power.
• The more successful first-generation systems were:
• AMPS (Advanced Mobile Phone Service) in the United States
• European Total Access Communication Systems (ETACS) in Europe
• NTACS in Japan.
• The AMPS system was built on a 30kHz channel size, whereas ETACS and NTACS
used 25kHz and 12.5kHz, respectively.
• AMPS was developed by AT&T Bell Labs in the late 1970s and was first deployed
commercially in 1983 in Chicago and its nearby suburbs.
• Besides the United States, AMPS was deployed in South America, Asia, and North
America.
• AMPS systems used Frequency Modulation (FM) for the transmission of analog
voice and Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) for the control channel.
2. The Second Generation (2G) Digital Cellular Systems
• Improvements in processing abilities enabled the development of 2G wireless
systems.
• 2G systems were primarily designed for the voice services using digital
modulation.
• The performance was improved in 2G systems in terms of:
• System capacity was improved through:
• the use of spectrally efficient digital speech codecs,
• Multiplexing several users on the same frequency channel via time division or
code division multiplexing techniques,
• frequency re-use enabled by better error performance of digital modulation,
coding, and equalization techniques, which reduced the required carrier-to-
interference ratio from 18dB to just a few dB.
• Voice quality was also improved through the use of good speech codecs and robust
link level signal processing.
• It uses simple encryption to provide a measure of security against eavesdropping and
fraud.
• 2G systems also enabled new applications:
• Short Messaging Service (SMS). SMS was first deployed in Europe in 1991, and
quickly became a popular conversational tool.
• Low data rate wireless data applications (like delivery of news, stock quotes,
weather, and directions, etc.

• Original 2G systems supported circuit switched as well as packet switched data

services.
• Examples of 2G digital cellular systems include:
• Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM): the most widely deployed
system
• IS-95 CDMA: deployed in North America and parts of Asia
• IS-136 TDMA systems.
• Personal Handyphone System (PHS): deployed in China, Japan, Taiwan, and
some other Asian countries

• IS-54 (later enhanced to IS-136) was initially deployed in North America but was
later discontinued and replaced mostly by GSM.
• IS-136 was a TDMA-based system that was designed as a digital evolution of
AMPS using 30kHz channels.
• PHS is a cordless telephone system like the Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone
(DECT) system but with capability to handover from one cell to another, and
operated in the 1880–1930MHz frequency band.
2.1. GSM and Its Evolution
• In 1982, many European countries came together to develop and standardize a
pan-European system for mobile services.
• The group was called the Groupe Sp´ecial Mobile (GSM) and their main aim
was to develop a system that could deliver inexpensive wireless voice services
across all of Europe.
• By 1989, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) took
over the development of the GSM standard and the first version, called GSM
Phase I, was released in 1990.
• GSM quickly gained acceptance beyond Europe and the standard was
appropriately renamed as the Global System for Mobile Communications.
• The GSM air-interface is based on a TDMA scheme where eight users are
multiplexed on a single 200kHz wide frequency channel by assigning different
time slots to each user.
• GSM employed Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK- variant of FSK)
modulation technique due to its constant envelope providing good power and
spectral efficiency characteristics.
• Besides voice and SMS, the original GSM standard also supported circuit-switched
data at 9.6kbps.
• By the mid-1990s, ETSI introduced the GSM Packet Radio Systems (GPRS-General
Packet Radio Service) as an evolutionary step for GSM systems toward higher
data rates.
• GPRS and GSM systems share the same frequency bands, time slots, and signaling
links.
• GPRS defined four different channel coding schemes supporting 8kbps to 20kbps
per slot.
• The original GSM architecture had two sub-components:
I. Base Station Subsystem (BSS): This is comprised of the base-station
transceiver (BTS) units that the mobile stations (MS) connect with over the
air-interface and the base station controller (BSC), which manages and
aggregates traffic from several BTSs for transport to the switching core,
and manages mobility across BTSs connected directly to them.

II. Network Switching Sub-system (NSS): This is comprised of the Mobile

Switching Center (MSC) and subscriber data bases. The MSC provides the
required switching to connect the calling party with the called party and is
interconnected with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The
MSC uses the Home Location Register (HLR) and Visitor Location Register
(VLR) to determine the location of mobile subscribers for call control
purposes.
• A GSM system may be upgraded to a GPRS system by introducing new
elements, such as the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and Gateway GPRS
Support Node (GGSN), and upgrading existing network elements such as the
BTS with a packet control unit (PCU) for handling data.
• SGSN provides location and mobility management and may be thought of as
the packet data equivalent of MSC.
• GGSN provides the IP access router functionality and connects the GPRS
network to the Internet and other IP networks.
• The GSM standard got a further boost in its data handling capabilities with the
introduction of Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution, or EDGE, in the 1997.
• EDGE added support for 8PSK modulation to boost the data rate. This allowed
for a maximum per slot data rate of 59.2kbps—a three-fold increase from
GPRS speeds.
• Typical user rates for EDGE varied from 80 to 120kbps.
2.2. CDMA (IS-95) and Its Evolution

• In 1989, Qualcomm proposed Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) as a

more efficient, higher quality wireless technology and demonstrated a
system implementation of it.
• In 1993, Qualcomm was able to get the Telecommunications Industry
Association (TIA) to adopt their proposal as an IS-95 standard providing an
alternative to the IS-54 TDMA standard.
• Unlike in other digital wireless systems like GSM, in an IS-95 CDMA system
multiple users share the same frequency channel at the same time.
• Instead of time-slicing multiple users in a given frequency channel, each user
is assigned a different orthogonal spreading code that is used to separate
their signals at the receiver.
• Codes are applied by multiplying user data symbols by a much higher rate
code sequence, which leads to spreading the occupied bandwidth.
• IS-95 CDMA uses a 1.25MHz bandwidth to transmit a 9.2kbps or lower voice
signal.
• Spreading signals over a larger bandwidth provides better immunity to
multipath fading and interference.
• Advantages of IS-95 CDMA systems over TDMA systems for voice.
i. It enabled universal frequency reuse—that is, every cell can use the same
frequency channel—which simplified frequency planning and provided
increased capacity.
ii. It used RAKE receivers that effectively combined multi-path signals to
produce a stronger signal thereby reducing the required transmitter
power.
iii. It improved handoff performance by enabling soft-handoff, where a
mobile can make a connection to a new base station before
disconnecting from its current base station; this is possible since all base
stations use the same frequency.
iv. It implemented voice activity detection to turn off transmissions during
silent periods, thereby reducing the overall interference level.
• To keep the interference below and improve system capacity, IS-95
implements fast (800Hz on uplink) and effective power control mechanisms.
• IS-95 CDMA technology offered better coverage and capacity than TDMA.
• In addition to voice, the original (IS-95A) system supported a single
dedicated data channel at 9.6kbps.
3. 3G Broadband Wireless Systems
• 2G digital cellular systems provided improved voice quality, and support for
data applications such as Internet access with low-data rate and limited
capacity.
• Third generation (3G) systems providing much higher data rates, significant
increase in voice capacity, and supporting advanced services and
applications, including multimedia (voice telephony and interactive games,
to Web browsing, e-mail, and streaming multimedia applications).
• Work on 3G began in the early 1990s when the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) began invitation for proposals for 3G
systems (known as IMT-2000) and started identifying spectrum for it.
• The ITU laid out the following data rate requirements as the criterion for
IMT-2000:
i. 2Mbps in fixed or in building environments
ii. 384kbps in pedestrian or urban environments
iii. 144kbps in wide area vehicular environments
• So far, the ITU has accepted and approved the following terrestrial radio interfaces for IMT-
2000:
• IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread (IMT-DS): This standard is known as W-CDMA and was
proposed as the air-interface for the Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS) solution
proposed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as the evolution of GSM
systems.
• IMT-2000 CDMA Multi-carrier (IMT-MC): This standard was proposed by the 3GPP2
organization and represents an evolution of the IS-95 systems. They are more commonly
known as IX-EV-DO.
• IMT-2000 CDMA TDD (IMT-TC): This standard is also proposed by 3GPP for operation in
unpaired spectrum using Time Division Duplexing technology. It is also known as UMTS-
TDD or TD-SCDMA (Time Division, Synchronous CDMA) and is mostly used in China.
• IMT-2000 TDMA Single Carrier (IMT-SC): This standard was proposed by the Universal
Wireless Consortium in the United States as a lower-cost evolution to 3G. Also called
UWC-136, this is essentially the EDGE standard developed by 3GPP.
• IMT-2000 FDMA/TDMA (IMT-FT): The Digital European Cordless Telephone (DECT)
standard was also accepted as an IMT-2000 air-interface, primarily for indoor and pico-
cell applications.
• IMT-2000 IP-OFDMA: This standard, more commonly known as WiMAX or IEEE 802.16e,
was accepted by the ITU as a sixth air-interface in 2007.
3.1 CDMA 2000 and EV-DO
• The 3G evolution of IS-95 standard was called CDMA2000 (CDMA2000-1X)
standardized by 3GPP2 in 1999.
• The data capabilities were enhanced by adding separate logical channels
termed as supplemental channels.
• Each link can support a single fundamental channel at 9.6kbps and multiple
supplemental channels up to 307kbps. This is less than the 3G requirements,
and for this reason CDMA2000-1X refer to as a 2.5G system.
• The data rate can be increased up to 2Mbps through the use of multiple
carriers as in CDMA2000-3X.
• In order to achieve higher data rates up to 2Mbps as well as improve overall
system throughput for packet data scenarios, the CDMA2000-1X standard
was also evolved to CDMA2000-1X-EVDO (EVolution, Data Only: no support
for voice or other real time services).
• EV-DO is designed to provide downlink rates up to 2.4Mbps and uplink rates
up to 153kbps.

• The system supports QPSK and 16QAM modulation.

• Depending on the modulation and coding scheme chosen, user rates can
vary from 38.4kbps to 2457.6kbps.

• EV-DO has the capability to adaptively change the modulation and coding
based on link conditions.
3.2 UMTS WCDMA
• Universal Mobile Telephone Service (UMTS) was originally developed by
ETSI as the 3G system for IMT-2000 based on the evolution of GSM.

• UMTS includes (1) a core network (CN) that provides switching, routing,
and subscriber management; (2) the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
Network (UTRAN); and (3) the User Equipment (UE).

• The basic architecture is based on and backward compatible with the

GSM/GPRS architecture.

• While UMTS retains the basic architecture of GSM/GPRS networks, the 3G

air-interface called Wide-band CDMA (W-CDMA).

• It is a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) CDMA system where user

data is multiplied with pseudo-random codes that provide channelization,
synchronization, and scrambling.
• W-CDMA is specified for both FDD and TDD operations.

• The system operates on a larger 5MHz bandwidth, capable of supporting

over 100 simultaneous voice calls, and providing peak data rates from 384
to 2048kbps.

• The distinguishing features of W-CDMA when compared to CDMA2000

include:
(1) support for multi-code use by a single user to increase data rate,

(2) wider choice of spreading factors and data rates, and

(3) use of Alamouti space-time coding for transmit diversity.

3.3. High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA)
• HSPA, is the term used to refer to the combination of two key
enhancements by 3GPP to UMTS-WCDMA:
i. High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) introduced in
Release 5 in 2002 and
ii. High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) introduced in Release 6
in 2004.
• HSDPA was first deployed by AT&T in late 2005 and quickly became
widely deployed around the world.

• HSDPA defined a new downlink transport channel called High-Speed

Downlink Shared Channel (HS-DSCH) capable of providing up to
14.4Mbps peak theoretical throughput.

• HSDPA has 16 Walsh codes, 15 of which are used for user traffic.
• HSPA introduced a number of new advanced techniques to realize the high throughput
and capacity. These include:
i. Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC): HSDPA supports QPSK and 16QAM
modulation and rate 1/4 through rate 1 coding. AMC or link adaptation involves
varying the modulation and coding scheme on a per user and per frame basis
depending on instantaneous downlink channel quality. The idea is to maximize
the throughput and system capacity by assigning each user link with the highest
modulation and coding technique.
ii. Fast Dynamic Scheduling: HSDPA systems use a dynamic scheduler that attempts
to exploit the diversity of channel conditions experienced by different users at
different times. A dynamic scheduler could allocate all the cell capacity to a single
user for a very short time when the conditions are favorable.
iii. Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (H-ARQ): Hybrid-ARQ is an improved
retransmission technique, where multiple erroneous retransmissions can be soft-
combined to effectively recover from errors more quickly. This is referred to as
chase combining. HSDPA also supports incremental redundancy where each
subsequent retransmission provides additional error-correction coding in order to
improve the chances of error-free reception.
• HSUPA introduced a new uplink channel called the Enhanced Dedicated
Channel (E-DCH) to UMTS-WCDMA.

• HSUPA is capable of supporting up to 5.8Mbps peak uplink throughput,

with practical deployments offering typical user throughput in the
500kbps–1Mbps range.

• These higher uplink rates and low latency enable applications such as VoIP,
uploading pictures and videos, and sending large e-mails.
4. Beyond 3G: HSPA+, WiMAX, and LTE

• As of 2009, mobile operators around the world are planning their next step
in the evolution of their networks.

• Most operators would choose from one of the following three options:

i. Deploy HSPA and its evolutionary technologies (Ex. HSPA+)

ii. Deploy WiMAX for broadband data.

iii. Deploy LTE as soon as possible.

4.1 HSPA+
• Release 7 HSPA, sometimes referred to as HSPA+, contains a number of
additional features that improve the system capacity (including voice
capacity), end-user throughput, and latency.
• The key technical enhancements included in HSPA+ are:
i. Higher-order modulation and MIMO to achieve higher peak rates:
• It introduces 64QAM as an additional downlink (BS to MS)
modulation scheme to the existing QPSK and 16QAM in Release 6
HSPA. For the uplink (MS to BS) , 16QAM is included in addition to
the dual BPSK scheme.
• Use of 64QAM and 16QAM pushes the peak downlink and uplink
rates to 21.1Mbps and 11.5Mbps, respectively.
• Uses two transmit antennas in the base station and two receive
antennas in the mobile terminal for MIMO (2x2 MIMO).
• The use of 2 × 2 MIMO spatial multiplexing increases the peak
downlink theoretical rate to 28Mbps.
ii. Dual-carrier downlink operation:
• Using this approach doubles the peak data rate from 21Mbps to
42Mbps as well as doubles the average data rate and substantially
increases the overall cell capacity.

iii. Continuous packet connectivity for improved battery life:

• HSPA+ allows the uplink transmission to be discontinuous such that
the mobile transmitter can be completely turned off when there is no
data transmission.
• Discontinuous transmission and reception are very useful power-
saving techniques for bursty data applications such as Web browsing
(typically, up to 50%).
• Discontinuous uplink transmissions also reduce interference and hence
increase capacity.
iv. Advanced mobile receivers for data rate and capacity enhancement:
• Two antenna chip equalizer is also defined in addition to the one
antenna chip equalizer and two-antenna RAKE receivers defined in
Release 6 HSPA.
• The antenna diversity improves signal-to-noise ratio and the chip
equalizer removes intra-cell interference; together allows for higher
throughput transmissions in the downlink and hence improves capacity.

v. Flexible RLC and MAC segmentation:

• HSPA+ now allows the RLC block size to be flexible and can be as large as
1,500 bytes.
• Segmentation can be done by the MAC layer based on physical layer
requirements.
• All these lead to improved data throughput and peak rates.
vi. Single frequency network for improved multi-cast and broadcast:
• HSPA+ allows network synchronization across base stations and the use
of same scrambling codes for multi-cast broadcast (MBMS)
transmissions from multiple base stations.
• This realizes a single frequency network (SFN) for multi-cast broadcast
services.
• Operating in SFN mode allows users at the cell-edge to combine the
signals from multiple cells coherently and using an equalizer, eliminate
any time-dispersion impacts.
4.2. Mobile WiMAX
• In 1998, the IEEE formed a group called 802.16 to develop a standard called
a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN).
• The group first produced a standard for fixed wireless applications in 2001
and later enhanced it to support mobility.
• The revised standard, called IEEE 802.16e, was completed in 2005 and is
often referred to as Mobile WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for
Microwave Access).
• In 2007, WiMAX was approved by ITU as an IMT-2000 terrestrial radio
interface option called IP-OFDMA.
• The WiMAX network is designed using IP protocols, and does not offer
circuit-switched voice telephony; voice services, however, can be provided
using the VoIP (voice over IP).
Features of WiMAX:
i. Very High Peak Data Rates:
• Peak physical layer (PHY) data rates are achieved when using 64QAM
modulation with rate ¾ error correction coding.
• Peak physical layer data rate can be as high as 74Mbps when using a
20MHz wide spectrum and 18Mbps when using a 5MHz spectrum.

ii. OFDM/OFDMA Based Physical Layer:

• The WiMAX PHY is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM).
• OFDM offers good resistance to multipath and allows WiMAX to operate
in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions even with large bandwidths.
• WiMAX also uses OFDMA as the multiple access technique, which allows
users to be multiplexed in both time and frequency in a dynamic manner.
iii. Scalable Bandwidth and Data Rate Support:
• WiMAX has a very scalable physical layer architecture that allows for the
data rate to scale easily with available channel bandwidth.
• This scalability is supported by OFDMA, where the FFT size may be
scaled based on the available channel bandwidth.
• For example, a WiMAX system may use 128-, 512-, or 1048-bit FFTs
based on whether the channel bandwidth is 1.25MHz, 5MHz, or 10MHz,
respectively.
• This scaling may be done dynamically, and supports user roaming across
different networks that may have varying bandwidth allocations.

iv. Support for TDD and FDD:

• IEEE 802.16e-2005 supports both TDD and FDD.
• TDD has been attractive to WiMAX operators since it offers flexibility in
choosing uplink-to-downlink data rate ratios.
v. Flexible and Dynamic Per User Resource Allocation:
• Both uplink and downlink resource allocation is controlled by a scheduler in the
base station.
• Capacity is shared among multiple users on a demand basis employing a burst TDM
multiplexing scheme.
• Multiplexing is additionally done in the frequency dimension, by allocating different
subsets of OFDM subcarriers to different users.
• Resources may be allocated in the spatial domain as well when using optional
advanced antenna systems (AAS).
• The standard allows for bandwidth resources to be allocated in time, frequency,
and space, and has a flexible mechanism to convey the resource allocation
information on a frame-by-frame basis.
vi. Robust Link Layer:
• WiMAX supports a number of modulation and forward error correction (FEC)
schemes, and supports adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) to maximize the
data rate on each link.
• For connections that require enhanced reliability, WiMAX supports automatic
retransmissions (ARQ) at the link layer and optionally supports Hybrid-ARQ as well.
vii. Support for Advanced Antenna Techniques:
• The WiMAX allows the use of multiple antenna techniques such as
beamforming, space-time coding, and spatial multiplexing.
• These schemes can be used to improve the overall system capacity and
spectral efficiency by deploying multiple antennas at the transmitter
and/or the receiver.

viii. IP-Based Architecture:

• The WiMAX Forum has defined a reference network architecture that is
based on an all-IP platform.
• All end-to-end services are delivered over an IP architecture relying on IP
protocols for end-to-end transport, QoS, session management, security,
and mobility.
• Reliance on IP allows WiMAX to ride the declining cost curves of IP
processing, facilitate easy convergence with other networks, and exploit
the rich application development ecosystem that exists for IP.
4.3. Comparison of HSPA+ and WiMAX to LTE
• HSPA+ and LTE are both developed by 3GPP as an evolution to the currently deployed
GSM/UMTS networks, WiMAX was developed independently by the IEEE.
• Most HSPA+ and LTE are operating in bands below 2.1GHz, WiMAX are likely to be in
the 2.3GHz, 2.6GHz, and 3.5GHz frequency bands.
• HSPA+ only supports FDD, WiMAX is mostly deployed in TDD mode and LTE supports
both FDD and TDD.
• Both LTE and WiMAX use OFDM/OFDMA while HSPA+ uses CDMA/TDMA.
• LTE uses a variation of OFDMA called Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple
Access (SC-FDMA) on the uplink. WiMAX uses OFDMA in both uplink and downlink.
• HSPA uses a fixed 5MHz bandwidth and WiMAX, LTE offer a flexible bandwidth
architecture supporting up to a maximum of 20MHz. This provide much higher peak
rates in LTE and WiMAX when compared to HSPA+.
• All three standards support a variety of signal processing techniques to improve
performance and spectral efficiency. Hybrid-ARQ retransmission schemes, dynamic
channel dependent scheduling, and multiantenna schemes such as transmit diversity,
beamforming, and spatial multiplexing are supported by HSPA+, LTE, and WiMAX.
 Table 1.5
Summary
Comparison of
HSPA+, WiMAX,
and LTE

Latency measures
the time it takes
for some data to
get to its
destination across
the network.
It is usually
measured as a
round trip delay -
the time taken for
information to get to
its destination and
back again
Summary of Evolution
of 3GPP Standards
5. Long Term Evolution (LTE)
• In telecommunications, Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless
broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on
the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies.
• It increases the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together
with core network improvements.
• Around 2005, two groups within 3GPP started work on developing a
standard to support the expected heavy growth in IP data traffic.
• The Radio Access Network (RAN) group initiated work on the Long Term
Evolution (LTE) project and the Systems Aspects group initiated work on the
Systems Architecture Evolution (SAE) project.
• The LTE group developed a new radio access network called Enhanced
UTRAN (E-UTRAN). The SAE group developed a new all IP packet core
network architecture called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
• Together, EUTRAN and EPC are formally called the Evolved Packet System
(EPS).
5.1. Demand Drivers for LTE
• The growth of the Internet over the past decades is the demand driver
for mobile broadband.

• The Internet today is the media of choice for all our information,
communication and entertainment needs.

• Three broad trends that together drive demand for mobile broadband
and make a compelling case for the development and deployment of
LTE.
i. Growth in high-bandwidth applications: such as music downloads,
video sharing, mobile video, and IPTV.
ii. Increase of smart mobile devices:
iii. Intense competition leading to flat revenues:
5.2. Key Requirements of LTE Design
i. Performance on Par with Wired Broadband
ii. Flexible Spectrum Usage: LTE supports a variety of channel bandwidths: 1.4, 3, 5, 10,
15, and 20MHz.
iii. Co-existence and Interworking with 3G Systems as well as Non-3GPP Systems (3GPP2
CDMA and WiMAX)
iv. Reducing Cost per Megabyte
• Support for lower-cost Ethernet-based backhaul networks
• Base stations with lower power and space requirements; could in many cases be put
inside existing base station cabinets or mounted beside them
• Support for self-configuring and self-optimizing network and technologies to reduce
installation and management cost
• A single IP packet core for voice and data
• A flat architecture with fewer network components and protocols
• Interworking with non-3GPP systems to drive toward one global standard to achieve
higher economies of scale
• Interworking with legacy systems to allow for cost-effective migration
• High-capacity, high-spectral efficiency air-interface
• Ability to deploy in existing spectrum and reuse cell sites and transmission equipment
Key Enabling Technologies and Features of LTE

1. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

2. SC-FDE and SC-FDMA (power efficient transmission scheme for the uplink)

3. Channel Dependent Multi-user Resource Scheduling

4. Multiantenna Techniques
i. Transmit diversity,
ii. Beamforming,
iii. Spatial multiplexing,
iv. Multi-user MIMO

5. IP-Based Flat Network Architecture: “Flat” here implies fewer nodes and a
less hierarchical structure for the network.
6. LTE Network Architecture
• The core network design presented in 3GPP Release 8 to support LTE is
called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

• EPC is designed to provide a high capacity, all IP, reduced latency, flat
architecture that dramatically reduces cost and supports advanced real-time
and media-rich services with enhanced quality of experience.

• It is designed not only to support new radio access networks such as LTE, but
also provide interworking with legacy 2G GERAN and 3G UTRAN networks
connected via SGSN.

• Functions provided by the EPC include access control, packet routing and
transfer, mobility management, security, radio resource management, and
network management.
• The EPC includes four new elements:

i. Serving Gateway (SGW), which terminates the interface toward the 3GPP
radio access networks;

ii. Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), which controls IP data services,
does routing, allocates IP addresses, enforces policy, and provides access
for non-3GPP access networks;

iii. Mobility Management Entity (MME), which supports user equipment

context and identity as well as authenticates and authorizes users;

iv. Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), which manages QoS aspects.
(i) Serving Gateway (SGW):

• The SGW acts as a termination point between the RAN and core network,
and manages user plane mobility.

• It serves as the mobility announcer when terminals move across areas

served by different eNode-B elements in E-UTRAN, as well as across other
3GPP radio networks such as GERAN and UTRAN.

• SGW does downlink packet buffering and initiation of network-triggered

service request procedures.

• Other functions include legal interception, packet routing and forwarding,

transport level packet marking in the uplink and the downlink, accounting
support for per user, and inter-operator charging.
(ii) Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW):

• The PGW acts as the termination point of the EPC toward other Packet
Data Networks (PDN) such as the Internet, private IP network, or the IMS
network providing end-user services.

• It serves as an announcer point for sessions toward external PDN and

provides functions such as user IP address allocation, policy enforcement,
packet filtering, and charging support.

• Policy enforcement includes operator-defined rules for resource

allocation to control data rate, QoS, and usage.

• Packet filtering functions include deep packet inspection for application

detection.
(iii) Mobility Management Entity (MME):

• The MME performs the signaling and control functions to manage the user terminal
access to network connections, assignment of network resources, and mobility
management function such as idle mode location tracking, paging, roaming, and
handovers.
• MME controls all control plane functions related to subscriber and session
management.
• The MME provides security functions such as providing temporary identities for
user terminals, interacting with Home Subscriber Server (HSS) for authentication,
and negotiation of ciphering and integrity protection algorithms.
• It is also responsible for selecting the appropriate serving and PDN gateways, and
selecting legacy gateways for handovers to other GERAN or UTRAN networks.
• Further, MME is the point at which legal interception of signaling is made. It should
be noted that an MME manages thousands of eNode-B elements, which is one of
the key differences from 2G or 3G platforms using RNC and SGSN platforms.
(iv) Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF):

• The Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is a concatenation of

Policy Decision Function (PDF) and Charging Rules Function (CRF).

• The PCRF interfaces with the PDN gateway and supports service data
flow detection, policy enforcement, and flow-based charging.

• The PCRF was actually defined in Release 7 of 3GPP ahead of LTE.

Although not much deployed with pre-LTE systems, it is mandatory for
LTE.

• Release 8 further enhanced PCRF functionality to include support for

non-3GPP access (e.g., Wi-Fi or fixed line access) to the network.
7. Future of Mobile Broadband-Beyond LTE

• Many in the industry refer to LTE as a 4G system, but strictly speaking it

does not meet the requirements set out by the ITU for the fourth
generation (4G) wireless standard.
• Wireless system capacity is driven by three factors: amount of spectrum,
spectral efficiency, and the number of cells.
• The ITU definition of a 4G system, called IMT-Advanced, requires a target
peak data rate of 100Mbps for high mobility and 1Gbps for low mobility
applications.
• It predicts a peak downlink spectral efficiency of 15bps/Hz, an average
downlink spectral efficiency of 2.6bps/Hz per cell, and a cell edge
efficiency of 0.075bps/Hz per user.
• Requires higher order MIMO and higher order modulation.
• The standards body has formed a study group for developing LTE-Advanced,
which will then be proposed as an IMT-Advanced standard to ITU.
• 3GPP has developed preliminary requirements for LTE-Advanced.
• Some of the technologies being considered for LTE-Advanced include:

i. Higher order MIMO and beamforming (up to 8 × 8)

ii. Several new MIMO techniques: improved multi-user MIMO,
collaborative and network MIMO, single-user uplink MIMO, etc.
iii. Inter-cell interference co-ordination and cancellation
iv. Use of multi-hop relay nodes to improve and extend high data rate
coverage
v. Carrier aggregation to support larger bandwidths while simultaneously
being backward compatible with lower bandwidth LTE
vi. Femto-cell/Home Node-B using self-configuring and self-optimizing
networks