LTE AIR INTERFACE

Speaker Name: Debadutta Das

Date : 4.04.2012
Radio Access Technology
Roadmap
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

3GPP
Long Term Evolution LTE
DL: 150 Mbps+
UL: 50 Mbps+
UMTS/HSPA Radio Access Network Evolution
HSDPA HSDPA/HSUPA HSPA Evolution HSPA Evolution
DL: 14 Mbps DL: 14 Mbps DL: 42 Mbps DL: 84 Mbps
UL: 384 kbps UL: 5.7 Mbps UL: 11 Mbps UL: 11 Mbps

EDGE Radio Access Network Evolution

EDGE EDGE Evolved
DL: 474 kbps DL: 1.9 Mbps
UL: 474 kbps UL: 947 kbps

3GPP2 CDMA2000/EV-DO Network Evolution

EV-DO Rev. 0 EV-DO Rev. A EV-DO Rev. B UMB 2x2 MIMO UMB 4x4 MIMO
DL: 2.4 Mbps DL: 3.1 Mbps DL: 14.7 Mbps DL: 140 Mbps DL: 280 Mbps
UL: 153 kbps UL: 1.8 Mbps UL: 4.9 Mbps UL: 34 Mbps UL: 68 Mbps
IEEE Mobile WiMAX Network Evolution
EDGE Evolved Mobile WiMAX Wave1 Mobile WiMAX Wave2
DL: 1.9 Mbps DL: 23 Mbps DL: 46 Mbps IEEE 802.16m
UL: 947 kbps UL: 4 Mbps UL: 4 Mbps

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LTE Requirements
Peak data rates: 150 Mbps DL and 50 Mbps UL in a 20 MHz spectrum allocation.
300 Mbps DL and 75 Mbps UL with 4x4 DL MIMO requirement for UE Class 5, not supported
in Release 8
Control-plane latency: 100 ms from camped to active state.
User-plane latency: less than 5 ms.
User throughput and spectrum efficiency: (bit/sec/Hz) 3-4 x HSDPA, 2-3 x HSUPA.
Coverage: optimized for up to 5 km cells, support for cells up to 100 km.
Spectrum flexibility: different allocations ranging from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz.
Co-existence and Inter-working with other 3GPP Radio Access Technology (RAT) and selected
non-3GPP RATs (e.g. IEEE 802.16, 802.11).
Architecture and migration: single, simple E-UTRAN architecture, packet based, support for E2E
QoS; minimal single points of failure.
Radio Resource Management: enhanced E2E QoS, load sharing/balancing, inter-RAT policy
management
Complexity : minimum number of options, no redundant features.

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LTE Radio Access Network
eNB

Inter Cell RRM

RB Control

User Plane Protocol Connection Mobility Ctrl.

MME
Radio Admission Ctrl.
Control Plane Protocol
eNB Measurement Config.
UE And Provision
Nas Security
Dynamic Resource
Allocation (Scheduler)
NAS Idle State Mobility
Handling
RRC RRC
EPS Bearer
PDCP PDCP Control

RLC RLC

MAC MAC

PHY PHY

Air Interface
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Radio Technologies Used

OFDMA

SC-FDMA

MIMO*

Fourier Transform*

FFT*

DFT*

IFFT*
* Not covered in the presentation in details.

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OFDMA
In the downlink, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex Access (OFDMA) is selected
as the air-interface for LTE.
High bit rate needs are clumped by the nature of communication channels.
Multi-path Propagation effects forbid increasing of transmission rates.

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OFDM vs. FDM

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Multipath & Intersymbol
Interference

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Multipath & Intersymbol
Interference
Due to multipath effects (reflections etc), multiple images of the transmitted signal can
be received at the User Equipment (UE).

If the spread in delay of the received signals is greater than the duration of the guard
time, then bit errors will result.

A Cyclic Prefix in LTE is used to provide an adequate guard time.

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Cyclic Prefix
In an OFDM symbol the Cyclic Prefix is a repeat of the end of the symbol at the
beginning.
The length of the cyclic prefix is equal to the guard interval.
The purpose is to allow multi-path to settle before the main data arrives at the receiver.
The receiver is normally arranged to decode the signal after it has settled because this
is when the frequencies become orthogonal to one another.

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OFDM Transmitter

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SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Duplex Multiple Access) is the uplink multiple
access scheme for Evolved UTRA.
SC-FDMA signal has lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) than OFDM so is
better suited for generation in UEs (simpler amplifier design, weaker requirements on
linear and dynamic characteristics, reduced UE power consumption).

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SC-FDM transmitter

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MIMO
The definition of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) is quite straightforward.
Wireless communication systems with multiple antenna elements at transmitter end
and multiple antenna elements at the receiver end are called MIMO system.

Transmitter Receiver

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Benefits of MIMO
Improved throughput (multipath)
Better coverage (redundant path improves SNR)
Better Reliability (reduced Packet Error Rate)
Higher spectral efficiency

Highlights of different MIMO techniques

Diversity Schemes : Transmit same data stream on all input.
Beam Forming : Transmit same data stream on the strongest antenna port in a single direction.
Spatial Multiplexing : Transmit different data streams on different antenna port to the same user
Spatial Division Multiple Access : Transmit different data streams on different antenna port to
different users.

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LTE Frame structure
Two types of frame in LTE (Type 1 & Type 2).
1. FDD frame
2. TDD frame

1 frame = 10 subframes
1 subframe = 2 slots
1 slot = 0.5 ms

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Resource Block &
Resource Element
The smallest time-frequency unit for downlink transmission is called a resource
element.
A group of contiguous subcarriers and symbols form a resource block (RB).

1 Resource Block =
12 subcarriers & 7
symbols
= 84 resource elements

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Subcarrier Allocation

With standard OFDM the subcarrier allocations are fixed for each user and
performance may suffer from narrow fading and interference. But OFDMA allocates
subcarriers dynamically among different users in channel. This results in increased
capacity. The capacity comes from the trunking efficiency gained by multiplexing low
rate users onto wider channel to provide dynamic capacity when needed.

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Reference Signals
To allow coherent demodulation reference symbols are inserted into resource blocks
for channel estimation.
Two Types:
1. Downlink Reference Signal
2. Uplink Reference Signal

Downlink Reference Signal

Cell-specific reference signals
Cell-specific reference signals are transmitted in all downlink subframes in a
cell supporting non-MBSFN transmission. This is transmitted in antena port 0-3.

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Reference Signals
(contd..)
MBSFN reference signals
MBSFN reference signals are only transmitted in subframes allocated for MBSFN transmissions.
MBSFN reference signals are transmitted on antenna port 4.
UE-specific reference signals
UE-specific reference signals are supported for single-antenna-port transmission of PDSCH and
are transmitted on antenna port 5.

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Reference Signals
(contd..)
Uplink Reference Signal
Demodulation Reference Signals (DM-RS)
This enable coherent signal demodulation at the eNodeB. These signals are time multiplexed
with uplink data and are transmitted on the fourth or third SC-FDMA symbol of an uplink slot for
normal or extended CP, respectively, using the same bandwidth as the data.
Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)
This allow channel dependent (i.e. frequency selective) uplink scheduling as the DM-RS cannot
be used for this purposes since they are assigned over the assigned bandwidth to a UE. User
data transmission is not allowed in this block, which results in about 7% reduction in uplink
capacity. The SRS is an optional feature and is highly configurable to control overhead--it can be
turned off in a cell.

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LTE Access Procedure
Before the user equipment can start transmitting and receiving data it must connect to the
network. This connection phase consists of 3 stages where different information is obtained in
each stage.

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)
Cell Search & Selection
For this procedure two types of synchronization signals.
1. Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) (used to identify layer identity)
2. Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) (used to identify cell identity group)

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)
Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS)
The UE first looks for the primary synchronization signal (PSS) which is transmitted in
the last OFDM symbol of the first time slot of the first subframe (subframe 0) in a radio
frame. Primary synchronization detects the base station (eNodeB) sector and time
offset [3]. The PSS is constructed from signal sequences that are known as Zadoff-Chu
(ZC) sequences and the length of the sequence is 62 in the frequency domain. When a
terminal detects a PSS it can then extract information about slot timing properties and
the ID of the physical layer.

Secondary Synchronization Signal (PSS)

In the time domain, the SSS is transmitted in the symbol before the PSS . The SSS
also has 5 ms periodicity, which means it is transmitted in the first and sixth subframes
(subframes 0 and 5). The purpose of the SSS is to provide the terminal with
information about the cell ID, frame timing properties and the cyclic prefix (CP) length.

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)
Random Access
The second part of the access procedure is where the UE needs to derive system
information. This system information is periodically broadcasted in the network and this
information is needed for the UE to be able to connect to the network and a specific
cell within that network. When the UE has received and decoded the system
information it has information about for example cell bandwidths, whether to use FDD
or TDD and enough information to be able to access the cell via the random-access
procedure.

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)
System Information

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)
Random Access Preamble:
This is generated by MAC layer in uplink on RACH-PRACH. There are two possible groups
defined group A and B from which one is optional. If both groups are configured, the size of
message 3 and the path loss are used to determine preamble group. The group to which a
preamble belongs provides an indication of the size of the message 3(RRC Connection req) and
the radio conditions at the UE. The preamble group information and thresholds are already been
received in system information block 2.
Random Access Response:
This is generated by MAC in downlink on DL-SCH-PDSCH. After sending the Random Access
Preamble UE watches the RA-RNTI in PDCCH. From that it gets the information about the
Random Access Response (in which sub frame it is arriving in PDSCH). This response carries
the temporary C-RNTI assigned by the eNB and UL grant. C-RNTI is used for transmission and
reception of UE specific UL and DL data.
Note: UL and DL transmission and scheduling can be discussed in some other post.

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LTE Access Procedure
(contd..)
RRC Connection Request :
This is generated by RRC layer on CCCH-UL_SCH. This is called as message3 and first UE
specific signalling from L3(RRC). This carries the UE specific identity. The UE identity can me
Random or S-TMSI (if UE is already registered to the EPC and S-TMSI is with UE). It also carries
the establishment cause.
MAC Contention Resolution:
This is generated by MAC on DL-SCH. It may happen that simultaneously more than one RRC
connection request is received at eNB on same shared channel. So in order to separate out the
UEs eNB uses the contention resolution much prior to the NAS based contention. Here LTE uses
the timer based contention resolution. After receiving the message3 eNB schedules that request
and send the information to the UE through MAC contention resolution message.

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To be continued...

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Thank You

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