Long Term Evolution (LTE)

An Introduction

Ayman Zaben

LTE Advantages

Improve DL/UL data throughput Connected mode mobility is supported. Improve Cell coverage. Spectrum flexibility including different sizes 1.4MHz, 3MHz, 5MHz, 10MHz and 20MHz. Support the modulation schemes BPSK, QPSK,16QAM and 64QAM.

LTE Air Interface

LTE Air Interface Requirements And Information
Scalable bandwidth. OFDMA is used in the Downlink transmission, SC-FDMA is used in Uplink transmission. Sub-carrier spacing of 15khz. FDD and TDD can be used. The radio frame duration is 10ms divided into 20 slots. MIMO Antenna is supported.

LTE Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD)

UL and DL use different frequencies Each frequency use a separate 10ms air frame Fix bandwidth for UL and DL

LTE Time Division Duplexing (TDD)

UL and DL use the same frequency UL and DL traffic carried on the same frame UL/DL allocations will vary from frame to frame

OFDMA Operation

LTE Channel Bandwidth

LTE Network Elements (Only PS core-No CS)

S1-MME Initial attach State (idle/active) transition Paging Location mgmt (RAU) Inter MME handover Handover 2G/3G MME NAS signaling + signaling security Signaling for mobility between 3GPP access networks QoS Bearer management Idle mode UE Tracking Authentication Key distribution S11 Initial attach State (idle/active) transition Paging Load balancing Keep alive RAU Inter Serving GW handover Handover 2G/3G

HSS
S6a

MME
S1-MME S10 S11 SGi

VoIP Core Video Core Operators IP Services Serving GW

S5
PDN Gateway (P-GW) IP Address allocation Inter-SAE GW mobility anchor Non-3GPP mobility anchor Policy Enforcement (Per-user per-QoS bearer-binding) Charging Support Lawful Interception

UE
LTE-Uu

eNB
S1u X2
eNB Ciphering & ROHC Admission control RRC Security QoS Bearer mgmt

PDN GW

Serving Gateway (S-GW) Inter-eNodeB Mobility anchor 2G/3G mobility anchor Lawful Interception DL idle-mode pkt buffering

X2 (inter eNB) Inter-eNB handover prep Context & Buffer forwarding Inter-cell interference coordination

S1-U Mobility tunnel Per-QoS tunnel Inter-eNB path switch

S5 Initial attach to specific PDN 2G/3G handover (eg PDP context setup/mapping)

E-UTRAN evolved NodeB (eNB)

Most of the RNC functionalities moved to the eNodeB
UMTS RNC removed eNodeB connected directly to the evolved packet core

Modulation and de-modulation

Channel coding and de-coding Radio Resource Control: Radio Mobility Management Radio Interface Full Layer 2 Protocol

Core Network
Iu

Core Network
S1 S1

RNC

Iur Iub

RNC

X2
NodeB NodeB NodeB NodeB eNodeB eNodeB

UTRAN

E-UTRAN

Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

The MME (Mobility Management Entity): Control plane of all functions related to subscribers and session management
PCRF

IP/IMS
SGi

The Serving GW (Serving Gateway): Termination point of the packet data interface towards E-UTRAN. Local Mobility Anchor.
HSS

S6

S11

PDN GW
Serving GW

MME

The PDN GW (Packet Data Network Gateway): Termination point of the packet data interface towards PDN. Anchor Point towards external PDN. Policy enforcement.

S1-C (Contol plane)

S1-U (User plane)

E-UTRAN
HSS, PCRF

Mobility Manager Entity (MME)

The MME (Mobility Management Entity) helps authenticate users onto the system and tracks active and idle users on the system. The MME pages users when triggered by new data arriving for an idle user at the assigned Serving GW. The MME is the termination point in the network for ciphering/integrity protection for NAS signaling and handles the security key management.
Authentication

Idle State Mobility Handling

HSS

NAS Signalling Security MME Selection for handover with MME change

S6a

MME
S10 S1-MME

S11

Serving Gateway
X2 S1-U

eNodeB

Serving Gateway (S-GW)

The Serving Gateway terminates the interface towards EUTRAN and is also the local mobility anchor for the UE. For each UE associated with the Evolved Packet System (EPS), there is a single Serving GW. The Serving GW maintains a buffer for each idle UE and holds the packets until the UE is paged and an RF channel is re-established. The Serving GW maintains a connection to a PDN GW for each UE.
Local Mobility Anchor point E-UTRAN idle mode downlink packet buffering Packets routing Packets forwarding Policy enforcement point IP BH admission control IP BH QoS Core IP QoS. DHCPv4/v6 (relay agent) Charging Record Generation Allocation of GRE key
eNodeB MME
S1-MME S11 Gxc

PCRF
Gx

PDN GW
S5

Serving Gateway
X2
S1-U Gz
Charging Gateway

Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN-GW)

The Packet Data Network Gateway terminates the SGi interface towards the PDN (operators network and the path to the internet). The PDN GW acts as the macro mobility anchor for the mobile across EUTRAN and non-3GPP access. The PDN GW is responsible for UE address assignment. The PDN GW is the source of packet based charging records for the UE.
UE IP address allocation;
Lawful Interception; UE IP address allocation; Source of packet based charging records for the UE. Macro mobility anchor for the UE across EUTRAN. DHCPv4/v6 (server and client) UL and DL bearer binding (If GTP based S5 is used). UL bearer binding verification (If GTP based S5 is used). Transfer of (QoS) policy and charging rules from PCRF to Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) in the PDN GW. Policing and shaping the traffic rate of the users downlink EPS bearers.
Gxc

PCRF
Gx

PDN GW
S5

Serving Gateway
Gz
Charging

Transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, e.g. setting the DiffServ Code Point, based on the QCI of the associated EPS bearer;
Call Trace PDN GW allocates a GRE key

Gateway

Home Subscriber Server (HSS)

IMS subsystem Evolved Packet Core

HLR: User Identification & Addressing User profile Information

Cx S6

I/S-CSCF

MME

AuC Network Authentication Radio path ciphering, protection

GMSC
C

Gc

GGSN

HLR MSC/VLR
2G/3G CS Domain

AuC

Gr

SGSN
2G/ 3G PS Domain

HSS

Thank You