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Saturday, February 15, 2014

About Me

Carrier Aggregation in LTE-A (3gpp Rel-10)

Carrier aggregation (for FDD & TDD) is a technique used in LTE-A (3gpp Rel-10) in order to increase the
bandwidth, and thereby increase the throughput both in DL and UL.
Raghavendra Devareddy

CA combines up to 5 contiguous or non-contiguous Component Carriers (CC) of spectrum into a single

logical channel with resulting maximum transmission bandwidth of up to 100Mhz.
Use of CA with MIMO will achieve max transmission speed of 1Gbps in DL and 500Mbps in
UL.
Aggregation of of up to 5 downlink (DL) CCs and 5 uplink (UL) CCs, irrespective of intra-band
or inter-band CA.
For FDD, N(DL CCs) >= N(UL CCs) ; Asymmetric CA!

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Blog Archive

2014 (4)
April (1)

For TDD, number of CCs and BW is same in DL & UL!

February (3)

CCs' can be configured with any bandwidth (1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 MHz) supported by LTE
Each CC is equivalent to a Rel8/9 carrier for normal operation.

Inter CellInterference Coordination

in LTE/LTE-A W...
LTE-A COORDINATED MULTI-POINT
(CoMP) - 3gpp Rel-11...

In LTE-A, 3 types of carrier aggregation are specified.

Carrier Aggregation in LTE-A (3gpp

Rel-10) Carrier...

1. Intra-band Contiguous CA
2. Intra-band Non-contiguous CA
3. Inter-band Non-contiguous CA

Carrier Aggregation- Cell Configuration

Pcell : The cell for which R10 UE has established RRCConnection to is called Primary Cell
the corresponding CC is called (UL/DL) PCC.

(Pcell) and

Pcell is configured with following charecteristics

PDCCH/PDSCH/PUSCH/PUCCH can be transmitted
Measurement and mobility procedure are based on PCell
Random access procedure is performed over PCell
Can not be deactivated
DL PCell and UL PCell are linked via SIB2
Scell : Additional cell(s) configured after RRCConnectionEstablishment i.e in CONNECTED mode, to
provide additional radio resources is called Scell and the associated CC is called (DL/UL) SCC. Scell is
configured with following charecteristics
PDCCH/PDSCH/PUSCH can be transmitted (not PUCCH)
An Scell never has a PUCCH allocated in it
MAC layer based dynamic activation/deactivation procedure is supported for SCell for UE
battery saving
Can be cross scheduled

For a UE configured for CA there can have only once Pcell and up to four Scells collectively
known as Serving Cells
HO, CCO or RLF is only for Pcell; so, RL monitoring for Scells is not necessary for Scell
UL PCC is used for carrying PUCCH ACK/NAKS, SR & periodic CSI from a UE
UE is not allowed to camp on Scell. No MIB, SIBs are broadcast on it.
Pcell cant be de-activated, but the Scell (CCs) can be activated/de-activated based on traffic
need and UE reported CQI for CC (Scell)

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Scells can be one of the three states;

1. Non-configured: UE performs RRM inter-freq measurements when configured (Similar to R8 UE)
2. Configured but deactivated: UE doesn't receive PDCCH or PDSCH and no CQI measurements
3. Configured and activated: UE receive PDCCH or PDSCH and performs CQI measurements, and
maintains path loss (PL)

Initial access and entering CA mode

The PSS and SSS are transmitted on all CCs for UEs to facilitate cell search.
Once a UE makes a successful cell search, it considers the current cell as the PCell and
performs the random access procedure on the up link CC associated with the PCell.
When CA is c onfigured, First 3 steps are Contention Based RA on Pcell
After Random Aceess Procedure, UE will establish RRCConnection to Pcell as in the case of
R8/9
eNB that owns the Pcell enquires UE whether it supports CA through the RRC
UeCapabilityEnquiry.
UE responds back with UECapabilityInformation containing BandCombinationParameters
field indicating CA (and MIMO) capabilities upported by the UE for configurations with
Intra-band contiguous/non-contiguous or Inter-band CA.
For each band in a band combination, the UE provides, via the Band Parameters UL/DL, the
supported CA bandwidth classes (and the corresponding MIMO capabilities).

UE CapabilityInformation

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RRCConnectionReconfiguration

The default state for a newly configured SCell is deactivated

PDCCH reception (for DL/UL grants) stopped,
PDSCH/PUSCH, SRS, and CQI transmissions are stopped.

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DL SCC deactivated implies that linked UL SCC is also deactivated

DL SCC activation/deactivation can be explicit or implicit.
Explicit is via MAC signaling
Ci =1 Activation
Ci =0 Deactivation

Mac PDU sub-header with LCID 27 (8-bit) is used for DL activation/de-activation of Scells.
Implicit deactivation of DL SCC can be triggered via a timer called the sCellDeactivationTimer maintained per Scell. But, one common value is configured per UE by
RRC.

L2 Changes for Carrier Aggregation

With CA, following changes are needed in protocol stack as shown in the fig. below

RLC Changes
From UE design perspective, a minor aspect of the RLC was changed in comparison to Rel-8
RLC layer has now to provide higher data rates by having a larger buffer size
Three new categories, category 6, 7 and 8 are specified in Release-10 to support this increase
in buffer size.

MAC Changes
With CA, MAC layer plays the role of multiplexing entity for the aggregated component
carriers.
Each MAC entity will provide to his corresponding CC its own Physical Layer (PHY) entity,
providing resource mapping, data modulation, HARQ, and channel coding.
CA capable eNB MAC layer scheduler must have knowledge of all active CCs
eNB MAC scheduler to sequence DL allocations and UL grants optimally, it must consider the
downlink and uplink channel conditions across the entire aggregated bandwidth.

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In the absence of MIMO, a CA-enabled scheduler allocates, at most, one transport block per
shared channel per TTI
With CA enabled, the HARQ processes delivering the various transport blocks within a TTI
(across SCHs) are independent.
System Information Broadcasting
UE is required to monitor the BCCH on the PCell only for system information (SI) acquisition.
Dedicated signaling (via RRCConnectionReconfiguartion) is used to convey SI of SCells.
Changes in Scell SI is configured by removal and addition of the same Scell using RRC
signaling. Consequently, there is no need for the UE to monitor the BCCH on SCCs.

DL CA Operation
UE configured for CA operation reports CSI feedback for Pcell and Scell
CSI-RS report = CQI + RI + PMI
The eNB, after receiving CSI/CQI report and BSR (data in UEs buffer) from several UEs',
decide which users (UE) data should be transmitted.
Using CSI feedback & BSR, eNB will determine DL transmission parameters for selected UEs'
such as
serving cell(s) to use for DL data transfer
RBs' and data rate
MCS to use
Antenna technique & TM to use.
UE monitors PDCCHs of the Pcell and & any active Scells for PDSCH allocation
Due to PDSCH enhancement in Rel-10 (MIMO 8x8 in DL, DCI 2C. TM9), on a given serving
cells, PDSCH transmission on up to 8 layers is possible.
A single UE specific UL CC (called UL PCC) is configured semi-statically for carrying PUCCH
ACK /NACK, SR, and periodic CSI from a UE

DL PDCCH reception

Information on how the DL data is transmitted is sent on PDCCH.

Two types of PDCCH transmission possible in Rel-10 CA
.

Separately coded PDCCH per PDSCH on multiple DL component carriers

2. Cross-Carrier Scheduling (with CIF)

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Optional feature for the UE introduced in Release-10

Activated using RRC during the UE capability transfer procedure
Reduces interference in Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) scenarios with
carrier aggregation
HetNets = combination of macros, smalls-cells and relays
Cross-carrier scheduling is only used to schedule resources on an Scell
without PDCCH.

PCell cannot be cross scheduled; it is always scheduled through its own

PDCCH

In Rel-8, PDCCH carries DL resource allocation for its own CC and UL grants for associated
UL CC indicated by SIB2
In Rel-10 with cross carrier scheduling configured, PDCCH may carry resource allocation for
one or more CCs with new 3-bit Carrier Indicator Field (CIF)
The CIF is located at the beginning of the DCI and is fixed regardless of DCI format size.
CIF supports cross-carrier scheduling for DCI formats 0, 1, 1A, 1B, 1D, 2, 2A, 2B and 2C in the
UE specific search space
DCI-1 (DL Resource Allocation)

For UE not scheduled with cross carrier scheduling, CIF field will be absent
CIF =0 indicates Pcell; other values (1-4) for Scells configured by RRC signaling
UE may receive multiple DCIs for DL data in the same TTI, one for each serving cells where
UE is receiving data transmission.
PDCCH search space in CA;
One control region per CC in CA
UE decodes a set of PDCCH for control information according to all the monitored
DCI format candidates in every DRX sub frame on one or more activated serving
cells
PCFICH
Independent control region size per CC
On any carrier with a control region, re-use Rel-8 design
Modulation
Coding
RE mapping
PCFICH for cross CC scheduling
In case of cross-carrier scheduling , a standardized solution will be supported to
provide CFI to the UE for the carriers on which PDSCH is assigned.
The PDSCH starting symbol position of the cross-scheduled CC is informed to UE by RRC
signaling.
ACK/NACK for CA (new PUCCH format 3)
In Rel-8 LTE, PUCCH format 1a/1b/2/2a/2b are used by UE to send ACK/NACK
for the reception of transport blocks in DL (PDSCH data transmission)
AC/NACKs can be combined with SR &/or CSI.
For a UE in CA, PUCCH format 3 is introduced with enhancement to 1b
At any given TTI up to 5 ACK/NACKs needs to be transmitted for a UE configured with 5 CCs
(1Pcell + 4Scell)

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PUCCH format 1b enhanced to carry 4 ACK/NACK bits (rel-8, 2bits) for 2 serving cells
UE with TM9 (DL 8X8 SU-MIMO), using PUCCH format 3, up to 10 ACK/NACK for FDD and
20 ACK/NACK for TTD can be transmitted

UL CA Operation
Due to the introduction of CA as well as enhanced MIMO transmission of up to 8 spatial
layers there will be a high amount of control information to be fed back to the network.
To avoid the definition of new and additional mechanism to multiplex UL control information
and user data, the decoupling of control information and data transmission has been enabled
in Rel-10
Simultaneous PUCCH & PUSCH transmission
UE can now send PUCCH & PUSCH simultaneously
Power control is done independently for data & control i.e. feedback
In any case max UE transmit power should not exceed 23dbm.
P(PUSCH) + P (PUCCH) <= 23dbm while transmitting simultaneously
PHR reports are CC specific allowing CC specific power control
UL eNB Scheduler
Inputs to the scheduler for UL CA data transfer session setup are;
SR from UEs
BSR reports for logical channel queues from UEs
Logical Channel Priority (LCP)
QoS requirement
UE Capabilities CSI/CQI, recent allocation & performance history
The output of the scheduler is;
Scheduling grants
number & identities of CCs
Antenna Technique & CoMP Rx
UL Resource Allocation
Rel-8 supports resource allocation RA Type-0 only
RA Type-0: set of contiguous PRBs allocated to UE
Rel-10 introduces RA Type-1 & DCI4 for CA & 4X4 SU-MIMO (CLSM MIMO)
RA-Type-1: eNB allocates 2 sets (or clusters) of PRBs separated in frequency domain
(clustered DFTS-OFDMA).
Within each set or clusters there are 1 or more RBGs of size P.
Value of P depends on BW allocated as shown below

DCI format 0 (UL Allocation)

DCI-0 is enhanced for UL allocation to support CIF field for UE with corss - carrier scheduling
configured
In addition, CSI field is also expanded to 2 bits for UEs configured with more than one serving
cell.

PUSCH Transmission
In Rel-10 PUSCH transmission may occur on one or more serving cells
In addition to the Rel-8 UL TM1, new TM2 is introduced.

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TM1 UE transmits the PUSCH from single antenna

TM2 Closed Loop Spatial Multiplexing with up to 4 layers available for PUSCH
transmission.
Enhanced DCI format 0 with new DCI format 4 are used with TM1 & TM2.
Frequency Hopping : Allocation of RB/REs on different SCs across the RB boundaries
Allowed for Type-0 resource allocation
Not allowed for Type-1.

Mobility in CA
Measurement Events
UE can be configured to report measurement events on one or all the CCs
UE can also report measurements on not configured CCs
LTE-A Measurement Events = rel-8 events + event A6
A1/A2 Applicable for both Pcell & Scell.
Triggered when serving cell (== Pcell or Scell) becomes better(A1)/(A2) worse than threshold
(s-measure).
s-measure threshold applies only to Pcell & controls all non serving cells
When Pcell(RSRP) >= s-measure, A1/A2 are disabled (not reported)
A3 A neighbor becomes offset better than Pcell
A5 - Pcell < thr1 & neighbor > thr2
The measurement object for A3/A5 can be any frequency including the Scell
A6 New measurement event introduced for CA.
Intra-frequency neighbor becomes offset better than the Scell on that SCC
Event A6 compares the neighbor cell and the SCell that are on the same carrier frequency.
A stronger neighbor on an SCC may point to the need for handover (HO)

better candidate serving cell is reported by UE via event A6

Power Control in CA
UL PC in CA (Rel-10)
Similar to rel-8, it will compensate for distance dependent path loss and shadowing, while
reducing the interference generated towards the neighboring cells.
Supports CC specific UL PC for contiguous & noncontiguous CA.
For contiguous CC CA, UL PC is needed to compensate different interference conditions and
requirements of different CCs.
For noncontiguous CA UL PC needed due to quite different propagation conditions on
different CCs
PHR for Rel-10

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In CA multiple PUSCHs and PUCCH are transmitted simultaneously on a single CC and there
are multiple CC transmitted in the UL at the same time, power scaling can be very complicated
in Rel-10
Two types of PHRs are possible in rel-10
PUSCH transmission &
Simultaneous PUSCH & PUCCH transmission
PHR Reporting
UE reports PHR to its serving eNB for scheduling decisions and link adaptation purposes.
PHR = UE maximum transmit power PCMAX - PPUSCH
In LTE-A, the PHR is per-CC based., computed for all CCs and may be sent on any Pcell or
Scell
PHR Types
Tyep1: PCMAX,C PPUSCH (For Scell or Pcell)
Type2: PCMAX,C PPUCCH PPUSCH (Pcell only, with possible simultaneous PUSCH +
PUCCH)

To report PHR for multiple CCs configured, rel-10 introduces new extended PHR format using
extended PHR MAC CE.
The extended PHR MAC CE is identified by a MAC PDU sub header with LCID 17.

MAC CE parameters for PHR description

Posted by Raghavendra Devareddy at 1:09 AM

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Labels: LTE-A, Rel-10. Carrier Aggregation

Location: Bangalore, India

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