What is LTE?

LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the project name of a new high performance air interface for cellular mobile communication systems. It is the last step toward the 4th generation (4G) of radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks. Where the current generation of mobile telecommunication networks are collectively known as 3G, LTE is marketed as 4G. According to 3GPP, a set of high level requirements was identified

Reduced cost per bit Increased service provisioning more services at lower cost with better user experience Flexibility of use of existing and new frequency bands Simplified architecture, Open interfaces Allow for reasonable terminal power consumption

Figure 1: Roadmap to 4G

Although there are major step changes between LTE and its 3G predecessors, it is nevertheless looked upon as an evolution of the UMTS / 3GPP 3G standards. Although it uses a different form of radio interface, using OFDMA / SC-FDMA instead of CDMA, there are many similarities with the earlier forms of 3G architecture and there is scope for much re-use. LTE can be seen for providing a further evolution of functionality, increased speeds and general improved performance. Table 1: LTE and 3G/3.5G Specification (from NTT docomo Press Release) 3G WCDMA (R99)3.5G HSPA LTE

Frequency Bandwidth Radio Access

Common frequency assigned for 3G 5MHz 5/10/20MHz DL: OFDMA DS-CDMA UL: SC-FDMA Uplink Peak Rate 384kbps 5.7Mbps >50Mbps Downlink Peak Rate384kbps 14Mbps >100Mbps LTE has introduced a number of new technologies when compared to the previous cellular systems. They enable LTE to be able to operate more efficiently with respect to the use of spectrum, and also to provide the much higher data rates that are being required.

OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) OFDM technology has been incorporated into LTE because it enables high data bandwidths to be transmitted efficiently while still providing a high degree of resilience to reflections and interference.

MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) One of the main problems that previous telecommunications systems have encountered is that of multiple signals arising from the many reflections that are encountered. By using MIMO, these additional signal paths can be used to advantage and are able to be used to increase the throughput.

SAE (System Architecture Evolution) With the very high data rate and low latency requirements for 3G LTE, it is necessary to evolve the system architecture to enable the improved performance to be achieved. One change is that a number of the functions previously handled by the core network have been transferred out to the periphery. Essentially this provides a much "flatter" form of network architecture. In this way latency times can be reduced and data can be routed more directly to its destination.

Requirement for LTE

The following target requirements were agreed among operators and vendors at the project to define the evolution of 3G networks started. Peak data rate

Instantaneous downlink peak data rate of 100 Mbps within a 20 MHz downlink spectrum allocation (5 bps/Hz) Instantaneous uplink peak data rate of 50 Mbps (2.5 bps/Hz) within a 20MHz uplink spectrum allocation

Control-plane latency

Transition time of less than 100 ms from a camped state, such as Release 6 Idle Mode, to an active state such as Release 6 CELL_DCH Transition time of less than 50 ms between a dormant state such as Release 6 CELL_PCH and an active state such as Release 6 CELL_DCH

Control-plane capacity

At least 200 users per cell should be supported in the active state for spectrum allocations up to 5 MHz

User-plane latency

Less than 5 ms in unload condition (i.e., single user with single data stream) for small IP packet

User throughput

Downlink: average user throughput per MHz, 3 to 4 times Release 6 HSDPA Uplink: average user throughput per MHz, 2 to 3 times Release 6 Enhanced Uplink

Spectrum efficiency

Downlink: In a loaded network, target for spectrum efficiency (bits/sec/Hz/site), 3 to 4 times Release 6 HSDPA Uplink: In a loaded network, target for spectrum efficiency (bits/sec/Hz/site), 2 to 3 times Release 6 Enhanced Uplink

Mobility

E-UTRAN should be optimized for low mobile speed from 0 to 15 km/h Higher mobile speed between 15 and 120 km/h should be supported with high performance Mobility across the cellular network shall be maintained at speeds from 120 km/h to 350 km/h (or even up to 500 km/h depending on the frequency band)

Coverage

Throughput, spectrum efficiency and mobility targets above should be met for 5 km cells, and with a slight degradation for 30 km cells. Cells range up to 100 km should not be precluded.

Further Enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (MBMS)

While reducing terminal complexity: same modulation, coding, multiple access approaches and UE bandwidth than for unicast operation. Provision of simultaneous dedicated voice and MBMS services to the user.

Available for paired and unpaired spectrum arrangements.

Spectrum flexibility

E-UTRA shall operate in spectrum allocations of different sizes, including 1.25 MHz, 1.6 MHz, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz in both the uplink and downlink. Operation in paired and unpaired spectrum shall be supported The system shall be able to support content delivery over an aggregation of resources including Radio Band Resources (as well as power, adaptive scheduling, etc) in the same and different bands, in both uplink and downlink and in both adjacent and non-adjacent channel arrangements. A "Radio Band Resource" is defined as all spectrum available to an operator

Co-existence and Inter-working with 3GPP Radio Access Technology (RAT)

Co-existence in the same geographical area and co-location with GERAN/UTRAN on adjacent channels. E-UTRAN terminals supporting also UTRAN and/or GERAN operation should be able to support measurement of, and handover from and to, both 3GPP UTRAN and 3GPP GERAN. The interruption time during a handover of real-time services between E-UTRAN and UTRAN (or GERAN) should be less than 300 msec.

Architecture and migration

Single E-UTRAN architecture The E-UTRAN architecture shall be packet based, although provision should be made to support systems supporting real-time and conversational class traffic E-UTRAN architecture shall minimize the presence of "single points of failure" E-UTRAN architecture shall support an end-to-end QoS Backhaul communication protocols should be optimized

Radio Resource Management requirements

Enhanced support for end to end QoS Efficient support for transmission of higher layers Support of load sharing and policy management across different Radio Access Technologies

Complexity

Minimize the number of options No redundant mandatory features

We can find significantly higher data rate (50-100Mbps) and faster connection times as most remarkable requirements relative to 3G/3.5G. In order to achieve the high data rate, 3GPP

decided to use OFDMA and MIMO together for radio access technology. LTE also introduce scheduling for shared channel data, HARQ and AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding).

SAE Technology
System Architecture Evolution (SAE) is the network architecture and designed to simplify the network to other IP based communications network. SAE uses an eNB and Access Gateway (aGW) and removes the RNC and SGSN from the equivalent 3G network architecture, to make a simpler mobile network. This allows the network to be built as an All-IP based network architecture. SAE also includes entities to allow full inter-working with other related wireless technology (WCDMA, WiMAX, WLAN, etc.). These entities can specifically manage and permit the non-3GPP technologies to interface directly into the network and be managed from within the same network. Figure 2: SAE (System Architecture Evolution) and LTE Network

Figure 3: LTE Network

Figure 4: Bearer Services in LTE/SAE Network

E-UTRAN Architecture

In order to achieve the requirements in previous section, the LTE radio access network EUTRAN architecture is improved dynamically from 3G/3.5G radio access network UTRAN. It has been changed to be flat from legacy hierarchy mobile network architecture. The functions of eNB in E-UTRAN include not only base station (NodeB) to terminate radio interface but also Radio Network Controller (RNC) to manage radio resource. According to 3GPP TR 25.912, E-UTRAN is described as follows. The evolved UTRAN consists of eNB, providing the evolved UTRAN U-plane and C-plane protocol terminations towards the UE. The eNBs are interconnected with each other by means of the X2 interfaces. It is assumed that there always exist an X2 interface between the eNBs that need to communicate with each other, e.g., for support of handover of UEs in LTE_ACTIVE. The eNBs are also connected by means of the S1 interface to the EPC (Evolved Packet Core). The S1 interface supports a many-to-many relation between aGWs and eNBs. Figure 5: E-UTRAN Architecture

Protocol Stack
C-plane protocol stack on Uu and S1-C interfaces is shown in Figure 6. Figure 6: C-plane Protocol Stack on Uu (UE/eNB) and S1-C (eNB/MME)

C-plane protocol stack on Uu and X2-C interfaces is shown in Figure 7. Figure 7: C-plane Protocol Stack on X2-C (eNB/eNB)

U-plane protocol stack on Uu and S1-U interfaces is shown in Figure 8. Figure 8: U-plane Protocol Stack on Uu (UE/eNB) and S1-U (eNB/MME)

C-plane protocol stack on Uu and X2-U interfaces is shown in Figure 9. Figure 9: U-plane Protocol Stack between eNB/eNB

Physical Interface
According to Overview of 3GPP, LTE radio access technology is described as follows: The multiple access scheme for the LTE physical layer is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM) with a Cyclic Prefix (CP) in the downlink and a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) with CP in the uplink. OFDMA technique is particularly suited for frequency selective channel and high data rate. It transforms a wideband frequency selective channel into a set of parallel flat fading narrowband channels, thanks to CP. This ideally, allows the receiver to perform a low complex equalization process in frequency domain, i.e., 1 tap scalar equalization. The baseband signal representing a downlink physical channel is defined in terms of the following steps:

scrambling of coded bits in each of the code words to be transmitted on a physical channel modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued modulation symbols mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one or several transmission layers precoding of the complex-valued modulation symbols on each layer for transmission on the antenna ports mapping of complex-valued modulation symbols for each antenna port to resource elements generation of complex-valued time-domain OFDM signal for each antenna port

The baseband signal representing the physical uplink shared channel is defined in terms of the following steps, as shown in the below figure:

scrambling modulation of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued symbols transform precoding to generate complex-valued symbols

mapping of complex-valued symbols to resource elements generation of complex-valued time-domain SC-FDMA signal for each antenna port

Figure 10: Overview of downlink physical channel processing.

Figure 11: Overview of uplink physical channel processing.

OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)

One of the key elements of LTE is the use of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex) as the signal bearer and the associated access schemes, OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) and SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access). OFDM is used in a number of other of systems from WLAN, WiMAX to broadcast technologies including DVB and DAB. OFDM has many advantages including its robustness to multipath fading and interference. In addition to this, even though, it may appear to be a particularly complicated form of modulation, it lends itself to digital signal processing techniques. In view of its advantages, the use of ODFM and the associated access technologies, OFDMA and SCFDMA are natural choices for the new LTE cellular standard. OFDM is a form of transmission that uses a large number of close spaced carriers that are modulated with low rate data. Normally these signals would be expected to interfere with each other, but by making the signals orthogonal to each another there is no mutual interference. This is achieved by having the carrier spacing equal to the reciprocal of the symbol period. This means that when the signals are demodulated they will have a whole number of cycles in the symbol period and their contribution will sum to zero - in other words there is no interference contribution. The data to be transmitted is split across all the carriers and this means that by using error correction techniques, if some of the carriers are lost due to multi-path effects, then the data can be reconstructed. Additionally having data carried at a low rate across all the carriers means that the effects of reflections and inter-symbol interference can be overcome. It also means that single frequency networks, where all transmitters can transmit on the same channel, can be implemented. Figure 12: OFDMA

MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output)

MIMO is being used increasingly in many high data rate technologies including Wi-Fi and other wireless and cellular technologies to provide improved levels of efficiency. Essentially MIMO employs multiple antennas on the receiver and transmitter to utilize the multi-path effects that always exist to transmit additional data, rather than causing interference. The schemes employed in LTE again vary slightly between the uplink and downlink. The reason for this is to keep the terminal cost low as there are far more terminals than base stations and as a result terminal works cost price is far more sensitive. For the downlink, a configuration of two transmit antennas at the base station and two receive antennas on the mobile terminal is used as baseline, although configurations with four antennas are also being considered. For the uplink from the mobile terminal to the base station, a scheme called MU-MIMO (MultiUser MIMO) is to be employed. Using this, even though the base station requires multiple antennas, the mobiles only have one transmit antenna and this considerably reduces the cost of the mobile. In operation, multiple mobile terminals may transmit simultaneously on the same channel or channels, but they do not cause interference to each other because mutually orthogonal pilot patterns are used. This techniques is also referred to as spatial domain multiple access (SDMA). Figure 13: 2 x 2 MIMO Channel Matrix

Physical Channel Structure

Downlink physical channels and downlink physical signals are as follows. Downlink physical channels carry layer 2 information but downlink physical signals are only used by the physical layer. Downlink physical channels:

Physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) Carries the DL-SCH and PCH. DL-SCH contains actual user data. Physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) Informs the UE about the resource allocation of PCH and DL-SCH, and HARQ information related to DL-SCH. Carries the uplink scheduling grant. Physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) Carries ACK/NACKs in response to uplink transmissions. Physical control format indicator channel(PCFICH) Informs the UE about the number of OFDM symbols used for the PDCCHs; Transmitted in every subframe. Physical broadcast channel (PBCH) The coded BCH transport block is mapped to four subframes within a 40 ms interval.

Downlink physical signals:

Reference signal Synchronization signal (P-SS and S-SS)

Downlink physical channel and downlink physical signal structure is shown in Figure 14 Figure 14: Downlink Physical Channel Structure

Back to top | Next page Uplink physical channels and uplink physical signals are as follows. Uplink physical channels carries layer 2 information but uplink physical signals are only used by the physical layer. Uplink physical channels:

Physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) Carries the UL-SCH, ACK/NACK and CQI. UL-SCH contains actual user data. Physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) Carries ACK/NACKs in response to downlink transmission. Carries CQI (Channel Quality Indicator) report and SR (Scheduling Request). Physical random access channel (PRACH) Carries random access preamble.

Uplink physical signals:

Demodulation reference signal (UL-RS), associated with transmission of PUSCH and PUCCH. Sounding reference signal (SRS), not associated with transmission of PUSCH and PUCCH.

Uplink physical channel and uplink physical signal structure is shown in Figure 15. Figure 15: Uplink Physical Channel Structure

Layer 2
Transport channels, Layer2 structure, Logical channels, and the procedures are introduced in this section. Transport Channels Downlink transport channel types are:

Broadcast Channel (BCH) characterized by: o fixed, pre-defined transport format o requirement to be broadcast in the entire coverage area of the cell. Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH) characterized by: o support for HARQ o support for dynamic link adaptation by varying the modulation, coding and transmit power o possibility to be broadcast in the entire cell o possibility to use beamforming o support for both dynamic and semi-static resource allocation o support for UE discontinuous reception (DRX) to enable UE power saving. Paging Channel (PCH) characterized by: o support for UE discontinuous reception (DRX) to enable UE power saving (DRX cycle is indicated by the network to the UE) o requirement to be broadcast in the entire coverage area of the cell

mapped to physical resources which can be used dynamically also for traffic/other control channels.

Multicast Channel (MCH) (from Release 9) characterized by: o requirement to be broadcast in the entire coverage area of the cell o support for MBSFN combining of MBMS transmission on multiple cells o support for semi-static resource allocation e.g., with a time frame of a long cyclic prefix.

Uplink transport channel types are:

Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH) characterized by: o possibility to use beamforming (likely no impact on specifications) o support for dynamic link adaptation by varying the transmit power and potentially modulation and coding o support for HARQ o support for both dynamic and semi-static resource allocation. Random Access Channel(s) (RACH) characterized by: o limited control information o collision risk

Layer 2 Structure
According to 3GPP, Layer 2 structure consists of PDCP/RLC/MAC layers. Transport channels are located between physical layer and MAC layer. MAC multiplexes RLC links and scheduling and priority handling serving via logical channels. Layer 2 downlink and uplink structures are shown in Figure 16 and Figure 17. Figure 16: Layer 2 Downlink Structure

Figure 17: Layer 2 Uplink Structure

Logical Channels

According to 3GPP, several types of data transfer services are offered by MAC. Each logical channel type is defined by the type of information to be transferred. A general classification of logical channels is into two groups:

Control Channels (for the transfer of control plane information) Traffic Channels (for the transfer of user plane information).

Control Channels: Control channels are used for transfer of control plane information only. The control channels offered by MAC are:

Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) A downlink channel for broadcasting system control information. Paging Control Channel (PCCH) A downlink channel that transfers paging information and system information change notifications. This channel is used for paging when the network does not know the location cell of the UE. Common Control Channel (CCCH) Channel for transmitting control information between UEs and network. This channel is used for UEs having no RRC connection with the network. Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH) A point-to-point bi-directional channel that transmits dedicated control information between a UE and the network. Used by UEs having an RRC connection.

Traffic Channels: Traffic channels are used for the transfer of user plane information only. The traffic channels offered by MAC are:

Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH) A Dedicated Traffic Channel (DTCH) is a point-to-point channel, dedicated to one UE, for the transfer of user information. A DTCH can exist in both uplink and downlink. Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH) (from Release 9) A point-to-multipoint downlink channel for transmitting traffic data from the network to the UE. This channel is only used by UEs that receive MBMS.

The figure below depicts the mapping between logical channels, transport channels and physical channels for downlink and uplink: Figure 18: Downlink Channel Mapping

Figure 19: Uplink Channel Mapping

RRC Protocol
According to 3GPP TS 36.331, the RRC protocol includes the following main functions:

Broadcast of system information: o Including NAS common information o Information applicable for UEs in RRC_IDLE, e.g., cell (re-)selection parameters, neighboring cell information and information (also) applicable for UEs in RRC_CONNECTED, e.g., common channel configuration information. o Including ETWS notification RRC connection control:

Paging Establishment/modification/release of RRC connection, including e.g., assignment/ modification of UE identity (C-RNTI), establishment/ modification/ release of SRB1 and SRB2, access class barring o Initial security activation, i.e., initial configuration of AS integrity protection (SRBs) and AS ciphering (SRBs, DRBs) o RRC connection mobility including e.g., intra-frequency and inter-frequency handover, associated security handling, i.e., key/ algorithm change, specification of RRC context information transferred between network nodes o Establishment/ modification/ release of RBs carrying user data (DRBs) o Radio configuration control including e.g., assignment/ modification of ARQ configuration, HARQ configuration, DRX configuration o QoS control including assignment/ modification of semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration information for DL and UL, assignment/ modification of parameters for UL rate control in the UE, i.e., allocation of a priority and a prioritized bit rate (PBR) for each RB o Recovery from radio link failure Inter-RAT mobility including e.g., security activation, transfer of RRC context information Measurement configuration and reporting: o Establishment/ modification/ release of measurements (e.g., intra-frequency, inter-frequency and inter- RAT measurements) o Setup and release of measurement gaps o Measurement reporting o Other functions including e.g., transfer of dedicated NAS information and non3GPP dedicated information, transfer of UE radio access capability information, support for E-UTRAN sharing (multiple PLMN identities) o Generic protocol error handling o Support of self-configuration and self-optimization

o o

NOTE: Random access is specified entirely in the MAC including initial transmission power estimation. Figure 20 : RRC States (from 3GPP TS 36.331)

Signaling Radio Bearers (SRB) are defined as Radio bearers that are used only to transmit RRC and NAS messages. SRBs are classified into Signaling Radio Bearer 0: SRB0: RRC message using CCCH logical channel. Signaling Radio Bearer 1: SRB1: is for transmitting NAS messages over DCCH logical channel. Signaling Radio Bearer 2: SRB2: is for high priority RRC messages. Transmitted over DCCH logical channel.