LTE Air Interface Overview

Protocols and Signalling

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LTE Air Interface Protocol Stack

What - information

How
transmission format,
compression,
encryption, channel
coding.

Where/When
- time and frequency

The Physical Layer

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Shannon's Law and Capacity

Low Bandwidth

High Bandwidth
4

Low SNR

High SNR

Typical Multipath Environment

OFDMA Designed to offer good performance

in challenging environments
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Flat Fading

Frequency Selective Fading

13

LTE Channel Frequency Domain

5MHz 300sc
10MHz 600sc
15MHz 900sc
20MHz 1200sc

Sub-Carrier 15KHz

Symbol Time 66.67uS

14

LTE Channel Time Domain

Radio Frame 10mS
Sub-Frame 10mS

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Slot 0.5mS

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

4.7uS

CP
8

71.3uS

6 or 7 Symbols (66.667uS)

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16

Defining a Resource Block Frequency/Time

Frequency

Overall Channel Structure

Physical
Resource
Block

0.5mS

TTI
10

1mS

Time

22

Logical to Transport Channel Mapping

11

Signalling - PDCCH

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

PDCCH DCI
1,2,4 or 8 x CCE
Depending on Ch BW and
DCI Format

REG = 4 x RE

12

CCE = 9 x REG

Resource Mapping Useful site

http://niviuk.free.fr/lte_resource_grid.html

13

MAC Layer
TS 36.321

All material is Copyright Informa Telecoms & Media

MAC layer Functions (TS 36.321)

15

Mapping between logical channels and transport channels;

Multiplexing/demultiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or different logical

channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be delivered to the physical layer on
transport channels;

Scheduling information reporting;

Error correction through HARQ;

Priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling;

Priority handling between logical channels of one UE;

Logical Channel prioritisation;

Transport format selection

Random Access control, including contention resolution

Timing Advance management

MAC Layer PDU Format

RLC Frame

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11

Contention Based Random Access

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20

PRACH Physical Layer Formats

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21

PRACH Resource Parameters

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RLC Layer
TS 36.322

All material is Copyright Informa Telecoms & Media

11

Functions of RLC

21

Transfer of upper layer PDUs supporting Acknowledged Mode (AM) or

Un-acknowledged Mode (UM);

Transparent Mode (TM) data transfer;

Error Correction through ARQ (CRC check provided by the physical layer,
in other words no CRC needed at RLC level);

Segmentation according to the size of the TB: only if an RLC SDU does
not fit entirely into the TB then the RLC SDU is segmented into variable
sized RLC PDUs, which do not include any padding;

Re-segmentation of PDUs that need to be retransmitted: if a retransmitted

PDU does not fit entirely into the new TB used for retransmission then the
RLC PDU is re-segmented;

Concatenation of SDUs for the same radio bearer;

In-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs except at HO;

Duplicate Detection;

Protocol error detection and recovery;

12

RLC Layer Operating Modes

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13

a) The TM PDU

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13

b) The UM PDU with 5 byte SN

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13

c) The AM PDU, showing no LI

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PDCP Layer
TS 36.323

All material is Copyright Informa Telecoms & Media

15

Basic Model of PDCP Functions

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15

Basic Model of PDCP Functions

User Plane Functions
Header compression and decompression: ROHC only;
Transfer of user data: transmission of user data means that PDCP receives
PDCP SDU from the NAS and forwards it to the RLC layer and vice versa;
In-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at handover for RLC AM;
Duplicate detection of lower layer SDUs at handover for RLC AM;
Retransmission of PDCP SDUs at handover for RLC AM;
Ciphering;
Timer-based SDU discard in uplink.
Control Plane Functions
Ciphering and Integrity Protection;
Transfer of control plane data: transmission of control plane data means
that PDCP receives PDCP SDUs from RRC and forwards it to the RLC
layer and vice versa.

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16

a) Control Plane PDCP Header Format

for SRB (Signalling Radio Bearers)

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16

b) User Plane PDCP Header Format

or DRB (Data Radio Bearers)

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18

PDCP ROHC (shown only in a single direction)

31

19

b) Example of ROHC Compression in VoIP

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LTE Control Layers (RRC)

TS 36.331

All material is Copyright Informa Telecoms & Media

Signalling Radio Bearers

34

RRC Control Messages

Broadcast Information
MasterInformationBlock
SystemInformation
SystemInformationBlockType1
Paging
Connection Management
RRCConnection Reconfiguration
RRCConnection Reconfiguration Complete
RRCConnection Reconfiguration Failure
RRCConnection Reestablishment
RRCConnection Reestablishment Complete
RRCConnection Reestablishment Reject
RRCConnection Reestablishment Request
RRCConnection Reject
RRCConnection Release
RRCConnection Request
RRCConnection Setup
RRCConnection Setup Complete

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NAS Signalling
DLInformationTransfer
ULInformationTransfer
Handover Messaging
HandoverFromEUTRA
PreparationRequest (CDMA2000)
ULHandoverPreparationTransfer
(CDMA2000)
MeasurementReport
MobilityFromEUTRACommand
Handover Command
Handover Confirm
Miscellaneous
RRCStatus
SecurityModeCommand
SecurityModeComplete
SecurityModeFailure
UECapabilityEnquiry
UECapabilityInformation

RRC States

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RRC Signalling Connection Setup

Used to establish SRB1

UE

UE Idle

Random Access

eNB

RRC Connection Request SRB 0

Admission Control
RRM

RRC Connection Setup

RLC and MAC setup

RRC Connection Setup Complete

NAS (MM or SM) Signalling

37

RRC Signalling Connection Reconfiguration

Establish/Modify Radio Bearers

Handovers
Measurement Configurations
NAS Message Transfer
NAS Signalling

UE

eNB
RRC Connection Reconfiguration

RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete

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Info Elements
Measurement Config
NAS Dedicated Info
Radio Resource Config
Mobility Control Config
Security Config
UE Related Info

RLC Modes and Signalling Examples

MasterInformationBlock
Signalling radio bearer: N/A
RLC-SAP: TM
Logical channel: BCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

MeasurementReport
Signalling radio bearer: SRB1
RLC-SAP: AM
Logical channel: DCCH
Direction: UE to E-UTRAN

SystemInformationBlockType1
Signalling radio bearer: N/A
RLC-SAP: TM
Logical channel: BCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

MobilityFromEUTRACommand
Signalling radio bearer: SRB1
RLC-SAP: AM
Logical channel: DCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

RRCConnectionRequest
Signalling radio bearer: SRB0
RLC-SAP: TM
Logical channel: CCCH
Direction: UE to E-UTRAN

UECapabilityEnquiry
Signalling radio bearer: SRB1
RLC-SAP: AM
Logical channel: DCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

RRCConnectionSetup
Signalling radio bearer: SRB0
RLC-SAP: TM
Logical channel: CCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

UEInformationRequest
Signalling radio bearer: SRB1
RLC-SAP: AM
Logical channel: DCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

RRCConnectionSetupComplete
Signalling radio bearer: SRB1
RLC-SAP: AM
Logical channel: DCCH
Direction: UE to E-UTRAN

DLInformationTransfer
Signalling radio bearer: SRB2 or SRB1
(only if SRB2 not established yet. If
SRB2 is suspended, E-UTRAN does
not send this message until SRB2 is
resumed.)
RLC-SAP: AM
Logical channel: DCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

RRCConnectionReconfiguration
Signalling radio bearer: SRB1
RLC-SAP: AM
Logical channel: DCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

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Paging
Signalling radio bearer: N/A
RLC-SAP: TM
Logical channel: PCCH
Direction: E-UTRAN to UE

Stack - Overview

Freescale Semiconductor, Inc

40

More Air Interface Signalling

TS 23.401

All material is Copyright Informa Telecoms & Media