Telecom_interview_questions and Quick answers

Question-1: Often it is asked to differentiate between single carrier and multiple carrier systems(i.e.
OFDM, OFDMA)? 📍
Answer: SC (single carrier) system carry less information while multi carrier occupy multiple bits
simultaneously. Hence data rate is higher for multicarrier compare to single carrier system.

Question-2. What is the difference between Erlang and GoS?

Answer-: Both Erlang and GoS are used in telephone exchange for measurement of calls such as calls
dropped, calls passed etc.
Question-3. What is Bit Error Rate and how it is calculated?
Answer: Bit error rate (BER) is used to measure performance of the wireless or wired system in
channel or impairment environment. BER is the ratio of received erroneous bits to the total number
of bits transmitted.
Question-4. What is the difference between CAS and CCS?
Answer: CAS stands for Channel Associated Signaling and CCS stands for Common Channel Signaling.
Both are associated with PCM used in telephony.
Question-5. Explain multipath fading.📍
Answer: The variation is received signal strength over time is referred as fading. When the signal
traverse from transmit end to receive end, it will have many reflections from buildings and walls till
it reaches receive end. This results into multipath fading.
Question-6. What is the relation between wavelength and frequency?
Answer: Wavelength and frequency are inversely proportional to each other.
λ = C/Frequency,
C = 3 X 10 ^8 m/sec

Question -7. What is type of modulation used in GSM? 📍

Answer . GMSK stands for Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying.

Question 8: What is the difference between LTE FDD and LTE TDD? 📍
Answer:The difference lies in the LTE frame structure in both the FDD and TDD versions of the LTE.
In FDD there will be pair of frequencies assigned in the downlink and uplink directions and hence
transmissions from multiple subscribes can happen at the same time but on different frequencies as
mentioned.
In TDD, one single frequency will be used at different time instants by multiple subscriber terminals
(UEs).
Both frame versions of LTE will have 1 ms sub-frame duration and 0.5 ms slot duration.

Question-9:What is the difference between LTE and LTE Advanced?📍

Answer-:
LTE is specified in 3GPP release 8 and release 9.
LTE advanced is specified in 3GPP release 10.
The main difference between them is carrier aggregation is introduced in LTE advanced.
Number of antennas supported by MIMO has been increased to 8 in LTE advanced.
Question10. -:What is the difference between WiMAX system and LTE system? 📍
Answer: WiMAX and LTE both are used for providing broadband internet access services.
Voice services are also planned to provide over wimax and LTE networks using Voice over IP
protocols.
WiMAX stands for World Wide Interoperability for Microwave Access and LTE stands for Long Term
Evolution.
WiMAX fall back to non-cellular technologies such as WLAN.
LTE fall back to cellular technologies such as GSM, UMTS etc.
In wimax both uplink and downlink use symmetric modulation schemes such as OFDM or OFDMA.
In LTE downlink uses OFDMA and uplink uses SC-FDMA....

What is LTE?
LTEi (Long Term Evolution) is initiated by 3GPP to improve the mobile phone standard to cope with
future technology evolutions and needs.

What is goal of LTE?

The goals for LTE include improving spectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making
use of new spectrum and reformed spectrum opportunities, and better integration with other open
standards.

What speed LTE offers?

LTE provides downlink peak rates of at least 100Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s in the uplink and RAN (Radio
Access Network) round-trip times of less than 10 ms.

What is LTE Advanced?

LTE standards are in matured state now with release 8 frozen. While LTE Advanced is still under
works. Often the LTE standard is seen as 4G standard which is not true. 3.9G is more acceptable for
LTE. So why it is not 4G? Answer is quite simple - LTE does not fulfill all requirements of ITU 4G
definition.

Brief History of LTE Advanced: The ITU has introduced the term IMT Advanced to identify mobile
systems whose capabilities go beyond those of IMT 2000. The IMT Advanced systems shall provide
best-in-class performance attributes such as peak and sustained data rates and corresponding
spectral efficiencies, capacity, latency, overall network complexity and quality-of-service
management. The new capabilities of these IMT-Advanced systems are envisaged to handle a wide
range of supported data rates with target peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Mbit/s for high
mobility and up to approximately 1 Gbit/s for low mobility.

What is LTE architecture?

The evolved architecture comprises E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN) on the access side and EPC (Evolved
Packet Core) on the core side.

The figure below shows the evolved system architecture

What is EUTRAN?
The E-UTRAN (Evolved UTRAN) consists of eNBs, providing the E-UTRA user plane
(PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY) and control plane (RRC) protocol terminations towards the UE. The eNBs are
interconnected with each other by means of the X2 interface. The eNBs are also connected by
means of the S1 interface to the EPC (Evolved Packet Core), more specifically to the MME (Mobility
Management Entity) by means of the S1-MME and to the Serving Gateway (S-GW) by means of the
S1-U.

What are LTE Interfaces?

The following are LTE Interfaces : (Ref: TS 23.401 v 841)

 S1-MME :- Reference point for the control plane protocol between E-UTRAN and MME.
 S1-U:- Reference point between E-UTRAN and Serving GW for the per bearer user plane
tunnelling and inter eNodeB path switching during handover.
 S3:- It enables user and bearer information exchange for inter 3GPP access network
mobility in idle and/or active state.
 S4:- It provides related control and mobility support between GPRS Core and the 3GPP
Anchor function of Serving GW. In addition, if Direct Tunnel is not established, it provides
the user plane tunnelling.
  S5:- It provides user plane tunnelling and tunnel management between Serving GW and
PDN GW. It is used for Serving GW relocation due to UE mobility and if the Serving GW
needs to connect to a non-collocated PDN GW for the required PDN connectivity.
 S6a:- It enables transfer of subscription and authentication data for
authenticating/authorizing user access to the evolved system (AAA interface) between MME
and HSS.
 Gx:- It provides transfer of (QoS) policy and charging rules from PCRF to Policy and
Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) in the PDN GW.
 S8:- Inter-PLMN reference point providing user and control plane between the Serving
GW in the VPLMN and the PDN GW in the HPLMN. S8 is the inter PLMN variant of S5.
 S9:- It provides transfer of (QoS) policy and charging control information between the
Home PCRF and the Visited PCRF in order to support local breakout function.
 S10:- Reference point between MMEs for MME relocation and MME to MME information
transfer.
 S11:- Reference point between MME and Serving GW.
 S12:- Reference point between UTRAN and Serving GW for user plane tunnelling when
Direct Tunnel is established. It is based on the Iu-u/Gn-u reference point using the GTP-U
protocol as defined between SGSN and UTRAN or respectively between SGSN and GGSN.
Usage of S12 is an operator configuration option.
 S13:- It enables UE identity check procedure between MME and EIR.
 SGi:- It is the reference point between the PDN GW and the packet data network. Packet
data network may be an operator external public or private packet data network or an intra
operator packet data network, e.g. for provision of IMS services. This reference point
corresponds to Gi for 3GPP accesses.
 Rx:- The Rx reference point resides between the AF and the PCRF in the TS 23.203.
 SBc:- Reference point between CBC and MME for warning message delivery and control
functions.

What are LTE Network elements?

eNB
eNB interfaces with the UE and hosts the PHYsical (PHY), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link
Control (RLC), and Packet Data Control Protocol (PDCP) layers. It also hosts Radio Resource Control
(RRC)functionality corresponding to the control plane. It performs many functions including radio
resource management, admission control,scheduling, enforcement of negotiated UL QoS, cell
information broadcast, ciphering/deciphering of user and control plane data, and
compression/decompression of DL/UL user plane packet headers.

Mobility Management Entity

manages and stores UE context (for idle state: UE/user identities, UE mobility state, user security
parameters). It generates temporary identities and allocates them to UEs. It checks the authorization
whether the UE may camp on the TA or on the PLMN. It also authenticates the user.

Serving Gateway
The SGW routes and forwards user data packets, while also acting as the mobility anchor for the
user plane during inter-eNB handovers and as the anchor for mobility between LTE and other 3GPP
technologies (terminating S4 interface and relaying the traffic between 2G/3G systems and PDN
GW).
Packet Data Network Gateway
The PDN GW provides connectivity to the UE to external packet data networks by being the point of
exit and entry of traffic for the UE. A UE may have simultaneous connectivity with more than one
PDN GW for accessing multiple PDNs. The PDN GW performs policy enforcement, packet filtering for
each user, charging support, lawful Interception
and packet screening.

What are LTE protocols & specifications?

In LTE architecture, core network includes Mobility Management Entity (MME), Serving Gateway
(SGW), Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN GW) where as E-UTRAN has E-UTRAN NodeB (eNB).

Protocol links are as below

 Air Interface Physical Layer

 GPRS Tunnelling Protocol User Plane (GTP-U)
 GTP-U Transport
 Medium Access Control (MAC)
 Non-Access-Stratum (NAS) Protocol
 Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
 Radio Link Control (RLC)
 Radio Resource Control (RRC)
 S1 Application Protocol (S1AP)
 S1 layer 1
 S1 Signalling Transport
 X2 Application Protocol (X2AP)
 X2 layer 1
 X2 Signalling Transport

What is VoLGA?
VoLGA stands for "Voice over LTE via Generic Access". The VoLGA service resembles the 3GPP
Generic Access Network (GAN). GAN provides a controller node - the GAN controller (GANC) -
inserted between the IP access network (i.e., the EPS) and the 3GPP core network.

The GAN provides an overlay access between the terminal and the CS core without requiring specific
enhancements or support in the network it traverses. This provides a terminal with a 'virtual'
connection to the core network already deployed by an operator. The terminal and network thus
reuse most of the existing mechanisms, deployment and operational aspects.

What is CS Fallback in LTE?

LTE technology supports packet based services only, however 3GPP does specifies fallback for circuit
switched services as well. To achieve this LTE architecture and network nodes require additional
functionality, this blog is an attempt to provide overview for same.

In LTE architecture, the circuit switched (CS) fallback in EPS enables the provisioning of voice and
traditional CS-domain services (e.g. CS UDI video/ SMS/ LCS/ USSD). To provide these services LTE
reuses CS infrastructure when the UE is served by E UTRAN.

How does LTE Security works?

The following are some of the principles of 3GPP E-UTRAN security based on 3GPP Release 8
specifications:
  The keys used for NAS and AS protection shall be dependent on the algorithm with which
they are used.
 The eNB keys are cryptographically separated from the EPC keys used for NAS protection
(making it impossible to use the eNB key to figure out an EPC key).
 The AS (RRC and UP) and NAS keys are derived in the EPC/UE from key material that was
generated by a NAS (EPC/UE) level AKA procedure (KASME) and identified with a key
identifier (KSIASME).
 The eNB key (KeNB) is sent from the EPC to the eNB when the UE is entering ECM-
CONNECTED state (i.e. during RRC connection or S1 context setup).

What is IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)?

The 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) technology provides an architectural framework for
delivering IP based multimedia services. IMS enables telecom service providers to offer a new
generation of rich multimedia services across both circuit switched and packet switched networks.
IMS offers access to IP based services independent of the access network e.g. wireless access (GPRS,
3GPP’s UMTS, LTE, 3GPP2’s CDMA2000) and fixed networks (TISPAN’s NGN)

IMS defines a architecture of logical elements using SIP for call signaling between network elements
and Provides a layered approach with defined service, control, and transport planes. Some of IMS
high level requirements are noted below:

The application plane provides an infrastructure for the provision and management of services,
subscriber configuration and identity management and defines standard interfaces to common
functionality.

The IMS control plane handles the call related signaling and controls transport plane. Major element
of control plane is the Call Session Control Function (CSCF) , which comprises Proxy-CSCF (P-CSCF),
Interrogating-CSCF (I-CSCF) and Serving-CSCF (S-CSCF). The CSCF (Call/Session Control Function) is
essentially a SIP server.

The IMS transport plane provides a core IP network with access from subscriber device over wireless
or wireline networks.

How does measurements work in LTE?

In LTE E-UTRAN measurements to be performed by a UE for mobility are classified as below

 Intra-frequency E-UTRAN measurements

 Inter-frequency E-UTRAN measurements
 Inter-RAT measurements for UTRAN and GERAN
 Inter-RAT measurements of CDMA2000 HRPD or 1xRTT frequencies

What is Automatic Neighbour Relation?

According to 3GPP specifications, the purpose of the Automatic Neighbour Relation (ANR)
functionality is to relieve the operator from the burden of manually managing Neighbor Relations
(NRs). This feature would operators effort to provision.

How does Intra E-UTRAN Handover is performed?

Intra E-UTRAN Handover is used to hand over a UE from a source eNodeB to a target eNodeB using
X2 when the MME is unchanged. In the scenario described here Serving GW is also unchanged. The
presence of IP connectivity between the Serving GW and the source eNodeB, as well as between the
Serving GW and the target eNodeB is assumed.

The intra E-UTRAN HO in RRC_CONNECTED state is UE assisted NW controlled HO, with HO

preparation signalling in E-UTRAN.

How does policy control and charging works in LTE?

A important component in LTE network is the policy and charging control (PCC) function that brings
together and enhances capabilities from earlier 3GPP releases to deliver dynamic control of policy
and charging on a per subscriber and per IP flow basis.

LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC) EPC includes a PCC architecture that provides support for fine-grained
QoS and enables application servers to dynamically control the QoS and charging requirements of
the services they deliver. It also provides improved support for roaming. Dynamic control over QoS
and charging will help operators monetize their LTE investment by providing customers with a
variety of QoS and charging options when choosing a service.

The LTE PCC functions include:

 PCRF (policy and charging rules function) provides policy control and flow based charging
control decisions.
 PCEF (policy and charging enforcement function) implemented in the serving gateway,
this enforces gating and QoS for individual IP flows on the behalf of
 the PCRF. It also provides usage measurement to support charging
 OCS (online charging system) provides credit management and grants credit to the PCEF
based on time, traffic volume or chargeable events.
 OFCS (off-line charging system) receives events from the PCEF and generates charging
data records (CDRs) for the billing system.

Refer following whitepapers for more details.

Introduction to Evolved Packet Core

Policy control and charging for LTE networks
Quality of Service (QoS) and Policy Management in Mobile Data Networks

What is SON & how does it work in LTE?

Self-configuring, self-optimizing wireless networks is not a new concept but as the mobile networks
are evolving towards 4G LTE networks, introduction of self configuring and self optimizing
mechanisms is needed to minimize operational efforts. A self optimizing function would increase
network performance and quality reacting to dynamic processes in the network.

This would minimize the life cycle cost of running a network by eliminating manual configuration of
equipment at the time of deployment, right through to dynamically optimizing radio network
performance during operation. Ultimately it will reduce the unit cost and retail price of wireless data
services.

See Self-configuring and self-optimizing Networks in LTE for details.

How does Network Sharing works in LTE?

3GPP network sharing architecture allows different core network operators to connect to a shared
radio access network. The operators do not only share the radio network elements, but may also
share the radio resources themselves.
Read Network Sharing in LTE for more.

How does Timing Advance (TA) works in LTE?

In LTE, when UE wish to establish RRC connection with eNB, it transmits a Random Access Preamble,
eNB estimates the transmission timing of the terminal based on this. Now eNB transmits a Random
Access Response which consists of timing advance command, based on that UE adjusts the terminal
transmit timing.

The timing advance is initiated from E-UTRAN with MAC message that implies and adjustment of the
timing advance.

See Timing Advance (TA) in LTE for further details.

How does LTE UE positioning works in E-UTRAN?

UE Positioning function is required to provide the mechanisms to support or assist the calculation of
the geographical position of a UE. UE position knowledge can be used, for example, in support of
Radio Resource Management functions, as well as location-based services for operators, subscribers,
and third-party service providers.

How many operators have committed for LTE?

List of operators committed for LTE has been compiled by 3GAmericas from Informa Telecoms &
Media and public announcements. It includes a variety of commitment levels including intentions to
trial, deploy, migrate, etc.

What is Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC)?

Along with LTE introduction, 3GPP also standardized Single Radio Voice Call Continuity (SRVCC) in
Release 8 specifications to provide seamless continuity when an UE handovers from LTE coverage (E-
UTRAN) to UMTS/GSM coverage (UTRAN/GERAN). With SRVCC, calls are anchored in IMS network
while UE is capable of transmitting/receiving on only one of those access networks at a given time.

How does Location Service (LCS) work in LTE network?

In the LCS architecture, an Evolved SMLC is directly attached to the MME. The objectives of this
evolution is to support location of an IMS emergency call, avoid impacts to a location session due to
an inter-eNodeB handover, make use of an Evolved and support Mobile originated location request
(MO-LR) and mobile terminated location request MT-LR services.

Release 9 LCS solution introduces new interfaces in the EPC:

 SLg between the GMLC and the MME

 SLs between the E-SMLC and the MME
 Diameter-based SLh between the HSS and the HGMLC

How does Lawful Interception works in LTE Evolved Packet System?

3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS) provides IP based services. Hence, EPS is responsible only for IP
layer interception of Content of Communication (CC) data. In addition to CC data, the Lawful
Interception (LI) solution for EPS offers generation of Intercept Related Information (IRI) records
from respective control plane (signalling) messages as well.
What is carrier aggregation in LTE-Advanced?

To meet LTE-Advanced requirements, support of wider transmission bandwidths is required than the
20 MHz bandwidth specified in 3GPP Release 8/9. The preferred solution to this is carrier
aggregation.

It is of the most distinct features of 4G LTE-Advanced. Carrier aggregation allows expansion of

effective bandwidth delivered to a user terminal through concurrent utilization of radio resources
across multiple carriers. Multiple component carriers are aggregated to form a larger overall
transmission bandwidth.

What is Relay Node and how does Relaying works in LTE-Advanced?

For efficient heterogeneous network planning, 3GPP LTE-Advanced has introduced concept of Relay
Nodes (RNs). The Relay Nodes are low power eNodeBs that provide enhanced coverage and capacity
at cell edges. One of the main benefits of relaying is to provide extended LTE coverage in targeted
areas at low cost.

The Relay Node is connected to the Donor eNB (DeNB) via radio interface, Un, a modified version of
E-UTRAN air interface Uu. Donor eNB also srves its own UE as usual, in addition to sharing its radio
resources for Relay Nodes.
 LTE Basic Parameters

Parameters Description

Frequency range UMTS FDD bands and TDD

Duplexing FDD, TDD, half-duplex FDD

Channel coding Turbo code

Mobility 350 km/h

Channel Bandwidth (MHz)

 1.4

 3

 5

 10

 15

 20

Transmission Bandwidth
Configuration NRB : (1 resource  6
block = 180kHz in 1ms TTI )
 15

 25

 50

 75

 100

Modulation Schemes
UL: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM(optional)

DL: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM

Multiple Access Schemes

UL: SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple

Access) supports 50Mbps+ (20MHz spectrum)

 DL: OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)

supports 100Mbps+ (20MHz spectrum)

Multi-Antenna Technology
UL: Multi-user collaborative MIMO

DL: TxAA (Transmit antenna array), spatial multiplexing, CDD,

max 4x4 array.

Peak data rate in LTE

UL: 75Mbps(20MHz bandwidth)

DL: 150Mbps(UE Category 4, 2x2 MIMO, 20MHz bandwidth)

DL: 300Mbps(UE category 5, 4x4 MIMO, 20MHz bandwidth)

MIMO UL: 1 x 2, 1 x 4

(Multiple Input Multiple Output)

DL: 2 x 2, 4 x 2, 4 x 4

Coverage 5 - 100km with slight degradation after 30km

QoS E2E QOS allowing prioritization of different class of service

Latency End-user latency < 10mS

LTE Network Architecture

The high-level network architecture of LTE is comprised of following three main components:

 The User Equipment (UE).

 The Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN).

 The Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

The evolved packet core communicates with packet data networks in the outside world such as
the internet, private corporate networks or the IP multimedia subsystem. The interfaces between

the different parts of the system are denoted Uu, S1 and SGi as shown below:
The User Equipment (UE)
The internal architecture of the user equipment for LTE is identical to the one used by UMTS and

GSM which is actually a Mobile Equipment (ME). The mobile equipment comprised of the following

important modules:

 Mobile Termination (MT): This handles all the communication functions.

 Terminal Equipment (TE): This terminates the data streams.

 Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) : This is also known as the SIM card for LTE

equipments. It runs an application known as the Universal Subscriber Identity Module

(USIM).

A USIM stores user-specific data very similar to 3G SIM card. This keeps information about the

user's phone number, home network identity and security keys etc.
 The E-UTRAN (The access network)(Base Stations)

The architecture of evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) has been illustrated
below.

The E-UTRAN handles the radio communications between the mobile and the evolved packet core

and just has one component, the evolved base stations, called eNodeB or eNB. Each eNB is a

base station that controls the mobiles in one or more cells. The base station that is

communicating with a mobile is known as its serving eNB.

LTE Mobile communicates with just one base station and one cell at a time and there are

following two main functions supported by eNB:

 The eBN sends and receives radio transmissions to all the mobiles using the analogue and

digital signal processing functions of the LTE air interface.

 The eNB controls the low-level operation of all its mobiles, by sending them signalling
messages such as handover commands.

Each eBN connects with the EPC by means of the S1 interface and it can also be connected to

nearby base stations by the X2 interface, which is mainly used for signalling and packet

forwarding during handover.

A home eNB (HeNB) is a base station that has been purchased by a user to provide femtocell

coverage within the home. A home eNB belongs to a closed subscriber group (CSG) and can only

be accessed by mobiles with a USIM that also belongs to the closed subscriber group.
 The Evolved Packet Core (EPC) (The core network)

In Evolved Packet Core (EPC) there are few more components which have not been shown in the
diagram to keep it simple. These components are like the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System
(ETWS), the Equipment Identity Register (EIR) and Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF).

Below is a brief description of each of the components shown in the above architecture:

 The Home Subscriber Server (HSS) is a central database that contains information about

all subscribers.

 The Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) communicates with the outside world ie.

packet data networks PDN, using SGi interface. Each packet data network is identified by

an access point name (APN). The PDN gateway has the same role as the GPRS support

node (GGSN) and the serving GPRS support node (SGSN) with UMTS and GSM.

 The serving gateway (S-GW) acts as a router, and forwards data between the base

stations and the PDN gateway.

 The mobility management entity (MME) controls the high-level operation of the mobile by

means of signalling messages and Home Subscriber Server (HSS).

 The Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is a component which is not shown

in the above diagram but it is responsible for policy control decision-making, as well as

for controlling the flow-based charging functionalities in the Policy Control Enforcement

Function (PCEF), which resides in the P-GW.

The interface between the serving and PDN gateways is known as S5/S8. This has two slightly
different implementations, namely S5 if the two devices are in the same network, and S8 if they are
in different networks.
 Functional split between the E-UTRAN and the EPC
Following diagram shows the functional split between the E-UTRAN and the EPC for an LTE

network:

(2G/3G) V/s (LTE)

Following table compares various important Network Elements & Signalling protocols used in

2G/3G abd LTE.

2G/3G LTE

GERAN and UTRAN E-UTRAN

SGSN/PDSN-FA S-GW

GGSN/PDSN-HA PDN-GW

HLR/AAA HSS
VLR MME

SS7-MAP/ANSI-41/RADIUS Diameter

DiameterGTPc-v0 and v1 GTPc-v2

MIP PMIP

LTE Roaming Architecture

A network run by one operator in one country is known as a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)

and when a subscribed user uses his operator's PLMN then it is said Home-PLMN but roaming

allows users to move outside their home network and using the resources from other operator's

network. This other network is called Visited-PLMN.

A roaming user is connected to the E-UTRAN, MME and S-GW of the visited LTE network.

However, LTE/SAE allows the P-GW of either the visited or the home network to be used, as

shown in below:

The home network's P-GW allows the user to access the home operator's services even while in a

visited network. A P-GW in the visited network allows a "local breakout" to the Internet in the

visited network.

The interface between the serving and PDN gateways is known as S5/S8. This has two slightly
different implementations, namely S5 if the two devices are in the same network, and S8 if they
are in different networks. For mobiles that are not roaming, the serving and PDN gateways can be

integrated into a single device, so that the S5/S8 interface vanishes altogether.

LTE Roaming Charging

The complexities of the new charging mechanisms required to support 4G roaming are much more
abundant than in a 3G environment. Few words about both pre-paid and post-paid charging for LTE
roaming is given below:
 Prepaid Charging - The CAMEL standard, which enables prepaid services in 3G, is not

supported in LTE; therefore, prepaid customer information must be routed back to the

home network as opposed to being handled by the local visited network. As a result,

operators must rely on new accounting flows to access prepaid customer data, such as

through their P-Gateways in both IMS and non-IMS environments or via their CSCF in an

IMS environment.

 Post paid Charging – Post paid data-usage charging works the same in LTE as it does in
3G. With local breakout of IMS services, TAP 3.12 is required.

Operators do not have the same amount of visibility into subscriber activities as they do in home-

routing scenarios in case of local breakout scenarios because subscriber-data sessions are kept

within the visited network; therefore, in order for the home operator to capture real-time

information on both pre- and post paid customers, it must establish a Diameter interface between

charging systems and the visited network's P-Gateway.

In case of local breakout of ims services scenario, the visited network creates call detail records

(CDRs) from the S-Gateway(s), however, these CDRs do not contain all of the information

required to create a TAP 3.12 mobile session or messaging event record for the service usage. As

a result, operators must correlate the core data network CDRs with the IMS CDRs to create TAP

records.

LTE Numbering & Addressing

An LTE network area is divided into three different types of geographical areas explained below:

S.N. Area and Description

1
The MME pool areas

This is an area through which the mobile can move without a change of serving MME.

Every MME pool area is controlled by one or more MMEs on the network.
2
The S-GW service areas

This is an area served by one or more serving gateways S-GW, through which the

mobile can move without a change of serving gateway.

3
The Tracking areas

The MME pool areas and the S-GW service areas are both made from smaller, non-

overlapping units known as tracking areas (TAs). They are similar to the location and

routing areas from UMTS and GSM and will be used to track the locations of mobiles

that are on standby mode.

The Network IDs

The network itself will be identified using Public Land Mobile Network Identity (PLMN-ID) which

will have a three digit mobile country code (MCC) and a two or three digit mobile network code

(MNC). For example, the Mobile Country Code for the UK is 234, while Vodafone's UK network

uses a Mobile Network Code of 15.

The MME IDs

Each MME has three main identities. An MME code (MMEC) uniquely identifies the MME within all

the pool areas. A group of MMEs is assigned an MME Group Identity (MMEGI) which works along

with MMEC to make MME identifier (MMEI). A MMEI uniquely identifies the MME within a particular

network.

If we combile PLMN-ID with the MMEI then we arrive at a Globally Unique MME Identifier

(GUMMEI), which identifies an MME anywhere in the world:

 The Tracking Area IDs

Each tracking area has two main identities. The tracking area code (TAC) identifies a tracking

area within a particular network and if we combining this with the PLMN-ID then we arrive at a

Globally Unique Tracking Area Identity (TAI).

The Cell IDs

Each cell in the network has three types of identity. The E-UTRAN cell identity (ECI) identifies a

cell within a particular network, while the E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) identifies a cell

anywhere in the world.

The physical cell identity, which is a number from 0 to 503 and it distinguishes a cell from its

immediate neighbours.

The Mobile Equipment ID

The international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) is a unique identity for the mobile equipment

and the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) is a unique identity for the UICC and the

USIM.

The M temporary mobile subscriber identity (M-TMSI) identifies a mobile to its serving MME.

Adding the MME code in M-TMSI results in a S temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI),

which identifies the mobile within an MME pool area.

Finally adding the MME group identity and the PLMN identity with S-TMSI results in the Globally
Unique Temporary Identity (GUTI).

The radio protocol architecture for LTE can be separated into control plane architecture

and user plane architecture as shown below:

At user plane side, the application creates data packets that are processed by protocols such as

TCP, UDP and IP, while in the control plane, the radio resource control (RRC) protocol writes the

signalling messages that are exchanged between the base station and the mobile. In both cases,

the information is processed by the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), the radio link

control (RLC) protocol and the medium access control (MAC) protocol, before being passed to the

physical layer for transmission.

User Plane
The user plane protocol stack between the e-Node B and UE consists of the following sub-layers:

 PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol)

 RLC (radio Link Control)

 Medium Access Control (MAC)

On the user plane, packets in the core network (EPC) are encapsulated in a specific EPC protocol

and tunneled between the P-GW and the eNodeB. Different tunneling protocols are used

depending on the interface. GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) is used on the S1 interface between

the eNodeB and S-GW and on the S5/S8 interface between the S-GW and P-GW.
Packets received by a layer are called Service Data Unit (SDU) while the packet output of a layer

is referred to by Protocol Data Unit (PDU) and IP packets at user plane flow from top to bottom

layers.

Control Plane

The control plane includes additionally the Radio Resource Control layer (RRC) which is

responsible for configuring the lower layers.

The Control Plane handles radio-specific functionality which depends on the state of the user

equipment which includes two states: idle or connected.

Mode Description

Idle The user equipment camps on a cell after a cell selection or

reselection process where factors like radio link quality, cell status
and radio access technology are considered. The UE also monitors a
paging channel to detect incoming calls and acquire system
information. In this mode, control plane protocols include cell
selection and reselection procedures.

Connected The UE supplies the E-UTRAN with downlink channel quality and
neighbour cell information to enable the E-UTRAN to select the most
suitable cell for the UE. In this case, control plane protocol includes
the Radio Link Control (RRC) protocol.

The protocol stack for the control plane between the UE and MME is shown below. The grey

region of the stack indicates the access stratum (AS) protocols. The lower layers perform the

same functions as for the user plane with the exception that there is no header compression

function for the control plane.

Let's have a close look at all the layers available in E-UTRAN Protocol Stack which we have seen

in previous chapter. Below is a more ellaborated diagram of E-UTRAN Protocol Stack:

Physical Layer (Layer 1)

Physical Layer carries all information from the MAC transport channels over the air interface.

Takes care of the link adaptation (AMC), power control, cell search (for initial synchronization and
handover purposes) and other measurements (inside the LTE system and between systems) for
the RRC layer.
 Medium Access Layer (MAC)

MAC layer is responsible for Mapping between logical channels and transport channels,

Multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or different logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be

delivered to the physical layer on transport channels, de multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or

different logical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from 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 prioritization.

Radio Link Control (RLC)

RLC operates in 3 modes of operation: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and

Acknowledged Mode (AM).

RLC Layer is responsible for transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ (Only for

AM data transfer), Concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs (Only for UM and

AM data transfer).

RLC is also responsible for re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs (Only for AM data transfer),

reordering of RLC data PDUs (Only for UM and AM data transfer), duplicate detection (Only for UM

and AM data transfer), RLC SDU discard (Only for UM and AM data transfer), RLC re-

establishment, and protocol error detection (Only for AM data transfer).

Radio Resource Control (RRC)

The main services and functions of the RRC sublayer include broadcast of System Information

related to the non-access stratum (NAS), broadcast of System Information related to the access

stratum (AS), Paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the

UE and E-UTRAN, Security functions including key management, establishment, configuration,

maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers.

Packet Data Convergence Control (PDCP)

PDCP Layer is responsible for Header compression and decompression of IP data, Transfer of data

(user plane or control plane), Maintenance of PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), In-sequence

delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, Duplicate elimination of lower

layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, Ciphering

and deciphering of user plane data and control plane data, Integrity protection and integrity

verification of control plane data, Timer based discard, duplicate discarding, PDCP is used for

SRBs and DRBs mapped on DCCH and DTCH type of logical channels.
 Non Access Stratum (NAS) Protocols

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols form the highest stratum of the control plane between

the user equipment (UE) and MME.

NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE and the session management procedures to

establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE and a PDN GW.

Below is a logical digram of E-UTRAN Protocol layers with a depiction of data flow through various

layers:

Packets received by a layer are called Service Data Unit (SDU) while the packet output of a layer

is referred to by Protocol Data Unit (PDU). Let's see the flow of data from top to bottom:

 IP Layer submits PDCP SDUs (IP Packets) to the PDCP layer. PDCP layer does header

compression and adds PDCP header to these PDCP SDUs. PDCP Layer submits PDCP PDUs

(RLC SDUs) to RLC layer.

PDCP Header Compression : PDCP removes IP header (Minimum 20 bytes) from PDU,

and adds Token of 1-4 bytes. Which provides a tremendous savings in the amount of
header that would otherwise have to go over the air.
  RLC layer does segmentation of these SDUS to make the RLC PDUs. RLC adds header

based on RLC mode of operation. RLC submits these RLC PDUs (MAC SDUs) to the MAC

layer.

RLC Segmentation : If an RLC SDU is large, or the available radio data rate is low

(resulting in small transport blocks), the RLC SDU may be split among several RLC PDUs.
If the RLC SDU is small, or the available radio data rate is high, several RLC SDUs may be

packed into a single PDU.

 MAC layer adds header and does padding to fit this MAC SDU in TTI. MAC layer submits

MAC PDU to physical layer for transmitting it onto physical channels.

 Physical channel transmits this data into slots of sub frame.

The information flows between the different protocols are known as channels and
signals. LTE uses several different types of logical, transport and physical channel,
which are distinguished by the kind of information they carry and by the way in which
the information is processed.

 Logical Channels : Define what type of information is transmitted over the air, e.g.

traffic channels, control channels, system broadcast, etc. Data and signalling messages

are carried on logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols.

 Transport Channels : Define howis something transmitted over the air, e.g. what are

encoding, interleaving options used to transmit data. Data and signalling messages are

carried on transport channels between the MAC and the physical layer.

 Physical Channels : Define whereis something transmitted over the air, e.g. first N

symbols in the DL frame. Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels

between the different levels of the physical layer.

 Logical Channels

Logical channels define what type of data is transferred. These channels define the
data-transfer services offered by the MAC layer. Data and signalling messages are
carried on logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols.

Logical channels can be divided into control channels and traffic channels. Control
Channel can be either common channel or dedicated channel. A common channel
means common to all users in a cell (Point to multipoint) while dedicated channels
means channels can be used only by one user (Point to Point).

Logical channels are distinguished by the information they carry and can be classified in
two ways. Firstly, logical traffic channels carry data in the user plane, while logical
control channels carry signalling messages in the control plane. Following table lists the
logical channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Control Traffic channel

channel

Broadcast Control Channel BCCH X

Paging Control Channel PCCH X

Common Control Channel CCCH X

Dedicated Control Channel DCCH X

Multicast Control Channel MCCH X

Dedicated Traffic Channel DTCH X

Multicast Traffic Channel MTCH X

Transport Channels

Transport channels define how and with what type of characteristics the data is
transferred by the physical layer. Data and signalling messages are carried on transport
channels between the MAC and the physical layer.
Transport Channels are distinguished by the ways in which the transport channel
processor manipulates them. Following table lists the transport channels that are used
by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Broadcast Channel BCH X

Downlink Shared Channel DL-SCH X

Paging Channel PCH X

Multicast Channel MCH X

Uplink Shared Channel UL-SCH X

Random Access Channel RACH X

Physical Channels

Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels between the different
levels of the physical layer and accordingly they are divided into two parts:

 Physical Data Channels

 Physical Control Channels

Physical data channels

Physical data channels are distinguished by the ways in which the physical channel processor

manipulates them, and by the ways in which they are mapped onto the symbols and sub-carriers

used by Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDMA). Following table lists the physical

data channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical downlink shared channel PDSCH X

Physical broadcast channel PBCH X

Physical multicast channel PMCH X

Physical uplink shared channel PUSCH X

Physical random access channel PRACH X

The transport channel processor composes several types of control information, to support the

low-level operation of the physical layer. These are listed in the below table:

Field Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Downlink control information DCI X

Control format indicator CFI X

Hybrid ARQ indicator HI X

Uplink control information UCI X

Physical Control Channels

The transport channel processor also creates control information that supports the low-level

operation of the physical layer and sends this information to the physical channel processor in the

form of physical control channels.

The information travels as far as the transport channel processor in the receiver, but is

completely invisible to higher layers. Similarly, the physical channel processor creates physical

signals, which support the lowest-level aspects of the system.

Physical Control Channels are listed in the below table:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical control format indicator PCFICH X

channel
Physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel PHICH X

Physical downlink control channel PDCCH X

Relay physical downlink control R-PDCCH X

channel

Physical uplink control channel PUCCH X

The base station also transmits two other physical signals, which help the mobile acquire the base

station after it first switches on. These are known as the primary synchronization signal (PSS)

and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS).

To overcome the effect of multi path fading problem available in UMTS, LTE uses Orthogonal

Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) for the downlink - that is, from the base station to the

terminal to transmit the data over many narrow band careers of 180 KHz each instead of

spreading one signal over the complete 5MHz career bandwidth ie. OFDM uses a large number of

narrow sub-carriers for multi-carrier transmission to carry data.

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), is a frequency-division multiplexing (FDM)

scheme used as a digital multi-carrier modulation method.

OFDM meets the LTE requirement for spectrum flexibility and enables cost-efficient solutions for

very wide carriers with high peak rates. The basic LTE downlink physical resource can be seen as
a time-frequency grid, as illustrated in Figure below:

The OFDM symbols are grouped into resource blocks. The resource blocks have a total size of

180kHz in the frequency domain and 0.5ms in the time domain. Each 1ms Transmission Time

Interval (TTI) consists of two slots (Tslot).

Each user is allocated a number of so-called resource blocks in the time.frequency grid. The more

resource blocks a user gets, and the higher the modulation used in the resource elements, the

higher the bit-rate. Which resource blocks and how many the user gets at a given point in time

depend on advanced scheduling mechanisms in the frequency and time dimensions.

The scheduling mechanisms in LTE are similar to those used in HSPA, and enable optimal

performance for different services in different radio environments.

Advantages of OFDM

 The primary advantage of OFDM over single-carrier schemes is its ability to cope with

severe channel conditions (for example, attenuation of high frequencies in a long copper

wire, narrowband interference and frequency-selective fading due to multipath) without

complex equalization filters.

 Channel equalization is simplified because OFDM may be viewed as using many slowly-

modulated narrowband signals rather than one rapidly-modulated wideband signal.

 The low symbol rate makes the use of a guard interval between symbols affordable,

making it possible to eliminate inter symbol interference (ISI).

 This mechanism also facilitates the design of single frequency networks (SFNs), where

several adjacent transmitters send the same signal simultaneously at the same

frequency, as the signals from multiple distant transmitters may be combined

constructively, rather than interfering as would typically occur in a traditional single-

carrier system.

Drawbacks of OFDM

 High peak-to-average ratio

  Sensitive to frequency offset, hence to Doppler-shift as well

SC-FDMA Technology

LTE uses a pre-coded version of OFDM called Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

(SC-FDMA) in the uplink. This is to compensate for a drawback with normal OFDM, which has a

very high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR).

High PAPR requires expensive and inefficient power amplifiers with high requirements on linearity,

which increases the cost of the terminal and drains the battery faster.

SC-FDMA solves this problem by grouping together the resource blocks in such a way that

reduces the need for linearity, and so power consumption, in the power amplifier. A low PAPR also

improves coverage and the cell-edge performance.

 LTE QUICK GUIDE

Facts about LTE

 LTE is the successor technology not only of UMTS but also of CDMA 2000.

 LTE is important because it will bring up to 50 times performance improvement and much

better spectral efficiency to cellular networks.

 LTE introduced to get higher data rates, 300Mbps peak downlink and 75 Mbps peak

uplink. In a 20MHz carrier, data rates beyond 300Mbps can be achieved under very good

signal conditions.

 LTE is an ideal technology to support high date rates for the services such as voice over IP

(VOIP), streaming multimedia, videoconferencing or even a high-speed cellular modem.

 LTE uses both Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode. In
FDD uplink and downlink transmission used different frequency, while in TDD both uplink

and downlink use the same carrier and are separated in Time.

 LTE supports flexible carrier bandwidths, from 1.4 MHz up to 20 MHz as well as both FDD

and TDD. LTE designed with a scalable carrier bandwidth from 1.4 MHz up to 20 MHz

which bandwidth is used depends on the frequency band and the amount of spectrum

available with a network operator.

 All LTE devices have to support (MIMO) Multiple Input Multiple Output transmissions,

which allow the base station to transmit several data streams over the same carrier
simultaneously.

 All interfaces between network nodes in LTE are now IP based, including the backhaul

connection to the radio base stations. This is great simplification compared to earlier

technologies that were initially based on E1/T1, ATM and frame relay links, with most of

them being narrowband and expensive.

 Quality of Service (QoS) mechanism have been standardized on all interfaces to ensure

that the requirement of voice calls for a constant delay and bandwidth, can still be met

when capacity limits are reached.

 Works with GSM/EDGE/UMTS systems utilizing existing 2G and 3G spectrum and new

spectrum. Supports hand-over and roaming to existing mobile networks.

 Advantages of LTE
 High throughput: High data rates can be achieved in both downlink as well as uplink.

This causes high throughput.

 Low latency: Time required to connect to the network is in range of a few hundred

milliseconds and power saving states can now be entered and exited very quickly.

 FDD and TDD in the same platform: Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time

Division Duplex (TDD), both schemes can be used on same platform.

 Superior end-user experience: Optimized signaling for connection establishment and

other air interface and mobility management procedures have further improved the user

experience. Reduced latency (to 10 ms) for better user experience.

 Seamless Connection: LTE will also support seamless connection to existing networks

such as GSM, CDMA and WCDMA.

 Plug and play: The user does not have to manually install drivers for the device. Instead

system automatically recognizes the device, loads new drivers for the hardware if needed,

and begins to work with the newly connected device.

 Simple architecture: Because of Simple architecture low operating expenditure (OPEX).

LTE - QoS

LTE architecture supports hard QoS, with end-to-end quality of service and guaranteed bit rate

(GBR) for radio bearers. Just as Ethernet and the internet have different types of QoS, for

example, various levels of QoS can be applied to LTE traffic for different applications. Because the

LTE MAC is fully scheduled, QoS is a natural fit.

Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearers provide one-to-one correspondence with RLC radio bearers

and provide support for Traffic Flow Templates (TFT). There are four types of EPS bearers:

 GBR Bearer resources permanently allocated by admission control

 Non-GBR Bearer no admission control

 Dedicated Bearer associated with specific TFT (GBR or non-GBR)

 Default Bearer Non GBR, catch-all for unassigned traffic

LTE Basic Parameters

This section will summarize the Basic parameters of the LTE:

Parameters Description

Frequency range UMTS FDD bands and TDD bands defined in 36.101(v860) Table 5.5.1,
given below

Duplexing FDD, TDD, half-duplex FDD

Channel coding Turbo code

Mobility 350 km/h

Channel Bandwidth
 1.4
(MHz)
 3

 5

 10

 15

 20

Transmission
 6
Bandwidth
Configuration NRB :  15
(1 resource block =
180kHz in 1ms TTI )  25

 50

 75

 100

Modulation Schemes
UL: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM(optional)

DL: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM

Multiple Access
UL: SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access)
Schemes
supports 50Mbps+ (20MHz spectrum)

DL: OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) supports

 100Mbps+ (20MHz spectrum)

Multi-Antenna
UL: Multi-user collaborative MIMO
Technology

DL: TxAA, spatial multiplexing, CDD ,max 4x4 array

Peak data rate in LTE

UL: 75Mbps(20MHz bandwidth)

DL: 150Mbps(UE Category 4, 2x2 MIMO, 20MHz bandwidth)

DL: 300Mbps(UE category 5, 4x4 MIMO, 20MHz bandwidth)

MIMO UL: 1 x 2, 1 x 4

(Multiple Input

Multiple Output) DL: 2 x 2, 4 x 2, 4 x 4

Coverage 5 - 100km with slight degradation after 30km

QoS E2E QOS allowing prioritization of different class of service

Latency End-user latency < 10mS

E-UTRA Operating Bands

Following is the table for E-UTRA operating bands taken from LTE Sepecification 36.101(v860)

Table 5.5.1:
 LTE Network Architecture

The high-level network architecture of LTE is comprised of following three main components:

 The User Equipment (UE).

 The Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN).

 The Evolved Packet Core (EPC).

The evolved packet core communicates with packet data networks in the outside world such as

the internet, private corporate networks or the IP multimedia subsystem. The interfaces between

the different parts of the system are denoted Uu, S1 and SGi as shown below:
 The User Equipment (UE)
The internal architecture of the user equipment for LTE is identical to the one used by UMTS and

GSM which is actually a Mobile Equipment (ME). The mobile equipment comprised of the following

important modules:

 Mobile Termination (MT) : This handles all the communication functions.

 Terminal Equipment (TE) : This terminates the data streams.

 Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) : This is also known as the SIM card for LTE

equipments. It runs an application known as the Universal Subscriber Identity Module

(USIM).

A USIM stores user-specific data very similar to 3G SIM card. This keeps information about the

user's phone number, home network identity and security keys etc.

The E-UTRAN (The access network)

The architecture of evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) has been

illustrated below.
The E-UTRAN handles the radio communications between the mobile and the evolved packet core

and just has one component, the evolved base stations, called eNodeB or eNB. Each eNB is a

base station that controls the mobiles in one or more cells. The base station that is

communicating with a mobile is known as its serving eNB.

LTE Mobile communicates with just one base station and one cell at a time and there are

following two main functions supported by eNB:

 The eNB sends and receives radio transmissions to all the mobiles using the analogue and

digital signal processing functions of the LTE air interface.

 The eNB controls the low-level operation of all its mobiles, by sending them signalling

messages such as handover commands.

Each eBN connects with the EPC by means of the S1 interface and it can also be connected to

nearby base stations by the X2 interface, which is mainly used for signalling and packet

forwarding during handover.

A home eNB (HeNB) is a base station that has been purchased by a user to provide femtocell

coverage within the home. A home eNB belongs to a closed subscriber group (CSG) and can only

be accessed by mobiles with a USIM that also belongs to the closed subscriber group.

The Evolved Packet Core (EPC) (The core network)

The architecture of Evolved Packet Core (EPC) has been illustrated below. There are few more
components which have not been shown in the diagram to keep it simple. These components are
like the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS), the Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

and Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF).

Below is a brief description of each of the components shown in the above architecture:

 The Home Subscriber Server (HSS) component has been carried forward from UMTS and

GSM and is a central database that contains information about all the network operator's

subscribers.

 The Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) communicates with the outside world ie.

packet data networks PDN, using SGi interface. Each packet data network is identified by

an access point name (APN). The PDN gateway has the same role as the GPRS support

node (GGSN) and the serving GPRS support node (SGSN) with UMTS and GSM.

 The serving gateway (S-GW) acts as a router, and forwards data between the base station

and the PDN gateway.

 The mobility management entity (MME) controls the high-level operation of the mobile by

means of signalling messages and Home Subscriber Server (HSS).

 The Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) is a component which is not shown

in the above diagram but it is responsible for policy control decision-making, as well as

for controlling the flow-based charging functionalities in the Policy Control Enforcement

Function (PCEF), which resides in the P-GW.

The interface between the serving and PDN gateways is known as S5/S8. This has two slightly

different implementations, namely S5 if the two devices are in the same network, and S8 if they

are in different networks.

Functional split between the E-UTRAN and the EPC

Following diagram shows the functional split between the E-UTRAN and the EPC for an LTE

network:

2G/3G Versus LTE

Following table compares various important Network Elements & Signaling protocols used in

2G/3G abd LTE.

2G/3G LTE

GERAN and UTRAN E-UTRAN

SGSN/PDSN-FA S-GW
GGSN/PDSN-HA PDN-GW

HLR/AAA HSS

VLR MME

SS7-MAP/ANSI-41/RADIUS Diameter

DiameterGTPc-v0 and v1 GTPc-v2

MIP PMIP

LTE Roaming Architecture

A network run by one operator in one country is known as a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN)

and when a subscribed user uses his operator's PLMN then it is said Home-PLMN but roaming

allows users to move outside their home network and using the resources from other operator's

network. This other network is called Visited-PLMN.

A roaming user is connected to the E-UTRAN, MME and S-GW of the visited LTE network.

However, LTE/SAE allows the P-GW of either the visited or the home network to be used, as

shown in below:
The home network's P-GW allows the user to access the home operator's services even while in a

visited network. A P-GW in the visited network allows a "local breakout" to the Internet in the

visited network.

The interface between the serving and PDN gateways is known as S5/S8. This has two slightly

different implementations, namely S5 if the two devices are in the same network, and S8 if they

are in different networks. For mobiles that are not roaming, the serving and PDN gateways can be

integrated into a single device, so that the S5/S8 interface vanishes altogether.

LTE Roaming Charging

The complexities of the new charging mechanisms required to support 4G roaming are much

more abundant than in a 3G environment. Few words about both pre-paid and post-paid charging

for LTE roaming is given below:

 Prepaid Charging - The CAMEL standard, which enables prepaid services in 3G, is not

supported in LTE; therefore, prepaid customer information must be routed back to the

home network as opposed to being handled by the local visited network. As a result,

operators must rely on new accounting flows to access prepaid customer data, such as

through their P-Gateways in both IMS and non-IMS environments or via their CSCF in an

IMS environment.

 Postpaid Charging - Postpaid data-usage charging works the same in LTE as it does in

3G, using versions TAP 3.11 or 3.12. With local breakout of IMS services, TAP 3.12 is

required.

Operators do not have the same amount of visibility into subscriber activities as they do in home-

routing scenarios in case of local breakout scenarios because subscriber-data sessions are kept

within the visited network; therefore, in order for the home operator to capture real-time

information on both pre- and postpaid customers, it must establish a Diameter interface between

charging systems and the visited network's P-Gateway.

In case of local breakout of ims services scenario, the visited network creates call detail records

(CDRs) from the S-Gateway(s), however, these CDRs do not contain all of the information

required to create a TAP 3.12 mobile session or messaging event record for the service usage. As

a result, operators must correlate the core data network CDRs with the IMS CDRs to create TAP

records.
 LTE Numbering & Addressing

An LTE network area is divided into three different types of geographical areas explained below:

S.N. Area and Description

1
The MME pool areas

This is an area through which the mobile can move without a change of serving MME.

Every MME pool area is controlled by one or more MMEs on the network.

2
The S-GW service areas

This is an area served by one or more serving gateways S-GW, through which the

mobile can move without a change of serving gateway.

3
The Tracking areas

The MME pool areas and the S-GW service areas are both made from smaller, non-

overlapping units known as tracking areas (TAs). They are similar to the location and

routing areas from UMTS and GSM and will be used to track the locations of mobiles

that are on standby mode.

Thus an LTE network will comprise of many MME pool areas, many S-GW service areas and lots of

tracking areas.

The Network IDs

The network itself will be identified using Public Land Mobile Network Identity (PLMN-ID) which

will have a three digit mobile country code (MCC) and a two or three digit mobile network code
(MNC). For example, the Mobile Country Code for the UK is 234, while Vodafone's UK network

uses a Mobile Network Code of 15.

The MME IDs

Each MME has three main identities. An MME code (MMEC) uniquely identifies the MME within all

the pool areas. A group of MMEs is assigned an MME Group Identity (MMEGI) which works along
with MMEC to make MME identifier (MMEI). A MMEI uniquely identifies the MME within a particular

network.

If we combile PLMN-ID with the MMEI then we arrive at a Globally Unique MME Identifier

(GUMMEI), which identifies an MME anywhere in the world:

The Tracking Area IDs

Each tracking area has two main identities. The tracking area code (TAC) identifies a tracking

area within a particular network and if we combining this with the PLMN-ID then we arrive at a

Globally Unique Tracking Area Identity (TAI).

The Cell IDs

Each cell in the network has three types of identity. The E-UTRAN cell identity (ECI) identifies a

cell within a particular network, while the E-UTRAN cell global identifier (ECGI) identifies a cell

anywhere in the world.

The physical cell identity, which is a number from 0 to 503 and it distinguishes a cell from its

immediate neighbours.

The Mobile Equipment ID

The international mobile equipment identity (IMEI) is a unique identity for the mobile equipment

and the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) is a unique identity for the UICC and the

USIM.

The M temporary mobile subscriber identity (M-TMSI) identifies a mobile to its serving MME.

Adding the MME code in M-TMSI results in a S temporary mobile subscriber identity (S-TMSI),
which identifies the mobile within an MME pool area.
Finally adding the MME group identity and the PLMN identity with S-TMSI results in the Globally

Unique Temporary Identity (GUTI).

LTE Radio Protocol Architecture

The radio protocol architecture for LTE can be separated into control plane architecture

and user plane architecture as shown below:

At user plane side, the application creates data packets that are processed by protocols such as

TCP, UDP and IP, while in the control plane, the radio resource control (RRC) protocol writes the

signalling messages that are exchanged between the base station and the mobile. In both cases,

the information is processed by the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), the radio link

control (RLC) protocol and the medium access control (MAC) protocol, before being passed to the

physical layer for transmission.

User Plane

The user plane protocol stack between the e-Node B and UE consists of the following sub-layers:

 PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol)

 RLC (radio Link Control)

 Medium Access Control (MAC)

On the user plane, packets in the core network (EPC) are encapsulated in a specific EPC protocol

and tunneled between the P-GW and the eNodeB. Different tunneling protocols are used

depending on the interface. GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) is used on the S1 interface between

the eNodeB and S-GW and on the S5/S8 interface between the S-GW and P-GW.

Packets received by a layer are called Service Data Unit (SDU) while the packet output of a layer

is referred to by Protocol Data Unit (PDU) and IP packets at user plane flow from top to bottom

layers.

Control Plane

The control plane includes additionally the Radio Resource Control layer (RRC) which is

responsible for configuring the lower layers.

The Control Plane handles radio-specific functionality which depends on the state of the user

equipment which includes two states: idle or connected.

Mode Description

Idle The user equipment camps on a cell after a cell selection or reselection process
where factors like radio link quality, cell status and radio access technology are
considered. The UE also monitors a paging channel to detect incoming calls and
acquire system information. In this mode, control plane protocols include cell
selection and reselection procedures.
Connected The UE supplies the E-UTRAN with downlink channel quality and neighbour cell
information to enable the E-UTRAN to select the most suitable cell for the UE. In
this case, control plane protocol includes the Radio Link Control (RRC) protocol.

The protocol stack for the control plane between the UE and MME is shown below. The grey

region of the stack indicates the access stratum (AS) protocols. The lower layers perform the

same functions as for the user plane with the exception that there is no header compression

function for the control plane.

LTE Protocol Stack Layers

Let's have a close look at all the layers available in E-UTRAN Protocol Stack which we have seen

in previous chapter. Below is a more ellaborated diagram of E-UTRAN Protocol Stack:

Physical Layer (Layer 1)

Physical Layer carries all information from the MAC transport channels over the air interface.

Takes care of the link adaptation (AMC), power control, cell search (for initial synchronization and

handover purposes) and other measurements (inside the LTE system and between systems) for

the RRC layer.

Medium Access Layer (MAC)

MAC layer is responsible for Mapping between logical channels and transport channels,

Multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or different logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be

delivered to the physical layer on transport channels, de multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or

different logical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from 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 prioritization.

Radio Link Control (RLC)

RLC operates in 3 modes of operation: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and
Acknowledged Mode (AM).
RLC Layer is responsible for transfer of upper layer PDUs, error correction through ARQ (Only for

AM data transfer), Concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs (Only for UM and

AM data transfer).

RLC is also responsible for re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs (Only for AM data transfer),

reordering of RLC data PDUs (Only for UM and AM data transfer), duplicate detection (Only for UM

and AM data transfer), RLC SDU discard (Only for UM and AM data transfer), RLC re-

establishment, and protocol error detection (Only for AM data transfer).

Radio Resource Control (RRC)

The main services and functions of the RRC sublayer include broadcast of System Information

related to the non-access stratum (NAS), broadcast of System Information related to the access

stratum (AS), Paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the

UE and E-UTRAN, Security functions including key management, establishment, configuration,

maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers.

Packet Data Convergence Control (PDCP)

PDCP Layer is responsible for Header compression and decompression of IP data, Transfer of data

(user plane or control plane), Maintenance of PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), In-sequence

delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, Duplicate elimination of lower

layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, Ciphering

and deciphering of user plane data and control plane data, Integrity protection and integrity

verification of control plane data, Timer based discard, duplicate discarding, PDCP is used for

SRBs and DRBs mapped on DCCH and DTCH type of logical channels.

Non Access Stratum (NAS) Protocols

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols form the highest stratum of the control plane between

the user equipment (UE) and MME.

NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE and the session management procedures to

establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE and a PDN GW.

LTE Layers Data Flow

Below is a logical digram of E-UTRAN Protocol layers with a depiction of data flow through various

layers:
Packets received by a layer are called Service Data Unit (SDU) while the packet output of a layer

is referred to by Protocol Data Unit (PDU). Let's see the flow of data from top to bottom:

 IP Layer submits PDCP SDUs (IP Packets) to the PDCP layer. PDCP layer does header

compression and adds PDCP header to these PDCP SDUs. PDCP Layer submits PDCP PDUs

(RLC SDUs) to RLC layer.

PDCP Header Compression : PDCP removes IP header (Minimum 20 bytes) from PDU,

and adds Token of 1-4 bytes. Which provides a tremendous savings in the amount of

header that would otherwise have to go over the air.

  RLC layer does segmentation of these SDUS to make the RLC PDUs. RLC adds header

based on RLC mode of operation. RLC submits these RLC PDUs (MAC SDUs) to the MAC

layer.

RLC Segmentation : If an RLC SDU is large, or the available radio data rate is low

(resulting in small transport blocks), the RLC SDU may be split among several RLC PDUs.

If the RLC SDU is small, or the available radio data rate is high, several RLC SDUs may be

packed into a single PDU.

 MAC layer adds header and does padding to fit this MAC SDU in TTI. MAC layer submits

MAC PDU to physical layer for transmitting it onto physical channels.

 Physical channel transmits this data into slots of sub frame.

LTE Communication Channels

The information flows between the different protocols are known as channels and signals. LTE

uses several different types of logical, transport and physical channel, which are distinguished by

the kind of information they carry and by the way in which the information is processed.

 Logical Channels : Define what type of information is transmitted over the air, e.g.

traffic channels, control channels, system broadcast, etc. Data and signalling messages

are carried on logical channels between the RLC and MAC protocols.

 Transport Channels : Define how is something transmitted over the air, e.g. what are

encoding, interleaving options used to transmit data. Data and signalling messages are

carried on transport channels between the MAC and the physical layer.

 Physical Channels : Define where is something transmitted over the air, e.g. first N

symbols in the DL frame. Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels

between the different levels of the physical layer.

Logical Channels

Logical channels define what type of data is transferred. These channels define the data-transfer

services offered by the MAC layer. Data and signalling messages are carried on logical channels

between the RLC and MAC protocols.

Logical channels can be divided into control channels and traffic channels. Control Channel can be

either common channel or dedicated channel. A common channel means common to all users in a

cell (Point to multipoint) while dedicated channels means channels can be used only by one user
(Point to Point).
Logical channels are distinguished by the information they carry and can be classified in two

ways. Firstly, logical traffic channels carry data in the user plane, while logical control channels

carry signalling messages in the control plane. Following table lists the logical channels that are

used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Control Traffic channel

channel

Broadcast Control Channel BCCH X

Paging Control Channel PCCH X

Common Control Channel CCCH X

Dedicated Control Channel DCCH X

Multicast Control Channel MCCH X

Dedicated Traffic Channel DTCH X

Multicast Traffic Channel MTCH X

Transport Channels

Transport channels define how and with what type of characteristics the data is transferred by the

physical layer. Data and signalling messages are carried on transport channels between the MAC

and the physical layer.

Transport Channels are distinguished by the ways in which the transport channel processor

manipulates them. Following table lists the transport channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Broadcast Channel BCH X

Downlink Shared Channel DL-SCH X

Paging Channel PCH X

Multicast Channel MCH X

Uplink Shared Channel UL-SCH X

Random Access Channel RACH X

Physical Channels

Data and signalling messages are carried on physical channels between the different levels of the

physical layer and accordingly they are divided into two parts:

 Physical Data Channels

 Physical Control Channels

Physical data channels

Physical data channels are distinguished by the ways in which the physical channel processor

manipulates them, and by the ways in which they are mapped onto the symbols and sub-carriers

used by Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDMA). Following table lists the physical

data channels that are used by LTE:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical downlink shared channel PDSCH X

Physical broadcast channel PBCH X

Physical multicast channel PMCH X

Physical uplink shared channel PUSCH X

Physical random access channel PRACH X

The transport channel processor composes several types of control information, to support the
low-level operation of the physical layer. These are listed in the below table:
Field Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Downlink control information DCI X

Control format indicator CFI X

Hybrid ARQ indicator HI X

Uplink control information UCI X

Physical Control Channels

The transport channel processor also creates control information that supports the low-level

operation of the physical layer and sends this information to the physical channel processor in the

form of physical control channels.

The information travels as far as the transport channel processor in the receiver, but is

completely invisible to higher layers. Similarly, the physical channel processor creates physical

signals, which support the lowest-level aspects of the system.

Physical Control Channels are listed in the below table:

Channel Name Acronym Downlink Uplink

Physical control format indicator PCFICH X

channel

Physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel PHICH X

Physical downlink control channel PDCCH X

Relay physical downlink control R-PDCCH X

channel

Physical uplink control channel PUCCH X

The base station also transmits two other physical signals, which help the mobile acquire the base

station after it first switches on. These are known as the primary synchronization signal (PSS)

and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS).

LTE OFDM Technology

To overcome the effect of multi path fading problem available in UMTS, LTE uses Orthogonal

Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) for the downlink - that is, from the base station to the

terminal to transmit the data over many narrow band careers of 180 KHz each instead of

spreading one signal over the complete 5MHz career bandwidth ie. OFDM uses a large number of

narrow sub-carriers for multi-carrier transmission to carry data.

Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), is a frequency-division multiplexing (FDM)

scheme used as a digital multi-carrier modulation method.

OFDM meets the LTE requirement for spectrum flexibility and enables cost-efficient solutions for
very wide carriers with high peak rates. The basic LTE downlink physical resource can be seen as

a time-frequency grid, as illustrated in Figure below:

The OFDM symbols are grouped into resource blocks. The resource blocks have a total size of

180kHz in the frequency domain and 0.5ms in the time domain. Each 1ms Transmission Time

Interval (TTI) consists of two slots (Tslot).

Each user is allocated a number of so-called resource blocks in the time.frequency grid. The more

resource blocks a user gets, and the higher the modulation used in the resource elements, the

higher the bit-rate. Which resource blocks and how many the user gets at a given point in time

depend on advanced scheduling mechanisms in the frequency and time dimensions.

The scheduling mechanisms in LTE are similar to those used in HSPA, and enable optimal
performance for different services in different radio environments.
Advantages of OFDM

 The primary advantage of OFDM over single-carrier schemes is its ability to cope with

severe channel conditions (for example, attenuation of high frequencies in a long copper

wire, narrowband interference and frequency-selective fading due to multipath) without

complex equalization filters.

 Channel equalization is simplified because OFDM may be viewed as using many slowly-

modulated narrowband signals rather than one rapidly-modulated wideband signal.

 The low symbol rate makes the use of a guard interval between symbols affordable,

making it possible to eliminate inter symbol interference (ISI).

 This mechanism also facilitates the design of single frequency networks (SFNs), where

several adjacent transmitters send the same signal simultaneously at the same

frequency, as the signals from multiple distant transmitters may be combined

constructively, rather than interfering as would typically occur in a traditional single-

carrier system.

Drawbacks of OFDM

 High peak-to-average ratio

 Sensitive to frequency offset, hence to Doppler-shift as well

SC-FDMA Technology

LTE uses a pre-coded version of OFDM called Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

(SC-FDMA) in the uplink. This is to compensate for a drawback with normal OFDM, which has a

very high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR).

High PAPR requires expensive and inefficient power amplifiers with high requirements on linearity,

which increases the cost of the terminal and drains the battery faster.

SC-FDMA solves this problem by grouping together the resource blocks in such a way that

reduces the need for linearity, and so power consumption, in the power amplifier. A low PAPR also

improves coverage and the cell-edge performance.

LTE Glossary

Term Description

3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project

3GPP2 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2

ARIB Association of Radio Industries and Businesses

ATIS Alliance for Telecommunication Industry Solutions

AWS Advanced Wireless Services

CAPEX Capital Expenditure

CCSA China Communications Standards Association

CDMA Code Division Multiple Access

CDMA2000 Code Division Multiple Access 2000

DAB Digital Audio Broadcast

DSL Digital Subscriber Line

DVB Digital Video Broadcast

eHSPA evolved High Speed Packet Access

ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute

FDD Frequency Division Duplex

FWT Fixed Wireless Terminal

GSM Global System for Mobile communication

HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HSS Home Subscriber Server

IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IPTV Internet Protocol Television

LTE Long Term Evolution

MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service

MIMO Multiple Input Multiple Output

MME Mobility Management Entity

NGMN Next Generation Mobile Networks

OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

OPEX Operational Expenditure

PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio

PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect

PCRF Policing and Charging Rules Function

PDSN Packet Data Serving Node

PS Packet Switched

QoS Quality of Service

RAN Radio Access Network

SAE System Architecture Evolution

SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access

SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node

TDD Time Division Duplex

TTA Telecommunications Technology Association

TTC Telecommunication Technology Committee

TTI Transmission Time Interval

UTRA Universal Terrestrial Radio Access

UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network

WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

WLAN Wireless Local Area Network