downlink/uplink data

transfer

 The resource allocation on DL-SCH and ULSCH is performed by the eNB scheduler.
In the downlink, the allocation information
pertaining to the physical downlink shared
channel (PDSCH) within the same subframe
is carried on the physical downlink control
channel (PDCCH).
The UE may be addressed using different
radio network temporary identifiers (RNTIs).
The allocation information that is sent on the
PDCCH using various downlink control
information (DCI) formats includes resource
block allocation, MCS, and HARQ
information.

 Only one HARQ process may be

scheduled in any subframe
corresponding to either one or two
transport blocks.
The allocation of the uplink grant is
managed by the eNB. The allocation
information is carried in the PDCCH.
Similar to the downlink, the uplink
transmissions can be identified using
different RNTIs.

HARQ principles
While the ARQ error control mechanism is simple and
provides high transmission reliability, the throughput
of ARQ schemes drops rapidly with increasing channel
error rates and the ARQ latency, due to
retransmissions, could be excessively high and
intolerable for some delay-sensitive applications.
Systems using forward error correction (FEC), on the
other hand, can maintain constant throughput
regardless of channel error rate. However, FEC
schemes have some drawbacks.
High reliability is hard to achieve with FEC and requires
the use of long and powerful error correction codes
that increase the complexity of implementation. The
drawbacks of ARQ and FEC can be overcome, if the
two error control schemes are properly combined.

 The HARQ schemes are typically

classified into three groups depending
on the content of subsequent
retransmissions.
Type I HARQ
Type II HARQ
Type III HARQ

DRX operation
LTE supports DRX in the downlink, to save the UE battery
power during periods of inactivity. In the DRX mode, the
UE only monitors PDCCH during a predefined on-duration
interval within one of two possible DRX cycles.
The UE may turn off its receiver when it does not expect
to receive any transmission in the downlink over PDCCH.
The UE can transition to DRX mode in one of the following
two ways:
(1) implicitly based on the expiration of certain configured
timers.
(2) explicitly based on the transmission of a DRX
command in the form of a MAC control element.

MAC control element

MAC control element are control commands
and reports that enable MAC operation.
They are transmitted as part of the DL-SCH or
UL-SCH and can be piggybacked to the data
payloads.
The following CEs have been defined in MAC
specification as part of LTE Rel-11:
Downlink
Timing advance: This CE is used to provide
initial and periodic timing adjustment
commands to the UE in the uplink.

 DRX command: This CE initiates DRX mode at

the UE and conveys DRX commands to the UE.
UE contention resolution identity: This CE is
used during the RACH procedure to resolve
possible contention between multiple UEs that
are trying to simultaneously access the network.
MBMS dynamic scheduling information: This CE
is transmitted for each MCH to inform the
MBMS-capable UEs of scheduled data
transmission on MTCH.
Activation/deactivation: This CE is used to
activate or deactivate secondary cells for the
carrier-aggregation-enabled UEs.

 Uplink
Buffer status report (BSR): This CE is used to report
the UEs soft buffer status and to enable uplink
scheduling.
Power headroom: This CE is used to report the UEs
transmit power relative to maximum permissible
value, or whether the UE is currently power limited.
C-RNTI report: This is used to identify a UE when
sending information over CCCH and for the UE to
transmit a dedicated C-RNTI during the random access
procedure for the purpose of contention resolution.
Extended power headroom: This CE was specified to
support carrier aggregation in LTE Rel-10. In the case
of carrier aggregation, the UE reports power headroom
of each component carrier independently.

MAC PDU packet formats

A MAC PDU consists of a MAC header, zero
or more MAC SDUs, zero or more MAC
control elements, and optional padding.
The MAC header and MAC SDUs may have
variable sizes.
MAC PDU header consists of one or more
MAC PDU subheaders where each
subheader corresponds to a MAC SDU, a
MAC control element, or padding.

 A MAC PDU subheader consists of the

six header fields R/R/E/LCID/F/Length
except for the last subheader in the
MAC PDU and for fixed-size MAC control
elements.
The last subheader in the MAC PDU and
subheaders for fixed-size MAC control
elements as well as the subheader for
padding consist of the four header
fields R/R/E/LCID.

MAC PDU formation

Structure of a MAC header

MAC scheduling services

The MAC scheduler is responsible for scheduling the
transfer of user data and control signaling via transport
blocks in downlink and uplink subframes over the LTE
air-interface.
The MAC scheduler assigns the downlink and uplink
physical layer resources used by the eNB and UEs within
the cell.
The scheduling decisions are based on information from
various sources within the eNB radio protocol stack and
the UE.
In the downlink, the MAC scheduler allocates resources
which are used by the eNB MAC sublayer to send
transport blocks to specific UEs via DL-SCH. These
downlink transport blocks contain: Upper-layer data &
MAC sublayer data

Main entities involved in packet

scheduling in the eNB

Dynamic and semi-persistent scheduling

In LTE, the scheduling of the data traffic is based on the
shared-channel transmission and the channel dependent
resource allocation.
The eNB allocates radio resources in units of resource
blocks to UEs, and sends the scheduling information to
each UE on PDCCH.
Such dynamic channel-dependent scheduling can exploit
the selectivity in both the time and frequency domain, and
significantly improve the system throughput.
However, applying dynamic scheduling directly for VoIP
packets is not desirable. This is mainly due to the small
packet size and the constant inter-arrival time of VoIP
packets, which results in large control overhead as control
information should be transmitted per TTI.

 The semi-persistent scheduling is a

feature that significantly reduces
control channel overhead for
applications that require persistent
radio resource allocations, such as
VoIP.
In LTE, both downlink and uplink
radio resources are fully scheduled
since downlink and uplink traffic
channels are shared channels.

Proportional fair scheduling

algorithm
Proportional fair is a commonly-used
scheduling algorithm, which is based
on maintaining a balance between
two competing interests: maximizing
the overall system throughput while
at the same time providing all users
with a minimum level of service.

 The proportional fair (PF) scheduling

algorithm calculates a metric for all
active users in a given scheduling
interval.
The user with the highest metric is
allocated the resource available in
the given interval, while the metrics
for all users are updated before the
next scheduling interval, and the
process repeats.

Random access procedure

The UE must be synchronized in the
uplink before it can send signaling or
data.
For the uplink, the UEs within a cells
coverage area are physically
distributed at different distances from
the eNB location. As a result, each UE
will experience a different propagation
delay when accessing the network.

 Without synchronization, subframes transmitted from

different UEs would likely overlap and interfere with
each other.
To overcome this problem, the UE performs uplink
synchronization procedures on RACH during initial
access to the network.
In LTE, random access is used for several purposes
including initial access when establishing a radio link,
i.e., transitioning from RRC_IDLE to RRC_CONNECTED
state, re -establishing the radio link after a radio link
failure, performing handover when uplink
synchronization needs to be established with the target
cell, establishing uplink synchronization if uplink or
downlink data arrives when the terminal is in the
RRC_CONNECTED state and the uplink is not
synchronized.

Illustration of a contention-based
random access procedure

Contention-based RACH
procedure

Contention-free RACH
procedure
In contention-free RACH, the RRC

sublayer defines which RACH

preamble sequence and which
PRACH resources to utilize.
The preamble is dedicated to the UE
and is different from those used for
Groups A and B in the contention
based process, thus avoiding any
possible collision.