Chapter 3

LTE Ch
Channels
l & Ph
Physical
Physicali lLayer Processing

Outline
2.1 Radio Protocol Architecture
2.2 Channel Mapping
2.3 DL Physical
y
Layer
y Processing
g
2.4 UL Physical Layer Processing

Overall System Architecture

C: control-plane
U: user traffic-plane
X2: multi-cell radio resource
management (RRM)
(e.g., Inter-Cell Interference
Coordination (ICIC))
Core Network

Radio Access Network ((RAN))

Overall RAN Protocol Architecture

PHY(Physical Layer): handle physical-layer (MOD, CODEC)

MAC(Media Access Control): handle multiplexing, HARQ, and scheduling
functions
RLC(Radio Link Control): handle segmentation and in-sequence delivery functions
PDCP(P k t Data
PDCP(Packet
D t Convergence
C
P
Protocol):
t
l) perform
f
IP header
h d compression
i &
ciphering
RRC(Radio Resource Control): handle RAN-related (SI broadcast, paging)
procedures
NAS(Non-Access Stratum): handle non-RAN-related (authentication, security,)
procedures from UE to MME
4

LTE Protocol Architecture (downlink)

Example of LTE Data Flow

An example of DL data flow with three IP packets, two
on one radio bearer and one on another

Radio Link Control

Radio-Link
RLC is responsible for segmentation & concatenation
of IP packets (RLC SDU) from the PDCP into suitably
sized RLC PDU (packet data unit)
It also handles retransmission of erroneous PDUs
Finally RLC ensures in-sequence delivery of SDUs to
upper layers
l

Medium Access Control

Medium-Access
MAC layer handles logical-channel multiplexing, HARQ
retransmission, uplink, and downlink scheduling
A logic channel is defined by the type of information it carries
and is generally classified as control channels and traffic
channels
MAC layer
y uses service in the form of transport
p channel from
PHY layer
A transport channel is defined by how and with what
characteristics the information is transmitted
Data on a transport channel is organized into TBs (transport
blocks) In each TTI
blocks).
TTI, at most one TB is to be transmitted over
the radio interface (SISO case)
Associated with each TB is a TF ((transport
p format),
), specifying
p
y g
how the TB is transmitted
8

MAC header and PDU multiplexing

MAC operation in multiple component carriers

Control element: time-advance command & randomaccess response

Scheduler is part of MAC layer and controls the

assignment of uplink and downlink resources, i.e.,
resource-block pairs (Resource block : time-frequency
unit
it (1
(1ms x 180kH
180kHz))
))

Transport-format selection in DL and UL

10

Downlink Channel Mapping

11

Downlink Channel Summary

12

Physical Channels to Support DL

13

Uplink Channel Mapping

14

Uplink Channel Summary

15

Physical Channels to Support UL

16

Physical Layer Processing of DL

Physical-Layer
DL-SCH
SCH

17

CRC Insertion & Segmentation

The Turbo-coder only allows a limited number of codeblock sizes. Thus transport block is needed to be
segmented into smaller code block.
CRC per code block allows a early detection of
erroneous code block

18

Turbo Encoder
Turbo coding is used for DL-SCH, PCH & MCH

A maximum contention free QPP (Quadrature

Permutation Polynominal) interleaver is used

19

Rate Matching & HARQ

The task of RM & physical-layer HARQ is to fit the
blocks of code bits into the exact set of code bits in a
given TTI/subframe

20

Bit level Scrambling

Bit-level
The purpose of bit-level scrambling is to avoid the
interference from neighboring cells
Bit-level scrambling is performed by multiplying
(exclusive-or operation) the coded bits with a scrambling
sequence

21

Modulation Scheme for LTE

DL Channel

UL Channel

22

Adaptive Modulation for Data Channel

23

DL L1/L2 Control Region

The control region always occupies the first one, two,
or three OFDM symbols
DL L1/L2 consists of
PCFICH: inform the size of control region
PDCCH: DL scheduling assignments & UL scheduling
grantt
PHICH: HARQ acknowledgement

Numbering of resource-element groups

in the control region
24

PCIFICH (1/2)
PCIFICH (Physical Control Format Indicator Channel)
consists of 2 bits, indicating the control size region
PCIFICH is divided into 4 REG (Resource Element
Group) and is mapped to the first symbol of each
subframe

25

PCIFICH (2/2)
4 REGs are spread to achieve frequency diversity

26

PHICH
Used for transmitting HARQ ACK in response to ULSCH
Each PHICH is code spread on multiple Res to reduce
power differences between Res (PHICH can be
dynamically power adjusted to reduce error rate)

27

PDCCH
PDCCH is used to carry DCI (downlink control
information) including
DL scheduling assignments
UL scheduling grants
Power control commands

LTE allows distributed RB allocation (type

(
0 & 1)) as
well as localized RB allocation (type 2)

28

29

PDCCH Processing

30

CCE Aggregation & PDCCH Multiplexing

CCE is a convenient name for a set of 36 Res to allow
simple and efficient processing in UEs

31

Example of PCFICH, PHICH & PDCCH

Mapping

32

Physical Layer Processing of UL

Physical-Layer
UL-SCH
SCH

DFT precoding K blocks of M modulation

symbols.

Physical-layer processing for UL-SCH.

33

Uplink Physical Resource Mapping

Frequency contiguous mapping is preferred to retain
good PAPR properties

In R10, two frequency-separated clusters are

introduced to increase scheduler flexibility

34

PUSCH Frequency Hopping

A consecutive sub-bands are defined to support
frequency hopping
Pre-defined (explicit) frequency hopping
Cell-specific frequency hopping

35

Hopping according to predefined hopping pattern

Hopping/mirroring
H
i / i
i according
di tto predefined
d fi d h
hopping/mirroring
i / i
i patterns.
tt
Same hopping pattern as in upper
36

UL L1/L2 Control Signal on PUCCH

UL L1/L2 control signaling consists of HARQ
acknowledgement, channel state report to assist DL
scheduling, and scheduling request
When the terminal doesnt have a valid scheduling
grant, PUCCH is used for control signal transmission
PUCCH are placed
l
d att th
the edge
d off overallll spectrum
t
Maximum frequency diversity
Not to fragment the UL spectrum for data transmission

37

UL L1/L2 Control Signal on PUSCH

Channel state report and HARQ ack are transmitted by
time multiplexing with PUSCH
HARQ ack is placed close to reference signal for better
quality channel estimates
Also RI is closer to reference signal for more protection

38