Mobifone

LTE Features
Jari Malinen
August 2021

1 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

SW feature potential
Improve performance, introduce new services
Use Cases Feature ID Item Name

LTE4054 Dynamic Power Backoff

LTE5731/CRL22975 TCP services differentiation
CRL24910 Uplink TCP power boost
Performance
SR001783 2G-4G Dynamic Spectrum sharing
SR002546 3G-4G Dynamic Spectrum sharing, Phase 2
LTE3145 Slim Carrier
LTE2430 QCI1 Triggered Inactivity Timer
LTE2832 SRVCC due to admission control rejection
LTE2774 Source rate UL grant assign. VoLTE
VoLTE
LTE1406 Extended VoLTE Talk Time
LTE2098 VoLTE Uplink Coverage Boosting
LTE3692 VoLTE Robustness enhancements
LTE3071,LTE3509 NB-IoT Inband
NB IoT LTE3721 NB-IoT Multitone in uplink
LTE3669 NB-IoT: Paging support
Energy Efficiency CB006047 µDTX for Energy Efficiency SRAN enhancements

2 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

Performance

3 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTA18A
LTE4054
LTE4054 – Dynamic Power Backoff
Feature Overview
16QAM Modulation

The goal of the power back-

off is to reduce the maximum
configured output power with
the value that will guarantee
the EVM not higher than 3.5%
for 256QAM transmission

4 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTA18A
LTE4054
Dynamic Power Backoff
Dynamical power backoff per TTI on a per need bases

• The operator can configure a target power backoff value in

dB for each cell, e.g. 0.8dB
• The scheduler will decide each TTI dynamically about how
much power backoff is needed to the given TTI
Power Backoff needed
• Configure target power backoff is the maximum applied
power backoff for a TTI and this maximum backoff is 3GPP, EVM limit 3.5%
applied on TTIs with reasonably high 256QAM usage AND for 256QAM
transmitting at the max power
• In all other cases, e.g. when the cell is already transmitting
at lower power than the max power due to a smaller
number of PRBs used, the backoff will be reduced
accordingly
• Time domain scheduler does not force concentration of
256QAM users
• Impact on cell edge users using QPSK that are transmitting
within a power backoffed TTI can be controlled via a
operator configurable parameter

5 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTA18A
LTE4054
Dynamic Power Backoff Trial
Expected Gain and Trial Result

Measurement Period
• Before : 24 – 30 Jan 2021
• After : 07 – 13 Feb 2021
before after Expected
KPI Gain
(Mbps) (Mbps) Gain
Avg PDCP cell thp DL 13,34 13.73 2.9% 0-4%

Summary
• Improve average DL Cell Throughput
around 2.9%
• In this trial also show improvement in
the DL User Throughput around 6.2%

6 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 FDD-LTE18
LTE3145
Slim Carrier
Feld result from APJ

• Slim Carrier ensures that a chosen system bandwidth, e.g. 10MHz, Blanked PRBs Blanked PRBs

is operated at a reduced BW around the center frequency in DL to

LTE BW after blanking
fit to a slimmer carrier bandwidth, e.g. 8MHz.

Resource
Blocks
• Enables operators to utilize fragmented LTE DL spectrum LTE full BW before blanking
bandwidth so that a single LTE cell has minimum overhead and
provides better performance than a CA deployment.

12 MHz:
15 additional PRBs configured

Trial setting deployed KPI type- 3 BH Sum of Dl Cell thpt Improvement KPI type- 3 BH Sum of DL User thpt Improvement
Pre 10.3131 Pre 2.452516263
Power increased 16.94% 51%
Post 12.0601 Post 3.706926286
PDCCH cqi shifting and
7 © 2021 Nokia control channel boosting Confidential
 LTE18A
LTE5731
TCP Service Differentiation
Improve the operator network benchmark with Ookla , Opensignal, Rootmatrics, Tutela

• Medium sized TCP data flows are considered to have

highest impact on end user experience.
• Small data transfer can be majorly attributed to
background services thus being less noticeable Medium size
traffic
by end users (e.g. WhatsApp message).
• High data transfers require anyway longer time
for transmission. Avoid rewarding the greedy
users.

• Increased bandwidth allocation for user with medium

traffic size.

• Applied for non-GBR QCI Field test results

• Feature can be activated by the parameter

LNCEL: actTcpServiceDiff. The minimum and maximum Already validated
number of bytes differentiating medium size traffic is with more than
200 000 cells
configurable.

8 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE18A
LTE5731
TCP Service Differentiation and UL TCP Power Boost Trial (CRL24910) CRL24910

5% gain achieved in OSS stats, 29% based on Ookla speed test

Measurement Period
• before: 20 – 26 Jan 2021
• after: 03 – 09 Feb 2021
Before After
KPI Gain
(kbps) (kbps)

E-UTRAN avg IP sched thp DL, QCI9 5210 5460 4.9%

E-UTRAN avg IP sched thp UL, QCI9 604 634 5.1%

Max Ookla DL test improvement 14614 / 16128 17076 / 18651 16.8% / 15.6%

Max Ookla UL test improvement 8717 / 9165 9174 / 11891 5.2% / 29.7%

Ookla Speedtest Result

The test was conducted on 10 Feb 2021

9 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE19
SR00173
Dynamic Spectrum Sharing GSM-LTE
Improved spectral Efficiency , Increased LTE capacity , Minimal Re-farming efforts

Network Challenge:
• High LTE load, Limited Spectrum
• GSM is mandatory for Voice service
• RF re-farming challenges.
Solution:
• LTE Slim carrier to support dynamic PRB blanking up to
40%.
• BSC based interference matrix is used to identify
overlapping eNode’s to be notified when shared spectrum
is taken.
• eNodeB blanks corresponding PRB’s and schedules users
only when GSM indicates the freeing up of shared
resources
• Configurable Load thresholds
• Reduce Re-Farming & RF Planning efforts
Benefits:
• CAPEX savings : LTE Capacity Gains ranges from +14%
• OPEX Savings : Minimal Re-farming and planning efforts.

10 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE19
SR00173
Case study: 2G/4G DSS trial in Asia Pacific
2G/4G DSS field performance

0.8 G/L L1800 20MHz G/L 0.8 GSM3+3+3 LTE KPI Hourly KPI DSS Cluster
MHz Total Payload Improved
MHz 3.2MHz (11.8MHz dedicated) 3.4MHz
Cell Avail excl BLU Improved
Total E-UTRAN RRC conn stp SR Slightly Improved
E-UTRAN E-RAB stp SR Slightly Improved
• 4G traffic increased by 4 times with bandwidth 15MHz to Max PDCP cell thp DL Improved
20MHz Max PDCP cell thp UL Improved
• Max PDCP throughput increased 30% Avg RRC Conn User Improved
• 2G traffic was maintained with existing configuration, traffic Avg Num Conn UE Improved
increased during peak period
2G KPI Hourly KPI DSS Cluster
• Quality was good on 4G and 2G TCH Traffic Maintained
TCH Blocking Improved
TCH availability ratio Improved
CSSR Slightly Degraded
DCR Maintained
DL Qual Degraded
UL Qual Maintain

11 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing WCDMA+LTE
Improved spectral Efficiency , Increased LTE capacity , Minimal Re-farming efforts

Network Challenge: Before DSS

• High LTE load, Limited Spectrum

P (dBm/Hz)
• WCDMA is mandatory for Voice service
• RF re-farming challenges.
Solution: 3G 4G
• WCDMA-LTE load shared spectrum: 15 In B1 (2.1Ghz) or f (Hz)
B8 (900MHz) 5 MHz 10 MHz
• Feature : SR002167 (19B) supports: FSMF , 15MHz in B1 15 MHz
• Feature: SR002546 (20A), extend support for Airscale,
B8, BW of 10/15/20MHz
• Maintain WCDMA for voice, expand LTE capacity, while After DSS
maintain WCDMA for voice and legacy U.E

P (dBm/Hz)
• Configurable threshold for WCDMA Load
Benefits:
• CAPEX savings : LTE Capacity Gains ranges from 3G 4G
+12%
f (Hz)
• OPEX Savings : Minimal Re-farming and planning ~3.2 MHz ~11.8 MHz
efforts. 15 MHz

12 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

Trial outcome: 3G/4G DSS increased the total payload
Quality maintained across 4G and 3G & 10% Gains in Total DL Capacity

3G+4G gain +9.8% 4G only gain +14% 4G avg connected UE +17.9%

LTE 2100 KPI 3G 2100 KPI

KPI Before After KPI Before After
Total traffic (GB) 3159 3674 +16.3% Total traffic (GB) 485.7 293.6 -39.6%
Cell Availability 95.6% 100% +4.6% Cell Availability 99.8% 99.8% -0.09%
Ave RRC conn. UE 49.2 54.5 +10.75% RAB call block PS 0 0 0%
E-RAB setup SR 99.93 99.94 +0.01 RAB dropped calls CS 0.51 0.23 -54.8%
Block Error Rate Sum of ave user
DL 0.06 0.06 0.00 HSDPA -12.14%
Gain in traffic and quality Decreased traffic, maintained quality
13 © 2021 Nokia Confidential
Energy Efficiency

22 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 SRAN20A
LTE2508
BTS Embedded Power Meter for Energy Efficiency Monitoring SR000951

OPEX reduction via minimization of drive test activities

Most of the energy in BTS is consumed in RF modules

NetAct
Feature provides energy metering functionality and
reporting the consumption via new PM counters (Voltage Counters
and Power) to OSS and Web-UI for
Voltage and
Applicable for the units that have embedded HW energy
metering functionality Power

Energy consumption can be measured in the Radio Network

on the network element level

Feature works in RAT-dedicated Radio mode (GSM, WCDMA, SBTS SBTS

LTE) and as well in RF Sharing mode. Web-UI

24 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 SRAN21A
CB006047
Micro discontinuous transmission (µDTX) for Energy Efficiency SRAN enhancements
Reduces power consumption of radio unit during low traffic

• µDTX feature (also known as micro sleep) allows power savings by

switching off the power amplifiers (PA) during idle transmission periods

• µDTX controls the PA according to RF symbol state

• No data: PA is shutdown for the duration of empty symbol(s)
• Transmitted data: PA is powered up

• Rel5 RF unit (Airscale 2.0 RRH, ie AHxyz, and RFM ARxy) manages
autonomously the PA on/off switch, without any message exchange
needed with baseband

• The feature can be activated and de-activated by the operator

• Improves LTE3036 by bringing compatibility with RF sharing (GSM+LTE,

LTE+NR), RAN sharing, Cell Resource Group, …

✓ Expected gain at low load: up to 24% for RRH/RFM

27 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE15A LTE16
LTE1103 LTE1203
Key Energy Efficiency features LTE1891

Summary of savings
Feature type & Typical use cases 4G savings Recommendations for
response time (RRH 4Tx) feature positioning
Cell shut down – Adapt multi-layer RAN Up to 64% @low Always apply to multi layer
PA/TRx on/off within RF capacity during very case, to 4G and/or 5G, at low
minutes low traffic periods load, for capacity layers
Micro DTX (DTRX) – TX Leverage micro sleeps See below Always apply where possible
(RX) on/off within µs in low/medium traffic
conditions
Micro DT(R)X Improving µDT(R)X ~20% @low Always apply where possible
optimization gains with minimum ~10% @medium
KPI impacts ~5% @busy
MIMO/mMIMO muting Adapt cell radio Up to 40% Always apply to multi layer
– RF path on/off within capacity during low @medium case, to 4G and/or 5G, at low
minutes traffic periods (RRH4x to RRH2x) and medium load

(*) ETSI Avg=

(8 hours busy load + 10 hours
medium load + 6 hours low load) /24

28 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

VoLTE

29 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 RL70
LTE1406
Extended VoLTE talk time
Feature Overview

Network Challenge Solution

• Poor user experience from quick • Better optimize the DRX active duration time with scheduling
draining of UE‘s battery during request (SR) timing, to make them well aligned so that the UE can
VoLTE calls. achieve much less active state transitions.
• Voice-driven users may prefer to
stay at 2G or 3G networks because State transitions during VoIP transmission (without LTE1406)
of longer talk and standby time

Value Drivers

• Less power consumption during a

VoLTE call on top of power savings
from DRX related features.
• Longer talking and on-line time State transitions during VoIP transmission (LTE1406 activated)

generate additional voice & data

revenue

30 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 RL70
LTE1406
4 – 6% less battery consumption in VoLTE calls
Nokia Smart Lab Study & Report

Feature gains with different DRX parameter sets HARQ and BLER in good and bad RF Conditions
Basic Feature Activation Overall Good RF conditions (~-85 dBm)
Overall current Consumption (mA) Consumption 240 25
(mA) 23,2
Overall
235 237,73 20,7 20 Consum
17,6 ption
230
(mA)
270,00 13,9
15
225 228,37 228,72 Avg
260,00 10,11 10,18 10 MCS
259,5 220
250,00 220,82
253,2 215
5,16 4,33 5
Avg
240,00 245,8 3,03 3,07 3,22
BLER
1,20
210 0
230,00 237,7
234,4 LTE1406 = off HARQ = 5, BLER = 10 HARQ = 4, BLER = 5 HARQ = 3, BLER = 2
220,00 228,4

210,00 Bad RF conditions (~-110 dBm)

1406 = off; 1406 = off; 1406 = off; 1406 = on; 1406 = off; 1406 = on; 265 14,00
Overall
sCycle = sCycle = sCycle = sCycle = sCycle = sCycle = 260 262,28 11,67 11,19
12,00
Consum
20ms, 20ms, 40ms, 40ms, 40ms, 40ms, 255 9,90
9,36
10,00 ption
8,82 8,74 (mA)
OnDur = 6 OnDur = 4 OnDur = 6 OnDur = 6 OnDur = 4 OnDur = 4 254,94 7,47
8,00
Avg
250 252,60
6,00 MCS
5,34 5,48

- 4%…- 6% 245

240
4,87 4,37 246,98

1,86
4,00
2,00 Avg
BLER
Average battery 235 0,00
LTE1406 = off HARQ = 5, BLER = 10 HARQ = 4, BLER = 5 HARQ = 3, BLER = 2
consumption

31 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE16

VoLTE Uplink Coverage Boosting LTE2098

Why
Up to 2.5dB UL VoLTE coverage
• Improved cell edge VoLTE performance. improvement
• Better UL coverage
• Improved VoLTE Retainbility

What
• UL VoLTE service improvements via:
• Sensitivity based selection of #PRB and
MCS if UE enters power limitation
(PHR<0).
• Reduction of aperiodic CQI reporting.
• Robust Channel Estimation (CE), improved
Noise Power Estimation algorithm
VoLTE voice quality at cell edge is improved,
and call drop rate is decreased.

32 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE16

Field result from North America LTE2098

12.5% Drop Rate Improved by Better Coverage

• ‘LTE2098 VoLTE Uplink Coverage Boosting’

enabled with default value.
• TTI Bundling feature is off and High data
rate (WB-AMR 23.85kbps) or Low Data AMR
(12.65 kbps) codec will be negotiated
during VoLTE call.

33 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE18A
LTE2774
Source rate-based UL grant assignment for VoLTE
Up to15% gains VoLTE UL PRB utilization
• Allows the eNB to detect the actual UL bit rate usage (based on
SR and BSR) and adapts the resource allocation to it
• The eNB adapts the UL grant to actual size needed by the UEs
in order to minimize the padding overhead
• E.g. operator assign to high GBR rates for VoLTE (> 70 kbit/s,
although 41 kbit/s would be sufficient). Without LTE2774 this
results in a too high padding (50….100% more PRBs assigned
as needed).
FL18 PT5.6 CRL21668v2 (32)
30000000
CRL21668

Impact, especially in poor radio conditions: 25000000 Up to15% gains VoLTE UL PRB utilization
• Improved system capacity. PUSCH
resources are used in an optimized
20000000

manner 15000000

• Improved system coverage because 10000000

smaller UL grants require less power in 5000000

transmission.
• Improved mean opinion score (MOS) for 0

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VoLTE calls

LCELLR_PRB_USED_UL_VOLTE_NOKLTE(M8011C208_NOKLTE)(No unit)

34 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE18

VoLTE Robustness Enhancements

LTE3692

Improved UL PRB utilization during VoLTE service

Solution
• Proactive UL grants for VoLTE Ues
• Improved TTI Bundling Exit
• Fake DRX , UE is always in DRX Active state

Value Drivers
• Improved VoLTE service availability
• Reduced Audio gaps
• Improved end-user experience

Up to 25% reductions in audio gaps

during VoLTE call

35 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

NB-IoT

36 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE17A
LTE3071
NB-IoT Inband
Feature Overview

Network Challenge Solution

• How to support massive number of • The eNode B introduces the support of low cost NB-IoT (Narrow
low cost & long battery life devices Band Internet of Things) CAT-NB1 devices:
efficiently on current Cellular radio • DL data rate up to 26kbps, UL data rate up to 62kbps
network • Optimized for low-data volume metering, control, tracking and
• How to provide efficient solution for sensor devices
IoT devices & scenarios which • Standardized for global use in 3GPP Rel.13, licensed spectrum in use
require low data speed and volume, • Deployment on Nokia LTE networks via software upgrade
e.g. sensors, metering devices.
Mass IoT devices connected

NB IoT
Value Drivers
• Enable connectivity for NB-IoT Enhanced Coverage

devices LTE carrier

In-band Solution
→ Additional business and revenue
• Avoid macro network re-design and Single network supports both high Enhanced cellular
adding HW investments for coverage data rates LTE-A devices and low cost coverage
→ CAPEX & OPEX savings & long-life NB-IoT devices (>10years) + 20dB

37 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE17A
LTE3071
Field Results: NB-IoT Inband (1/2) LTE3509
LTE3668
LTE3669

Test cluster: LTE3668 / LTE3509

Paging 100% success (50 attempts,50
• FSMF+1*FXDB; Airscale +1*FXDB success) in NORMAL,ROBUST and EXTREME
• UL/DL data transfer, paging in NORMAL,ROBUST and coverage level

EXTREME coverage levels (driving test)

• Deep-indoor coverage test in underground parking
area (field test).
• Inter-working between legacy LTE and NB-IoT
(Customer lab test).

LTE3668 Coverage Enhancement

Physical Throughput in live network under very bad RF conditions. LTE3668 Coverage Enhancement
Deep-Indoor coverage (underground parking area)
• For ROBUST/EXTREME high repetition rate causes low throughput.
➢ DL/UL UDP data transfer working, ping working, MCL reached 160dB
DL:1.07kbps;
UL: 1.09kbps
@Average RSRP -111.81dBm

DL:0.23kbps;
UL: 0.27kbps
@Average RSRP -124.98dBm

DL:0.17kbps;
UL: 0.27kbps
@Average RSRP -133.47dBm

38 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE17A
LTE3071
Field Results: NB-IoT Inband (2/2) LTE3509
LTE3668
LTE3669

Test cluster:
• FSMF+1*FXDB; Airscale +1*FXDB
• UL/DL data transfer, paging in NORMAL,ROBUST and EXTREME coverage levels
(driving test)
• Deep-indoor coverage test in underground parking area (field test). Intra-Cell Impact of NB-IoT to legacy LTE:
• No reduction of max UL throuhput when NB-IoT is
• Inter-working between legacy LTE and NB-IoT (Customer lab test). configured (21 Mbps in both cases)
• PRB utilization is between 36/40 in both cases

Intra-Cell Impact of NB-IoT to legacy LTE:

• When NB-IoT cell is configured 3 PRBs from total 50 PRBs are not available anymore to
host cell (10MHz channel bandwidth)
• DL throughput reduces from 36.0Mbps to 34.3Mbps
• Percentage reduction is 100*(36-34.3)/36 = 4.7%

39 © 2021 Nokia Confidential

 LTE18SP
LTE3721
NB-IoT: Multitone in Uplink
Higher uplink bit rates with several 15kHz subcarriers
• Initial NB-IoT implementation supports single tone with 15kHz carrier spacing in uplink. Up to 11 UEs can transmit
UL data simultaneously (1 tone is reserved for UL Ack/Nack).
• Introduces 6 multi-tones with 6x15kHz subcarriers allocated simultaneously for a single NB-IoT terminal in uplink
• one multi-tone UE benefits of higher peak uplink data rate: 50 kbps without considering NPRACH overhead
• Maximum 6 UEs (1 UE using 6 tones and up to 5 UEs using 1 tone) can transmit UL data simultaneously

Trial results from NAM:

• Increase of NB-IoT UL throughputs 2.3x with 6-tones .
• Allows the use of MCS11 and MCS12 with 3-tones or 6-tones transmissions

FTP UL peak tput@good RC FTP UL peak tput@poor RC

24.7 kbps 17.6 kbps

11.1 kpbs 11.5 kpbs

x 2.33 faster x 1.50 faster

40 © 2021 Nokia Confidential