10 1 1 63 7134 PDF

E-UTRA RACH within the LTE system
ROMAIN MASSON
Masters Degree Project

Stockholm, Sweden 2006-02-03
XR-EE-KT 2006:002
This page intentionally contains only this sentence.
Abstract
The thesis project has been carried out at the standardization department of
LG Electronic Mobile Comm. LG is a member of 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), the organization which standardizes UMTS (Universal Mobile
Telecommunication Services). The third generation (3G) mobile telecommunication systems are deployed and the need of 3G long term evolution (LTE) is
pointed out to meet the future demand. This evolution is based on a new air
interface. Several new technology components such as OFDM are presented as
potential candidates. Members of 3GPP are currently considering the evolution
of the radio access technology in order to ensure their competitiveness. One field
of research concerns the Physical Random Access Channel (RACH), used during the initial access. This project proposes to analyze the new requirements, to
highlight the new air interface candidates, to compare different channel designs
and to provide a first examination of the subject.
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank Patrick Fischer and Dragan Vujcic for their
advice, their time and for giving me the chance to perform my Master Thesis
as part of the standardization team at LG Electronic Mobile Comm. I would
also like to show gratitude to the whole S&AT (Standardization and Advanced
Technology) group for their warm welcome and hospitality. I was very pleased
to work in such a pleasant working environment. Last but not least, I would
like to thank my examiner at KTH, Erik Larsson, and my advisor Xi Zhang.
Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.1 3GPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.2 LTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.3 RACH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Problem definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.1 A new air interface . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.2 Several possible scenarios . . . . . . . . .
1.2.3 Requirements and RACH purpose . . . .
1.2.4 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Research approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.1 Multiple Access protocols . . . . . . . . .
1.3.2 Air interface analysis . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.3 Existing random access channels analysis
1.3.4 List different scenarios . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.5 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.6 Evaluation and Analysis . . . . . . . . . .
2 Multiple Access Protocols
2.1 General . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 The pure Aloha protocol . .
2.3 The Slotted Aloha protocol
2.4 The CSMA protocol . . . .
2.5 The Reservation protocols .
2.6 Temporary conclusion . . .
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3 Air interface candidates for uplink access

3.1 Basic OFDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1.1 Properties and main advantages . .
3.1.2 The key elements: IFFT/FFT . . .
3.1.3 The need of a cyclic prefix . . . . . .
3.1.4 OFDMA: OFDM for multiple access
3.2 DFTs OFDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 IFDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 General comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Contents
4 Existing random access procedures

4.1 RACH procedure within UMTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.1 RACH purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.2 Collision handling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.3 The power ramping technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.4 Format of the preambles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.5 Format of the message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.6 RACH access procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Ranging procedure within WiMax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.1 Wimax overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.2 Ranging overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.3 Ranging procedure within the WirelessMAN OFDMA PHY
4.2.4 Signatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.5 Ranging signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5 RACH design within LTE

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5.1 Discussion on the RACH purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.1 Timing adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1.2 Power adjustments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.1.3 Resource request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2 Discussion on the transmission method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.2.1 Signature and payload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.2.2 Transmission band assigned to random and reservation
access channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5.2.3 Transmission bandwidth allocated to a UE random access 37
5.2.4 Transmission duration and random access period . . . . . 37
5.3 Signal parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.4 Power ramping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.5 Frequency hopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.6 Signature format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.7 Subcarriers mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.8 Random access procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.8.1 UE procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.8.2 NodeB procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
6 Implementation and Simulation
6.1 System overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2 Channel modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2.1 Frequency selective and Time varying channel
6.2.2 Additive white noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2.3 Shadowing variance . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3 Detection analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3.1 Time domain detection . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3.2 Frequency domain detection . . . . . . . . . .
6.4 Simulation results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.1 Threshold tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.4.2 Impact of the number of symbols . . . . . . .
6.4.3 Allocated bandwidth to random access . . . .
6.4.4 Subcarriers mapping analysis . . . . . . . . .
6.4.5 Impact of the delay between two attempts . .
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Contents
6.4.6
6.4.7
6.4.8
Improvement with frequency hopping . . . . . . . . . . .

Power ramping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Impact of the shadowing variance . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7 Conclusion and Future work

References
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List of Tables
4.1
Hadamard codes of length 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
5.1
5.2
System parameters for uplink transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Particular scenario for random access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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6.1
Typical Urban channel profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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List of Figures
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
The pure Aloha protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The vulnerable period of the basic Aloha protocol . . . . . . .
The vulnerable period of the slotted Aloha protocol . . . . . .
The hidden terminal problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The basic detection avoidance procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Illustration of the CSMA-CA protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PRMA protocol in the case of 6 slots per frame . . . . . . . . .
Reservation Aloha: example of transmission . . . . . . . . . . .
Temporary solution: a subframe is dedicated to random access
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3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
Principle of the OFDM method . . .

Basis functions in OFDM system . .
Basic OFDM transmission . . . . . .
Typical channel impulse response . .
Adding a cyclic prefix to a frame . .
Frequency multiplexing using OFDM
DFTs OFDMA transmitter . . . . .
Sub carriers allocation schemes . . .
IFDMA signal . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
4.10
4.11
4.12
Overview of the RACH procedure within UMTS . .

Power ramping technique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes
MAC procedure for a RACH access with UMTS . .
Physical procedure for a RACH access with UMTS .
Network entry procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WiMAX TDD mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ranging opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OFDMA PHY ranging procedure . . . . . . . . . . .
The PRBS generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Initial ranging signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Initial ranging block scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
Timing offset caused by the round trip delay . . . . . . . . . . .

Resource request after being synchronized . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The resource request could be part of the RACH signal . . . . .
One to one correspondance between the sets of signature and the
available resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transmission band assigned to random acces . . . . . . . . . . .
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5.5
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List of Figures
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9
The necessary guard time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Illustration of a basic transmission in system bandwidth of 10 MHz
Frequency hopping principle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Impact of the mapping on the autocorrelation function . . . . . .
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6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
6.10
6.11
System overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Multipath radio environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The TU channel impulse response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The scattering nature of the paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Jakes coefficients used in a multipath scheme . . . . . . . . .
Additive white Gaussian noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A signature is defined as a code and a frequency band . . . . . .
Correlators at the NodeB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The NodeB procedure when detecting in the frequency domain .
Averaging procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Several sets of FFT/IFFT are performed to detect the presence
of a signature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Threshold tuning: missing probabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Threshold tuning: false alarm rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The impact of the number of OFDM symbols on the detection rate
The impact of the transmission bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Timing estimation error variance for each mapping scheme . . . .
Impact of the delay between two attempts . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gain of performance with frequency hopping at 3km/h, BW =
500 kHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gain of performance with frequency hopping at 3km/h, BW =
1.25 MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gain of performance with frequency hopping at 3km/h, BW = 5
MHz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gain of performance with power ramping . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Impact of the difference between uplink and downlink shadow
fading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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6.12
6.13
6.14
6.15
6.16
6.17
6.18
6.19
6.20
6.21
6.22
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List of Abbreviations
3GPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A
ACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ADSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
AICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ARIB/TTC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Third Generation Partnership Project
ATIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgment packet
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Acquisition Indicator
Acquisition Indication Channel
Association of Radio Industries and Business /
Telecommunication Technology Committee
Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
B
BCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BPSK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
BS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Broadcast Channel
Binary Phase Shift Keying
Base Station
C
CA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CAZAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CCSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CSMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Collision Avoidance
Constant Amplitude Zero Auto Correlation sequence
China Communications Standards Association
Collision Detection
Code Division Multiple Access
Connection Identifier
Cyclic Prefix
Carrier Sense Multiple Access
Clear To Send packet
D
DFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
DFTs OFDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Digital Fourier Transform

DFT spread OFDMA
E
EDGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E-UTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ETSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution

Evolved UTRA
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
F
15
16
FDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
FFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Frequency Division Multiple Access

Fast Fourier Transform
H
HSDPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
High Speed Downlink Packet Access
I
ICI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IEEE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IFDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IFFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ISI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Inter Channel Interference

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Interleaved Frequency Division Multiple Access
Inverse Fast Fourier Transform
Inter Symbol Interference
L
LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LFSR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Local Area Network

Linear Feedback Shift Register
Long Term Evolution
M
MAC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Medium Access Control
N
NACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Negative Acknowledgment
O
OFDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OFDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
P
PAPR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PRBS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PRMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Peak to Average Power Ratio

Pseudo Random Binary Sequence
Packet Reservation Multiple Access
Q
QAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
QPSK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
R
RACH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RNG-REQ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RNG-RES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Random Access Channel

Ranging Request
Ranging Response
Request To Send
S
SIM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SNR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Subscriber Identity Module

Signal to Noise Ratio
Subscriber Station
17
T
TDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TTA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TTI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
TU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Time Division Multiple Access

Telecommunication Technology Association
Transmission Time Interval
Typical Urban
U
UE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UMTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
User Equipement
Uplink Channel Descriptor
Universal Mobile Telecommunication System
UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1
1.1.1
Background
3GPP
The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement

that was founded in December 1998. Its a co-operation between ETSI (Europe), ARIB/TTC (Japan), CCSA (China), ATIS (North America) and TTA
(South Korea). Several hundred companies from around the world participate
as Individual Members. The scope of 3GPP is to make a globally applicable
third generation (3G) mobile phone system specification. This organization is
to produce a complete set of applicable Technical Specifications and Reports
for:
UMTS: 3G systems based on the evolved GSM core network and the
Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) in FDD and TDD mode.
GSM including evolved GSM radio access technologies (GPRS, EDGE).
3GPP prepares and maintains specifications for several technologies, especially:
GSM, GPRS, EDGE
W-CDMA -FDD (Wide band CDMA Frequency Division Duplex)
TD-CDMA -TDD (Time Division CDMA Time Division Duplex)
The good aspect of 3GPP is the centralization of the standards. Indeed, a
single organization for these technologies ensures global interoperability.
1.1.2
LTE
With enhancements such as HSDPA and Enhanced Uplink, the 3GPP radioaccess technology will be highly competitive for several years. However, to
ensure competitiveness for the next 10 years and beyond, a long-term evolution
of the 3GPP radio-access technology needs to be considered.
1
Chapter 1. Introduction
The standardization department at LG (3GPP member), where this project

is conducted, is currently working on the 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE).
Important parts of such a long-term evolution include reduced latency, higher
user data rates, improved system capacity and coverage, and reduced cost for
the operator. In order to achieve this, an evolution of the radio interface as
well as the radio network architecture will be considered. Considering a desire
for even higher data rates and also taking into account future additional 3G
spectrum allocations the long-term 3GPP evolution will include an evolution
towards support for wider transmission bandwidth than 5 MHz. At the same
time, support for transmission bandwidths of 5 MHz and less than 5 MHz will be
investigated in order to allow for more flexibility in whichever frequency bands
the system may be deployed. The main objectives of LTE are then:
Significantly increased peak data rate e.g. 100 Mbps (downlink) and 50
Mbps (uplink)
Significantly improved spectrum efficiency
Reduced latency
Scaleable bandwidth
5, 10, 20 and possibly 15 MHz
1.25 and 2.5 MHz: to allow flexibility in narrow spectral allocations
where the system may be deployed
Reasonable system and terminal complexity, cost, and power consumption
1.1.3
RACH
The Random Access Channel is a contention-based channel for initial uplink

transmission, i.e. from UE (User Equipment) to NodeB (base station). This
channel can be used for several purposes. The RACH function is different
depending on the technology of the system. The RACH can be used to access
the network, to request resources, to carry control information, to adjust the
time offset of the uplink, to adjust the transmitted power, etc. It can even
be used to transmit small amounts of data. Contention resolution is the key
feature of the random access channel. Many UE can attend to access a same
base simultaneously, leading to collisions.
1.2
1.2.1
Problem definition
A new air interface
One of the main changes in the LTE system compared to UMTS is the air
interface. The way to modulate the signal is completely different. In the third
generation systems, WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is
the most widely adopted technology. We propose to highlight the characteristic
items of WCDMA:
1.2. Problem definition
User information bits are spread over a wide bandwidth by multiplying

the user data with a spreading code. The use of variable spreading factor
allows a variation of the bit rate (up to 2Mbps).
The carrier bandwidth is approximately 5 MHz. The chip rate used is 3.84
Mcps. A network operator can deploy multiple 5 MHz bands to increase
capacity.
The frame length is 10ms. During this phase, the user data rate is kept
constant. However the data capacity among the users can change from
frame to frame.
In the LTE system, this will be very different. The new system will present
an OFDM based structure. Different candidates are likely to be the new air interface. So far, OFDMA (OFDM Access) is very likely to be used on downlink.
However, on uplink, the decision is not made by now. IFDMA (Interleaved
Frequency Division Multiplexing Access) and DFTs OFDMA (DFT spread
OFDMA) seems to be the two best candidates. We will explain the details
of these modulations in the section 5.
1.2.2
Several possible scenarios
The RACH design for LTE is just initiated. A few contributions have been
shared and are discussed in the 3GPP meetings. This project intends to give an
overview of the actual discussion and to investigate some possible scenarios. By
now, there is no unique solution. Everything is under reflection. The subject is
still widely open, hence there is no use considering a particular random access
scheme. The purpose of the project is to analyze a number of design parameters
in order to find out the more probable configurations.
1.2.3
Requirements and RACH purpose
The LTE requirements concerning the RACH are different from the UMTS ones.
While the RACH as defined in the 3G systems is mainly used to register the
terminal after power-on to the network, the LTE RACH will have to deal with
new constraints.
In an OFDM based system, orthogonal messages can be sent. This leads to
a new way of designing the physical layer. A major challenge in such a system is
to maintain uplink orthogonality among UEs. Hence both frequency and time
synchronization of the transmitted signals from the UEs are needed. Frequency
synchronization can be achieved by fixing the UE local oscillator to the downlink
broadcast signal. The remaining frequency misalignment at the Node B is due
to Doppler, which cannot be estimated nor compensated and hence requires no
further consideration. However, the timing estimation has to be performed by
the NodeB when measuring the received signal. This can be achieved during a
random access. The UE can then receive a timing advance command from the
NodeB and adjust its uplink transmission timing accordingly.
Consequently one purpose of the LTE random access procedure is to obtain
uplink time synchronization.
1.2.4
Chapter 1. Introduction
Design
The project proposes to give an idea of the RACH design within the LTE system.
By considering the 3GPP contributions and by analyzing the new physical layer
properties, a first approach can be completed.
1.3
1.3.1
Research approach
Multiple Access protocols
In order to investigate the design of the channel, it is first proposed to study

a number of multiple access protocols. Methods such as ALOHA, Slotted
ALOHA, CSMA, PRMA, and Reservation ALOHA are highlighted and examined. Certain protocols are used in existing standards. Their feasibility mainly
depends on the system.
1.3.2
Air interface analysis
Obviously, it appears essential to examine the candidates for the new air interface. A theoretical analysis of each candidate for the uplink transmission
(IFDMA and DFTs OFDMA) has been achieved and is presented. These two
modulation schemes have a particular frequency structure and it is interesting
to see how the signal is created.
1.3.3
Existing random access channels analysis
An efficient way to learn how to design the new channel was to examine the
existing procedures in several systems. Much time has been spent to analyze
the UMTS RACH procedure and the WiMax ranging procedure. This phase
was an essential part of the study and was extremely helpful to understand the
problematic.
1.3.4
List different scenarios
According to the 3GPP contributions on the subject and the previous analysis,
a set of different scenarios has been achieved. These configurations try to fit
the LTE requirements and the 3GPP members ideas. Each situation is tested
and compared to the others. The goal is to obtain primary results to help the
design of the channel.
1.3.5
Implementation
All the simulations are performed using Matlab 7.1 with the Signal Processing
and the Communication System Toolboxes. The purpose of the program should
not be restricted to the RACH transmission. Indeed, it should be used for further researches by the Standardization team at LG MobileComm. The program
contains a GUI which allows the user to tune some parameters before launching
a simulation.
1.3. Research approach
1.3.6
Evaluation and Analysis
The last part of the project consists obviously in evaluating each scenario. The
design of a RACH implementation has to balance a number of factors e.g. detection probability, false alarm probability, time offset estimation and latency.
Within the limitations set by the air interface it is necessary to optimize these
parameters to system requirements.
Chapter 2
Multiple Access Protocols

2.1
General
The RACH is a shared channel, i.e. several UEs are allowed to use it at the
same time. The key problem is that many UE can attend to access a same
base simultaneously, leading to collisions. To make a transmission successful,
interference must be avoided or at least controlled.
There exist two types of multiple access protocols: the conflict-free and the
contention protocols. Conflict-free protocols are those ensuring a successful
transmission, whenever made, for the reason that it will not be interfered by
another transmission. Conflict-free transmission can be achieved by allocating
the channel resources (in time or frequency slots) to the users. Examples of
conflict free protocols are TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access) and FDMA
(Frequency Division Multiple Access). In a contention scheme, a transmission
is not guaranteed to be successful. Hence, the protocol must stipulate a way to
resolve conflicts so that all messages are eventually transmitted successfully.
2.2
The pure Aloha protocol
t
Waits for acknowledgment
Random
Figure 2.1: The pure Aloha protocol

The pure Aloha protocol is the most basic in the family of the Aloha protocols. Whenever a UE has a packet to send, it transmits it via the channel,
hoping for no collision. If the transmission is not successful, each colliding user
schedules its retransmission to a random time in the future. The randomness
7
Chapter 2. Multiple Access Protocols
helps to ensure that the packets do not continue to collide indefinitely. To know
if a packet has been received or not, the UE waits for an acknowledgment from
the NodeB.
The pure Aloha protocol is not efficient in the sense that the vulnerable
period is two packet long (see Figure 2.2 ). For this reason, collisions are very
probable and the capacity of the channel considerably reduced. A simple way
to improve the principle is to use the Slotted Aloha protocol.
if another packet is sent

during this period: collision
Figure 2.2: The vulnerable period of the basic Aloha protocol
2.3
The Slotted Aloha protocol
The slotted Aloha protocol is characterized by a slotted channel, i.e. time is

divided into time slots and the UEs are restricted to start transmission at the
beginning of a time slot. The slot size has to be larger than the packet duration.
This method reduces by half the vulnerable period and leads to much better
results. It is used within the UMTS system and it is very easy to implement.
One can notice that synchronization between users is necessary.
if another packet is sent

during this period: collision
Figure 2.3: The vulnerable period of the slotted Aloha protocol
2.4
The CSMA protocol
The CSMA protocols (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) are used for example
in Ethernet, AppleTalk and Wireless LAN. They are characterized by sensing
the channel before transmitting i.e. the transmission is performed only if the
channel is sensed idle. If the medium is sensed busy, the station will defer its
transmission to a later time. These protocols are very effective when the channel
2.4. The CSMA protocol
is not highly loaded and lead to excellent delay performances. However one can
observe that the method does not prevent from collision. Indeed, if two users
sense the channel idle at the same moment and decide to transmit, a collision
will happen. There exist two types of CSMA protocols: CSMA-CD (Collision
Detection) and CSMA-CA (Collision Avoidance).
station range
Figure 2.4: The hidden terminal problem: Station A senses the channel as free
and hence decides to transmit. A collision happens at the node
In CSMA-CD, the users are able to detect interference among several

transmissions (including their own) while sending data and abort transmission of their collided packets. In that way, the duration of an unsuccessful transmission is reduced.
While the Collision Detection mechanism can be performed in a wired
LAN, it can not be used in a wireless environment. Indeed, it is impossible
to assume that all the stations can hear each other (see Figure 2.4).
Moreover, such a method would require a full duplex approach, capable of
transmitting and receiving at once. A solution to overcome these problems
is to use the Detection Avoidance procedure (used within 802.11):
Before any transmission, stations listen to the medium.
A station willing to send a packet transmits a Request-To-Send packet
(RTS). This packet contains information about the length of the data
to be sent Tdata .
The receiver replies with a control packet called Clear-To-Send (CTS)
including the same duration information Tdata . If the sender does not
receive the CTS packet, it does not transmit the data.
Every station hearing a RTS remains quiet during TCT S + Tdata .
Every station hearing a CTS remains quiet during Tdata .
CTS and RTS are very short packets. The probability of collision is hence
very small. In addition, this method reduces the probability of collision
with a station which is hidden from the transmitter as described in the
Figure 2.6.
10
Tdata1
Station A
RTC
Tdata1
DATA
t
NodeB
CTS
Tdata1
t
Station B
RTC
Tdata1
Defer access
Figure 2.5: The basic detection avoidance procedure
station range
RTC range
B
CTS range
Figure 2.6: The station A, which is not able to hear the signal from B, receives
the CTS packet. The collision is avoided.
2.5
The Reservation protocols
Reservation schemes are designed to have the advantages of both the Aloha and
the TDMA approaches. They require a continuous broadcast of information
(from the node) and a good synchronization between the different stations.
Two types of reservation methods exist: the implicit reservation and the explicit
reservation.
PRMA (Packet Reservation Multiple Access) is an implicit reservation
protocol. The principle, which combines contention and reservation, is
very simple. The frame is divided into equal time slots. First all terminals
have to use the slotted Aloha protocol for contention with other terminals.
Once a station obtains a slot successfully (i.e. without collision), the slot is
automatically assigned to this station in the following frames. As soon as
the station stops using the slot, other stations can compete to reserve it. In
case of successful access, the NodeB has to broadcast the acknowledgment.
Before transmitting, a station knows which slots are available by listening
to the broadcast information. An illustration of the procedure is provided
11
2.6. Temporary conclusion

in Figure 2.7.
slot
s1
frame i
R8
active terminals
frame i+1
R8
active terminals
frame i+2
s2
s3
s4
R2
4,5
s5
s6
R6
R3
R2
R7
R1
R2
R7
R4
R5
Available slot
R3
4,5
Reserved slot
requesting terminals
Figure 2.7: PRMA protocol in the case of 6 slots per frame

The reservation Aloha protocol is an explicit method of scheduling. In the
same way as PRMA, it combines contention and reservation. Here, the
frame is divided into 2 distinct sections:
A contention phase which contains short time slots. In this period,
terminals compete for reservation. The slotted Aloha technique is
used to reduce the collision probability.
A reservation phase which consists of longer time slots. If a UE
has successfully obtained a slot during the contention phase, it can
transmit during the corresponding reserved slot.
A reservation list is created and every terminal has to keep it consistent. A
fine synchronization is needed in order to avoid collisions. An illustration
of the procedure is provided in Figure 2.8
Contention
phase
Reservation
phase
Contention
phase
Reservation
phase
Figure 2.8: Reservation Aloha: example of transmission
2.6
Temporary conclusion
In an OFDM based system, it is achievable and very useful to introduce frequency multiplexing. The designer can consequently have the benefit of an
additional degree of freedom when trying to avoid collision probability. In this
way, several options are under considerations. Now slots are not only defined
in the time domain. A slot is characterized by a time index and a frequency
12
band. As illustrated in Figure 2.9, a possible method to adopt is to reserve a

sub frame at regular intervals for random access. Then either several or all the
frequency sub bands are dedicated to the RACH access. Further considerations
will be detailed in a following section
subframe dedicated
to random access
used either for contention

or data transmission
RACH bursts
Data
Radio frame
Figure 2.9: Temporary solution: a subframe is dedicated to random access
Chapter 3
Air interface candidates for

uplink access
In a basic communication system, the data are modulated onto a single carrier
frequency. The available bandwidth is then totally occupied by each symbol.
This kind of system can lead to inter-symbol-interference (ISI) in case of a frequency selective channel. The basic idea of OFDM is to divide the available
spectrum into several orthogonal sub-channels so that each narrowband subchannel experiences almost flat fading. With OFDM, it is possible to have
overlapping sub-channels in the frequency domain, thus increasing the transmission rate. OFDM systems have gained an increased interest during the last
years. It is largely used by standards such as IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) or IEEE
802.16 (WiMax), as well as in wired environment such as asymmetric digital
subscriber lines (ADSL).
3.1
3.1.1
Basic OFDM
Properties and main advantages
The modulation technique used in an OFDM system helps to overcome the

effects of a frequency selective channel. A frequency selective channel occurs
when the transmitted signal experiences a multipath environment. Under such
conditions, a given received symbol can be potentially corrupted by a number of
previous symbols. This effect is commonly known as inter-symbol interference
(ISI). To avoid such interference, the symbols duration, T, has to be much larger
than the delay spread Tm (maximum amount of time between the first and last
multipath signal at the receiver). But this would lead to poor efficiency in terms
of transmission speed. In an OFDM system, the information is transmitted
among N different subcarriers, each with a transmission interval time multiplied
by N (see Figure 3.1).
In this way, the system is N times more robust against ISI while the overall
transmission rate remains the same.
Also, the spectral efficiency of the OFDM modulation technique is excellent since the sub channels are overlapping. Indeed, in basic FDM (Frequency
Divison Multiplexing) a guard-band is left between the sub-channels to pre13
Chapter 2
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;,'(%"&3(1,%(%,(41%&';&'&(@4%"(&#:"(,%"&'=(+"48(48(;76;466&2(%"',75"(%"&(:-:64:($'&;4<(%"#%(@#8(
C
D
7!A
D 9CD<( CC #((
% D < C #4 D< C " .D0<CC#!
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/ " < # ; !.(
(
D)=)C(
# #22&2=(+"&(:-:64:($'&;4<(84376#%&8(#(:-:64:(8%'7:%7'&(41(%"&(IBAJ(8451#6K(8,(%"#%(%"&('&:&49&2(
7!A D B7!A D ? D0CC $ .D< C " &D< CC #
(
8451#6(
:,''&8$,128( %,( #( :-:64:( :,19,67%4,1=(
+"',75"(
0AB+( #12(
78&2( ;,'(
( ( X(2),
( %"48(X(N
( AB+( :#1( >&(
D)=LC(
X(1),
...,
)
(
# 3,276#%4,1(#12(2&3,276#%4,1(#12(5&%('45"%('&876%=(
? D0C 7!A D.D< CC " 7!A D&D< CC #
@"&'&(H(2&1,%&8(:,19,67%4,1=(
(
# (? D0C @ D0C " &!D0C
+"&(
;( 87>(N
:"#11&68(
"#9&(
'&3#41( ,'%",5,1#6(
%,@#'28(The
&#:"( Figure
,%"&'( %"',75"(
%"&( %'#1834884,1(
#7!A
# number
C D0Cthe
D 9 D< CC%,(
( is
where
total
of sub-carriers.
3.3 illustrates
a basic
;,'( %"&3( 1,%( %,( 41%&';&'&( @4%"( &#:"( ,%"&'=( +"48( 48( ;76;466&2( %"',75"( %"&( :-:64:( $'&;4<( %"#%( @#8(
#
$
"
#
7!A
D
B7!A
D
?
D
0
CC
.
D
<
C
&
D
<
CC
block scheme of an OFDM transmission
#22&2=(+"&(:-:64:($'&;4<(84376#%&8(#(:-:64:(8%'7:%7'&(41(%"&(IBAJ(8451#6K(8,(%"#%(%"&('&:&49&2(
( (
(
(
D)=LC(
# ? D0C 7!A
.D<:-:64:(
CC " 7!A :,19,67%4,1=(
D&D< CC #
8451#6( :,''&8$,128(
%,( D#(
%"48( 0AB+( #12( AB+( :#1( >&( 78&2( ;,'(
The (discrete-time
representation +"',75"(
of the signal
after a normalized IFFT is:
3,276#%4,1(#12(2&3,276#%4,1(#12(5&%('45"%('&876%=(
# ? D0C @ D0C " &!D0C
(
(
C D 0C #7!A D 9 D < CC #
# 7!A D B7!A D ? D 0CC $ .D < C " &D < CC #
( (
(
(
D)=LC(
# ? D 0C 7!A D .( D < CC " 7!A D&D < CC #
# ? D 0C @ D 0C " & !D 0C
(
15
3.1. Basic OFDM

X(n)
x(k)
IFFT
s(k)
CP
r(k)
channel
y(k)
CP
Y(n)
FFT
Figure 3.3: Basic OFDM transmission (CP stands for Cyclic Prefix)
N 1
kn
1 X
x(k) =
X(n)e2j N
N n=0
k = 0..N 1
(3.1)
At the receiver side, the data is recovered by performing FFT on the received
signal,
N 1
kn
1 X
Chapter 2
Black TEAM
y(k)e2j N
n = 0..N 1
(3.2)
Y (n) =
N k=0
An N-point FFT only requires N log(N ) multiplications, which is much more computationally
The need
of awith
cyclic
prefix
efficient 3.1.3
than an equivalent
system
equalizer
in time domain.
In an typical wireless environment, the channel has a finite impulse response.

Cyclic Prefix
We note tm the maximum delay of all reflected paths of the OFDM transmitted
In an OFDM
the 3.4.
channel has a finite impulse response. We note tmax the maximum
signal,system,
see Figure
2.2.4
delay of all reflected paths of the OFDM transmitted signal, see Figure 2.5.
channel impulse response
h(t)
t
0
tmax
Figure 2.5: Channel impulse response
Figure 3.4: Typical channel impulse response
Cyclic prefix is a crucial feature of OFDM to combat the effect of multipath. Inter symbol
interference (ISI) and inter channel interference (ICI) are avoided by introducing a guard interval
The cyclic prefix is a crucial feature of OFDM to combat the effect of mulat the front, which, specifically, is chosen to be a replica of the back of OFDM time domain
tipath.
Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) and Inter Channel Interference (ICI)
waveform.
are
avoided
by introducing
Figure 2.6 illustrates
the idea. a guard interval at the front, which, specifically, is
chosen to be a replica of the back of OFDM time domain waveform. Figure 3.5
illustrates the idea.
The idea behind this is to convert the linear convolution (between signal and
channel response) to a circular convolution. In this way, the FFT of circulary
FRAME
CP
convolved signals is equivalent to a multiplication in the frequency domain and
the data can be recovered properly (Y (n) depends only on X(n) and not on
X(i) with i 6= n).
t
0
tc > tmax
Figure
Adding
a cyclic
prefix
to a
frame
=
DF2.6:
T (y(k))
= DF
T (IDF
T (X(n))
h(k) + e(k))
= the
X(n).DF
T (h(k))
+ DF Tare
(e(k))
From above expressions
subcarrier
waveforms
now given by
Y (n)
s(k) =
x(k + N )
"N 1
n
j2k N
x(n) = 1N
k=0 X(k).e
M k < 0
0k <N 1
(3.3)
(3.4)
(2.3)
The idea behind this is to convert the linear convolution (between signal and channel response) to a circular convolution. In this way, the FFT of circulary convolved signals is equivalent
to a multiplication in the frequency domain. However, in order to preserve the orthogonality
property, tmax should not exceed the duration of the time guard interval. As shown below, once
the above condition is satisfied, there is no ISI since the previous symbol will only have effect
16
Chapter 3. Air interface candidates for uplink access
CP
Frame
t
0 tcp > tmax
Figure 3.5: Adding a cyclic prefix to a frame

= X(n)H(n) + E(n)
(3.5)
(3.6)
However, in order to preserve the orthogonality property, tm should not

exceed the duration of the guard interval. As shown below, once the above
condition is satisfied, the linear convolution associated with the channel impulse
response becomes a circular convolution. If we note x
(n) the signal with CP
and M the length of the channel impulse response, we get:
y(k)
= x
(n) h(k)
=
M
X
(3.7)
h(k)
x(k n)
(3.8)
h(k)x(k n)N
(3.9)
n=1
M
X
n=1
= x(k) h(k)
(3.10)
Thus, there is no ISI since the previous symbol will only have effect over
samples within [0, tmax] and orthogonality is maintained so that there is no
ICI.
3.1.4
OFDMA: OFDM for multiple access
A possible usage of the OFDM technique is a frequency multiplexing among

several users. By assigning different sets of sub carriers to different users, transmissions will be orthogonal to each other. Then, before transmitting any data,
each user has to know what frequency band he is allowed to use and map its
data symbols onto the corresponding sub carriers. The Figure 3.6 illustrates the
idea.
Several transmission schemes are related to the OFDM modulation. For
the LTE system, not only the basic OFDMA scheme is likely to be chosen for
the uplink transmission. Two other schemes are potential candidates: DFTs
OFDMA and IFDMA.
17
3.2. DFTs OFDMA
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
user 1
modulation
spreading
S/P
modulation
spreading
S/P
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
user 2
IFFT
IFFT
Figure 3.6: Frequency multiplexing using OFDM
3.2
DFTs OFDMA
The structure of DFT spread OFDMA transmitter is represented in Figure 3.7.
modulation
S/P
FFT
mapping
IFFT
Figure 3.7: DFTs OFDMA transmitter

The data symbols are spread by performing an FFT before being mapped to
the sub carriers. This means that each sub carrier carries a portion of superposed
DFT spread data symbols. Various mappings are possible, which is illustrated
in Figure 3.8. The allocation of the spread data can be either localized, pseudo
randomized or equidistant.
18
S/P
FFT
IFFT
S/P
FFT
IFFT
S/P
FFT
IFFT
localized
equidistant
randomized
Figure 3.8: Sub carriers allocation schemes
3.3
IFDMA
Whereas a DFTs OFDMA transmitter builds the signal in the frequency domain,
the IFDMA signal is realized in the time domain. The process is very simple.
If N is the number of used sub carriers among Ntot sub carriers, then the N
symbols data are repeated Nrep = Ntot /N times. This creates a comb-shaped
spectrum as illustrated in Figure 3.9. The users are separated by assigning a
different phase shift to each one.
We can notice that the process is equivalent to a DFTs OFDMA process
with equidistant mapping. Indeed, if we note xs (n) the input symbols, X(m)
the signal after FFT, Xmap (l) the signal after mapping and x(k) the signal after
IFFT, we get:
x(k)
NX
tot 1
2jlk
Xmap (l)e Ntot
(3.11)
l=0
N 1
Xmap (m
m=0
tot
Ntot 2jmkN
)e Ntot N
N
(3.12)
N 1
X(m)e
2jmk
N
for k = 0..Ntot 1
(3.13)
for k = 0..N 1
(3.14)
m=0
= xs (k)
and since e
2jmk
N
=e
2jm(k+N )
N
, we get :
x(k + iN ) = xs (k) for k = 0..N 1 and for i = 0..
Ntot
1
N
19
3.4. General comparison
Ntot
frequency
shift
N/Ntot
repetitions
modulation
CP
sK
N symbols
s1
s2
sN
Time domain
Nrep
repetitions
s1
s2
sN
s1
s2
sN
s1
s2
sN
s1
s2
sN
S
Frequency domain
f
Nrep -1
free subcarriers
N used subcarriers
Figure 3.9: IFDMA signal
3.4
General comparison
In this section, we propose to highlight some characteristics of the mentioned

schemes. One of the parameters to take into account is the Peak to Average
Power Ratio (PAPR). Reducing the PAPR of the uplink transmission is a major question, since the effective usage of power amplifier is one of the important
factors on the UE side.
IFDMA:
Simple transmitter implementation
Provides wide band diversity
High inter-user interaction
Low PAPR
DFTs OFDMA:
Localized allocation:
Poor frequency diversity
Less inter-user interference (edges only interact)
PAPR OFDMA > PAPR DFTs OFDMA localized > PAPR IFDMA
Randomized allocation:
20

The PAPR is as high as with a basic OFDMA
Provides frequency diversity
Equidistant allocation:
See IFDMA
Chapter 4
Existing random access

procedures
4.1
RACH procedure within UMTS
This section proposes to describe the RACH procedure within UMTS. Understanding the mechanism in the current working system is very useful in order to
acquire a practical knowledge on the subject. Even if the air interface is totally
different, some aspects are still exploitable.
4.1.1
RACH purpose
Within a UMTS system, RACH is used for initial access, i.e. the procedure
where the UE sends a first message to the network. It is characterized by
the small amount of transmitted data. The initial access is associated with a
connection request message containing the reason of the request. There exist
several reasons for sending a connection request, as defined in [1]. The different
types of calls are listed below:
Originating call: the UE wants to setup a connection after power-on to the
network. It can be a request for speech connexion or for data streaming
for example.
Terminating call: the UE answers to paging. The downlink Paging Channel (PCH) is used to reach a mobile station which is not currently maintaining a connection with the network. Hence, if the UE receives a request
to set a connection over this channel, it answers over the RACH and sets
up a connection.
Registration: the UE wants to register only to location update. In this
way, the network will, after the process, be aware of the mobiles position.
4.1.2
Collision handling
The RACH is a common channel. Due to simultaneous access of several users,

collisions may occur such that the initial access message cannot be decoded by
21
22
Chapter 4. Existing random access procedures
the network. In order to prevent from collision on the message of interest, a

procedure using preambles is applied. A preamble is a short signal which is sent
before the transmission of the higher layer message (a preamble is about ten
times shorter than a request message). In other words, a RACH access consists
of two steps: the transmission of a set of preambles and the transmission of a
message. Contention can only happen on the preambles. The UE persists in
sending preambles until it receives an Acquisition Indicator (AI) from the NodeB
on the AICH (Acquisition indicator channel) indicating that the network has
correctly detected the preamble. Subsequently, the transmission of the request
message is contention free (except the rare case when 2 UEs would have sent
the same signal simultaneously). The details of the procedure will be explained
later.
The method is depicted in the Figure 4.1.
Preamble
4096 chips
Access slot
5120 chips
1,33 ms
message
(10 or 20 ms)
timing offset
Acquisition Indicator
4096 chips
Figure 4.1: Overview of the RACH procedure within UMTS

The used access method is a type of slotted Aloha protocol. The RACH
transmission, both preambles and request message, has to start at the beginning
of a slot. Moreover, in case the whole procedure fails, i.e. the maximum number
of preambles has been sent without receiving an acknowledgment message, an
other attempt is performed after a back-off delay.
A frame in a UMTS system is 10 ms long (38400 chips). The time axis for
the RACH and AICH is divided into time intervals: the access slots. There
are 15 access slots per two frames. An access slot hence lasts 1.33 ms which
corresponds to 5120 chips. Every preamble (1ms long or 4096 chips) is sent
at the beginning of an access slot. From a particular UE point of view, not
every access slot is available for random access. Depending on its priority level
(stored in the UE SIM card), the network decides whether the UE is allowed
to use certain access resources. For instance, it can be desirable to prevent UE
from sending requests in a case of emergency. Therefore, the UE is informed
over a broadcasting channel (BCH) which access slots it is allowed to use. Also,
the timing offsets to use between two preambles and between the last preamble
and the message are signaled by the NodeB.
4.1.3
The power ramping technique
In order to enhance the success probability of a preamble retransmission and

hence reduce the access delay, the transmission power is increased after every
unsuccessful attempt. This technique is called power ramping. This method
23
4.1. RACH procedure within UMTS
permits also to acquire information about the power to apply regarding the
request message. The procedure is depicted in Figure 4.2.
Pm p
P
message
(10 or 20 ms)
Figure 4.2: Power ramping technique

Before any RACH access, the downlink power level is measured from the
BCH. The initial power level is then computed from the measurement. After
each attempt, the UE updates its transmission power according to:
Pi+1 = Pi + P
(4.1)
where P is the power ramp step in dB.

When the UE receives an AI, the random access message is sent 3 or 4 access
slots after the last preamble (depending on information received over BCH). The
message part is transmitted with a power equal to:
Pmessage = Plastpreamble + PM P
(4.2)
Where PM P is a power step applied to ensure a correct reception of the

message of interest.
4.1.4
Format of the preambles
A preamble is a short signal which consists of 4096 chips. It does not contain
the identity of the user. It is simply a sequence of 256 repetitions of Hadamard
codes of length 16. Hence, there exist 16 different preamble signatures (one for
each code). The preamble signatures are listed in Table 4.1.4:
Also a scrambling code related to the cell identity is applied to the preamble.
Before any attempt, the UE selects randomly a signature and sends the related
preamble. If the base station detects successfully the preamble, it can send
back an AI. This indicator contains a replica of the preamble so that the UE
can be aware of its target. The AI can take 2 values (positive acknowledgment
ACK or negative acknowledgment NACK) depending on whether the message
transmission is allowed or not. Since a NodeB is able to detect two different
signatures in the same access slot, a problem occurs only when two UEs have
selected the same signature and the same access slot which is a very unlikely
case.
24
Preamble
signature
P0 (n)
P1 (n)
P2 (n)
P3 (n)
P4 (n)
P5 (n)
P6 (n)
P7 (n)
P8 (n)
P9 (n)
P10 (n)
P11 (n)
P12 (n)
P13 (n)
P14 (n)
P15 (n)
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
2
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
3
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
4
1
1
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-1
1
1
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-1
5
1
-1
1
-1
-1
1
-1
1
1
-1
1
-1
-1
1
-1
1
6
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-1
1
1
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-1
1
1
Value of
7
8
1
1
-1 1
-1 1
1
1
-1 1
1
1
1
1
-1 1
1 -1
-1 -1
-1 -1
1 -1
-1 -1
1 -1
1 -1
-1 -1
n
9
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
10
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
11
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
12
1
1
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
-1
1
1
1
1
13
1
-1
1
-1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
-1
1
1
-1
1
-1
14
1
1
-1
-1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
1
1
-1
-1
Table 4.1: Hadamard codes of length 16
4.1.5
Format of the message
The message can be either 10ms or 20ms. Spreading and scrambling are applied to the message part. The message part scrambling code has a one-to-one
correspondence to the scrambling code used for the preamble part. Spreading
is performed using Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes. The
code-tree is showed in the Figure 4.3.
Spreading factors from 256 to 32 have been defined to be possible for the
message part. A direct mapping between the preamble signature and the message part spreading code node is applied. Each preamble signature points to one
of the 16 nodes in the code-tree that corresponds to SF = 16 (Spreading Factor).
The sub-tree below the specified node is used for spreading of the message part.
Explicitly, the message is spread by the channelization code Cch,SF,m where SF
s
is the spreading factor and m = SF. 16
(s is the signature index).
4.1.6
RACH access procedure
This section describes step by step the procedure for the RACH access in the
UMTS system. We first detail the MAC approach, and then the physical procedure is analyzed. Before the initiation of the RACH procedure, the following
information is received from the higher layers:
The preamble scrambling code
The message length (either 10ms or 20ms)
The number of slots between the last preamble and the message (3 or 4)
15
1
-1
-1
1
-1
1
1
-1
-1
1
1
-1
1
-1
-1
1
25
4.1. RACH procedure within UMTS
C4,0 = (1,1,1,1)
C2,0 = (1,1)
C4,1 = (1,1,-1,-1)
C1,0 = (1)
C4,2 = (1,-1,1,-1)
C2,1 = (1,-1)
C4,3 = (1,-1,-1,1)
SF = 1
SF = 2
SF = 4
SF = 8
Figure 4.3: Orthogonal Variable Spreading Factor (OVSF) codes

The set of available signatures (among the total set of 16), the set of available access slots, the persistence value Pi (used in the MAC procedure).
The power ramping step P in dB
The maximum number of preamble retransmission Nmax
The maximum number of preamble cycles Mmax
The initial preamble power computed from the downlink power fading.
The power offset Pmp between the last preamble and the message in dB
The backoff interval when a NACK is received (in number of 10ms intervals)
From the MAC (Medium Access Control) point of view, the procedure can
be illustrated by the chart flow in Figure 4.4:
Here each cycle corresponds to the transmission of a set of preambles. A
cycle can end either because a positive or negative acknowledgment is received,
or because the whole set has not been detected. If an ACK is received, the
procedure ends, otherwise, the procedure restarts from the beginning after a
certain amount of time.
Different backoff timers are applied. For instance, a random timer (inner
loop) is used after an unsuccessful cycle, which is part of the slotted Aloha
protocol.
In order to examine the RACH procedure in detail, the physical random
access procedure is performed as illustrated in Figure 4.5.
One can notice that the NodeB can send a negative acknowledgement even
if the transmission was successful. This negative acknowledgement is used when
a congestion situation occurs in the network at the present time. In this case
the physical procedure ends and a new cycle is programmed some time
26
start
get RACH
parameters
Nmax, Mmax, NB
M=0
M=M+1
draw random
integer k and
wait k x 10ms
M < Mmax
draw random
integer k and
wait k x 10ms
end
Physical
RACH
procedure
No ACK
info
wait NB x 10ms
NACK
ACK
send
message
end
Figure 4.4: MAC procedure for a RACH access with UMTS
27
4.2. Ranging procedure within WiMax
start
get RACH
parameters
Nmax, Pinit , ...
N=0
P = Pinit
N=N+1
report
No ACK
N < Nmax
P=P+P
Transmit a
preamble in the
next available
access slot
No ACK
info
NACK
Report
NACK
ACK
Report
ACK
Figure 4.5: Physical procedure for a RACH access with UMTS
4.2
4.2.1
Ranging procedure within WiMax

Wimax overview
WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a technology for

wireless broadband. It is a suite of standards for fixed, portable and mobile
point-to-multipoint wireless access. Theses standards emerge from IEEE 802.16
Work Group. Regarding its general aspects, WiMAX has a range up to 30 miles
and typically covers the 10 to 66 GHz range. It is an OFDM based system and
can support variable bandwidth sizes between 1.25 and 20 MHz.
The IEEE 802.16 standard was initially created to provide a flexible low-cost
alternative for the last mile broadband connectivity which is currently handled
by wired solutions (cables or DSL). An evolved version, IEEE 802.16e, intends
to add mobility to this new service. Since it employs the same modulation
technique as the LTE system and can provide mobility for high speed communication, it represents an interesting base for the project.
This section proposes to highlight the MAC and physical layer of the 802.16e
standard regarding the ranging procedure. As defined in the standards, the
mobile user will be called Subscriber Station (SS).
28
4.2.2
Ranging overview
Within 802.16e, a ranging procedure is supported to synchronize the SS with

the base station. Ranging, such as the RACH access within UMTS, intends to
resolve contention. The process aims to align the SSs transmissions with the
BS receive frame and acquire power adjustments. Initial ranging is part of the
network entry procedure. A general chart flow is depicted in Figure 4.6.
Scan
for DL
channel
BS
t
DL sync
established
SS
wave trip
Obtain UL
parameters
UL
parameters
acquired
Obtain the available slots for ranging
Ranging
Obtain the timing offset, power

adjustment and basic CID
Registration
Obtain the basic capabilities,

secondary CID, set up the connexion
Figure 4.6: Network entry procedure

Before joining the network, the SS first scans for a downlink signal from the
base station and synchronize to it, i.e. the beginning of the slots and frames
are identified with an offset corresponding to the signal trip delay. Then, the
broadcasted uplink channel descriptor (UCD) is detected to obtain the transmission parameters and the index of the ranging contention slots. After that,
the actual ranging procedure can take place. The aims of this procedure are to
alert the BS to the presence of the SS, to obtain a time and a power adjustment
and to gain a basic Connection Identifier (CID). Subsequently, the registration
procedure is performed to obtain the secondary CID and set up the connection.
After the connection is established, the channel conditions may change, as
well as the distance between the base and the SS and periodic ranging is necessary to update the synchronization parameters.
4.2.3
Ranging procedure within the WirelessMAN OFDMA

PHY
There exist several candidates regarding the physical layer in the 802.16e standard. This section focuses on the OFDMA PHY given that it is very similar to
the LTE system.
Firstly, a dedicated ranging channel is defined. Collision between data transmissions and random accesses can not occur, i.e. ranging access does not interfere with data. To illustrate this concept, the frame structure for the TDD
mode is depicted in Figure 4.7.
29
Figure 4.7: WiMAX TDD mode

The ranging channel is composed of one or more groups of six adjacent sub
channels. In an OFDMA based structure, a slot is not only defined in time
as within UMTS but is also characterized by a frequency band. Therefore, a
ranging request opportunity (or ranging slot) is identified by:
its time interval index
the group of sub channels (as illustrated in Figure 4.8).
f
ranging slot
number
6
subchannels
10
11
empty
t
ranging allocation
Figure 4.8: Ranging opportunities

The bandwidth of a ranging signal corresponds to one group of 6 sub channels. In other words, the number of orthogonal opportunities within one time
interval is equal to the number of groups. In addition, in the same way as
Hadamard codes are used within UMTS, a set of pseudo-random ranging codes
is specified. A BS is then supposed to be able to detect two ranging attempts
if they differ either in time, frequency or code.
The steps of the ranging procedure are illustrated in Figure 4.9:
After acquiring downlink synchronization and transmission parameters,
the SS selects randomly a ranging slot and a ranging code and sends it to
30
Acquire downlink
synchronization
and transmission
parameters
wait for initial

ranging opportunity
Send an initial
ranging code in
a ranging slot
random
backoff
wait for anonymous

request response
no
response
response
success
continue
adjust
parameters
adjust
parameters
wait for
ressources
send RNG request

with the proper
adjustments
Figure 4.9: OFDMA PHY ranging procedure
31
the BS. The request is anonymous in the sense that the SS identity is not
present in the signal.
In case of successful detection, the BS broadcasts a ranging response message that announces the received ranging code and the ranging slot where
the code has been detected. In this way, the SS can identify the response
which corresponds to its request. Timing and power correction are also
included in the response, as well as a status notification. The status can
be either success or continue:
Success status: the BS subsequently provides bandwidth allocation
for the SS to send a Ranging Request (RNG-REQ) with the appropriate
timing and power adjustments.
Continue status: The SS adjusts its timing offset and transmission
power based on the response information, selects a new ranging slot and
ranging code and starts again the ranging process.
After sending the RNG-REQ, the SS waits for the RNG-RSP (response)
containing its primary CID.
The procedure can end if the maximum transmission power or the maximum
number of attempts has been reached.
4.2.4
Signatures
The codes are binary pseudo random codes generated by a PRBS (Pseudo Random Bit Sequence) generator. This kind of signature provides good cross correlation properties. The polynomial for the PRBS generator is 1+x4 +x7 +x15 . It
is initialized by the seed 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, s0, s1, s2 , s3 , s4 , s5 , s6 where s6 is the
most significant bit, and s6 : s0 = UL IDcell (cell identity which is part of the
transmission parameters broadcasted by the BS). The Figure 4.10 represents
the PRBS in the case UL IDcell= 0.
Initialization
sequence
10
11
12
13
14
15
ck
Figure 4.10: The PRBS generator

The length of each code is 144 bits. For instance, the first 144 bit code is
obtained by clocking 144 times the pseudo noise generator. With UL IDcell =0,
the first bits of the code are 00110000010001... Then, the next ranging code is
achieved by taking the next 144 outputs (145th to 288th) of the PRBS, etc.
The number of available signatures is 256. They are divided into 3 distinct
groups which correspond to 3 different types of request:
32

Initial ranging
Periodic ranging
Bandwidth request
4.2.5
Ranging signal
The initial ranging signal consists of two consecutive and identical OFDM symbols. In order to prevent from discontinuity between the two OFDM symbols, a
method using post and cyclic prefix is performed. A ranging frame is illustrated
in Figure 4.11.
CP
ranging symbol k
CP
ranging symbol k
Figure 4.11: Initial ranging signal

Each signal is 144bits long and is modulated using BPSK (one symbol per
bit). The symbols are mapped over 6 adjacent sub channels (one group of sub
channels). As defined in [2], a sub channel is composed of 24 sub carriers. The
total number of used sub carriers is hence 144 and the block scheme at the
transmitter side is depicted in Figure 4.12.
144 subcarriers
144 bits
PRBS
144 symbols
BPSK
S
/
P
mapping
IFFT
ex:2048
24 subcarriers
6 subchannels
Figure 4.12: Initial ranging block scheme
P
/
S
Chapter 5
RACH design within LTE

This section intends to highlight the current discussion topics regarding the
random access in the future LTE system. As the design investigation is just
initiated, several solutions are proposed by the 3GPP members and there is not
any exclusive solution yet.
5.1
5.1.1
Discussion on the RACH purpose

Timing adjustments
3GPP members seem to agree on the fact that one of the main purposes of
the random access is to obtain fine time synchronization. The synchronization
procedure prior to the random access only gives access to the slot and frame
synchronization in the downlink. In other words, the mobile receives from a
broadcast signal the start and the end of slots and frames but the transmission
delay implies a time shift between the transmission and the reception of the
broadcast signal. Hence, the mobile can not estimate when to send its data so
that the NodeB receives them at the beginning of a slot.
The RACH procedure could be a solution to adjust the timing offset at the
UE side by informing the UE how to compensate for the round trip delay.
timing offset
NodeB
t
UE
wave trip
t
sync signal
RACH signal
Figure 5.1: Timing offset caused by the round trip delay

After a successful random access procedure, the NodeB and the UE should
be synchronized within a fraction of the uplink cyclic prefix. In this way, the
33
34
Chapter 5. RACH design within LTE
subsequent uplink signals could be correctly decoded and would not interfere
with other users.
5.1.2
Power adjustments
In WCDMA, the power adjustment is performed using power ramping. Implicitly, the power to apply relies on the last preamble power. There is no feedback
from the NodeB to inform the UE about its power adjustments. In the E-UTRA
random access, the use of power ramping is still under consideration. This will
be explained under section 4.1.3. In case power ramping is not performed, one
can imagine a power adjustment procedure during the random access in order
to obtain the uplink power to apply for the very next transmission:
The UE either estimates a suitable transmission power from the open-loop
power control or transmits with maximum power.
In case of successful detection, the NodeB estimates the power adjustments
to apply to the uplink signal and includes this estimation in its acquisition
response.
A proper power adjustment would permit an optimal amount of transmitted
energy and hence a better battery life.
5.1.3
Resource request
Prior to sending any data, the UE has to obtain resources for transmission. The
NodeB acts as a scheduler and provides the UEs with scheduling information.
The E-UTRA random access could be an approach to request bandwidth and
time resources. One can imagine several possible solutions:
The RACH procedure is only used to acquire timing and/or power adjustments. The only purpose is to be synchronized within a fraction of the
cyclic prefix. Then a subsequent resource request has to be performed in
order to acquire resource reservation. The resource request procedure is
still contention-based but the system is synchronized.
NodeB
Response
with timing
adjustments
broadcast
signal
(slots and frames)
RACH signal
Resource assignment
Resource request
UE
unsynchronized
synchronized
Figure 5.2: Resource request after being synchronized

The random access signal is composed of two distinct and independent
parts: the RACH signature and the RACH message. The signature is
35
5.2. Discussion on the transmission method
a pseudo-random code. It allows several decodable random accesses in

the same frequency band and time slot. On the contrary, the message
part contains information. For instance, this information can include a
resource request (amount of data to transmit). At the NodeB side, only
the signature is used for detection. In case of successful detection, the
message part is decoded and analyzed. If the network presents available
resources, the NodeB will send a resource grant to the UE. The signature
part can also be used as reference symbols (pilots) for the demodulation
of the message part.
Signature
(a code)
Message
(with resource
request)
Random access signal
Figure 5.3: The resource request could be part of the RACH signal
The random access signal is only composed of a signature but a signature
implicitly points to a certain resource request. One can envisage several
sets of signatures, with each set corresponds to a particular frequency
band and time interval to transmit the following data. Then, in case of
successful detection, both the UE and the NodeB implicitly know which
resource will be subsequently used.
resources for
data transmission
f
set 2
set 1
set 3
Signatures
set n
set
n-1
Figure 5.4: One to one correspondance between the sets of signature and the
available resources
5.2
5.2.1
Discussion on the transmission method

Signature and payload
At least a RACH signal should contain a code sequence, or signature, which

identifies the random access attempt. As was suggested in the previous section,
a payload could be included. This payload could be composed of the user
36
identity, the desired amount of resources, the reasons of request, the nature of
the access (initial or periodic), etc. In case the signature and the message are
transmitted over the same subcarriers, the NodeB can use the signature as a
pilot to decode the message.
5.2.2
Transmission band assigned to random and reservation access channel
It has been agreed that orthogonal contention based and scheduled access channels are used. Two options are envisaged when designing the transmission bandwidth allocation to random and reservation access. The first one consists in assigning the whole given system bandwidth to the random access during specified
sub frames. In the second option, only a part of the given system bandwidth is
allocated to RACH access. This is depicted in the following figure:
RACH
access
(a)
(b)
Figure 5.5: Transmission band assigned to random acces

In either of the two options, the random access should not exceed the duration of one TTI (Transmission Time Interval). A TTI corresponds to 0.5 ms. A
frame is 10 ms and is hence composed of 20TTI. The selection of the assignment
method should be decided regarding the given system bandwidth. Indeed, when
the given bandwidth is 5 MHz or narrower, the second option is not achievable
and the first one seems appropriate. Meanwhile, in case of wider system bandwidth, i.e. 10 or 20 MHz, the option (b) is achievable. The bandwidth of a
random access should be large enough to allow a good detection rate. Indeed,
a wider transmission bandwidth allows having a diversity benefit. However,
when the traffic load is high, the plurality of the available frequency bands for
random access can permit fewer collisions. An adaptive assignment would be
a clever but complex solution. The NodeB could estimate the traffic load and
then broadcast the assignment scheme to the UE willing to access the network.
For instance, in a given system bandwidth of 10MHz, the NodeB could decide
to allocate:
5 MHz to each random access in case of low traffic load (2 available bands
per RACH sub frame).
1.25 MHz to each random access in case of high traffic load (8 available
bands per RACH sub frame).
37
5.3. Signal parameters
5.2.3
Transmission bandwidth allocated to a UE random

access
With the aim of allowing for an accurate timing estimation, the signal bandwidth has to be chosen wide enough. In order to recover the following signals
emitted by the UE, an accuracy of less than a CP is needed. We will see that
a CP corresponds to a duration order of 1 s. This leads to a required signal
bandwidth in the order of 1 MHz. Hopefully, this can be supported by the
narrowest spectrum allocation in the E-UTRA (1,25 MHz).
5.2.4
Transmission duration and random access period
A random access signal is transmitted during a specified sub frame, i.e. a RACH
sub frame, which lasts 0.5 ms. To avoid interferences with the next following sub
frame, guard interval is required, i.e. the random access signal is made shorter
than 0.5 ms. The goal is to prevent the NodeB from receiving a RACH signal
during a sub frame dedicated for data transmission. The duration of the guard
interval should depend on the cell size. A larger cell size implies a longer round
trip delay between the downlink broadcasted signal and the uplink transmission
and this time shift has to be taken into account.
guard interval > maximal
round trip delay
RACH signal
subframe dedicated
to data tansmission
t
1 TTI
Figure 5.6: The necessary guard time

For instance, a UE-NodeB distance equal to 10km corresponds to a round
trip delay of 66.67 s ( 10e32
3e8 ). A typical guard time would be hence in the
order of 70 s.
The LTE system is also supposed to be operational for very large cells, i.e.
up to 100 km. So in the worse case, the round trip delay is equal to 0.66ms
which is even longer than a TTI. A simple solution to overcome this problem
is to make sure the sub frame next to the RACH sub frame is not used for any
transmission. In this situation, the NodeB scheduler does not allocate the very
next sub frame to any synchronized UE. Consequently this sub frame acts as a
guard interval.
5.3
Signal parameters
As mentioned in [3], the parameters for uplink transmission scheme within LTE
(SC FDMA and OFDMA concepts) are specified in Table 5.3.
The FFT size is adapted to the given system bandwidth. In this way, the
sub-carrier spacing is kept constant in any system bandwidth, which was part of
the LTE requirements. f is always equal to 15 kHz. Also the time duration of
an OFDM symbol is also constant regardless of the system bandwidth: 66.67s.
38
System
BW
Subframe
duration
Subcarrier
spacing
Sampling
frequency
1,25 MHz
FFT size
Number of
occupied
subcarriers
128
76
2,5 MHz
5 MHz
10 MHz
15 MHz
20 MHz
0,5 ms
15 kHz
1,92 MHz
3,84 MHz
7,68 MHz
15,36 MHz
23,04 MHz
30,72 MHz
(2 3, 84
MHz)
(4 3, 84
MHz)
(6 3, 84
MHz)
(8 3, 84
MHz)
256
512
1024
1536
2048
151
301
601
901
1201
( 12 3, 84
MHz)
Table 5.1: System parameters for uplink transmission

Meanwhile the transmission bandwidth for a specified signal can be varied by
changing the number of used sub carriers. A simple illustration of a basic
transmission is given in Figure 5.7.
S
/
P
FFT
Nc
map
IFFT
1024
P
/
S
CP
D/A
15,36
MHz
baseband
signal
Nc x 15 kHz
CP
0
15,36 MHz
1 OFDM
symbol
0,66 s
Figure 5.7: Illustration of a basic transmission in system bandwidth of 10 MHz

The design of the random access has to take into consideration these parameters. For instance, a RACH signature must be a finite number of OFDM
symbols. Also, a CP may be added at the beginning of each symbol. The use
of the CP will be discussed in the section 6.3. In a typical urban environment,
the order of the maximum delay spread is of 5 s. Therefore, if a CP prefix is
used, about 77 (= 5 106 15.36 106 ) chip symbols will be copied from the
end of the OFDM symbol and added at the beginning.
An efficient way to understand the concept is to describe a particular simple
scenario:
The random access signal can last 400 s and an OFDM symbol is 66.67
39
5.4. Power ramping

System bandwidth
Transmission bandwidth for random access
UE-NodeB distance
Guard interval
Available interval for random access
Insertion of CP
Burst composition
10 MHz
1,25 MHz
10 km
100 s
400 s
No
Signature only, no message part
Table 5.2: Particular scenario for random access

s long. With no CP insertion and no message part, a signature composed
of 6 OFDM symbols can be transmitted.
The transmission bandwidth allocated to a random access is 1.25 MHz.
As specified in Table 5.3, the number of used sub carriers for each OFDM
symbol should be 76 (in this way, the actual bandwidth is 76*15 kHz =
1.14 MHz which is to prevent from leakage).
5.4
Power ramping
In WCDMA, the random access is carried out in the same frequency band
and time slots as the uplink data transmission. This prevents from assigning resources for random access but leads to interference. Therefore, a power ramping
method, as mentioned in section 4.1.3, is performed to control the interference
caused by the UE. A maximum power transmission would cause too much interuser interference and would result in a deterioration of data reception, which is
to be highly avoided. As mentioned earlier, E-UTRA random access is made
orthogonal to data transmission. In this way, no special procedure is necessary to control interference. Power ramping could hence be avoided to allow
for faster detection. However, a trade off between detection delay and energy
consummation has to be found. Transmitting every random access with high
power would obviously result in shorter latency but the risk would be to waste a
precious amount of energy. Also, in case of narrow transmission bandwidth (i.e.
1.25 MHz), power ramping could be a solution to prevent from being stuck in a
deep fading dip. Moreover, power ramping is an efficient method to overcome
a saturation due to high traffic load. Indeed, in case of high traffic load, many
UE are likely to use the same frequency band at the same time interval. Then,
if every UE tries to access the network by sending a powerful signal, the SIR
(Signal to Interference Ratio) will become very low and the detection rate will
decrease. The use of the power ramping method would permit a lower interference level among the unsynchronized users. Finally, power ramping could also
be useful to provide different priority classes among users. For example, one
can imagine that an emergency call is allowed to perform power ramping while
a simple call is not. The differentiation could as well be made by allocating
different step size values to different user categories.
As a proposal, the following solution is given:
1.25 MHz transmission bandwidth: power ramping is used to overcome
deep localized fading. The used step size is function of the priority class
40

of the UE.
Wider bandwidth: Power ramping is an option. The NodeB informs the
UE by broadcast whether the method has to be performed or not.
5.5
Frequency hopping
Frequency hopping is a simple solution to avoid deep frequency fading. It consists in choosing randomly a different frequency band for each successive attempt
(see Figure 5.8).
Figure 5.8: Frequency hopping principle

Obviously, this can only be performed if multiple RACH sub channels are
defined on separated frequency bands. For instance, in the narrowest given
system bandwidth, i.e. 1.25 MHz, frequency hopping is not achievable.
In case of frequency selective channel, this method results in better detection
rate by providing frequency diversity in the random access procedure. The
improvement offered by frequency hopping is mainly noticeable when the UE is
not moving rapidly and/or in case two attempts are separated by few TTIs, i.e.
when the channel remains almost the same between two attempts. Depending
on the coherence time of the environment, the performance enhancement can
be very high or insignificant.
The time varying aspect of the environment is defined by the maximum
Doppler frequency shift which is function of the velocity:
fD = fC
v
c
where c is the velocity of light.

The time correlation of the channel response H can be written as:
H (t) = E[H(f, t).H (f, t + t)] = 2 2 J0 (2fD t)
where 2 2 is the average gain.
The coherence time corresponds to a correlation function equal to 0.5 and is
given by:
9
TC =
16fD
41
5.6. Signature format
For instance, if the UE is moving with a velocity equal to 120 km/h, the
maximum Doppler frequency shift is 222 Hz (typical system with a carrier frequency of 2 GHz) and the coherence time is then equal to 0.8 ms. Consequently
we can consider in this case that frequency hopping is useless because the environment changes significantly every 2 TTIs. Meanwhile, with a velocity equal
to 3 km/h (pedestrian case), the coherence time is in the order of 32 ms and
then frequency hopping can provide great improvement.
5.6
Signature format
The signatures are pseudo noise codes. The goal is to obtain good cross correlation properties in order to achieve high detection rate and low false alarm rate.
Ideally, the autocorrelation and cross correlation of the codes should be:

E for n = 0
(5.1)
i,i (n) = E[si (k)si (k + n)] =
0 otherwise
i,j (n)
= E[si (k)sj (k + n)] = 0
(5.2)
Also it must be easy to reproduce the signature at the receiver side. Hence
a noise-like waveform is not under consideration. Several techniques exist to
obtain pseudo random codes. A common method is to generate a maximum
length sequence (m-sequence) by using a Linear Feedback Shift Register (LFSR).
For instance, the WiMAX signatures are generated this way. The sequences are
implemented based on the recursion formula given by:
s(n) =
L
X
gi s(n i)
(5.3)
i=1
where gi belongs to [0,1], and L corresponds to the memory length of the

register.
The output is periodic with a period equal to N = 2L 1. Hence, if the LFSR
is designed to give a long enough m-sequence, the signatures can be chosen to be
pieces of this sequence. In this way, no apparent relation exists between them.
The bits are then modulated using QPSK (16 QAM could also be possible).
This remains a very simple method and obviously other techniques can be
used to generate the pseudo random signatures.
5.7
Subcarriers mapping
Once a complex pseudo random code is generated, the next step consists in
mapping the values to the sub-carriers. Here again, several possibilities could
be adopted. In the DFTs OFDMA case, an FFT may be applied prior to
the mapping. Since the input is already pseudo random, this will not change
the performances significantly. However, this would permit to use the same
transmission chain as for data communication.
Regarding the mapping procedure, the 3 mentioned schemes (localized, randomized and equidistant) can be used. Let us compare the performances when
the timing offset is estimated by performing a simple correlation in the time
domain at the receiver side. The figure below represents the autocorrelation
function of a given signature with each of the mapping schemes.
42

autocorrelation
2000
localized
randomized
equidistant
1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
2600
2650
2700
2750
2800
2850
2900
2950
3000
Figure 5.9: Impact of the mapping on the autocorrelation function

In the case of an equidistant mapping, the signal is somehow periodic and
the autocorrelation presents several peaks, equally separated. A wrong
estimation can hence be easily made, leading to a shifted timing estimation.
When a localized mapping is used, the signal in the time domain can
be seen as a colored noise. The autocorrelation function presents a lobe
and therefore could lead to wrong estimation. However, the lobe width
is approximately equal to B2 where B is the signal frequency bandwidth,
which is not significant compared to a CP duration. For instance, for a
signal bandwidth equal to 1.25 MHz, the autocorrelation lobe is in the
order of 1.6 s which is smaller than the typical CP duration (5 s).
Consequently, the lobe in the autocorrelation function is not damaging
regarding the timing estimation.
The best mapping in case of time domain detection is incontestably the
pseudo random mapping. In this way, the time domain signal is also
pseudo random and its autocorrelation properties are very good.
5.8
5.8.1
Random access procedure

UE procedure
This section proposes to develop the random access procedure at the UE side.
The steps in italic are still under consideration.
The UE listens to a downlink broadcast signal to obtain the transmission
timing. It is also informed of the available signatures, frequency bands
and time slots for a random access.
Open-loop power control can be used to obtain a suitable transmission
power. The path loss is estimated from a downlink signal and the UE
estimates the transmission power to achieve a certain SNR target. The
uncertainty comes from the shadowing variance which is different from
uplink to downlink (different carrier frequency).
The UE selects randomly a signature, a time slot and a frequency band
among the available set.
43
5.8. Random access procedure
A burst containing the chosen signature is sent over the selected frequency
band and time slot.
The burst may contain a payload part providing a signalling message (amount
of needed resource, reason of request, etc.).
The UE monitors a specified downlink channel for response from the
NodeB.
In case of positive answer:
The UE decodes the response and adapts its transmission timing.
If the response contains power control information, the UE adapts
also its transmission power.
Scheduling request and random access can be linked. In this case, the
UE obtain resources for transmission and is able to send data on a reservation channel. Otherwise, a subsequent resource request is performed.
If the UE does not receive any response from the NodeB:
A new attempt is performed: the UE selects a new signature, a new
frequency band and sends a new burst in a RACH sub-frame after a random back-off time.
The transmission power may be increased (power ramping method).
An alternative method could be used to ensure a better timing control:
The NodeB could send a first response with timing information. Then
the UE would have to transmit a new burst with appropriate timing correction. If the NodeB considers the timing correct, a positive response is sent
without any timing information. Otherwise another message is sent with
timing information. This would ensure better timing control but would
imply latency in the procedure.
5.8.2
NodeB procedure
The NodeB correlates the received signal in the RACH sub-frame with all possible signature sequences. The detection can be either performed in the time
domain or in the frequency domain. This will be analyzed in the following section. A detection variable is computed for each signature. It corresponds to the
ratio between the peak and the mean power value of the correlation function .
=
maxn (n)
PN
n=1 (n)
1
N
(5.4)
Once the detection variable exceeds a certain threshold, the signal is considered detected. The timing offset is then computed from the peak position.
From the value of the detection variable, the NodeB could also estimate a power
adjustment. The NodeB response should include the identity of the signature
sequence (signature, frequency band, time slot), thus indicating to which access
the answer is linked.
Chapter 6
Implementation and
Simulation
6.1
System overview
The simulated system is depicted in the figure below:
PRBS
QPSK
S/P
FFT
mapping
IFFT
CP
P/S
channel
decision
Detection
Figure 6.1: System overview
For simulation purpose, the signature generator is a PRBG with polynomial

1 + x4 + x7 + x15 (similar to WiMAX generator). The modulation is chosen
to be QPSK. The mapping scheme can be localized, randomized or equidistant.
The IFFT and FFT are normalized, i.e. the signal power is not affected by
these operations. The channel is frequency selective, time varying and a white
Gaussian noise is added. The channel model is detailed in the subsequent section. Two detection methods have been implemented; the first one is performed
in the time domain while the other one is executed in the frequency domain.
Details are given later in this chapter. The implemented system is ready for
several scenarios. Parameters like carrier frequency, sampling frequency, FFT
size, CP size, mobile velocity, channel model, etc. can be varied.
45
46
Chapter 6. Implementation and Simulation
Figure 6.2: Multipath radio environment
6.2
6.2.1
Channel modeling
Frequency selective and Time varying channel
Typical Urban model

Radio wave propagation can be described by multiple paths occurring due to
reflection (walls, buildings, trees, etc.) in the environment. When modeling a
radio channel, only a finite number of paths is considered to approximate the real
environment. Several models exist and are used in the industry to simulate radio
wave propagation. Each model is suitable for a certain type of environment. As
specified in [3], the GSM Typical Urban (TU) channel model represents an
appropriate choice for early simulations of E-UTRA. Testing with a common
channel model is imperative to facilitate comparisons. The TU channel model
has been designed to simulate high delay spread in urban environments. Its
profile is given by the Table 6.2.1:
Tap
1
1
3
4
5
6
Relative delay (s)

0
0,2
0,5
1,6
2,3
5
Average Relative Power (dB)

-7
-4
-6
-10
-12
-14
Table 6.1: Typical Urban channel profile

The relative average powers are normalized, i.e. the coefficients sum to 1
in linear scale. The maximum delay spread is Tm = 5s. The average impulse
response is depicted in Figure 6.3.
A channel is said to be frequency selective if the system bandwidth is larger
than the coherence bandwidth Bm (Bm T1m ). In our case, Bm 200 kHz,
which is small compare to any possible system bandwidth within LTE (from 1.25
MHz up to 20 MHz) and for this reason the present profile is highly frequency
selective.
47
6.2. Channel modeling

relative average
power (dB)
-4
-6
-8
-10
-12
-14
t
1
delay (s)
Figure 6.3: The TU channel impulse response

Rayleigh model for each scattering path
We note Ai (t)eji (t) = xi (t) + jyi (t) the multiplicative distortion for the path
i. Each of the main paths is in reality the result of multiple scattered waves (see
Figure 6.4).
Figure 6.4: The scattering nature of the paths

Assuming infinite scatters, the multiplicative distortion for each path can
be modelled as zero-mean complex Gaussian process. In other words, xi(t) and
yi(t) are uncorrelated zero-mean Gaussian processes. The signal amplitude of
each path is then Rayleigh distributed. For instance, Ai (t) and i (t) are two
random processes with pdf:
pA (a) =
p ()
a a2 /22
e
i2
1
2
a0
0 < 2
(6.1)
(6.2)
where i2 is the average relative power of the path i.

The main paths are uncorrelated. In case of constant channel, the values for
Ai and i are constant during the process. However, the UE mobility implies
a variation of the channel parameters with time. In order to model this phenomenon when keeping the Rayleigh distribution for each path, the Jakes model
is used.
Time varying channel: Jakes model
The mobile movement introduces a Doppler frequency shift and a time varying
environment. In other words, the gain and phase of each path vary with time
according to a given Doppler spectrum. The goal is to model this time variation
of the channel properties. One method to simulate this phenomenon is to use
the Jakes model.
48
Jakes model is based on linear combination of several oscillators. Basically,

it simulates only a finite number of scatters to model Rayleigh flat fading of
a single path. It proposes deterministic coefficient and Doppler shift for each
oscillator.
The multiplicative coefficients for a single path at the instant t are given by:
xi (t)
2i
M
X
cos(n )cos[2fD cos(
2n
)t] + 2cos()cos(2fD t)(6.3)
N
sin(n )cos[2fD cos(
2n
)t] + 2sin()cos(2fD t)(6.4)
N
n=1
yi (t)
2i
M
X
n=1
By taking N = 4M + 2, = 0 and =
x2i (t) = i2 (M + 1),
n
M,
yi2 (t) = i2 M,
we get:
and
x2i (t)yi2 (t) = 0
(6.5)
Then if we consider enough oscillators, the model approximates a Gaussian

process. Moreover, the time varying aspect is respected and corresponds to
the given maximum Doppler shift fD . In practice, nine oscillators are used
in our simulation. One can notice that everything is deterministic. The only
variable left to make the channel behaviour stochastic and allow for having 6
uncorrelated sub channels is time t. Then, a particular procedure is followed to
obtain the coefficients for every path. We note, Ts the sampling frequency, K
the number of samples in the input signal, and t the initial time instant.
The channel coefficients for the first path are computed this way:
x1 (k)
y1 (k)
= x(t + kTs )
= y(t + kTs ) for k = 1..K
(6.6)
(6.7)
The coefficients for the next 5 paths are computed with a shifted initial
time instant value:
xi (k)
yi (k)
= x(t + kTs + (i 1)Tsh )

(6.8)
= y(t + kTs + (i 1)Tsh ) for k = 1..K and i = 2..6 (6.9)
Tsh is chosen to be very large to simulate uncorrelated paths.

In this way, we obtain 6 uncorrelated sub channels that present Rayleigh characteristics.
The method is illustrated in Figure 6.5
With this model, it is very simple to simulate a back off delay between two
random access attempts. Indeed, if another signal has to be sent over the same
channel after a certain amount of time T, the coefficients for each path are
obtained by taking t + T instead of t.
6.2.2
Additive white noise
After filtering by the preceding channel, additive white Gaussian noise is added
to the signal.
49
6.2. Channel modeling

x1(k) + j y1(k)
x2(k) + j y2(k)
0,2 s
+
s(k)
r(k)
x6(k) + j y6(k)
x
5 s
Figure 6.5: The Jakes coefficients used in a multipath scheme

White Gaussian
complex noise
No
TU
channel
Figure 6.6: Additive white Gaussian noise
6.2.3
Shadowing variance
Fading estimation is performed by the UE before any RACH procedure. A

broadcast signal from the NodeB is analyzed in order to evaluate the power
fading. The initial power setting for the preambles is then computed from this
evaluation. This process relies on the assumption that shadow fading on the
uplink is highly correlated with the shadow fading on the downlink. However,
due to different used carrier frequencies, this assumption is not really true.
The UE obtains the downlink fading as L + SFD where L is the path loss
(function of the distance) and SFD is the shadow fading (due to large scale
obstacle like buildings) on the downlink. As specified in [3], the shadow fading
can be modeled as a zero-mean lognormal variable with variance 8 dB. The UE
is also able to estimate the noise figure N0 . From these values, the UE computes
the suitable transmission power as follow:
P = SN Rtarget + L + SFD + N0
(6.10)
where SN Rtarget is the suitable SNR to achieve good detection.

If the shadow fading on the uplink is different than the one on the downlink,
the received power at the NodeB side will present the following power:
Preceived
= SN Rtarget + L + SFD + N0 L SFU

= SN Rtarget + N0 + SFD SFU
(6.11)
(6.12)
And the effective SNR will be different from the SN Rtarget :

SN R = SN Rtarget + SFD + SFU
(6.13)
50
Then if we note the correlation factor between uplink and downlink shadow
fading, the effective SNR can be modeled by:
p
SN R = SN Rtarget + (1 )N (0, 1) + (1 2 )N (0, 1)
(6.14)
Where N(0,1) is a zero-mean and unitary Gaussian variable.
As mentioned in [4], the tests performed from a GSM system at 1900 MHz
show an average correlation factor of 0.9 in a suburban environment. Since
there are no further considerations regarding the used frequencies in uplink and
downlink within LTE, this value will be used in a simulation to test the impact
of this phenomenon.
6.3
Detection analysis
At the NodeB side, the objective is to detect which signature has been sent
during a certain TTI and estimate the timing offset. For this purpose, two
detection methods have been analyzed. This part proposes to explain the two
methods.
6.3.1
Time domain detection
The first basic method consists in performing a correlation for each signature in
the time domain. A signature is defined as a code and a frequency band. The
NodeB has a record of the resulting time domain signals for each combination
of code and frequency band.
0
band 1
band 2
2
1
IFFT
codes
QPSK
si,j
FTT
band j
n-1
0
Figure 6.7: A signature is defined as a code and a frequency band

Then, during each random access sub frame, the NodeB performs several
correlations and compute the detection variables (see Figure 6.8).
If the detection variable corresponding to the signature si,j exceeds the specified threshold, the NodeB considers that a UE used the signature si,j to access
the network. One can notice that the NodeB is able to detect several signatures during the same TTI. Once a signature is detected, the timing offset is
computed from the peak position in the cross-correlation function.
Note: the cyclic prefix is useless with this detection method. The goal is not
to decode and recover the transmitted data and only the time domain signal is
analyzed.
51
6.3. Detection analysis
correlator
S1,1
received subframe
correlator
S1,2
correlator
Si,j
i,j > treshold

gives the
timing offset
Figure 6.8: Correlators at the NodeB
6.3.2
Frequency domain detection
The second method is performed in the frequency domain, i.e. an FFT is performed at the NodeB. The block scheme is given in Figure 6.9.
c*
channel
CP
demapping
FFT
IFFT
detection
Figure 6.9: The NodeB procedure when detecting in the frequency domain
Whereas the UE transmission is unchanged compared to the time domain
method, the NodeB procedure is completely different. First, the NodeB performs an FFT which size corresponds to the given system bandwidth. Then,
for each RACH signature (frequency band and code), the used sub carriers are
extracted and multiplied by the complex conjugate of the code. After that, an
IFFT is performed to achieve detection and timing estimation. The number
of FFT/IFFT operations corresponds to the number of OFDM symbols in the
random access signal. Assuming that the message is composed of 4 OFDM
symbols and that the part of the code related to the symbol k is noted ck , the
Figure 6.10 illustrates the procedure. Averaging is used to reduce the impact
of noise.
Several sets of FFT/IFFT can be required in order to detect the signature in
the RACH sub frame. As mentioned earlier, the goal is to estimate the timing
offset within a fraction of the CP. To achieve this, several sets, spaced by the
duration of the CP, are performed until the detection peak is found within the
CP interval. This is depicted in the Figure 6.11.
When the peak is located within the first CP interval, the analyzed piece of
signal corresponds to the transmitted RACH signal with a precision equal to
the length of the CP.
Note: Unlike the time domain detection, this method requires a CP.
52
received subframe
remove CP
demapping
FFT
c1*
remove CP
demapping
FFT
c2*
IFFT
remove CP
demapping
FFT
c3*
IFFT
remove CP
demapping
FFT
c4*
IFFT
IFFT
Averaging
Figure 6.10: Averaging procedure
received subframe
1st set : remove CP, demap, IFFT/FFT, detection
CP duration
received subframe
2nd set : remove CP, demap, IFFT/FFT, detection
last set : remove CP, demap, IFFT/FFT, detection
CP duration
Figure 6.11: Several sets of FFT/IFFT are performed to detect the presence of
a signature
53
6.4. Simulation results
6.4
Simulation results
The set of simulations is used to analyze the performances of our system for
different values of the SNR. The SNR is computed as the ratio of the transmitted
signal variance (average power) over the noise power:
Several elements are considered:
The missing probability, i.e. the probability of missing a signature.
The probability of false alarm when another code is sent in the same
frequency band.
The timing estimation variance.
The necessary number of attempts to access the network.
The total transmitted energy.
Several parameters are tested in order to evaluate their impact on the performances.
6.4.1
Threshold tuning
The threshold is an essential parameter in the design of the random access.

Its value has a direct impact on the false alarm probability, which is a crucial
factor to minimize. A trade-off has to be found to obtain a low false alarm
rate and a convenient missing probability. The simulation results are given for
the time domain detection (Figure 6.12 and 6.13). The test is performed in a
system bandwidth of 10 MHz (the FFT size is 1024) with a carrier frequency
of 2 GHz. The code is QPSK modulated and DFT spread. The random access
signal consists of 4 OFDM symbols and the number of used sub carriers per
symbol is 75. The channel is a TU with 6 taps and the mobile velocity is 3
km/h.
Missing probabilities (4 OFDM symbols ! BW = 1.25 MHz)
0
10
!1
missing probabilities
10
!2
10
Th = 11 dB
Th = 11.5 dB
Th = 12 dB
Th = 12.5 dB
!3
10
!4
10
!5
10
!30
!25
!20
SNR (dB)
!15
!10
Figure 6.12: Threshold tuning: missing probabilities

Basically, there is no significant performance difference between time domain
detection and frequency domain detection.
54

!1
10
Th = 10.5
Th = 11
Th = 11.5
Th = 12
!2
false alarm rate
10
!3
10
!4
10
!5
10
!30
!25
!20
!15
SNR (dB)
!10
!5
Figure 6.13: Threshold tuning: false alarm rate
For the following simulations, the time domain detection which is simpler
and faster will be used.
6.4.2
Impact of the number of symbols
The signature duration is a key parameter in the random access design. The
longer the signal is, the better the detection will be. But there are two limitations: the needed guard time and the potential payload duration. The missing
proabilities are provided for 3 signature durations (1, 3 and 5 OFDM symbols)
in Figure 6.14. Four or five OFDM symbols seem a reasonable duration. This
would lead to good detection and allow a subsequent payload transmission.
Missing probabilities (BW = 1.25 MHz)
10
!1
10
!2
10
1 OFDM symbol
3 OFDM symbols
5 OFDM symbols
!3
10
!4
10
!30
!28
!26
!24
!22
!20
!18
SNR (dB)
!16
!14
!12
!10
Figure 6.14: The impact of the number of OFDM symbols on the detection rate
55
6.4.3
Allocated bandwidth to random access
The width of the frequency band assigned to random access is an interesting

parameter to analyze. Obviously, if the transmission power is not a constraint,
the wider the band is, the smaller the missing rate will be. But if the SNR is
fixed, the effective power per subcarrier is inversely proportional to the signal
bandwidth. Then, a trade off has to be found:
a too narrow signal bandwidth implies poor frequency diversity and leads
to bad performances
a signal presenting a too large bandwidth will be very noise sensitive
We provide the results for different numbers of used subcarriers. The system
bandwidth is 10 MHz (FFT size equal to 1024). In every case, a threshold of
12 is used. The signal is composed of 4 OFDM symbols, the mobile velocity is
3km/h and the environment is TU.
Missing probabilities (4 OFDM symbols)
10
!1
10
!2
10
32 used subcarriers
75 used subcarriers
300 used subcarriers
!3
10
!4
10
!5
10
!30
!28
!26
!24
!22
!20
!18
SNR (dB)
!16
!14
!12
!10
Figure 6.15: The impact of the transmission bandwidth

The results show that a 5 MHz transmission bandwidth leads to a major
improvement in case of large SNR. As predicted, a very noisy channel (SNR
value smaller than -20 dB) gives advantage to narrower transmission bandwidths
such as 1.25 MHz.
6.4.4
Subcarriers mapping analysis
As we mentioned in section 5.7, the mapping scheme has an impact on the timing
estimation. While the detection probability is similar in each case, the timing
estimation is disastrous with an equidistant mapping. In order to compare the
results given by each mapping, we evaluate the timing error variance, i.e, the
timing estimation error (in number of samples) is stored for each successful
detection and the error variance is computed as :
=
K
1 X
e(k)2
K
k=1
56

where K is the number of successful detections.
AWGN channel
timing error variance (in number of squared sampes)
9000
randomized
localized
equidistant
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
!28
!26
!24
!22
!20
!18
SNR (dB)
!16
!14
!12
!10
Figure 6.16: Timing estimation error variance for each mapping scheme
6.4.5
Impact of the delay between two attempts
In the following simulations, the RACH procedure is performed until the UE is

detected. The necessary number of attempts to access the network represents
the performance measure.
As mentioned earlier, the channel varies with time. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate the impact of the delay between two attempts. Here, we
analyze the most probable scenario, the pedestrian channel (3km/h). In this
case, the coherance time is in the order of 30ms. The frequency band used for
the random access is kept constant during the procedure. Since the process
benefits from time diversity, the performances in term of number of attempts
are better for larger delay. The results are provided in Figure 6.17.
10
one attempt each TTI
one attempt every 5 TTI
one attempt every 10 TTI
number of attempts
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
!22
!20
!18
!16
SNR target (dB)
!14
!12
!10
Figure 6.17: Impact of the delay between two attempts
57
6.4.6
Improvement with frequency hopping
Frequency hopping is a clever way to benefit from frequency diversity and improve the performances of the procedure. In case of frequency selective channel (TU for instance), frequency hopping would help from staying stuck in a
frequency deep fading. The improvement provided by this technique depends
highly on the transmission bandwidth. The TU channel does not present wide
deep fading (Bm 200 kHz) and hence, the enhancement will be significant for
narrow transmission band (see Figure 6.18 and Figure 6.19).
BW = 500 kHz
7
constant frequency band
frequency hopping
number of attempts
1
!22
!20
!18
!16
SNR target (dB)
!14
!12
!10
Figure 6.18: Gain of performance with frequency hopping at 3km/h, BW = 500

kHz
BW = 1.25 MHz
5
frequency hopping
4.5
number of attempts
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
!22
!20
!18
!16
SNR target(dB)
!14
!12
!10
Figure 6.19: Gain of performance with frequency hopping at 3km/h, BW =

1.25 MHz
However, if the transmission band is wide, i.e 5 MHz, frequency hopping
does not provide important improvement (see Figure 6.20).
58

BW = 5 MHz
8
frequency hopping
number of attempts
1
!22
!21
!20
!19
!18
!17
!16
SNR target (dB)
!15
!14
!13
!12
Figure 6.20: Gain of performance with frequency hopping at 3km/h, BW = 5

MHz
6.4.7
Power ramping
The power ramping method provides great enhancement for low initial SNR
target. The results are given in Figure 6.21. Logically, it allows the UE to be
detected fastly and we can notice that the power ramping ensures energy saving.
However, the results must be considered with prudence. The present simulation is performed from a link model. Only one user is represented and interferences caused by the others (other cells) are not taken into account.
Note: The transmitted energy is computed as :
=
E
I X
K
X
|si (k)|2
i=1 k=1
where si is the RACH signal for the attempt i, I is the number of attempts and
K the number of transmitted samples per attempt.
Theoretically,
Pt .I.K
E=
Fs
=
Here, the noise is fixed to 0 dB and the indicated energy corresponds to E
E.Fs
.
N0 .
6.4.8
Impact of the shadowing variance
In this section, we try to analyze the fact that the uplink fading is different from
downlink fading. This phenomenon implies a wrong estimation of the uplink
fading and hence a wrong initial power allocation. Two scenarios are assumed:
the realistic case (red curve) where the correlation factor between uplink
and downlink fading is equal to 0,9.
59
Transmitted Energy vs. SNRtarget

800
step =
step =
step =
step =
Transmitted Energy
700
600
0 dB
1 dB
2 dB
3 dB
500
400
300
200
100
0
!28
!26
!24
!22
!20 !18 !16

SNRtarget
!14
!12
!10
!8
!10
!8
Number of required preambles vs. SNRtarget
Number of requiered preambles
120
100
80
60
40
20
!28
!26
!24
!22
!20 !18 !16

SNRtarget
!14
!12
Figure 6.21: Gain of performance with power ramping
60

the ideal scenario where uplink and downlink fading are identical.
The Figure 6.22 shows the effect of this difference in terms of performances.
We notice a significant deterioration in case the correlation factor between uplink and downlink fading is not equal to 1.
Note: The ideal case was assumed in earlier simulations in order to analyze
the system as a function of the actual SNR.
12
correlation factor = 0.9
correlation factor = 1
number of attempts
10
0
!22
!20
!18
!16
SNR target (dB)
!14
!12
!10
Figure 6.22: Impact of the difference between uplink and downlink shadow
fading
Chapter 7
Conclusion and Future work

This project aimed at giving an introduction to the random access in the future
LTE system. Several general parameters have been discussed and analyzed. It
highlights the discussion topics and intends to give some explanations. Several
transmission parameters have been investigated in order to understand and
measure the stake of each factor.
The width of the used frequency band is a crucial factor in the design of
the random access. As a minimum, the transmission band has to be in the
order of 1 MHz to allow for good timing estimation. It has been shown that
a transmission bandwidth of 5 MHz leads to excellent performances. However
a narrower transmission band would allow for more contention opportunities.
Moreover, a UE should be able to transmit a RACH signal in the 1.25 MHz
band to fit with the smallest system bandwidth.
The number of OFDM symbols in the signature is also known as a decisive
factor and it has to be discussed carefully. The question is to know if a payload
can be added to the random access signal. This is why this project gives the
detection rate for several numbers of OFDM symbols. A signature composed
of several symbols leads to better detection performances but adds complexity
at the NodeB. Based on the results, it appears that 4 or 5 OFDM symbols
seem suitable for signature detection. In this case, for a cell radius of 15km,
a symbol can be added in order to allow signaling through RACH access. By
mapping the message part and the signature on the same subcarriers, channel
estimation can be performed in order to help decoding the message. One can
hence imagine a 150 bits message (75 subcarriers, QPSK) signaling the user
identity or a resource request. Note that there is no interest to have smaller
message size since the resources can not be re-used.
A simple method has been analyzed to benefit from frequency diversity:
frequency hopping. The improvement provided by this technique depends highly
on the width of the frequency band used to access the network. The channel
used for simulation purpose was extremely frequency selective, therefore narrow
signal shows better improvement. For example, the enhancement provided by
frequency hopping in case of 1,25 MHz bandwidth signal is in the order of 2dB
(in terms of transmitted power).
Finally, the back off delay between two random accesses has been analyzed.
A large delay provides time diversity and energy saving but increases latency.
It appears that a back off delay corresponding to about 10 TTI is good choice
61
62
Chapter 7. Conclusion and Future work
to benefit from time diversity and save transmission energy.

Further studies would concern several important points:
The signature should be investigated in details. Comparison between PN
and CAZAC sequences should be performed in order to find the best signature. The IFFT process at the transmitter makes the analysis more
complex. The modulation scheme is also an important parameter. QPSK
were used for simulation purpose in the present document but other modulation schemes could be used instead. 8-PSK or 16-QAM are likely to be
employed in the LTE system and hence could be used within the random
access.
A system simulation is required in order to simulate the system with several users. Based on the detection probablity results and collision probabilities (function of the number of signatures, the number of frequency
bands, etc.), an overall detection performance should be estimated. But
the actual knowledge is not sufficient to perform such simulation. For
the moment, there is no defined requirements concerning the number of
signatures nor the number of frequency bands.
Finally, the insertion of a payload part consequently after the signature
symbols can be analyzed by computing the bit error rate on the signalling
part. Channel estimation could be performed on the signature to help
decoding the signalling part.
References
[1] 3GPP TS 25.331 (V6.6.0) Technical Specification Group Radio Access
Network; Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol Specification (Release
6), June 2005.
[2] IEEE P802.16e-D11 Air Interface for Fixed and Mobile Broadband Wireless Access Systems, September 2005.
[3] 3GPP TR 25.814 (V0.4.1) Specification Group Radio Access Network;
Physical Layer Aspects for Evolved UTRA (Release 7), November 2005.
[4] Eldad Perahia, Donald C. Cox. IEEE 944854 Shadow Fading Correlation
Between Uplink and Downlink, 2004.
[5] IEEE P802.16-REVd/D5 Air Interface For Fixed Broadband Wireless Access Systems, May 2004.
[6] IEEE C802.16e-04/143 Ranging Enhancement for 802.16e OFDMA
PHY, June 2004.
[7] 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 - R1-050475 PAPR comparison of uplink MA
schemes, May 2005.
[8] 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 - R1-051391 Random Access Transmission for
Scalable Multiple Bandwidths in Evolved UTRA uplink, May 2005.
[9] 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 - R1-050584 EUTRA Uplink Numerology and
Design, June 2005.
[10] 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 - R1-051445 E-UTRA Random Access, November
2005.
[11] 3GPP TSG RAN WG2 - R2-052502 On RACH access systems, October
2005.
Network; Physical channels and mapping of transport channels onto physical channels (FDD) (Release 5), September 2004.
Network; Multiplexing and channel coding (FDD) (Release 6), September
2005.
Network; Spreading and modulation (FDD) (Release 5), December 2003.
63
64
References
[15] Yang Yang, Tak-Shing Peter Yum. Analysis of Power Ramping Schemes
for UTRA-FDD Random Access Channel, 2004.
[16] Harri Holma and Antti Toskala, editors. WCDMA for UMTS, Radio Access
For Third Generation Mobile Communications. Wiley, 2000.
[17] B. Walke, P. Seidenberg, and M. P. Althoff, editors. UMTS the fundamentals. Wiley, 2003.
[18] Heikki Kaaranen, Ari Ahtiainen, Lauri Laitinen, Siamk Naghian, and Valtteri Niemi, editors. UMTS Networks, Architecture, Mobility and Services.
Wiley, 2001.

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E-UTRA RACH within the LTE system

Masters Degree Project

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3 Air interface candidates for uplink access

4 Existing random access procedures

5 RACH design within LTE

Improvement with frequency hopping . . . . . . . . . . .

7 Conclusion and Future work

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Hadamard codes of length 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

System parameters for uplink transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Typical Urban channel profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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The pure Aloha protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Principle of the OFDM method . . .

Overview of the RACH procedure within UMTS . .

Timing offset caused by the round trip delay . . . . . . . . . . .

The necessary guard time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Third Generation Partnership Project

Digital Fourier Transform

Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution

Frequency Division Multiple Access

High Speed Downlink Packet Access

Inter Channel Interference

Local Area Network

Medium Access Control

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

Peak to Average Power Ratio

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

Random Access Channel

Subscriber Identity Module

Time Division Multiple Access

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The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is a collaboration agreement

The standardization department at LG (3GPP member), where this project

The Random Access Channel is a contention-based channel for initial uplink

1.2. Problem definition

User information bits are spread over a wide bandwidth by multiplying

Several possible scenarios

Requirements and RACH purpose

In order to investigate the design of the channel, it is first proposed to study

Air interface analysis

Existing random access channels analysis

List different scenarios

1.3. Research approach

Evaluation and Analysis

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Multiple Access Protocols

The pure Aloha protocol

Figure 2.1: The pure Aloha protocol

Chapter 2. Multiple Access Protocols

if another packet is sent

Figure 2.2: The vulnerable period of the basic Aloha protocol

The Slotted Aloha protocol

The slotted Aloha protocol is characterized by a slotted channel, i.e. time is

if another packet is sent

Figure 2.3: The vulnerable period of the slotted Aloha protocol

The CSMA protocol

2.4. The CSMA protocol

In CSMA-CD, the users are able to detect interference among several