In order that the 3G LTE system can maintain synchronisation and

the system is able to manage the different types of information

that need to be carried between the base-station or eNodeB and
the User Equipment, UE, 3G LTE system has a defined LTE frame
and subframe structure for the E-UTRA or Evolved UMTS
Terrestrial Radio Access, i.e. the air interface for 3G LTE.
The frame structures for LTE differ between the Time Division
Duplex, TDD and the Frequency Division Duplex, FDD modes as
there are different requirements on segregating the transmitted
data.
There are two types of LTE frame structure:
1. Type 1: used for the LTE FDD mode systems.
2. Type 2: used for the LTE TDD systems.

Type 1 LTE Frame Structure

The basic type 1 LTE frame has an overall length of 10 ms. This is
then divided into a total of 20 individual slots. LTE Subframes then
consist of two slots - in other words there are ten LTE subframes
within a frame.

Type 1 LTE Frame Structure

Type 2 LTE Frame Structure

The frame structure for the type 2 frames used on LTE TDD is
somewhat different. The 10 ms frame comprises two half frames,
each 5 ms long. The LTE half-frames are further split into five
subframes, each 1ms long.

Type 2 LTE Frame Structure

(shown for 5ms switch point periodicity).
The subframes may be divided into standard subframes of special
subframes. The special subframes consist of three fields;

DwPTS - Downlink Pilot Time Slot

GP - Guard Period

UpPTS - Uplink Pilot Time Stot.

These three fields are also used within TD-SCDMA and they have
been carried over into LTE TDD (TD-LTE) and thereby help the
upgrade path. The fields are individually configurable in terms of
length, although the total length of all three together must be
1ms.
LTE TDD / TD-LTE subframe allocations
One of the advantages of using LTE TDD is that it is possible to
dynamically change the up and downlink balance and
characteristics to meet the load conditions. In order that this can

be achieved in an ordered fashion, a number of standard

configurations have been set within the LTE standards.
A total of seven up / downlink configurations have been set, and
these use either 5 ms or 10 ms switch periodicities. In the case of
the 5ms switch point periodicity, a special subframe exists in both
half frames. In the case of the 10 ms periodicity, the special
subframe exists in the first half frame only. It can be seen from
the table below that the subframes 0 and 5 as well as DwPTS are
always reserved for the downlink. It can also be seen that UpPTS
and the subframe immediately following the special subframe are
always reserved for the uplink transmission.

Uplinkdownlink
configurat
ion

0
1
2
3
4
5
6

Downlink
to uplink
switch
periodicit
y

5 ms
5 ms
5 ms
10 ms
10 ms
10 ms
5 ms

Subframe number

0
D
D
D
D
D
D
D

1
S
S
S
S
S
S
S

2
U
U
U
U
U
U
U

3
U
U
D
U
U
D
U

4
U
D
D
U
D
D
U

5
D
D
D
D
D
D
D

6
S
S
S
D
D
D
S

7
U
U
U
D
D
D
U

8
U
U
D
D
D
D
U

9
U
D
D
D
D
D
D

Where:
D is a subframe for downlink transmission
S is a "special" subframe used for a guard time
U is a subframe for uplink transmission

Uplink / Downlink subframe configurations for LTE TDD

(TD-LTE)
Summary
The frame and subframe structures within LTE have been
configured to give as much compatibility with existing structures
to enable migration from UMTS and HSPA as well as TD-SCDMA,
while still providing the flexibility required. The LTE frame
structure and subframe structure link to the system timings to
enable the frames and subframes to be convenient multiples of
the clock frequencies within the system.