Nokia Networks

Nokia Networks
LTE-Advanced
The advanced LTE toolbox for more efficient delivery
of better user experience

White Paper

Nokia Networks white paper

LTE-Advanced

Contents
1. Overview

1.1 LTE-Advanced, the evolution of LTE

1.2 Status of LTE-A (as of October 2013)

2. Drivers

3. The LTE-A toolbox

3.1 Overview

3.2 Carrier Aggregation

3.3 Advanced MIMO schemes

3.4Coordinated multipoint transmission

and reception

11

3.5 Relay Nodes

13

3.6 Heterogeneous Networks

14

3.7Self Organizing Network and network

architecture evolution with LTE-A

16

3.8 Outlook

16

4. Summary

19

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1. Overview
1.1 LTE-Advanced, the evolution of LTE
The introduction of LTE was driven by the industrys quest for a
more efficient technology that could help deliver ever faster mobile
broadband services. In comparison with basic HSPA networks, LTE
delivered this enhancement by offering the state of the art combination
of new air interface base technology (OFDMA/SC-FDMA), greater
flexibility for utilizing spectrum like for example support of 20MHz bands
and TD-LTE for using unpaired spectrum, as well as a toolbox to support
further enhancements like MIMO and Higher Order Modulation. In fact,
a similar toolbox has been applied to HSPA for facilitating a seamless
evolution to HSPA+.
At the same time, we continue to witness exponential growth in mobile
broadband traffic; thereby necessitating further enhancement in the
overall efficiency, with a view to deliver faster mobile broadband services
to a constantly increasing user base. LTE-Advanced abbreviated
as LTE-A has primarily been conceptualized to address both the
aforementioned demands.
LTE-A marks the evolution of LTE; it continues to deploy the air interface
base technology of LTE which provides highest efficiency and a smooth
evolution in the deployment of the existing LTE ecosystem towards
LTE-A. It allows operators to deploy larger bands than 20MHz in
particular by carrier aggregation, while also enabling an advanced toolbox
with advanced MIMO schemes and totally new features like Relaying.
Moreover, it is fully backwards compatible with the earlier LTE releases,
implying that legacy devices can operate in LTE-A networks but may not
necessarily benefit from all the new features of LTE-A. Thanks to these
advanced features, LTE makes its transition to a true 4G technology, in
accordance with the requirements of ITU for IMT-Advanced.
This paper introduces the advanced toolbox of LTE-A, including
information on new technologies, features and enhancements to
existing technologies, as well as discusses the benefits that LTE-A
provides to operators and end-users.

1.2 Status of LTE-A (as of October 2013)

LTE has been specified in 3GPP Releases 8 and 9. The LTE standard has
been stable and backwards compatible since March 2008, while initial
trials and commercial networks have given ample proof of the fact
that LTE delivers superior mobile broadband user experience in real
deployments. LTE has been a commercial success, going by its adoption
rate, that has exceeded any other mobile network technology. By the
October 2013, more than 200 operators have launched commercial LTE
and TD-LTE networks.

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One of the main drivers of the technical enhancements and timetable

for LTE-A development has been IMT-Advanced. ITU initiated the IMTAdvanced process to define the requirements for the next generation of
Radio Interface Technologies (RIT) that were released in a circular letter in
early 2008. Meeting the IMT-Advanced requirements has been the goal
that 3GPP has to achieve and standardization in 3GPP has progressed
well. The first LTE-Advanced specifications have been frozen in the
first half of 2011 while evaluations conducted by 3GPP contributors
and external parties have demonstrated that LTE-A meets all the IMTAdvanced requirements. As a consequence, ITU-R has already approved
LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced RIT or true 4G system in November
2010. The first commercial LTE-A networks have been launched by SK
Telecom, LG U+ and KT in Korea during summer 2013. All three operators
use carrier aggregation with Nokia Networks as a supplier.
In summer 2012, the major requirements for the evolution of LTE-A
with 3GPP Rel.12 were collected in a 3GPP workshop. As of October
2013, the release content of 3GPP Rel.12 has been refined, but not yet
formally frozen.
The evolution of LTE-A with Rel.12 and beyond is subject of another
Nokia Networks whitepaper.

A detailed analysis reveals that data traffic is distributed in an uneven

way. Eventually mobile broadband networks need to evolve in a
manner which goes beyond the conventional approach of applying
one standard remedy to the capacity squeeze. Also, the laws of
physics imply that conventional mobile broadband networks are
approaching the theoretically achievable spectral efficiency, which in
turn implies the costs per bit/Hz. Consequently the need for higher
bandwidths and higher efficiency can only be answered by combining
several tools optimized for specific network scenarios.

IMT-A
LTE-A

WALKED

Mobility

LTE
HSPA

FIXED

Looking ahead, the exponential growth in data traffic is expected to

continue on the same lines owing to certain key drivers:
Increased adoption of mobile broadband
Enhanced coverage (spreading across more locations)
Increase in usage intensity
Greater availability & choices in terms of devices (smart devices,
phones, pads, booklets, netbooks...)
Machine-to-machine communications stepping alongside human
users

VEHECILE

2. Drivers

UMTS

1
Mbps

10
Mbps

100
Mbps

1
Gbps

Figure 1: Evolution of data

speeds for stationary and mobile
use cases

This is the prime reason for using the term toolbox in this paper.
LTE-A defines a large set of tools focused on enhancing the mobile
broadband user experience, as well as reducing the costs per bit.

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3. The LTE-A toolbox

3.1 Overview
LTE (as specified in 3GPP Releases 8 and 9) has been optimized for
conventional wide area deployment, based on macro base stations
and for dual receiver and single transmit antenna single band
terminals. Talking specifically about this basic use case, LTE-A does
not really provide significant performance improvements since no new
technologies have been found to make this feasible. Instead, the focus
has shifted to developing new features and technologies to extend
the capabilities of LTE, as well as supporting new ways of deploying
and operating networks ensuring optimal distribution of services. New
technologies of LTE-A include enhancements in uplink and downlink
multi-antenna (MIMO) technologies, coordinated multi-cell transmission
and reception (CoMP), bandwidth extension with carrier aggregation
(CA), relay nodes (RN) and heterogeneous network deployments
(Hetnet). The new technology components of LTE-A spell a host of
benefits for the CSP community: enabling performance improvements
in peak data rates, average spectrum efficiency, cell edge performance,
coverage, new ways of cost reduction in the process of deploying and
operating networks with small base stations, and with cells without fixed
transport connections.

3.2 Carrier Aggregation

Carrier Aggregation allows for combining up to five LTE Release 8
compatible carriers with the aim of increasing transmission bandwidth,
and for enhancing data rates for end-users. It enables operators to
provide high throughput without wide contiguous frequency band
allocations, and ensures statistical multiplexing gain by distributing
the traffic dynamically over multiple carriers. With Carrier Aggregation,
operators can take asymmetrical bands into use with FDD since there
can be uplink or downlink only frequency bands.
Carrier Aggregation can provide bandwidths with a maximum range of
100 MHz. Even higher bandwidths could easily be supported by the
concept, but the need has not been identified yet. Aggregated carriers
can be adjacent or non-adjacent even at different frequency bands,
so basically all the frequency allocations can be used. There are a lot
of permutations and combinations, and some of them are a bit more
difficult to implement due to interference problems caused e.g. by
intermodulation products of transmitted signals on different frequency
bands. Therefore, only intra-band carrier aggregation is supported in
uplink in LTE Release 10, while a higher range of band combinations will
be supported in later releases. Carrier aggregation provides almost as
high spectrum efficiency and peak rates as single wideband allocation.
In some heterogeneous deployment scenarios, the performance can be
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even better since flexible frequency reuse can be arranged between local
area nodes to provide better inter-cell interference coordination.

LTE-Advanced
Enhance macro network performance

Heterogeneous
networks

Capacity and cell

edge performance
enhancements by
active interference cancelation

Enables focused capacity

enhancement with small cells
by interference coordination

Relaying

Peak data rate scaling

with antenna paths
for urban grid
and small cells

Enables focused coverage

extensions with small cells
by self-backhaul

Coordinated Multipoint

Peak data rate and

throughput scaling with
aggregated bandwidth

8x

MIMO

4x

Carrier Aggregation
up to 100 MHz

Carrier1

Carrier2

Carrier3

Enable ecient use of small cells

Carrier4

Figure 2: LTE-A support both: enhancing the LTE macro network and enabling the efficient
introduction of small cells

Average UE throughput [Mbps]

Average UE throughput [Mbps]

Uplink

40

200

LTE Rel-8

30

3GPP macro #1
with 2x20MHz

20

2x2 SU-MIMO
for DL,
1x2 for UL

10
0

LTE Rel-10

10

15
20
Oered Load [Mbps]

25

30

Downlink

with Poisson
arrival and
nite buer

Rel-8 UE case

(one CC per
UE) and LTE-A
UE case
(2-CCs per UE)

150
100

1 dB power

50
0
10

Dynamic trac

20

30

40
50
Oered Load [Mbps]

60

70

back-o
assumed for UL
with Tx
on two CCs

Figure 3: Carrier Aggregation

improves average cell throughput
both in uplink and downlink due
to more efficient utilization of
radio resources, i.e. by statistical
multiplexing

Carrier Aggregation supports cross component carrier scheduling,

implying that the control channel at one carrier can be used to allocate
resources at another carrier for user data transmission. It can be used
to provide both frequency diversity and interference coordination in
frequency domain at the same time, underlining its significance as a
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powerful technology for effective utilization of radio resources. Carrier

Aggregations capability to improve single user throughput depends
on the number of users in a cell. The number of users is directly
proportional to the overall statistical multiplexing gain even on a single
carrier, so scheduling high number of users over multiple carriers
provides only marginal gain. However, if the number of users is low,
scheduling over multiple carriers provides significant throughput gain
since all radio resources can be allocated to the user(s) with the most
favorable radio conditions. Gain in uplink is lower than in downlink, since
the UE can not always utilize multi-carrier transmission due to limited
transmit power.
If carriers are at different frequency bands they have different
propagation losses and different interfering systems which affect
achievable data rates, transmit power and usage of resources, e.g.
far-off UE could be better served with a low frequency carrier and
near cell center UE with a high frequency carrier. Inter-band Carrier
Aggregation provides more flexibility to utilize fragmented spectrum
allocations but one must take UE capabilities into account. There must
be enough (but not all) inter-band capable UE before the feature can
improve network performance.
Studies have been conducted on the benefits of extension carriers,
e.g. without common control channels, to have lower control channel
overhead and better efficiency, but the improvements seem quite
marginal for the scenarios evaluated in LTE Release 10. Future releases
might include extension carrier for specific use cases, e.g. energy
efficient machine-to-machine communication.

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80

30

25

Marginal Avg. TP
loss in Rel8 by
assigning cell
center UEs on
2.1GHz carrier

60
50

Coverage [Mbps]

Average UE throughput [Mbps]

70

40
30

Coverage gain in
Rel8 by assigning
cell edge UEs on
800MHz carrier

20

15

10

20
5

10
0

10

20

30

40

50

10

20

Oered Load [Mbps]

Carrier Aggregation of 800 and 2100MHz:

30

40

50

Oered Load [Mbps]

Rel-8: 3km ISD, RR
Rel-8: 3km ISD, Smart
Rel-10: 3km ISD

Rel-8: case3, RR
Rel-8: case3, Smart
Rel-10: case3

Figure 4: Inter-band Carrier Aggregation enables to benefit from different propagation

characteristic of different frequency bands
# of UE
antennas

Downlink [Mbps]

1102

555

610
304

2
1

Uplink [Mbps]

161

305

152
1

# of eNB
antennas

- 2x20 MHz Carrier Aggregation and 64QAM with 9/10 code rate

Figure 5: Carrier Aggregation and MIMO provide

high peak data rates bounded by allocated
bandwidth and the number of transmit and
receiver antennas

3.3 Advanced MIMO schemes

Multi-antenna or MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) technology is
based on transmitting and receiving with multiple antennas and utilizing
uncorrelated communication channels when radio signals propagate
through the physical environment. If there is enough isolation between
the communication channels, then multiple data transmissions can

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share the same frequency resources. If the multiple transmissions are

for a single user, then the technology is called Single-User MIMO
(SU-MIMO), for multiple users Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO).
The better the system can utilize these communication channels for
multiple transmissions, the higher is the capacity that the system can
provide. MIMO performance is subject to a large number of parameters:
the number of transmitter and receiver antennas, reference signals and
algorithms for channel estimation, feedback of channel estimation data
from the receiver to the transmitter and spatial encoding methods.
Consequently a comprehensive design is crucial to provide optimum
system performance.
Transmission peak date rates depend on the number of antennas on the
transmitter and the receiver, the used bandwidth and the configuration
of radio parameters like the resource allocation for control channels. The
maximum peak data rates vs. the number of transmitter and receiver
antennas can be seen in Fig. 5 for 40 MHz band allocation for both, the
downlink and the uplink.
LTE Releases 8 and 9 support multi-antenna (MIMO) technology with
up to four transmit and receiver antennas in downlink, but only single
antenna transmission in uplink. Release 10 extends the MIMO support for
eight transmit and receiver antennas in downlink and introduces uplink
MIMO by supporting up to four transmit and eight receiver antennas.
Capacity - Correlated
Ideal MMSE/SIC

Average SE [bps/Hz/cell]

4.00
3.00

2.75

2.44

2.00

2.17

2.02

100%

1.57

108%

121%

113%

100%

1.00

1.77

Realistic MMSE/SIC

2.09

136%

2.30

147%

133%

0.00
1x4 no MIMO

1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-8

Cell-edge user SE [bps/Hz/user]

Coverage - Correlated

1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-10

Ideal MMSE/SIC

2x4 MU dual

Realistic MMSE/SIC

0.125
0.100
0.075
0.050
0.025

100%

0.049

100%

107%

0.088

0.084

0.080

0.075

0.055

113%

112%

0.060

123%

117%

0.060

122%

0.000
1x4 no MIMO

1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-8

Ideal: Perfect knowledge of interference assumed at the receiver

Realistic: Only have estimate of interference power available at the receiver.

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1x4 MU-MIMO Rel-10

2x4 MU dual

Figure 6: an example how uplink

MU-MIMO improves system
performance with different TX/RX
antenna configurations
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Release 10 has enhanced the reference signal design with user specific
reference symbols for signal demodulation and common reference
symbols for feedback purposes in downlink and more orthogonal
reference signal structure in uplink. The enhanced design enables better
performance when the number of antenna branches is high.
Uplink MIMO provides significantly higher peak rates and improved
spectrum efficiency in uplink direction. SU-MIMO provides mainly
increased data rates in lightly loaded networks for high-end multitransmitter UE, whereas MU-MIMO can offer significant improvement
of spectrum efficiency even with single transmitter UE. This can boost
network capacity at low costs and is depicted in Fig. 6 and 7. The LTE-A
system can operate in both SU and MU-MIMO modes at the same time
using dynamic user specific MIMO transmission configuration.

Average SE [bps/Hz/cell]

Capacity - Correlated
Ideal MMSE/SIC

4.00
3.00
2.00
1.25

1.00

100%

1.45
1.06
100%

1.35

162%

2.47

2.25

2.02
1.57

116% 127%

148%

2x2 SU-MIMO

1x4 no MIMO

180%

Realistic MMSE/SIC

1.84
173%

2.06

198%

194%

0.00
1x2 no MIMO

Cell-edge user SE [bps/Hz/user]

Capacity - Correlated

2x4 SU-MIMO

Ideal MMSE/SIC

0.100
0.075

169%

0.055

0.050
0.025

0.044
100%

0.034

123%

0.045
133%

183%

Realistic MMSE/SIC
0.088

0.081

0.075

4x4 SU-MIMO

199%

0.049

0.052

146%

155%

0.064
190%

100%

0.000
1x2 no MIMO

2x2 SU-MIMO

1x4 no MIMO

2x4 SU-MIMO

4x4 SU-MIMO

Ideal: Perfect knowledge of interference assumed at the receiver

Realistic: Only have estimate of interference power available at the receiver.

Figure 7: an example how uplink

SU-MIMO improves system
performance with different TX/RX
antenna configurations

Downlink MIMO has already been included in LTE Release 8. The LTE
Release 8 codebook and reference symbol design was found to be
quite optimum for two and four transmit antennas (2x2, 2x4 and 4x4
antenna configurations), but the channel state information feedback
from UE to eNB could have been more accurate. This limitation is
overcome by the new reference symbol design of Release 10, which is
also more effective when the number of transmit antennas is higher.
Based on the studies and numerous contributions in 3GPP, it can be
safely concluded that the higher the number of antennas, the higher is
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the gain that Release 10 MIMO provides in downlink. With two eNB and
two UE antennas, Release 10 downlink MIMO provides no improvements
over Release 8 in SU-MIMO mode but small performance improvements
have been gained in MU-MIMO mode. In most cases it is best to operate
two TX antenna eNBs in Release 8 SU-MIMO mode. When eNB has four
transmit antennas, Release 10 downlink MIMO gain is more than 20%
over Release 8 and with eight transmit antennas a bit higher. Reference
symbol overhead effects on system performance are significant with
four and eight transmit antennas. Therefore the selection of MIMO
operating modes and system parameters for both Release 8 and 10 UE
is a critical network optimization task.
An important point worth remembering is that the network should also
support Release 8 and 9 UE which does not benefit from the Release
10 enhancements. The capacity gain from Release 10 downlink MIMO
enhancements could even be negative since new reference symbols
create overhead for all UE. However, these overheads can be decreased
by decreasing the Release 8 and 9 specific reference symbols, but
this would prevent non-LTE-A UE to operate in MIMO mode and thus
lower their data rates. Additionally, there would be negative effects
on common control channel performance. Consequently, the timing
of the introduction of the new features and the configuration of the
system parameters are essential for an optimum performance of the LTE
network.

3.4 Coordinated multipoint transmission and

reception
Coordinated multipoint transmission and reception (CoMP) shows great
potential to improve the cell edge performance and system capacity.
However, the technology was not seen mature enough for including
it in Release 10. The studied CoMP technologies are Coordinated
Scheduling/Coordinated Beamforming (CS/CB), Joint Processing/
Dynamic Cell Selection (JP/DCS) and Joint Processing/Joint Transmission
(JP/JT). It has been demonstrated with simulations and field tests
that CoMP technologies have high potential from a single user point
of view but there are open issues on the operation of large scale
networks and the signalling between UE and network to characterize
the radio environment for multi-site transmission. Signalling should
provide enough information to enable high performance, but not at
the cost of excessive overhead or additional energy and radio resource
consumption.

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Downlink

Uplink

CoMP
Category

Intra-site
2TX (4TX)

Intra &
Inter-site

Intra-site joint
reception

Inter-site
macro diversity

Inter-site joint
reception

Cell Avg.

5% (10%)

20%

5%

6%

15%

Cell Edge

12% (20%)

21%

5%

8%

25%

System simulations
Downlink with ideal CSI feedback, realistic CQI feedback, realistic reference symbol overhead (10%) and ideal inter-cell
communication
Uplink with ideal feedback, ideal inter-cell communication, ideal cell selection, realistic MMSE/SIC receiver and realistic closed loop
power control
2 RX and 2 TX antennas in eNB
2 RX and 1 TX antennas in UE
Gain over Release 8 Single User MIMO
Typical Urban Micro, max. 500 m inter-cell distance, 10 users per cell

Figure 8: JP/JT CoMP system performance gain in an urban environment with ideal CSI
feedback and realistic system and receiver implementation
The system performance gains of realistic CoMP deployments with an
ideal channel state information (CSI) feedback is presented in Fig. 8 and
9. The critical system deployment issue is the communication between
the cells. Intra-site CoMP deployment, in which the communication is
between the sectors of a single eNB, is likely the most feasible system
solution. CoMP studies in 3GPP continue in a Release 11 study item
kicked off in December 2010 and will focus on finding practical concepts
with real performance benefits, taking into account implementation and
interoperability issues of UE, eNBs and transport technologies.

Downlink

Uplink

CoMP Category

Intra-site CS/CB

Inter-site CS/CB

Inter-site CS

Cell Avg.

13%

14%

Cell Edge

13%

13%

15%

System simulations
Downlink with ideal CSI feedback, realistic CQI feedback,
realistic reference symbol overhead (10%), ideal inter-cell communication and MRC receiver
Uplink with ideal feedback, ideal inter-cell communications,
ideal cell selection, realistic MMSE/SIC receiver and realistic closed loop power control
4 RX and 4 TX antennas in eNB with /2 antenna spacing
2 RX and 1 TX antennas in UE
Gain over Release 8 Beamforming (1 CRS, 1 DRS, single stream)
3GPP Case 1 3D, 500 m inter-cell distance, 10 users per cell

Figure 9: CS/CB CoMP system performance gain in an urban environment with ideal CSI
feedback and realistic system and receiver implementation

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3.5 Relay Nodes

5%-tile Throughput gain

Relay nodes enable the deployment of small cells at locations where

conventional fixed line or microwave backhaul is not possible or
commercially viable. Relay nodes use the LTE-A air-interface for selfbackhaul to a so-called Donor eNB. The gain from relay nodes is most
pronounced in coverage limited scenarios, e.g. large donor cells, which
serve multiple relay nodes. They in turn provide an expansion of the
coverage, where needed, into buildings or other areas receiving poor
signal from the macro cell directly.

600%
500%

1 relay

400%

4 relays

300%

10 relays

200%
100%
0%

-100%

ISD 500m

ISD 1732m

Cell Throughput gain

downlink

ISD 500m

ISD 1732m

uplink

120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%

ISD 500m

ISD 1732m

downlink

ISD 500m

ISD 1732m

uplink

Figure 10: System performance

gain of Relay Node deployment of
one, four and ten Relay Nodes per
a macro-cell

LTE Release 8 supports simple amplify and forward relays (also called
repeaters) that can be used for coverage extension. However, those
do not use the radio resources efficiently. The enhanced relaying
technology in LTE-A is based on self-backhauling base stations sharing
features with (pico) base stations. For the user equipment the relay
node is just a cell of the Donor eNB. The management of the network
is straightforward. LTE Release 10 specifies a new interface Un between
Donor eNB and Relay Node (RN), see Fig. 11. The new interface uses
MBSFN (Multicast-Broadcast Single Frequency Network) subframes
which were introduced in Release 8 already to hide the Un interface
from UE operating on the same carrier and thus make it fully backward
compatible: UE interprets Un transmission as MBSFN transmission for
which they are not subscribed and simply ignore them. The so called
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Proxy S1/X2 concept forwards both S1 and X2 messages towards the RN

transparently for the Core Network which sees a Relay Node as a sector
of the Donor eNB as well. Thus relaying is also backwards compatible for
both the MME and Serving Gateway which serve the UE.
App.
TCP/UDP
IP

IP
GTP-u

GTP-u

GTP-u

GTP-u

UDP

UDP

UDP

UDP

IP

IP

IP

IP
L2

PDCP
RLC
MAC

PDCP
RLC
MAC

PDCP
RLC
MAC

PDCP
RLC
MAC

L2

PHY

PHY

PHY

PHY

L1

User Equipment

Relay

Donor eNB

(+Home eNB GW)

L1
S-GW/P-GW

(serving the UE)

Figure 11: Protocol architecture for Relay Nodes

3.6 Heterogeneous Networks

The term Heterogeneous Networks does not necessarily refer
to a specific technology or feature as such, but is instead used to
describe networks that have both wide area and local area (small cell)
deployments. In many expected deployment scenarios, heterogeneous
networks spread accross multiple radio access technologies.
Autonomous or automated interference coordination and handover
optimization in such hierarchical network architectures are key aspects
of heterogeneous networks. Other coordination technologies like selfconfiguration and self-optimization have been covered under Self
Organized/Optimized Networks (SON) and Minimized Drive Testing (MDT)
related study and work items since Release 8.
LTE Release 8 inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) methods are
mainly targeted at improving radio resource utilization of cell edge users.
LTE Release 8 specifies eNB measurements, signalling principles and
messages for inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) over X2 interface
(direct eNB eNB interface to support mobility). The eNB interference
reduction algorithms are considered vendor-specific implementation
issues. Benefits from these Release 8 technologies are yet to be proven,
since advanced packet scheduling methods have been demonstrated to
provide equal or better performance in wide area deployments. Since
X2 interface is typically not available with Home eNBs (HeNBs) and
distribution of the interference is different in local area deployments,
new methods and evaluation cases for ICIC have been included in LTE
Release 10.

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Majority of cell sites today

> 300 m
> 5 W output power

Wide Area sites

Medium area
sites
Local
area
WLAN

Local
area

Medium area
sites

Local
area

Local
area

Share of sites growing

100 300 m
1 5W

Local
area

Share will grow in future

10 100 m,
< 500 mW

WLAN

License exempt growing &

Secondary services emerging
WLAN

WLAN

10-100 m
< 100 mW

WLAN

Figure 12: Heterogeneous network deployment

Local area base stations and access points are deployed and in many
cases operated by end users directly without network planning by an
operator. These local area nodes create interference with each other
and wide area base stations may also translate into degraded system
performance like lower throughput and an increase of call drops. As such,
automated management methods are required to remove the need for
manual maintenance of a large number of local area base stations, as
well as to prevent excessive inter-cell interference that could degrade the
performance of the wide area base stations and other local area nodes.
The evaluation cases for heterogeneous network deployments have
been included in LTE Release 10. There are multiple technologies that
can be used for the interference coordination based on LTE Release
8 specification, e.g. HeNB power control and escape carrier or using
Carrier Aggregation of LTE Release 10. LTE Release 10 includes one new
interference coordination technology based on coordinated muting of
the Transmission of overlapping cells. This technology is called TDM
eICIC (Time Domain enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination) and
its basic principle is described in Fig. 13. Part of the transmitted signal is
muted by sending Almost Blank Sub-frames, that allows other eNBs to
transmit with lower inter-cell interference.
TDM eICIC needs time synchronization between the macro and femto
layers, a pre-condition that could be difficult to guarantee with respect
to HeNBs deployed by the users. Simpler frequency domain methods
are then more likely to be used in case the operators frequency and
deployment plans allow.
Later releases are likely to introduce new cost efficient small cell
interference coordination and rejection technologies, since cost effective
small cell deployment offers the most promising way to increase the
capacity of mobile broadband networks in a focused way.
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3.7 Self Organizing Network and network

architecture evolution with LTE-A
LTE development is not only focusing on air interface performance
enhancements. Cost of deployment and operation can be decreased
with self organizing and optimization (SON) technologies. Automatic
Neighbour Relation (ANR) and Minimization Drive Test (MDT)
technologies have been developed to enable automatic configuration,
optimization of handovers, as well as other radio resource management
parameters. Moreover, other SON technologies are also in the process
of being developed, e.g. for automated fault recovery and energy saving
for complex deployments.
One sub-frame

Macro CSG Femto case

Macro-layer

Victim = Macro UE drowned

by femto interference

HeNB-layer

Requires strict time-synchronization between Macro & HeNBs

Sub-frames with
normal transmission

Almost blank
sub-frame (ABS) only CRS is transmitted

Figure 13: Inter-cell interference reduction with Almost blank sub-frames of TDM eICIC
Some deployment concepts and network architectures are common
for HSPA and LTE: Home base stations are a way to provide reliable and
secure mobile broadband services in home and office environments.
Local Break Out solutions (LIPA and SIPTO) decrease cost of transport
and enable lower end-to-end latency for distributed services. Given the
fact that a majority of mobile broadband networks fall under the domain
of multi-radio networks, common solutions for HSPA+ and LTE-Advanced
translate into lower cost for operators and seamless service experience
for end users.

3.8 Outlook
Development of LTE-Advanced will continue in future 3GPP releases.
Multi-hop and moving relays could increase efficiency in providing
broadband services in high-speed trains and interference cancellation
receivers will improve air interface capacity. Decreasing power
consumption of the network and the user equipment enables the usage
of battery powered devices for machine-to-machine applications wide
bandwidth demand. LTE-A already has means for flexible spectrum
management, self-configuration and multilayer deployments. Once the
spectrum regulation defines the framework for usage of cognitive radio
resource management methods, adoption of these methods can be
easily adopted in LTE-A.
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In real-world network deployments, the described LTE-A system features

are closely related to network element implementation for the complete
base station sites, including transport. Without a compact multiantenna site solution, multiple antenna system technologies cannot
be cost effective. Multi-site CoMP technologies need fast connectivity
between base stations and remote radio heads which can be provided
by modern optical transport solutions and open interface specifications.
Carrier aggregation provides higher system bandwidths which need
wide bandwidth high efficiency power amplifiers in base stations and
terminals. There are various multi-system multi-band combinations
which need tight control of spurious emissions and good receiver
blocking performance.
The new features of LTE-A increase spectrum efficiency and cell edge
performance, thus the bits per Hz ratio increases. This means that the
probability of multi-stream transmission, higher order modulation and
lower coding rates increases, with the consequence that the modulation
accuracy of the transmitters also needs to improve in order to have
sufficiently low inter-symbol interference. Power amplifiers, duplex
filters, transmitters analogue and digital parts etc. have to be in a good
balance and tightly integrated. One example of these dependencies is
the case where the power amplifier of the eNB gets into saturation with
the consequence that the quality of signal deteriorates to an extent that
higher order modulation can not be supported anymore. In that case
the introduction of LTE-A features would not provide the expected
system performance gain. Such balancing considerations are most
relevant in the hot zones of the network, where additional bandwidth
will be needed first.
Many of the new technologies introduced by LTE-A are based on
complex algorithms, so more baseband processing capacity is needed in
both the base stations and the terminals. Fig. 14 summarizes relations
between the evolution of implementation technologies and LTE-A
system technologies.
In fact, suppliers of LTE-A networks need to develop a core competency
in terms of integrating a variety of products to support multiple modes
to deploy the network. Network operation should be reliable and cost
efficient, while maintaining optimum levels of customer satisfaction. In
a majority of cases, there are other wireless and cellular technologies
to inter-work and co-exist with. Therefore the supplier needs to have
a good understanding of LTE-A, its preceding technologies, devices,
services, along with end-user behaviour and expectations.

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More spectrum

Multiband UE and
BTS capability
4-8 antennas in UE

Carrier aggregation
MIMO
enhancements

Multiple power
ampliers in UE

CoMP
Heterogeneous
networks

Optical transport
availability

Baseband
processing
capability

Relays

Multi-antenna
BTS site
Low cost small
BTS

LTE-A
Figure 14: LTE-A new system technologies vs. implementation
technologies

Nokia Networks track record in LTE-A related research

2003 OFDM TDD demonstration 72Mbps (on 20MHz, using Multihop)
2004 Worlds rst OFDM demonstration of 1Gb/s over the air
(100MHz aggregated spectrum, MIMO)
2008 Worlds rst LTE-A relay demonstration
2009 Worlds rst LTE-A eld trial in Berlin
2010 Relay trial for enhanced indoor network performance
2011 Worlds rst LTE-A dynamic carrier aggregation demonstration on commercial LTE BTS on a typical carrier combination
2012: LTE-A carrier aggregation demonstrations on up to 100MHz
of spectrum and data rates beyond 1Gbps
2013: Commercial introduction in all of the worlds rst three
commercially-launched LTE-A networks

LTE-A provides a powerful and versatile toolbox, which helps network

operators to differentiate in mobile broadband user experience and to
increase network efficiency. As the interdependencies between the tools
and the network implementation are complex, an experienced partner
with a holistic view is needed to make the most of this toolbox. The text
box above shows Nokia Networks long track record in LTE-A research.
Combined with its leading role in commercializing LTE, this makes Nokia
Networks the partner of choice when planning and implementing LTE-A.

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Savings in
deployment

Spectrum
eciency

Multi-Layer
Multi-RAT

Multi-Layer

Relays
UL MIMO

LIPA/SIPTO

DL MIMO

SON

CA

SON

DL MIMO
Relays

UL MIMO

CA

Spectrum utilization

Savings in operation

Figure 15: LTE-A toolbox reduces cost and improves performance

4. Summary
LTE-A enables a smooth and backward compatible evolution of LTE
and TD-LTE towards true 4G performance
LTE-A comprises of various tools to enhance mobile broadband user
experience and network efficiency
There are serious interdependencies between network
implementation and the various tools of LTE-A, which require an
experienced partner when planning and implementing LTE-A
Nokia Networks has always been at the forefront of LTE-A research
and development, with a strong focus on real operator opportunities
in terms of efficiency and user experience

Peak rate

Average rate
(capacity)

Cell edge rate

(interference)

Coverage
(noise limited)

Carrier aggregation

++

++

MIMO enhancements*

++
(o)

++
(+)

++
(+)

CoMP**

(+)

(+)

++

Heterogeneous networks

++

++

Relays***

o
(+)

+
(++)

++

* without increasing the number of antennas

** not in LTE Release 10
*** with multiple Relay Nodes per cell

= clear gain
= moderate gain

Figure 16: Radio performance gains of LTE-A system features

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Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their
respective owners.
Nokia
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3,
ESPOO,
Finland
Switchboard +358 71 400 4000
Product code C401-01061-WP-201409-1-EN
Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014

networks.nokia.com