ELP 4003 LTE Air Interface

LTE Air Interface
ESB 4003 R2D
Student text
Disclaimer
This book is a training document and contains simplifications. Therefore, it must
not be considered as a specification of the system.
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to ongoing
progress in methodology, design and manufacturing.
ENKI Adam Girycki assumes no legal responsibility for any error or damage resulting
from the usage of this document.
c April 28, 2014 by ENKI Adam Girycki.

Copyright
This document was produced in Poland by ENKI Adam Girycki. It is used for
training purpose only and may not be copied or reproduced in any manner without
the express written consent of ENKI.
This document number ESB 4003 R2D supports course number ELP 4003 R2D.
2
Contents
1 OFDMA principles
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
Two way communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.1.1 FDD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.2 TDD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Access network evolution overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.1 1G FDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.2 2G TDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.3 3G WCDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.4 4G OFDMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Complex numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.1 Rectangular notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.2 Polar notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.3 Relation between rectangular and polar notation . . . . . . . .
1.3.4 Eulers formula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3.5 Exponential notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fourier analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.1 Fourier Transform (FT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.2 Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and Fast Fourier Transform
(FFT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) concept . . . . .
1.5.1 OFDM transmitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.2 OFDM receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Modulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 EPS architecture
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
5
6
6
6
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7
9
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12
12
13
14
14
14
15
15
15
20
22
22
22
27
LTE requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EPS architectural principles . . . . . . . .
2.2.1 Evolved Packet Core (EPC) . . . .
2.2.2 Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN) . . .
Strata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3.1 Non-Access Stratum (NAS) . . . .
2.3.2 Access Stratum (AS) . . . . . . .
EPS Bearer and QoS . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.1 EPS Bearer . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.2 Quality of Service (QoS) . . . . . .
Integration with 2G and 3G . . . . . . . .
Interfaces overview . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Evolved Packet Core (EPC) functions . . .
2.7.1 Mobility Management Entity node
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27
29
29
30
31
31
32
32
33
34
36
37
42
42
CONTENTS
2.7.2
2.8
2.7.3
Long
2.8.1
2.8.2
Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) and Serving Gateway

(S-GW) nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Mobility Management Entity (MME) and S-GW pooling concept
Term Evolution (LTE) functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LTE general principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Evolved Node B (eNB) functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 LTE signalling
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
49
User plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Control plane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.1 Radio Resource Control (RRC) . . . . . . .
3.3.2 Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
3.3.3 Radio Link Control (RLC) . . . . . . . . . .
3.3.4 Medium Access Control (MAC) . . . . . . .
Radio interface structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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4 LTE radio interface introduction

4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
5.6
5.7
5.8
49
50
50
50
52
53
53
55
57
Channel structure . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1.1 Logical channels . . . . . . . . .
4.1.2 Transport channels . . . . . . . .
4.1.3 Physical channels . . . . . . . .
Time domain structure . . . . . . . . . .
4.2.1 Frequency Division Duplex (FDD)
4.2.2 Time Division Duplex (TDD) . .
Frequency domain structure . . . . . . .
Scheduling Block . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Virtual Resource Block . . . . . . . . . .
4.5.1 VRB of localized type . . . . . .
4.5.2 VRB of distributed type . . . . .
System spectral eciency . . . . . . . .
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5 LTE downlink physical channels

5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
42
43
45
45
46
57
57
58
59
61
61
62
63
65
65
67
67
67
71
Cell search . . . . . . . . . . . .
P-SS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
S-SS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PBCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5.1 MIB . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.5.2 SIB . . . . . . . . . . . .
PCFICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PDCCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.7.1 PDCCH usage . . . . . .
5.7.2 PDCCH mapping . . . . .
5.7.3 PDCCH format . . . . . .
5.7.4 PDCCH processing . . . .
5.7.5 PDCCH blind decoding .
PDSCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.1 CRC attachment . . . . .
5.8.2 Code block segmentation
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71
72
73
75
77
78
79
79
80
80
81
81
81
83
84
88
88
CONTENTS
5.8.3 Channel coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.4 Rate matching . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.5 Code block concatenation . . . . . . . .
5.8.6 Scrambling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.7 Modulation mapper . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.8 Layer mapper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.9 Precoding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.8.10 Resource element mapping . . . . . . .
5.9 PHICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.10 PMCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.11 Downlink physical channels modulation summary
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. 88
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Timing advance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.1 Uplink-downlink frame timing . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.2 Timing advance range . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.3 Random access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.4 Other cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.5 Maintenance of uplink time alignment . . . . .
Random Access (RA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Resource allocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.3.1 Resource allocation type 0 . . . . . . . . . . . .
MIMO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.4.1 Spatial multiplexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.4.2 Transmit diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.4.3 Transmission modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.4.4 MIMO antennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UE reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.5.1 CQI definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.5.2 Aperiodic CQI/PMI/RI reporting using PUSCH
7.5.3 Periodic CQI/PMI/RI reporting using PUCCH .
Modulation order and transport block size determination
7.6.1 Modulation determination . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.6.2 Transport block size determination . . . . . . .
UL power control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.7.1 PUSCH power control . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.7.2 PUSCH power control example . . . . . . . . .
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6 LTE uplink physical channels

6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
PUSCH . . . . . . . .
Uplink reference signals
6.2.1 RS . . . . . .
6.2.2 SRS . . . . . .
PUCCH . . . . . . . .
6.3.1 PUCCH format
6.3.2 PUCCH format
6.3.3 PUCCH format
PRACH . . . . . . . .
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1A/1B .
1. . . .
2. . . .
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101
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7 Physical layer procedures

7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
102
104
104
105
105
107
108
108
109
113
113
113
113
113
115
116
116
117
119
120
120
120
121
123
123
124
126
127
127
129
130
131
131
134
134
137
CONTENTS
8 LTE mobility
8.1
8.2
141
Idle mode mobility . . . . . . . .

8.1.1 PLMN selection . . . . .
8.1.2 Cell selection . . . . . . .
8.1.3 Cell reselection . . . . . .
Connected mode mobility . . . . .
8.2.1 X2 handover . . . . . . .
8.2.2 Event triggered reporting
8.2.3 A3 event . . . . . . . . .
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141
142
144
146
148
149
151
154
A System information
157
List of Figures
165
List of Tables
167
Acronyms
175
1 OFDMA principles
1.1
Two way communication
In order to provide two way communication, so called duplex, two directions of

transmission must exist and they must be separated from each other to avoid collisions. Transmission from the User Equipment (UE) to the Base Station (BS) is
referred to as Uplink (UL), while the transmission from the BS to the UE is referred
to as Downlink (DL), see Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1: Two way communication.

The UL and DL transmissions can be separated in frequency or time domain, as
presented in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2: Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD).
7
1 OFDMA principles
1.1.1
FDD
The FDD system uses dierent frequency bands for UL and DL, separated by the
duplex distance, see Figure 1.2. In case of FDD, the UL is usually placed on the
lower frequency band because the transmission of lower frequency radio wave requires less energy comparing to the higher frequency band, on which the DL is
placed. In FDD solution the transmission and reception may take place continuously or discontinuously. An example of the FDD system is Global System for
Mobile communication (GSM).
1.1.2
TDD
The TDD system uses the same frequency band for both UL and DL, which is
time shared as presented in Figure 1.2. TDD requires only one frequency to realise
two way communications, which may be an advantage when the availability of radio
resources is a limiting factor. On the other hand, to avoid any collisions, TDD system
requires a time structure (synchronisation) to separate the UL and DL transmission,
which is always discontinuous. An examples of the TDD system is cordless telephony
system.
1.2
Access network evolution overview
Apart from duplex transmission separation, a harmonised access of multiple UEs to

the shared radio resources must exist, see Figure 1.3. In uplink direction a number
UEs transmit to the base station. Thus the multiple access technology is required,
which allows the base station to separate transmissions from dierent UEs. In
downlink direction a single base station has to keep a connection with multiple users.
For that reason a multiple access method is applied, which allows multiplexing of
signals at the base station and demultiplexing the signal at the receiving side.
Figure 1.3: Multiple access.

Each generation of cellular telecommunications system provided dierent, more effective, radio access technology, which are discuss in the next sections. The briefly
summary of cellular technologies evolution is presented in Figure 1.4.
8
1.2 Access network evolution overview
Figure 1.4: Cellular technologies evolution.
1.2.1
1G FDMA
1st Generation (1G), the first generation of wireless telecommunications technology,

was introduced in the 1980s and it was an analogue system. The oered service was
the voice.
Examples of 1G system:
Nordic Mobile Telephony (NMT) introduced in 1981 and developed in Nordic
countries, Switzerland, Netherlands, Eastern Europe and Russia
Advanced Mobile Phone Systems (AMPS) introduced in 1983 and developed
in North America and Australia
In 1G system, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) method of radio resources usage was applied. The available radio resources were divided in frequency
domain. For each connection a separate bandwidth was allocated and the user transmission on the allocated channel was continuous, which is illustrated in Figure 1.5.
The allocated one way channel had bandwidth of 25 kHz in NMT and 30 kHz in
case AMPS, resulting in a total of 50 kHz in NMT and 60 kHz in AMPS for each
duplex channel.
1.2.2
2G TDMA
2G, the second generation of wireless telecommunications technology, was introduced

in 1990s. It was a digital system. The oered services were voice, Short Message
Service (SMS), Circuit Switched (CS) data transfer with the rate of 9.6 kbit/s.
Examples of 2G systems:
9
1 OFDMA principles
Figure 1.5: Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA).

GSM introduced in 1991 and used across more than 212 countries and territories.
Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Systems (D-AMPS) introduced 1991 and used
in North America.
CDMAOne introduced in 1995 and used in the Americas and parts of Asia.
GSM, which is the dominant 2G system, employs the Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA) method of radio resources usage combined with FDMA. Available radio
resources are first divided into Radio Frequency (RF) channels of 200 kHz bandwidth
(FDMA concept) and next each RF channel is divided in time domain into timeslots
(TDMA concept). A certain number of timeslots create so called TDMA frame. The
number of timeslots in the TDMA frame is system specific. In GSM system eight
timeslots make up the TDMA frame. A user has a cyclic access to the common radio
resources during the allocated timeslot. Thus the transmission is discontinuous. The
Figure 1.6 presents the TDMA system with 4 timeslots in the TDMA frame.
Figure 1.6: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA).

General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), which is an add-on to the CS GSM also called
2.5G, oers Packet Switched (PS) data transfer with the rate of approximately 50
kbps.
10

Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), also called 2.75G, oers higher date rate of PS data
transfer with the maximum rate of approximately 500 kbps, thanks to higher order
modulation.
1.2.3
3G WCDMA
3G, the third generation of wireless telecommunication technology, was introduced

in 2000s.
Examples of 3G system:
CDMA2000 introduced in 2000 in South Korea and used in Asia, America and
Africa.
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) introduced in 2001 in
Japan and used in Europe, Asia and Africa.
3G systems employ Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) method of radio resources usage. CDMA allows for simultaneous transmission of multiple users in
the same frequency band, which is presented in Figure 1.7. Separation of dierent
connections is achieved by means of dierent codes. The codes must be orthogonal
(independent of each other).
Figure 1.7: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

In CDMA2000 the initial frequency band width was 1.25 MHz, which was next
tripled to 3x1.25 MHz.
In UMTS, the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) method is applied, which utilizes wide frequency band of 5 MHz. Wide frequency channel allows
for lowering the power density, thus signal may be even weaker than thermal noise
level.
High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) provides downlink throughput of approximately
14 Mbps, while Evolved HSPA (also called HSPA+) provides throughput of 84
Mbps.
11
1 OFDMA principles
1.2.4
4G OFDMA
4G, the fourth generation of mobile telecommunications technology, must support 1

Gbit/s downlink bit rate. Currently there is no system, that is able to support mobile
communications with the required bit rate. However there are two technologies,
which are on a way to achieve this goal in the nearest future:
LTE oers approximately 100 Mbit/s bit rate. The worlds first publicly available LTE-service was opened in the two Scandinavian capitals Stockholm and
Oslo on the 14 December 2009.
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) oers approximately 40 Mbit/s bit rate. WiMAX access was used to assist with communications in Aceh, Indonesia, after the tsunami in December 2004.
Both LTE and WiMAX employ Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA) method of radio resources usage. Theoretical foundation of OFDMA
had been already laid in 1960, but due to high costs and lack of appropriate technologies for a long time it remained purely theoretical. This situation has changed
with advent of cheap, small and fast microchips capable of processing the FFT and
Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) algorithms. Nowadays, OFDM is widely
used in wireless networking (Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)), digital television (Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial (DVB-T)), audio broadcasting (Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)) and broadband wireless communications (WiMAX,
LTE).
OFDMA is a special type of the FDMA. OFDMA allows for transfer messages
simultaneously, using multiple narrow ranges of frequencies, called subcarriers, see
Figure 1.8.
Figure 1.8: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA).

To avoid Inter Carrier Interference (ICI), in ordinary FDMA system, all such subcarriers are separated in frequency domain with guard bands, therefore some spectrum
is wasted. OFDM provides much better spectrum eciency, as it does not need gaps
between subcarrier bands. Moreover, the subcarrier bands are overlapping, which
allows to additionally save some spectrum. ICI is mitigated here by taking advantage of the fact that under the following conditions the subcarriers are orthogonal
with one another:
12

The careful choice of subcarrier spacing. The subcarrier spacing f should be
exactly equal to the reciprocity of the OFDMA symbol duration Tsymbol , see
Figure 1.9, which provides that the subcarriers are mathematically orthogonal
and thus independent.
Keeping the synchronisation in the frequency domain, providing there are no
frequency shifts, e.g. due to Doppler eects.
Figure 1.9: OFDM subcarriers.

Multiplexing and demultiplexing of OFDMA symbols into subcarriers can be performed using Inverse Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) and DFT. These
mathematical procedures, that transform signal from frequency to time domain and
opposite, can be implemented with IFFT and FFT algorithms.
The presented above FDMA, TDMA and CDMA multiple access methods are single
carrier modulation. OFDMA is a multi carrier modulation. In other words, it
means that a large number of closely spaced orthogonal subcarriers are used to
carry data. Each subcarrier is modulated with a conventional modulation scheme
(such as quadrature amplitude modulation or phase shift keying) at a low symbol
rate, maintaining total data rates similar to conventional single carrier modulation
schemes in the same bandwidth.
Advantages of OFDMA:
OFDMA eectively diminishes also the problem of multipath selective fading. Due to multipath radio waves propagation in typical urban environment,
signal at the receiver can be constructively or destructively interfered by the
same signal delayed over dierent path. This eect can dramatically change
depending on frequency used as a signal carrier some of the frequencies will
suer from deep fading, while neighbouring ones may not be aected at all. As
13
1 OFDMA principles
OFDMA uses very small subcarrier widths, the fading within every subcarrier
can be considered as relatively flat.
Another problem mitigated by OFDMA is Inter Symbol Interference (ISI).
One of the causes of this eect is signal reflection from distant object (typically mountain). The delayed signal, which propagates over much longer path,
interferes with the direct signal because it carries another (older) symbol than
the direct signal and therefore the receiver is unable to detect the correct symbol. The ISI eect is diminished when the symbol duration is longer, thus only
very far objects will lead to ISI. But the signal reflected from very far object
is usually week enough and does not lead to interference. In OFDMA, the
symbol duration can be lengthened, because a few symbols can be transmitted
simultaneously on dierent subcarriers. As already mentioned, longer symbol
makes the radio path less vulnerable to ISI. Additionally, to avoid overlapping,
the adjacent symbols are always separated in time by short guard period. In
the guard period, from technical reasons, it is not eective to stop transmission
at all, thus, so called, cyclic prefix is inserted here, which is simply a copy of
the signal tail end.
OFDMA can achieve a higher Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) spectral eciency due to providing flatter frequency channels than a CDMA rake
receiver can.
No cell size breathing as more users connect.
Recognised disadvantages of OFDMA:
Higher sensitivity to frequency osets and phase noise.
Asynchronous data communication services such as web access are characterised by short communication bursts at high data rate. Few users in a base
station cell are transferring data simultaneously at low constant data rate.
The complex OFDMA electronics, including the FFT algorithm and forward
error correction, is constantly active independent of the data rate, which is
inecient from power consumption point of view, while OFDMA combined
with data packet scheduling may allow that the FFT algorithm hibernates
during certain time intervals.
The OFDMA diversity gain, and resistance to frequency-selective fading, may
partly be lost if very few sub-carriers are assigned to each user, and if the same
carrier is used in every OFDMA symbol. Adaptive sub-carrier assignment
based on fast feedback information about the channel, or sub-carrier frequency
hopping, is therefore desirable.
Dealing with co-channel interference from nearby cells is more complex in
OFDMA than in CDMA. It would require dynamic channel allocation with
advanced coordination among adjacent base stations.
The fast channel feedback information and adaptive sub-carrier assignment is
more complex than CDMA fast power control.
14
1.3 Complex numbers
1.3
Complex numbers
Complex numbers are used in OFDMA signal processing. A complex number is a

number comprising a real (Re) and imaginary (Im) part.
1.3.1
Rectangular notation
The complex number can be written in the form of rectangular notation (also called
Cartesian notation) a + ib, where a and b are real numbers, and i is the standard
imaginary unit with the property i2 = 1. Figure 1.10 shows geometric representation of a complex number z = a+ib in the complex plane. The complex plane can be
thought of as a Cartesian plane, with the real part of a complex number represented
by a displacement along the x-axis, and the imaginary part by a displacement along
the y-axis.
Figure 1.10: Geometric representation of a complex number in the rectangular

notation in a complex Cartesian plane.
Each complex number z has a conjugate z , which has the same real part but
opposite imaginary part, see 1.11:
z = a + ib
(1.1)
(1.2)
z = a ib
1.3.2
Polar notation
Figure 1.12 presents another notation, so called polar notation, of a complex number.
In the polar plane the complex number is represented by its modulus (absolute value)
r and argument (angle) .
1.3.3
Relation between rectangular and polar notation
Relation between rectangular and polar notation of a complex number is the following:
a = r cos
(1.3)
b = r sin
(1.4)
15
1 OFDMA principles
Figure 1.11: Conjugate z of a complex number z.
Figure 1.12: Geometric representation of a complex number in the polar notation.

Thus, the complex number z = a + ib may be expressed as follows:
z = a + ib = r cos + ir sin = r(cos + i sin )
1.3.4
(1.5)
Eulers formula
Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician and physicist, discovered a mathematical relationship between the trigonometric functions (sin and cos) and the complex exponential function (see also Figure 1.13):
cos + i sin = ei
(1.6)
Eulers formula was called by Richard Feynman one of the most remarkable, almost
astounding, formulas in all of mathematics.
1.3.5
Exponential notation
Using the Eulers formula the complex number z may be written as follows, which
is called the exponential notation of a complex number:
z = r(cos + i sin ) = rei
(1.7)
16
1.4 Fourier analysis
Figure 1.13: Eulers formula.

In the exponential notation certain calculations, particularly multiplication and division of complex numbers, are easier than in rectangular notation. On the other
hand, addition and subtraction are easier with the use of rectangular notation. The
exponential notation of a complex number is in widespread use in engineering and
science.
Using the Eulers formula the conjugate z may be written as:
z = ei
1.4
1.4.1
(1.8)
Fourier analysis
Fourier Transform (FT)
Fourier Transform (FT) is an operation that transforms time domain function into
frequency domain function. Therefore FT is often called the frequency domain
representation of the original time domain function, see Figure 1.14.
1.4.2
Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and Fast Fourier

Transform (FFT)
Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is a specific kind of FT. The input to the DFT
is a finite sequence of real or complex numbers making the DFT ideal for processing
information stored in computers. In particular, the DFT is widely employed in
signal processing and related fields to analyse the frequencies contained in a sampled
signal, to solve partial dierential equations, and to perform other operations such
as convolutions or multiplying large integers.
DFT transforms the sequence of N complex numbers a0 , a1 , ..., aN 1 (usually in time
domain) into a sequence of A0 , A1 , ..., AN 1 complex numbers (usually in frequency
17
1 OFDMA principles
Figure 1.14: Fourier Transform (FT) principles.
18

domain) according to the following formula:
Ak =
N
1
k = 0, ..., N 1
an wkn
(1.9)
n=0
w=e
2
i
N
(1.10)
The inverse transform to the DFT, which transforms the sequence of complex numbers Ak back to the sequence of complex values an , is called Inverse Discrete Fourier
Transform (IDFT) and is given by the following formula:
N 1
1
Ak wkn
an =
N
n = 0, ..., N 1
(1.11)
k=0
In practice, the DFT can be computed eciently using a Fast Fourier Transform
(FFT) algorithm and IDFT using Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) algorithm.
DFT example
We are going to apply the DFT to the following sequence of N = 8 numbers in the
time domain:
a = [2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1]
(1.12)
We will show that the DFT of the above sequence is the following sequence of
numbers in the frequency domain:
A = [8, 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0]
(1.13)
Figure 1.15 shows the graphical presentation of the example, where the sequence
of real numbers an is transformed into the sequence of complex numbers Ak . The
complex numbers Ak are expressed by their modulus r and argument (see section
1.3). The modulus r represents the amplitude of the cosinusoidal signal of a given
frequency f and the argument corresponds to the phase shift of the cosinusoidal
signal. Because, in this example, the phase shift of the cosinusoidal signals is zero
(which means that the imaginary parts of complex numbers Ak are equal zero)
therefore Ak are actually real numbers. For the sequence of 8 numbers, the DFT
formula may be expressed by the following matrix form:
A0
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
w w2
w2 w4
w3 w6
w4 w8
w5 w10
w6 w12
w7 w14
1
w3
w6
w9
w12
w15
w18
w21
1
w4
w8
w12
w16
w20
w24
w28
19
1
w5
w10
w15
w20
w25
w30
w35
1
w6
w12
w18
w24
w30
w36
w42
1
w7
w14
w21
w28
w35
w42
w49
a0
a1
a2
a3
a4
a5
a6
a7
(1.14)
1 OFDMA principles
Figure 1.15: Example of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT).
w = e
2
i
8
= e 4 i = cos
( )
4
i sin
( )
4
i
1
=
2
2
(1.15)
When raising the coecient w to any integral power, one of eight values is obtained,
which are illustrated in Figure 1.16. Let us denote these eight complex values by
arrows according to Figure 1.16. Now, the matrix form of DFT can be noted in the
following way:
A0
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
2
1
0
1
2
1
0
1
(1.16)
We may calculate Ak numbers from the above matrix notation. As an example

A0 , A1 and A2 are calculated below:
A0 = 1 2 + 1 1 + 1 0 + 1 1 + 1 2 + 1 1 + 1 0 + 1 1 = 8
20
(1.17)

Im
Re
Figure 1.16: The coecient wn in the DFT for N = 8.
)
(
)
1
i
1
i
A1 = 1 2 +
1(i) 0 +
1+
2
2
2
2
(
)
(
)
1
i
1
i
+ (1) 2 + +
1+i0+ +
1=0
2
2
2
2
(1.18)
A2 = 1 2 i 1 1 0 + i 1 + 1 2 i 1 1 0 + i 1 = 4
(1.19)
You may calculate the remaining Ak values to confirm that the DFT transforms
the sequence a = [2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1] into the sequence A = [8, 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0]. It
is important to observe that the duration of our signal sample in the time domain
was 8 s, while the shift between transformed signals in frequency domain is equal
1
1
8 s = 8 Hz.
Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) example

We are going show that the IDFT transforms the sequence of N = 8 numbers in the
frequency domain:
A = [8, 0, 4, 0, 0, 0, 4, 0]
(1.20)
back into the following sequence of numbers in the time domain:

a = [2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, 1]
(1.21)
Values an may be calculated from formula 1.11, as presented below, and values wn
are shown in Figure 1.17:
a0 =
N 1
1
1
Ak = (8 + 0 + 4 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 4 + 0) = 2
N
8
k=0
21
(1.22)
1 OFDMA principles
a1 =
N 1
)
1
1 ( 01
8w
+ 4w21 + 4w61 =
Ak wk =
N
8
k=0
(1.23)
1
= (8 + 4i 4i) = 1
8
a2 =
N 1
)
1
1 ( 02
Ak w2k =
8w
+ 4w22 + 4w62 =
N
8
k=0
(1.24)
1
= (8 4 4) = 0
8
Figure 1.17: The coecient wn in the IDFT for N = 8. When comparing with
Figure 1.16 notice that wn is a conjugate of wn .
Figure 1.18 shows the graphical presentation of the IDFT example.
1.5
OFDM concept
The OFDM concept, which uses DFT, is shown in Figure 1.19. In the picture, the
information to be transmitted is represented by dierent Ak values. The process of
converting bits into Ak values is called modulation. Each of the Ak values is sent
on another subcarrier. In the picture there are N = 10 subcarriers. Ak values,
which are sent on dierent subcarriers, are represented by dierent heights of the
bars. With the use of IDFT the Ak values are transformed to signal in time domain,
which is physically transmitted during symbol time Tsymbol . The time domain signal
is denoted by an values and represented by circles. Because there are 10 bars in
the frequency domain before DFT, therefore there are also 10 circles of the time
domain signal after IDFT. As already mentioned, the 10 time domain samples
are to be transmitted during Tsymbol , therefore the time between samples is equal
T
Ts = symbol
10 .
22
1.5 OFDM concept
Figure 1.18: Graphical presentation of the IDFT example.
23
1 OFDMA principles
So far we had to do with digital operations (modulation and IDFT are digital operations). Next, the 10 time domain circles an are used to generate an analogue signal,
which is physically transmitted from an antenna.
Figure 1.19: OFDM concept.

The receiver performs an opposite operation. It samples the time domain signal
every Ts and collects 10 time domain samples an , which are next transformed, with
use of the DFT, to frequency domain values Ak . The frequency domain values Ak
carry information about bits which were transmitted. The bits are retrieved by
demodulation of values Ak .
After time Tsymbol the next symbol may be transmitted. Figure 1.19 illustrates
transmission of 3 symbols. Please observe that there could be a break between
consecutive symbols transmission. This break is used to transmit cyclic prefix.
1.5.1
OFDM transmitter
In OFDM the carrier signal is a sum of orthogonal subcarriers. In each subcarrier

processing Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) or Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
can be used. A simplified scheme of an OFDM transmitter has been shown in Figure
1.20.
s[i] is input bit stream. First, bits are separated into N parallel streams. Streams
are assigned for Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) or Phase Shift Keying
(PSK) modulation. Depending on the modulation, subcarriers may have dierent
transmission bit rate.
Next, IFFT is computed for the sequence of complex data symbols A0 , ..., AN 1 ,
which results in a sequence of complex time symbols a0 , ..., aN 1 of the signal. For
each symbol, after imaginary and real part separation, both parts are converted
to analogue in Digital-to-Analogue converter (D/A). Next, analogue signals are
quadrature modulated (multiplied by cosine and sine functions) and summed up
giving the output modulated signal s(t).
24
1.6 Modulation
Figure 1.20: OFDM transmitter.
1.5.2
OFDM receiver
Figure 1.21 presents the simplified OFDM receiver model. Receiver is detecting the
signal rx(t). Besides the wanted signal also signal with 2f frequency is created.
Therefore low pass filter is used to filter it out. Next, the signal is sampled and
converted to digital by the Analogue-to-Digital converter (A/D). The series of complex time symbols is then corrected for frequency drifts and global phase osets (not
shown in the diagram). In the next step FFT is carried out and frequency symbol
detection takes place, which results in N parallel bit streams, joined finally into one
initial bit stream s(i).
Figure 1.21: OFDM receiver.
1.6
Modulation
In telecommunications, modulation is the process of conveying a message signal, for

example digital information bit stream, inside another signal that can be physically
25
1 OFDMA principles
transmitted. Modulation of a sine waveform is used to transform a baseband message
signal to a passband signal, for example a RF signal. Electrical signals can only
be transferred over a limited passband frequency spectrum, with specific (non-zero)
lower and upper cut-o frequencies. Modulating a sine wave carrier makes it possible
to keep the frequency content of the transferred signal as close as possible to the
centre frequency (typically the carrier frequency) of the passband.
For the purpose of LTE it is a good idea to think about the modulation as a technique, which changes a digital signal of bits into another digital signal of complex
numbers. The complex numbers represent amplitude and phase shift of OFDM
subcarriers.
The modulation techniques used in LTE are based on phase and amplitude modulation of the carrier frequency, see also Figure 1.22:
Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) allows for transmission of one information
bit during one modulation symbol.
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) allows for transmission of two information bits during one modulation symbol.
16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16QAM) allows for transmission of 4
information bits during one modulation symbol.
64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (64QAM) is the fastest modulation used
in LTE and allows for transmission of 6 information bits during one modulation
symbol.
Only QPSK, 16QAM and 64QAM are used in LTE for user data bit. QPSK is only
used for some control information bits, which require robust modulation.
26
1.6 Modulation
Figure 1.22: LTE modulations.
27
1 OFDMA principles
28
2 EPS architecture
2.1
LTE requirements
Operators around the world have been rapidly deploying 3rd Generation (3G) network technologies, including UMTS, HSPA, and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, to support
increasing subscriber demand for mobile broadband services. LTE is a step toward
the 4th Generation (4G). LTE requirements are specified by TS 25.913:
Capability-related requirements.
Peak data rate.
Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) should
support significantly increased instantaneous peak data rates. The supported peak data rate should scale according to size of the spectrum
allocation.
Note that the peak data rates may depend on the numbers of transmit
and receive antennas at the UE. The targets for DL and UL peak data
rates are specified in terms of a reference UE configuration comprising:
1. DL capability 2 receive antennas at UE.
2. UL capability 1 transmit antenna at UE.
For this baseline configuration, the system should support an instantaneous downlink peak data rate of 100 Mbps within a 20 MHz downlink
spectrum allocation (5 bps/Hz) and an instantaneous uplink peak data
rate of 50 Mbps (2.5 bps/Hz) within a 20 MHz uplink spectrum allocation. The peak data rates should then scale linearly with the size of the
spectrum allocation.
In case of spectrum shared between downlink and uplink transmission,
E-UTRAN does not need to support the above instantaneous peak data
rates simultaneously.
Control Plane (CP) latency.
Transition time (excluding downlink paging delay and Non-Access Stratum (NAS) signalling delay) of less than 100 ms from a camped-state
(Idle Mode) to an active state, in such a way that the User Plane (UP)
is established.
User Plane (UP) latency.
29
2 EPS architecture
E-UTRAN UP latency reduced to less than 5 ms in unload condition for
small Internet Protocol (IP) packets.
CP capacity.
The system should be able to support a large number of users per cell
with quasi instantaneous access to radio resources in the active state. It
is expected that at least 200 users per cell should be supported in the
active state for spectrum allocations up to 5 MHz, and at least 400 users
for higher spectrum allocation.
A much higher number of users is expected to be supported in the camped
state.
System performance requirements.
DL user throughput.
Target for user throughput per MHz at the 5% point of the C.D.F.,
2 to 3 times Release 6 HSDPA.
Target for averaged user throughput per MHz, 3 to 4 times Release 6
HSDPA. Both targets should be achieved assuming Release 6 reference performance is based on a single Tx antenna at the Node B with
enhanced performance type 1 receiver in UE whilst the E-UTRA may
use a maximum of 2 Tx antennas at the Node B and 2 Rx antennas
at the UE.
The supported user throughput should scale with the spectrum bandwidth.
UL user throughput.
Target for user throughput per MHz at the 5% point of the C.D.F.,
2 to 3 times Release 6 Enhanced Uplink (deployed with a single Tx
antenna at the UE and 2 Rx antennas at the Node B).
Target for averaged user throughput per MHz, 2 to 3 times Release 6
Enhanced Uplink (deployed with a single Tx antenna at the UE and
2 Rx antennas at the Node B).
Both should be achievable by the E-UTRAN using a maximum of
a single Tx antenna at the UE and 2 Rx antennas at the Node B.
Greater user throughput should be achievable using multiple Tx antennas at the UE.
The user throughput should scale with the spectrum bandwidth provided that the maximum transmit power is also scaled.
Spectrum eciency.
Downlink.
In a loaded network, target for spectrum eciency (bits/sec/Hz/site),
3 to 4 times Release 6 HSDPA. This should be achieved assuming
Release 6 reference performance is based on a single Tx antenna at
the Node B with enhanced performance type 1 receiver in UE whilst
30
2.2 EPS architectural principles

the E-UTRA may use a maximum of 2 Tx antennas at the Node B
and 2 Rx antennas at the UE.
Uplink
In a loaded network, target for spectrum eciency (bits/sec/Hz/site),
2 to 3 times Release 6 Enhanced Uplink (deployed with a single Tx
antenna at the UE and 2 Rx antennas at the Node B). This should be
achievable by the E- UTRA using a maximum of a single Tx antenna
at the UE and 2Rx antennas at the Node B.
Mobility.
The E-UTRAN shall support mobility across the cellular network and
should be optimised for low mobile speed from 0 to 15 km/h. Higher
mobile speed between 15 and 120 km/h should be supported with high
performance. Mobility across the cellular network shall be maintained at
speeds from 120 km/h to 350 km/h (or even up to 500 km/h depending
on the frequency band).
Coverage.
E-UTRAN should support the maximum cell range of 100 km.
2.2
EPS architectural principles
The LTE radio network is called E-UTRAN. System Architecture Evolution (SAE)
is the core network architecture of the LTE wireless communication standard. SAE
is the evolution of the GPRS Core Network. The main component of the SAE
architecture is the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
The Long Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution (LTE/SAE) system, which
consists of E-UTRAN and EPC, is called Evolved Packet System (EPS), see Figure
2.1. LTE/SAE is specified from 3GPP Technical Specification (3GPP TS) Release
8.
2.2.1
Evolved Packet Core (EPC)
The EPC provides access to external data networks (e.g., Internet, corporate networks) and operator services (e.g., Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS)1 , Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS)2 ). It also performs functions related to security (authentication, key agreement), subscriber information, charging
and inter-access mobility (GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN)/Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN)/E-UTRAN/Interworking Wireless
1
Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS capability which only allows
exchange of text messages up to 160 characters in length. The most popular use of MMS is to send
photographs from camera-equipped handsets, although it is also popular as a method of delivering
news and entertainment content including videos, pictures, text pages and ringtones.
2
Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services (MBMS) is a broadcasting service, which may
be oered via existing GSM and UMTS cellular networks. The main application is mobile TV. The
infrastructure oers an option to use an uplink channel for interaction between the service and the
user.
31
2 EPS architecture
Figure 2.1: EPS architecture.

Local Area Network (IWLAN)/Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000)
etc.). The EPC also tracks the mobility of inactive terminals (i.e., terminals in
power saving state).
The number of user plane nodes3 in the core network has been reduced from two
in Release 6 (Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and Gateway GPRS Support
Node (GGSN)) to only one in EPS called Packet Data Network/Serving Gateway
(P/S-GW). The P/S-GW can be divided into a S-GW and P-GW but often resides
in the same physical node referred to as P/S-GW or System Architecture Evolution
Gateway (SAE-GW). In typical implementations the P/S-GW is realised by software
upgrade of GGSN.
The control plane node is called MME and it may be realised by software upgrade
of SGSN.
2.2.2
Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN)
E-UTRAN performs all radio related functions for active terminals (i.e. terminals
sending data). The number of user plane nodes in E-UTRAN has been reduced to
one only and the node is called Evolved Node B (eNB) The interface between the
3
User plane is a communication strata responsible for user data transmission, in contrast to
control plane, which is responsible for signalling transmission. The strata concept is explained in
the next section.
32
2.3 Strata
EPC and the E-UTRAN is called S1 and the interface between the eNBs is called
X2.
2.3
Strata
To keep the questions of mobility and connection management independent of the

air interface technology, the concept of communication strata has been employed in
UMTS and it is also used in LTE/SAE. The stack of protocols has been divided
into:
NAS containing Core Network (CN) protocols between the CN and UE,
which do not terminate in the E-UTRAN, but in the CN itself. E-UTRAN is
completely transparent for these protocols, and hence they can be independent
of the radio technology used.
Access Stratum (AS) containing radio access protocols between the UE and
the E-UTRAN. These protocols are dierent in GSM, UMTS and LTE, since
the radio access technology is dierent here (OFDMA instead of TDMA or
WCDMA).
2.3.1
Non-Access Stratum (NAS)
The concept of Non-Access Stratum (NAS) is almost the same as in UMTS, however
it is implemented in much dierent way.
The UMTS uses the same mobility and connection management protocols as the
earlier generation networks (GSM, GPRS) and they are the following:
Connection Management (CM) and Mobility Management (MM) for the CS
part of the network,
Session Management (SM) and GPRS Mobility Management (GMM) for the
PS part.
The fact that LTE/SAE is totally packet oriented eliminates the protocols connected
with the CS network part and modifies the NAS operation in PS part (i.e. the entire
network).
Consequently, the NAS in EPS:
Introduces the new EPS Mobility Management (EMM) layer,
Inherits the SM layer after UMTS.
From the changes presented above, one can deduct that lower layer EMM had to
be redefined for EPS to meet the requirements of the new concept of UE mobility
for the PS transmission only. The SM remains the same due to the fact of common
way of handling the session management in LTE/SAE, UMTS and GSM (GPRS)
systems.
The examples of functions performed by NAS:
Mobility management for idle UEs,
UE authentication,
33
2 EPS architecture
EPS bearer management,
Configuration and control of security,
Paging initiation for idle UEs.
The NAS messages are transported by the Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer
the signalling layer of the AS. There are two ways to transport the NAS messages
by RRC, either by concatenating the NAS messages with other Radio Resource
Control (RRC) messages, or by including the NAS messages in dedicated RRC
messages without concatenation.
The NAS messages are protected using the ciphering and integrity protection services
provided by the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. However, NAS
is also protected by its own security functions terminated in the UE and MME,
respectively.
On the network side, the NAS layers are in 3rd Generation Partnership Project
(3GPP) agreed to be terminated by the MME.
The NAS state model is based on a two-dimensional model which consists of EMM
states describing the mobility management states that result from the mobility management procedures e.g. attach and Tracking Area Update (TAU) procedures, and
of EPS Connection Management (ECM) states describing the signalling connectivity
between the UE and the EPC.
The ECM and EMM states are independent of each other and when the UE is in
EMM-CONNECTED state this does not imply that the user plane (radio and S1
bearers) is established.
2.3.2
Access Stratum (AS)
The services, access signalling, mobility and subscriber management specific to CN

are completely outside the AS, and are transferred transparently through the Radio Access Network (RAN). AS protocols are specific to the RAN being used by
the mobile system. This RAN may be implemented as the GSM Base Station System (BSS), GERAN, UTRAN or E-UTRAN. AS provides radio access bearers for
both connection-oriented, packet-switched services and connectionless (store-andforward) services. In LTE/SAE there is no CS network part thus the AS diers
significantly from the one in older technologies.
The AS provides the connectivity between the nodes in the E-UTRAN. There are
three interfaces that are involved in the AS concept:
Radio interface connectivity between the UE and the E-UTRAN node the
eNB.
S1 connectivity between eNB and the core network nodes:
S1-MME eNB and MME, responsible for control plane.
S1-U eNB and S-GW, responsible for user plane.
X2 connectivity between eNBs in E-UTRAN.
34
2.4 EPS Bearer and QoS
2.4
EPS Bearer and QoS
The EPS defines bearers for services and strictly binds them with QoS level provided.
This strict mapping leads to definition of certain QoS level for certain applications
using the bearers in the network. Consequently, the bearers will always obtain
appropriate QoS classes, according to the requirements of the service provided by
the application the UE utilises.
2.4.1
EPS Bearer
Similarly to UMTS, EPS implements a bearer concept for supporting end-user data
services. The EPS bearer (similar to a Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context of
previous 3GPP releases) is defined between the UE and the P-GW node in the EPC
(which provides the end-users IP point of presence towards external networks), see
Figure 2.2.
Figure 2.2: EPS bearer concept.

End-to-end services (e.g. IP services) are multiplexed on dierent EPS Bearers.
There is a many-to-one relation between end-to-end services and EPS Bearers. An
UL Trac Flow Template (TFT) in the UE binds an Service Data Flow (SDF) to
an EPS Bearer in the uplink direction. Multiple SDFs can be multiplexed onto the
same EPS Bearer by including multiple uplink packet filters in the UL TFT. A
DL TFT in the P-GW binds an SDF to an EPS Bearer in the downlink direction.
Multiple SDFs can be multiplexed onto the same EPS Bearer by including multiple
downlink packet filters in the DL TFT.
The EPS Bearer is further sub-divided into a E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer
(E-RAB) and S5/S8 Bearer. An E-RAB transports the packets of an EPS Bearer
between the UE and the EPC. When an E-RAB exists, there is a one-to-one mapping between this E-RAB and an EPS Bearer. An S5/S8 Bearer transports the
packets of an EPS Bearer between a S-GW and a P-GW.
A Radio Bearer transports the packets of an EPS Bearer between a UE and an
eNB. When a Radio Bearer exists, there is a one-to-one mapping between this
35
2 EPS architecture
Radio Bearer and the EPS Bearer/E-RAB. An S1 Bearer transports the packets of
an E-RAB between an eNB and a S-GW.
A UE stores a mapping between an uplink packet filter and a Radio Bearer to
create the binding between an SDF and a Data Radio Bearer in the uplink. A
P-GW stores a mapping between a downlink packet filter and an S5/S8a Bearer to
create the binding between an SDF and an S5/S8a Bearer in the downlink.
An eNB stores a one-to-one mapping between a Radio Bearer and an S1 Bearer to
create the binding between a Radio Bearer and an S1 Bearer in both the uplink and
downlink.
A S-GW stores a one-to-one mapping between an S1 Bearer and an S5/S8a Bearer
to create the binding between an S1 Bearer and an S5/S8a Bearer in both the uplink
and downlink.
2.4.2
Quality of Service (QoS)
QoS concept
QoS has been defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as:
the collective eect of service performance, which determines the degree of
satisfaction of a user of a service.
Thus, QoS is connected with the way the user perceives the service. The user is
not interested in how a service is provided but only whether or not he or she is
satisfied with that service. So, from a users perspective the QoS level is a very subjective thing and if the network does not provide the desired level of satisfaction, the
user may simply stop using the service and possibly change to some other operator
oering a similar service with the desired QoS level.
QoS classes
In UMTS four dierent QoS classes (referred also to as trac classes) have been
defined. These QoS classes are:
Conversational class,
Streaming class,
Interactive class, and
Background class.
The main distinction between these QoS classes follows from how delay-sensitive
the trac is: Conversational class is meant for trac, which is very delay-sensitive,
while Background class is the most delay-insensitive trac class.
QoS Class Identifier (QCI)

In case of LTE, 3GPP in Release 8 introduces another concept: QoS Class Identifier
(QCI). QCI is a scalar that is used as a reference to node specific parameters that
36
2.5 Integration with 2G and 3G

control packet forwarding treatment. They should be pre-configured by the operator
owning the node.
QCI values indicate the QoS characteristics for edge-to-edge packet forwarding between UE and Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF). Each QCI is
associated with the following standardized performance characteristics:
Resource Type (Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) or Non-GBR),
Priority,
Packet Delay Budget,
Packet Error Loss Rate.
To control the edge-to-edge packet forwarding QCI is signaled to dierent network
nodes while the above standardized characteristics are not. It is up to the operator
to map QCI values to the corresponding performance characteristics. The characteristics of QCI from 1 to 9 are standardized though and should be considered as
guidelines when pre-configuring the node specific parameters. The goal of this operation is to ensure that applications mapped to a particular QCI receive the same
minimum level of QoS regardless access network they use (e.g. when UE is roaming
or if the network operator uses equipment from dierent vendors).
Table 2.1 presents standardized QCI values mapped to the corresponding performance characteristics, as specified in 3GPP TS 23.203.
Mapping between QCI and QoS classes

In order to provide backward compatibility, the mapping between QCI and QoS
classes parameters was specified in Time Slot (TS) 23.401. It is presented in Table
2.2.
2.5
Integration with 2G and 3G
When an E-UTRAN system is deployed in a network already supporting GERAN

and/or UTRAN it is possible to use a common core network for all accesses. In
practice this means that the P-GW will provide GGSN functionality towards the
existing GPRS CN. Therefore an E-UTRAN/UTRAN/GERAN capable terminal
will not need to change the GGSN (i.e., the IP point of presence towards external
networks) when it changes Radio Access Technology (RAT)) and switches between
GERAN, UTRAN or E-UTRAN. Figure 2.3 shows how the EPS inter-works with
existing 2nd Generation (2G)/3G networks. The figure presents the UTRAN when
utilizing the GPRS one tunnel approach standardized in 3GPP Release 7. This
feature makes it possible to bypass the SGSN in the user plane.
Figure 2.4 shows a standardization view on how GERAN, UTRAN and E-UTRAN
are integrated into the SAE. It should however be noted that the SGSN and MME
shares a lot of common functionality. It is also required that the CN protocols,
SM and MM, used in 2G/3G are compatible with the respective protocols used in
EPS meaning that the SGSN and MME share a common evolution in the 3GPP
standard. In a typical implementation/deployment view, it is likely that the 2G/3G
SGSN and the MME are merged into one node, as illustrated in Figure 2.4. This
37
2 EPS architecture
QCI
Resource
type
Packet
Packet
Priority
error
delay
loss
budget
rate
2
4
100 ms
150 ms
102
103
3
5
50 ms
300 ms
103
106
5
6
1
6
100 ms
300 ms
106
106
100 ms
103
300 ms
106
300 ms
106
1
2
GBR
3
4
non-GBR
Example service
Conversational voice
Conversational video (live
streaming)
Real-time gaming
Non-conversational video
(buered streaming)
IMS signalling
Video buered
streaming,TCP based
services (e.g. www, e-mail,
chat, ftp, p2p file sharing,
progressive video, etc.)
Voice, video live streaming,
interactive gaming
Premium bearer for video
buered streaming, TCP
based services (e.g. www,
e-mail, chat, ftp, p2p file
sharing, progressive video,
etc) for premium subscribers
Default bearer for video,
TCP based services (etc. for
non-privilaged subscribers
Table 2.1: QoS Class Identifier (QCI) defined for LTE/SAE.
QCI
Trac class
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Conversational
Conversational
Conversational
Streaming
Interactive
Interactive
Interactive
Interactive
Background
Trac
Handling
Priority
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
1
1
2
3
N/A
Signalling
indication
Source statistics
descriptor
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Yes
No
No
No
N/A
Speech
Unknown
Unknown
Unknown
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Table 2.2: Mapping between standardized QCIs and pre-Relese-8 QoS parameter
values.
38
2.6 Interfaces overview
Figure 2.3: E-UTRAN, UTRAN and GERAN architecture. GPRS one tunnel
approach.
will make it possible to support intra SGSN/MME and inter P/S-GW/GGSN node
mobility between the dierent accesses.
2.6
Interfaces overview
This section contains a brief overview of the LTE/SAE interfaces.
Gi
Gi is the interface to external packet data networks (e.g. Internet) and contains the
end-users IP Point of Presence (PoP). All user-plane and control-plane functions
that use the Gi interface are handled above the end-users IP layer, whereas all
terminal mobility within 3GPP is handled below the Gi interface.
S1
S1 is the interface between eNB and MME and between eNB and S-GW. In the user
plane this interface will be based on GTP User data tunnelling (GTP-U) (similar
to Iu and Gn interface in UMTS). In the control plane the interface is more similar
39
2 EPS architecture
Figure 2.4: Typical implementation of LTE/SAE. Combined SGSN/MME one

tunnel approach.
to RAN Application Part (RANAP), with some simplifications and changes due to
the dierent functional split and mobility within EPS.
It has been agreed to split the S1 interface into a S1-CP (control plane) and S1UP (user plane) part. The signalling transport on S1-CP will be based on Stream
Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP). The signalling protocol for S1 is called S1
Application Protocol (S1AP). S1AP protocol has the following functions:
EPS Bearer management function.
This overall functionality is responsible for setting up, modifying and releasing
EPS bearers, which are triggered by the MME The release of EPS bearers may
be triggered by the eNB as well.
Initial context transfer function.
This functionality is used to establish an S1 UE context in the eNB, to setup
the default IP connectivity, to setup one or more SAE bearer(s) if requested
by the MME, and to transfer NAS signalling related information to the eNB
if needed.
Mobility functions for UEs in LTE ACTIVE in order to enable:
a change of eNB within LTE/SAE (inter MME/S-GW handovers) via the
40

S1 interface (with EPC involvement),
a change of RAN nodes between dierent RAT (inter-3GPP-RAT handovers) via the S1 interface (with EPC involvement).
Paging.
This functionality provides the EPC the capability to page the UE.
S1 interface management functions:
Reset functionality to ensure a well defined initialisation on the S1 interface.
Error Indication functionality to allow a proper error reporting/handling
in cases where no failure messages are defined.
Overload function to indicate the load situation in the control plane of
the S1 interface.
NAS signaling transport function between the UE and the MME is used
to:
transfer NAS signalling related information and to establish the S1 UE
context in the eNB,
transfer NAS signalling related information when the S1 UE context in
the eNB is already established.
S1 UE context release function.
This functionality is responsible to manage the release of UE specific context
in the eNB and the MME.
S1 is a many-to-many interface.
X2
X2 is the interface between eNBs. The interface is mainly used to support active
mode UE mobility (Packet Forwarding). This interface may also be used for multicell Radio Resource Management (RRM) functions. The X2-CP interface consists
of a signalling protocol called X2 Application Protocol (X2AP) on top of SCTP.
The X2-UP interface is based on GTP-U. The X2-UP interface is used to support
loss-less mobility (packet forwarding).
The X2-AP protocol provides the following functions:
Mobility Management (MM).
This function allows the eNB to move the responsibility of a certain UE to
another eNB. Forwarding of user plane data is a part of the mobility management.
Load management.
This function allows eNBs to indicate overload and trac load to each other.
Reporting of general error situations.
41
2 EPS architecture
This function allows reporting of general error situations, for which function
specific error messages have not been defined.
The X2 interface is a many-to-many interface.
S3
S3 is a control interface between the MME and 2G/3G SGSNs. The interface is
based on Gn/GTP Control plane (GTP-C) (SGSN-SGSN), possibly with some new
functionality to support signalling free idle mode mobility between E-UTRAN and
UTRAN/GERAN. S3 will not support packet forwarding; instead this will be supported on the S4 interface.
The S3 interface is similar to the S10 interface between MMEs which will be used
for intra-LTE mobility between two MME pool areas.
S4
S4 is the interface between the P-GW and 2G/3G SGSNs. The interface is based
on Gn/GPRS Tunnelling Protocol (GTP) (SGSN-GGSN). The user plane interface
is based on GTP-U (same as S1-UP and Iu-UP) and the control plane is based on
GTP-C (similar to S11).
The S4 interface is backwards compatible with the Gn interface.
S6
S6a enables transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the evolved system (Authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA) interface) between MME and Home Subscriber Server (HSS). S6d
is between the SGSN and the HSS. S6 is based on Diameter.
S5/S8
S5/S8 is the interface between the S-GW and P-GW. In principle S5 and S8 is the
same interface, the dierence being that S8 is used when roaming between dierent
operators while S5 is network internal. The S5/S8 interface will exist in two variants
one based on Gn/GTP (SGSN-GGSN) and the other will use the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specified Proxy Mobile IP (PMIP) for mobility control with
additional mechanism to handle QoS.
The usage of PMIP or GTP on S5/S8 will not be visible over the S1 interface or
in the terminal. In the non roaming case the S-GW and P-GW functions can be
performed in one physical node.
It has been agreed in 3GPP that the usage of PMIP or GTP on S5 and S8 should
not impact RAN behaviour or impact the terminals.
42

In the roaming case S8 is providing user and control plane between the S-GW in the
Visited PLMN (VPLMN) and the P-GW in the Home PLMN (HPLMN). S8 is the
inter Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) variant of S5.
S5/S8 is a many-to-many interface.
S9
S9 provides transfer of QoS policy and charging control information between the
Home Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) and the Visited PCRF in order
to support local breakout function.
S10
S10 is a control interface between the MMEs which will be very similar to the
S3 interface between the SGSN and MME. The interface is based on Gn/GTP-C
(SGSN-SGSN) with additional functionality.
S11
S11 is the interface between the MME and S-GW. The interface is based on
Gn/GTP-C (interface between SGSN and GGSN) with some additional functions for
paging coordination, mobility compared to the legacy Gn/GTP-C (SGSN-GGSN)
interface.
S12
S12 is the interface between UTRAN and S-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
S13 enables UE identity check procedure between MME and Equipment Identify
Register (EIR).
SGi
SGi is the interface between the P-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 IP Multimedia Subsystem
(IMS) services. This interface corresponds to Gi for 3GPP accesses.
Rx
Rx is the interface between the application server and the PCRF
43
2 EPS architecture
Gx
Gx provides transfer of QoS policy and charging rules from PCRF to PCEF in the
P-GW.
2.7
Evolved Packet Core (EPC) functions
EPC is the core network of the SAE system and is built up with P/S-GW nodes,
together with MME nodes.
2.7.1
Mobility Management Entity node
The EPS architecture defines MME node, which contains core network control functionality. Although the functionality is not entirely the same, the MME conceptually
constitutes a control plane SGSN node. The CP terminal protocols terminate at the
MME, which also manages the mobility contexts of the UEs. The same MME remains in control of a UE as long as the UE moves within an MME pool area.
The MME handles the mobility and session management functions listed below:
UE attach/detach handling.
This allows UE to register and de-register to the network.
Security.
The MME implements functions for Authentication and Authorization to verify users identities, grant access to the network and track users activities,
respectively. In addition, the MME performs ciphering and integrity protection of NAS message signalling.
EPS Bearer handling.
The MME manages the setting up, modification and tearing down of EPS
Bearers. It is assumed that a UE in E-UTRAN will always have one default
EPS Bearer established at the time of attachment to the network.
MM for idle mode UEs.
The MME manages mobility of idle mode UEs. Idle mode UEs are tracked
with the granularity of Tracking Areas (TAs).
2.7.2
P-GW and S-GW nodes
The EPS architecture defines the Packet Data Network/Serving Gateway (P/S-GW)
node. The P/S-GW is the anchor point for the user plane for a terminal moving
between eNBs. The S-GW is only changed when the UE move to a new S-GW
pool area while the P-GW is normally kept as long as the UE is attached to the
network.
The P/S-GW functionality is very similar to the existing GGSN node. The main
additions are adding support for packet buering during E-UTRAN paging and
additional support for Non-3GPP interworking (e.g. CDMA2000, WLAN). The
44
2.7 Evolved Packet Core (EPC) functions

P-GW provides an interface to the outside world (e.g. the Internet). The P/S-GW
can mainly be seen as a user plane node, however it also performs some QoS related
signalling (it terminates the interface for policy control).
The P/S-GW is involved in the following control plane functions:
EPS Bearer Handling.
The P/S-GW triggers the setup of EPS Bearers upon request from the policy
control functions.
Mobility Anchor IP PoP.
The P-GW acts as a mobility anchor point which hides UE mobility from the
fixed network. When a UE attaches to the network it is assigned an IP address
from a P-GW, which then also assumes the role of mobility anchor to the UE.
While the control of a UE may be transferred to another MME or S-GW as a
consequence of a Handover (HO), the UEs IP PoP will remain at the P-GW.
Thus, the mobility of UEss is transparent to the fixed network.
Further, the P/S-GW handles the following user plane functions:
QoS Policy Control and Enforcement.
To simplify bearer requests from an application point of view, increase operators control over its network resources and limit the potential for abuse
by users, EPS QoS is network controlled. The policy control and enforcement
functions associate users trac flows with appropriate QoS classes and execute
rate policing to prohibit users or flows from exceeding the QoS limits specified in users subscription agreements. DL trac is policed in the P/S-GW
whereas UL trac is policed in the eNB.
Charging.
The charging function is responsible for charging the user for its trac according to the rate that applies for a particular service, subscription etc.
Lawful Intercept.
This function enables communications to be electronically intercepted, or eavesdropped, by law enforcement agencies, should it be authorized by judicial or
regulatory mandates.
2.7.3
MME and S-GW pooling concept
It is possible to pool a number of MME and S-GW nodes together in order to eliminate the risk that one node failure will cause parts of the network to be out of service.
This is possible since there is a many-to-many relation interface between eNBs and
EPC nodes where each eNB is associated with a set of MMEs and S-GWs called
an MME and S-GW pool. The resulting network is non-hierarchical. Independent
pooling of MME and S-GW are supported, it is however not possible to change a
S-GW without involving the MME.
An operator may pool MMEs and S-GWs into one or several pools depending on
organisation, regulatory requirements, transport providers etc. This is illustrated in
Figure 2.5. The flexibility of the pooling concept makes it possible to enable partial
45
2 EPS architecture
sharing of networks; i.e., to use only a part of the operators network as a shared
network.
Figure 2.5: Inter-pool mobility.

The individual pooled MMEs and S-GW do not have to be located on the same
physical site, but can be distributed in the network. All pools of a particular operator are assumed to be interconnected by means of an interface similar to the
S3/S4/S10/S11 interface.
When a UE attaches to the network, it is assigned to one of the MMEs that belong
to the MME pool associated with the eNB through which the UE is attaching, the
MME then selects an S-GW in the S-GW pool. No change of MME or S-GW is
required while the UE moves around among eNBs belonging to the same MME or
S-GW pool. If the UE moves out of the pools coverage it is reassigned to an MME
or S-GW in the pool associated with the new eNB.
The P-GW, which performs charging, policy enforcement and UEs IP PoP is not
changed when the S-GW is relocated. The main purpose of the S-GW is to act as
a local mobility anchor and to buer packets during E-UTRAN paging. In some
equipment vendors views (for example Ericsson) S-GWs are rare and in most cases
the S-GW and P-GW functions are performed by the same physical node. MME
relocation may be more motivated since there may be limits on how many eNBs the
MME is connected to.
46
2.8 LTE functions

Partially overlapping pools will also be supported. Overlapping pools may have
some benefits since it makes it possible to avoid some of the negative eects of hard
pool borders, however it comes with extra complexity.
2.8
LTE functions
LTE is a synonym for the new systems radio access network, which ocially is
referred to in 3GPP specifications as E-UTRAN. This radio network is functionally
an evolution of the 3G UTRAN, although the radio transmission technology has
been changed completely.
2.8.1
LTE general principles
The radio interface in LTE is developed according to the requirements of spectrum

flexibility, spectrum eciency, cost eectiveness etc. Robustness against time dispersion has influenced the choice of transmission technique in both UL and DL.
Spectrum flexibility incorporates the possibility to use both paired and unpaired
spectrum, i.e. LTE should support both FDD and TDD based duplex arrangements,
respectively. Also, the support for operation in six dierent bandwidths, 1.4, 3,
5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz, plays an important role of the spectrum flexibility part
in the standardisation of the radio interface. Actually, the LTE radio interface
implementation supports operation in any bandwidth between 1.4 and 20 MHz in
steps of one resource block, which corresponds to 12 subcarriers or 180 kHz.
High spectrum eciency is achieved by the use of higher order modulation schemes,
like 16QAM and 64QAM and advanced antenna solutions, including transmit and
receive diversity, beamforming and spatial multiplexing (MIMO).
Furthermore, the ISI is reduced by the choice of OFDM in the DL and Single Carrier
Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) in UL. Both of these methods
results in a long symbol time and thus a reduced ISI, which increases the performance
in highly time-dispersive radio environments.
The UL and DL has a similar time-domain structure.
2.8.2
eNB functionality
E-UTRAN consists solely of the eNB, which is responsible for all radio interface
functionality.
eNB is the RAN node in the EPS architecture that is responsible for radio transmission to and reception from UEs in one or more cells. The eNB is connected to EPC
nodes by means of an S1 interface. The eNB is also connected to its neighbour eNBs
by means of the X2 interface. Some significant changes have been made to the eNB
functional allocation compared to UTRAN. Most Release 6 Radio Network Controller (RNC) functionality has been moved to the E-UTRAN eNB. Below follows
a description of the functionality provided by eNB.
Cell control and MME pool support.
47
2 EPS architecture
eNB owns and controls the radio resources of its own cells. Cell resources are
requested by and granted to MMEs in an ordered fashion. This arrangement
supports the MME pooling concept. S-GW pooling is managed by the MMEs
and is not really seen in the eNB.
Mobility control.
The eNB is responsible for controlling the mobility for terminals in active state.
This is done by ordering the UE to perform measurement and then performing
handover when necessary.
Control Plane (CP) and User Plane (UP) security.
The ciphering of user plane data over the radio interface is terminated in
the eNB. Also the ciphering and integrity protection of RRC signalling is
terminated in the eNB.
Shared channel handling.
Since the eNB owns the cell resources, the eNB also handles the shared and
random access channels used for signalling and initial access.
Segmentation/concatenation.
Radio Link Control (RLC) Service Data Units (SDUs) received from the PDCP
layer consist of whole IP packets and may be larger than the transport block
size provided by the physical layer. Thus, the RLC layer must support segmentation and concatenation to adapt the payload to the transport block size.
Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ).
Medium Access Control (MAC) HARQ layer with fast feedback provides a
means for quickly correcting most errors from the radio channel. To achieve
low delay and ecient use of radio resources, the HARQ operates with a
native error rate which is sucient only for services with moderate error rate
requirements such as for instance Voice over IP (VoIP). Lower error rates are
achieved by letting an outer Automatic Repeat reQuest (ARQ) layer in the
eNB handle the HARQ errors.
Scheduling.
Scheduling with support for QoS provides for ecient scheduling of UP and
CP data.
Multiplexing and mapping.
The eNB performs mapping of logical channels onto transport channels.
Physical layer functionality.
The eNB handles the physical layer processing such as scrambling, Transmit
(TX) diversity, beamforming and OFDM modulation. The eNB also handles
layer one functions like link adaptation and power control.
Measurements and reporting.
eNB provides functions for configuring and making measurements on the radio
environment and eNB-internal variables and conditions. The collected data is
48
2.8 LTE functions

used internally for RRM but can be reported for the purpose of multi-cell
RRM.
49
2 EPS architecture
50
3 LTE signalling
3.1
User plane
The protocols performing the user plane functions in the radio interface are as
follows:
Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), which maps the EPS bearer
onto the E-UTRAN radio bearer and performs Robust Header Compression
(ROHC).
Radio Link Control (RLC), which maps the E-UTRAN radio bearer to a
logical channel and performs segmentation, in-sequence delivery and retransmissions.
Medium Access Control (MAC), which maps the logical channel to a
transport channel and is responsible for HARQ and scheduling.
The physical layer, which maps the transport channel onto a physical channel and performs channel coding, modulation etc.
The LTE radio interface protocol architecture for User Plane is shown in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1: User plane for LTE.
51
3 LTE signalling
3.2
Control plane
The protocols performing the control plane functions in the radio interface are as
follows:
RRC protocol, which is used to transfer the NAS information over the radio
interface.
PDCP.
RLC.
MAC.
The physical layer.
The Figure 3.2 presents the LTE radio interface protocol architecture for the control
plane.
Figure 3.2: Control plane for LTE.
3.3
3.3.1
Protocols
Radio Resource Control (RRC)
The following control plane functions are agreed in 3GPP to be performed by the
Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer:
Broadcast of System Information (SI) related to the NAS,
Broadcast of SI related to the AS,
Paging,
Establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the
UE and E-UTRAN including:
Allocation of temporary identifiers between UE and E-UTRAN,
52
3.3 Protocols
Configuration of radio resources for RRC connection including Signalling
Radio Bearer (SRB),
Establishment, maintenance and release of point to point radio bearers,
Mobility functions including:
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting for inter-cell and
Inter Radio Access Technology (Inter-RAT) mobility,
Inter-cell handover,
UE cell selection and reselection and control of cell selection and reselection,
UE context transfer between eNBs,
Notification for MBMS services,
Establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of radio bearers for
MBMS services,
QoS management functions. (Note: These functions are spread across multiple
layers),
UE measurement reporting and control of the reporting,
MBMS control,
NAS direct message transfer to/from NAS from/to UE.
On the network side, the RRC layer is terminated by the eNB.
RRC specification aspects

The RRC specification includes a hierarchy of procedures, where the highest level is
called High-level procedures covering e.g. Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH) acquisition, paging, RRC connection establishment, reestablishment, re-configuration
and release. The content of high level procedure messages may then trigger Elementary Procedures that execute e.g. measurement, radio resource or security configuration. Mobility is also described as an elementary procedure. A single high-level
procedure may in some cases trigger multiple elementary procedures.
Relation between NAS and AS

The relation between NAS and AS states is characterised by the following principles,
which is also illustrated in Figure 3.3.
EMM-Deregistered & ECM-Idle RRC IDLE:
Mobility: PLMN selection,
UE position: not known by the network.
EMM-Registered & ECM-Idle RRC IDLE:
Mobility: cell reselection,
UE position: known by MME at tracking area level.
53
3 LTE signalling
Figure 3.3: Relation between NAS and AS.

EMM-Registered & ECM-Connected with radio bearers established
RRC CONNECTED:
Mobility: handover,
UE position: known by the network at cell level.
3.3.2
Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) provides its services to the NAS/RRC at
the UE or the relay at the eNB. The PDCP supports the following functions:
Header compression and decompression of IP data flows using the ROHC protocol, at the transmitting and receiving entity, respectively.
Transfer of data (user plane or control plane). This function is used for conveyance of data between users of PDCP services.
Maintenance of PDCP sequence numbers for radio bearers mapped on RLC
acknowledged mode.
In-sequence delivery of upper layer Packet Data Units (PDUs) at handover.
Duplicate elimination of lower layer SDUs at handover for radio bearers mapped
on RLC acknowledged mode.
Ciphering and deciphering of user plane data and control plane data
Integrity protection of control plane data.
Timer based discard.
PDCP uses the services provided by the RRLC sublayer.
54
3.3 Protocols
3.3.3
Radio Link Control (RLC)
The Radio Link Control (RLC) protocol supports an Unacknowledged Mode (UM)
and an Acknowledged Mode (AM). Whether UM or AM is used is configured per
radio bearer. For example, UM could be used for VoIP while AM is used to carry
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)-based trac. An RLC transparent mode
exists as well, but it shall be only used to send RRC messages when no RLC UM or
AM entity is set up, yet.
The RLC layer supports segmentation and concatenation of RLC SDUs. Depending
on the scheduler decision, a certain amount of data is selected from the RLC SDU
buer and segmented and/or concatenated depending on the size of the SDUs. This
selected data block becomes the RLC PDU to which a sequence number is assigned.
This means that one transport block contains only a single RLC PDU per radio
bearer except if an RLC retransmission is required. In this case an RLC PDU
containing new data might be multiplexed at the MAC layer with an RLC PDU
retransmission. In order to allow the RLC SDU reassembly at the receiver, the
RLC header carries the required segmentation, re-segmentation and concatenation
information. The RLC sequence number will also be used at the receiver for insequence delivery to the RLC SDU reassembly entity.
In AM, RLC is responsible for correcting residual HARQ errors by operating another
ARQ protocol since it would be expensive in terms of transmit power to reach the
required residual error rates of 105 or less in the MAC HARQ protocol.
The ARQ retransmission units are RLC PDUs or RLC PDU segments. If an RLC
retransmission is required and the radio quality has changed significantly compared to the original RLC transmission, the RLC protocol is able to perform a
re-segmentation. In this case RLC segments a PDU into smaller PDU segments.
The number of RLC re-segmentations of an RLC PDU is unlimited.
RLC performs reordering of received RLC PDUs and PDU segments in order to
ensure that RLC SDUs are delivered in sequence to higher layers.
Retransmissions are initiated either by status reports sent by the RLC receiver or by
local triggers from MAC layer in case of reaching the maximum number of HARQ
transmissions. Status Reports are triggered either by polls sent from the RLC
sender or by detecting missing PDUs after the PDUs have passed the reordering
entity. Similar to UTRAN, the LTE RLC supports a status prohibit timer and a
poll timer.
Finally, RLC provides means for protocol error detection and recovery (e.g. reset)
and duplicate detection.
3.3.4
Medium Access Control (MAC)
The Medium Access Control (MAC) layer for the LTE access can be compared
to the Release 6 MAC-hs/MAC-e and covers mainly similar functionality: HARQ,
priority handling (scheduling), transport format selection and Discontinuous Reception (DRX) control (not part of MAC in Release 6).
The HARQ protocol is very similar to the solution adopted for High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), i.e., the protocol uses multiple stop-and-wait hybrid
55
3 LTE signalling
ARQ processes. The motivation for this type of protocol is to allow continuous
transmission, which cannot be achieved with a single stop-and-wait scheme, while
at the same time having some of the simplicity of a stop-and-wait protocol. The
functionality and performance is similar to that of a window based selective repeat
protocol but only single-bit HARQ feedback is required.
The protocol is modelled as a number of parallel HARQ processes, where each
process uses a simple stop-and-wait protocol. By using NHARQ parallel HARQ
processes, where NHARQ > Round trip time/Subframe length, a continuous transmission is achieved. The maximum UE processing time before sending a HARQ
feedback has been specified such that 8 HARQ processes are needed for continuous
transmission in FDD with a typical eNB implementation.
In 3GPP, the current working assumption is to use a synchronous HARQ for the
uplink and an asynchronous HARQ for the downlink. That is, for the uplink, the
subframe when the retransmission occurs is known at the receiver, while for the
downlink the scheduler has the freedom to choose the subframe for the retransmission dynamically. For both up- and downlink a synchronous, single-bit HARQ feedback Acknowledge (ACK)/Negative Acknowledge (NACK) is sent providing feedback about the success of the previous transmission. The HARQ protocol is adaptive in both uplink and downlink, meaning that the scheduler can decide to use a
dierent resource for a retransmission compared to that one used for the previous
(re)transmission.
The redundancy version of a (re)transmission needs to be known by the receiver.
Thus, the redundancy version and an indication whether the transmission contains a
first transmission or a retransmission is indicated on the Physical Downlink Control
Channel (PDCCH). In case the data is a retransmission of previously stored data,
the received data is soft combined with the data stored in the soft buer. In case
the received data is not a retransmission or a retransmission of data that has not
been stored, the soft buer is cleared and only the latest received data is placed in
the buer.
The Figure 3.4 presents the principle of HARQ operation for MAC layer.
Figure 3.4: HARQ principle - four multiple HARQ processes.

The MAC layer does not support in-order delivery to RLC. HARQ retransmissions
will lead to that MAC PDUs are received in a dierent order than they were sent.
Due to the lack of MAC sequence numbers it is up to the RLC receivers to restore
the original sequence and to provide in-order delivery to higher layers.
56
3.4 Radio interface structure

The MAC layer supports the ARQ in the RLC layer with certain triggers if residual
HARQ errors are detected, e.g., if the maximum number of HARQ transmissions
has been reached. Finally, MAC also allows flows from a single user to be multiplexed. Correspondingly, the MAC header carries multiplexing information used to
de-multiplex RLC PDUs to dierent flows.
3.4
Radio interface structure
The radio interface is structured in a layered model, similar to WCDMA, with

a layer 2 bearer (here called EPS Bearer Service), which corresponds to a PDPcontext in Release 6, carrying layer 3 data and the end-to-end service. The EPS
bearer is carried by the E-UTRAN Radio Bearer Service in the radio interface. The
E-UTRAN radio bearer is carried by the radio channels. The radio channel structure
is divided into logical, transport and physical channels. The logical channels are
carried by transport channels, which in turn are carried by the physical channels as
illustrated in Figure 3.5.
57
3 LTE signalling
Figure 3.5: LTE radio interface structure for DL.
58

4.1
Channel structure
The physical layer provides transport channels to the L2. These transport channels
dier in their characteristics how data is transmitted and are mapped to dierent
logical channels provided by the MAC layer. Logical channels describe which type
of data is conveyed.
4.1.1
Logical channels
The logical channels can be divided into control channels and trac channels. The
control channels are used for transfer of control plane information and the trac
channels are used for the transfer of user plane information. The following logical
channels are supported for LTE:
Control channels:
Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH).
A downlink channel for broadcasting system control information.
Paging Control Channel (PCCH).
A downlink channel that transfers paging information. This channel is
used when the network does not know the location cell of the UE.
Common Control Channel (CCCH).
This channel is used by the UEs having no RRC connection with the
network. CCCH would be used by the UEs when accessing a new cell or
after cell reselection.
Multicast Control Channel (MCCH).
A point-to-multipoint downlink channel used for transmitting MBMS
scheduling and control information from the network to the UE, for one
or several Multicast Trac Channels (MTCHs). After establishing an
RRC connection this channel is only used by UEs that receive MBMS.
Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH).
A point-to-point bidirectional channel that transmits dedicated control
information between a UE and the network. Used by UEs having an RRC
connection.
59

Trac channels:
Dedicated Trac Channel (DTCH).
A DTCH is a point-to-point channel, dedicated to one UE, for the transfer
of user information. A DTCH can exist in both uplink and downlink.
Multicast Trac Channel (MTCH).
A point-to-multipoint downlink channel for transmitting trac data from
the network to the UE using MBMS.
4.1.2
Transport channels
An eort has been made to keep a low number of transport channels in order to
avoid unnecessary switches between dierent channel types, which are found to be
time consuming in UMTS. In fact there is currently only one transport channel
in downlink and one in uplink carrying user data, i.e., channel switching is not
needed.
For LTE, the following transport channels are provided by the physical layer:
Downlink:
Broadcast Channel (BCH).
A low fixed bit rate channel broadcast in the entire coverage area of the
cell. Beamforming is not applied.
Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH).
A channel with possibility to use HARQ and link adaptation by varying
the modulation, coding and transmit power. The channel is possible to
broadcast in the entire cell and beamforming may be applied. UE power
saving (DRX) is supported to reduce the UE power consumption. MBMS
transmission is also supported.
Paging Channel (PCH).
A channel that is broadcast in the entire cell. DRX is supported to enable
power saving.
Multicast Channel (MCH).
A separate transport channel for multicast MBMS. This channel is broadcast in the entire coverage area of the cell. Combining of MBMS transmissions from multiple cells Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) is supported.
Uplink:
Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH).
A channel with possibility to use HARQ and link adaptation by varying the transmit power, modulation and coding. Beamforming may be
applied.
Random Access Channel (RACH).
A channel used to obtain timing synchronization (asynchronous random
access) and to transmit information needed to obtain scheduling grants
(synchronous random access). The transmission is typically contention
60
4.1 Channel structure

based. For UEs having an RRC connection there is some limited support
for contention free access.
4.1.3
Physical channels
The physical layer oers services to the MAC layer in the form of transport channels.
User data to be transmitted is delivered to the physical layer from the MAC layer in
the form of transport blocks. The MAC layer at the transmitter side also provides the
physical layer with control information necessary for transmission and/or reception
of the user data.
The physical layer defines physical channels and physical signals.
A physical channel corresponds to a set of physical resources used for transmission of data and/or control information from the MAC layer.
A physical signal, which also corresponds to a set of physical resources, is used
to support physical-layer functionality but does not carry any information from
the MAC layer.
From a specification perspective, the interface between 3GPP TS 36.211 and 36.212
is defined in terms of physical channels, while physical signals are generated inside
36.211. Figure 4.1 illustrates the logical channels and their mapping to transport
channels and physical channels.
Physical channels:
Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH).
Transmission of the DL-SCH transport channel.
Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH).
Transmission of the UL-SCH transport channel.
Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH).
Indicates the PDCCH format.
Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).
DL Layer 1 (L1)/Layer 2 (L2) control signalling.
Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH).
UL L1/L2 control signalling.
Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH).
Carries DL HARQ ACK/NACK.
Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH).
DL transmission of the BCH transport channel.
Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH).
DL transmission of the MCH transport channel.
Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH).
UL transmission of the random access preamble as given by the RACH
transport channel.
Physical signals:
61
Figure 4.1: LTE channels mapping.
62
4.2 Time domain structure

Reference Signals (RS).
Support measurements (for example for cell selection process) and coherent demodulation. Transmitted in both downlink and uplink.
Primary Synchronisation Signals (P-SS) and Secondary Synchronisation Signals (S-SS).
They are transmitted in the downlink and used in the cell search procedure. They transmit a parameter, which is used to identify a cell on the
air interface. P-SS transmits a cell parameter physicalLayerSubCellId =
{0, 1, 2}. S-SS transmits a cell parameter physicalLayerCellIdGroup =
{0, 1, ....167}. The two parameters together indicated the CellID according the below formula:
CellID = 3 physicalLayerCellIdGroup + physicalLayerSubCellId
(4.1)
Sounding Reference Signal (SRS).
Supports UL channel quality measurements for scheduling purpose. Transmitted in UL in wide frequency band to let the eNB discover and allocate
the best subcarriers for UL PUSCH.
4.2
4.2.1
Time domain structure

FDD
For the LTE FDD mode of operation, the time domain structure is divided into 10
ms long radio frames. Each radio frame consists of ten equally sized subframes of
1 ms length, which is illustrated in Figure 4.2. Each subframe, in turn, consists of
two equally sized slots of 0.5 ms length. The subframe is the typical scheduling unit
of LTE, while slots are relevant in case of frequency hopping. Figure 4.2 is valid for
both the downlink and uplink transmission direction.
As a result of OFDMA and applied subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, the length of the
1
OFDMA symbol is 15 kHz
= 66.67 s. To the beginning of each OFDM symbol, a
cyclic prefix is appended, which is a guard time to combat ISI due to multipath propagation. Cyclic prefix is a copy of the ending part of the OFDM symbol and when
it is appended to the beginning of the OFDM symbol then the frequency domain
content of the transmitted signal is unchanged, see Figure 4.3 and Figure 1.18. With
cyclic prefix the transmission of time domain signal takes longer, but when receiver
makes FFT of the received time domain signal then it obtains exactly the same
frequency representation of the signal as it would get without cyclic prefix.
500 s
One slot could theoretically fit 7.5 symbols ( 66.67
s = 7.5), therefore a slot contains
maximum 7 symbols and the remaining time of half of a symbol duration is used
as the cyclic prefixes for all 7 symbols, according to Table 4.1. In large cells, with
higher delay spread of the radio channel, the cyclic prefix must be extended and
only 6 symbols may be placed in a slot.
63
Figure 4.2: LTE FDD time domain structure.
Figure 4.3: Cyclic prefix concept.
4.2.2
TDD
In case of TDD, some of the subframes, in 10 ms long frame, are reserved for downlink
transmission, some subframes are reserved for uplink transmission and one or two
subframes have special structure, because they are used as switch points between
downlink and uplink. Seven uplink-downlink configurations are supported, see Table
4.2.
All subframes, which are not special subframes, are defined as two slots of length 0.5
ms in each subframe. The special subframes consist of the three fields, see Figure
4.4:
Figure 4.4: LTE TDD frame structure for UL-DL configuration 2.

Downlink Pilot Time Slot (DwPTS),
64
4.3 Frequency domain structure
Prefix type
Number
of symbols
in a slot
15 kHz
6
3
15 kHz
7.5 kHz
Normal
prefix
Extended
prefix
Propagation
path
dierence
Cyclic prefix length

5.2 s for first symbol
4.7 s for other symbols
16.7 s
33.3 s
1.4 km
5.0 km
10 km
Table 4.1: Cyclic prefix types.

UL-DL
configuration
UL-DL switch
point periodicity
Subframe number
2 3 4 5 6 7
5 ms
5 ms
5 ms
10 ms
10 ms
10 ms
5 ms
Table 4.2: Uplink-downlink configuration for LTE TDD. denotes a subframe

reserved for downlink transmission. denotes a subframe reserved for uplink transmission. S denotes a special subframe.
Guard Period (GP),
and Uplink Pilot Time Slot (UpPTS).
DwPTS, GP and UpPTS have configurable individual lengths (see Table 4.3 and
Figure 4.5) and a total length of 1 ms.
4.3
Frequency domain structure
LTE downlink transmission is based on the OFDMA with the subcarrier bandwidth
of 15 kHz. The LTE downlink physical resource can thus be seen as a time-frequency
grid, which consists of Resource Elements (REs), as illustrated in Figure 4.6. The
RE corresponds to one symbol duration in the time domain and subcarrier width
(15 kHz) in frequency domain.
Since the idea of OFDMA is to divide the available channel bandwidth into many
narrow subcarriers and to allocate to a user several simultaneous subcarriers, therefore a concept of a Resource Block (RB) is created. The RB corresponds to 12
consecutive subcarriers (1215 kHz = 180 kHz) used during one slot (0.5 ms), therefore the RB consists of 127 = 84 RE. To provide user with higher bit rate, a user
may get simultaneously several RBs on one E-UTRAN carrier.
The number of RBs for the dierent LTE channel bandwidths is listed in Table 4.4.
65
Special
subframe
config.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Normal CP in downlink
UpPTS
Normal Extended
DwPTS
CP in
CP in
uplink
uplink
Normal CP in downlink
UpPTS
Normal Extended
DwPTS
CP in
CP in
downlink downlink
6592Ts
19760Ts
21952Ts
24144Ts
26336Ts
6592Ts
19760Ts
21952Ts
24144Ts
7680Ts
20480Ts
23040Ts
25600Ts
7680Ts
20480Ts
23040Ts
2192Ts
4384Ts
2560Ts
5120Ts
2192Ts
2560Ts
4384Ts
5120Ts
Table 4.3: Special subframe configuration.
Figure 4.5: Special subframe configuration.
66
4.4 Scheduling Block
Figure 4.6: LTE downlink physical resource.

For example for channel bandwidth 5 MHz there are 25 RBs, which can be allocated
to users. The remaining frequency band is unused and needed as band guard, see
also Figure 4.7.
Channel bandwidth
[MHz]
Transmission bandwidth
configuration
[RB]
1.4
10
15
20
15
25
50
75
100
Table 4.4: Number of RBs for dierent channel bandwidths in FDD and TDD.
4.4
Scheduling Block
Data is allocated to the UEs in form of Scheduling Block (SB). One SB consists of
two RBs in the same subframe.
In DL, one UE can be allocated integer multiples of one SB in the frequency domain.
These SBs do not have to be adjacent to each other. In the time domain, the
scheduling decision can be modified every Transmission Time Interval (TTI) of 1
ms. The scheduling decision is done in the eNB. The scheduling algorithm has
to take into account the radio link quality situation of dierent users, the overall
interference situation, QoS requirements, service priorities, etc. Figure 4.8 shows an
example of downlink data allocation to dierent users.
4.5
Virtual Resource Block
Resource blocks are used to describe the mapping of certain physical channels to
resource elements. Both physical and virtual resource blocks are defined by 3GPP
TS 36.211 .
67
Figure 4.7: Definition of channel bandwidth and transmission bandwidth configuration for one E-UTRAN carrier.
Figure 4.8: An example of DL resource allocation.
68
4.6 System spectral eciency

Physical Resource Block (PRB) is what we have been discussing so far, RB with the
following properties: 180 kHz over 0.5 ms.
A Virtual Resource Block (VRB) is of the same size as a PRB. Two types of VRBs
are defined:
VRB of localised type,
VRB of distributed type.
4.5.1
VRB of localized type
When using localized VRBs then there is a direct mapping of VRB to the PRBs:
nPRB = nVRB . It means that a SB consisting of two VRBs corresponds to two
PRBs located at the same place in the frequency domain, see Figure 4.9. VRBs are
DL 1, where N DL = N DL .
numbered from 0 to NVRB
RB
VRB
4.5.2
VRB of distributed type
When using distributed VRBs then the first PRB that belongs to the SB is transmitted on dierent subcarriers than the second PRB belonging to the same SB, see
Figure 4.9.
RB 49 , only one gap value
The parameter Ngap is given by Table 4.5. For 6 NDL
RB
Ngap,1 is defined and Ngap = Ngap,1 . For 50 NDL 110, two gap values Ngap,1
and Ngap,2 are defined. Whether Ngap = Ngap,1 or Ngap = Ngap,2 is signalled as part
of the downlink scheduling assignment.
DL 1, where
VRBs of distributed type are numbered from 0 to NVRB
DL = N DL
DL
NVRB
VRB,gap1 = 2 min(Ngap , NRB Ngap ) for Ngap = Ngap,1 and
N DL
DL = N DL
RB
NVRB
VRB,gap2 = 2Ngap 2Ngap for Ngap = Ngap,2 .
DL = 100 then N DL = 2 48 = 96 for N
DL
For example, if NRB
gap = Ngap,1 . The NVRB is
VRB
used in the interleaving process as presented in Figure 4.9. The interleaving decides
about the PRB number used for the first slot. The PRB, which transmit the second
slot of the SB, is shifted by Ngap compared to the first slot.
RB
NDL
7-8
9-10
11
12-19
20-26
27-44
45-49
50-63
64-79
80-110
RBG
Ngap,1
Ngap,2
1
3
-
1
4
-
1
5
-
2
4
-
2
8
-
2
12
-
3
18
-
3
27
-
3
27
9
4
32
16
4
48
16
Table 4.5: RB gap values.
4.6
System spectral eciency
Table 4.6 compares air interface characteristics of GSM, UMTS, WiMAX and LTE
systems. System spectral eciency shows how many bits per second the system
can transmit for each Hz of channel band width allocated in a cell. UMTS high
69
Figure 4.9: Localized and distributed VRB. The picture illustrates Ngap,1 = 48
RB = 100.
for NDL
70
4.6 System spectral eciency

system spectral eciency is achieved thanks to high symbol rate of 3840 ksym/s
used for wide channel band width. In LTE higher system spectral eciency is
achieved even though the symbol rate is low, this is because the channel band width
is narrow.
User bit rate depends not only on the system spectral eciency, but also on the
frequency band width allocated for the user as well as Carrier (C) to Noise (N)
and Interferer (I) conditions C/(N+I). Low C/(N+I) may unable usage of high
modulation techniques like 64QAM. User bit rate may also be increased thanks to
multiple antennas used for transmission and for reception, so called MIMO concept,
which is discussed in further in the book.
71
System
GSM
UMTS
WiMAX
WiMAX
LTE
LTE
Radio
access
technique
TDMA
WCDMA
OFDMA
OFDMA
OFDMA
OFDMA
kHz
3.7
0.3
91.4
91.4
66.7
66.7
Symbol
duration
s
(Sub)carrier
bandwidth
200
5000
10.94
10.94
15
15
GMSK
QPSK
QPSK
64QAM
QPSK
64QAM
Modulation
Symbol
Technique
rate
ksymb
s
271
3840
10
10
14
14
1
2
2
6
2
6
bit
symb
Scheme
271
7680
20
60
28
84
kbit
s
(Sub)carrier
bit rate
1.36
1.54
1.83
5.48
1.87
5.60
bit/s
Hz
Spectral
eciency
freq
cell
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
Frequency
reuse
System
spectral
eciency
bit/s
Hz cell
0.45
1.54
1.83
5.48
1.87
5.60
Table 4.6: GSM, UMTS, WiMAX and LTE comparison. The table presents gross bit rate, spectral eciency and system spectral eciency,
which include not only user date bit rate but also system signalling. The table does not consider MIMO which can further increase spectral
eciency.
72

In the OFDMA technique, which is used in the LTE DL, each RE contains one
complex number. The complex numbers, which are sent duration the same symbol,
are input the IFFT to build the time domain signal. The time domain signal is next
converted to analogue and transmitted by an antenna.
The complex numbers compose dierent physical channels, in order to support the
system with not only user data transmission (carried out on PDSCH), but also with
all kinds of signalling necessary to support this transmission.
This chapter presents the process of the complex numbers generation, which compose
dierent physical channels.
5.1
Cell search
The cell search in a process of finding an LTE. The cell search is based on the Primary Synchronisation Signals (P-SS) and Secondary Synchronisation Signals (S-SS)
as well as the SI transmitted on the PBCH and PDSCH.
The first step of cell search in LTE is based on specific P-SS and S-SS. LTE uses a
hierarchical cell search scheme similar to WCDMA. Thus, the P-SS and the S-SS are
defined. The synchronization signals are transmitted twice per 10 ms on predefined
slots, see Figure 5.1 for FDD and Figure 5.2 for TDD.
Figure 5.1: Primary/secondary synchronization signal and PBCH structure for

FDD (normal cyclic prefix).
73
Figure 5.2: Primary/secondary synchronization signal and PBCH structure for

TDD (normal cyclic prefix).
5.2
P-SS
The P-SS is a sequence of 62 symbols transmitted on the 62 central subcarriers. The

sequence is generated from a frequency-domain Zado-Chu1 sequence. The ZadoChu sequence has an ideal periodic auto-correlation property (i.e. the periodic autocorrelation is zero for all time shifts other than zero). Thanks to this property and
also thanks to location of the P-SS on the central subcarriers an UE may synchronize
to the subcarrier structure (frequency domain synchronization).
There are three dierent Zado-Chu root sequences defined in the 3GPP standard
(3GPP TS 36.211) using root indices 25, 29, 34, corresponding to cell parameter
physicalLayerId = {0, 1, 2}, see Figure 5.3.
Identifying the sequence transmitted in a cell the UE can detect physicalLayerId
parameter. Dierent physicalLayerId should be allocated to neighbouring cells
located on the same site. The dierent Zado-Chu root sequences are not orthogonal,
but exhibit low cross-correlation2 .
The P-SS is transmitted without being scrambled.
Since the P-SS occurs twice per frame it does not uniquely determine the frame
timing, but has an ambiguity of 5 ms.
1
A Zado-Chu sequence is a complex-valued mathematical sequence which have the property

that cyclicly shifted versions of the sequence comprising the signal do not cross-correlate with each
other when the signal is recovered at the receiver. A generated Zado-Chu sequence that has not
been shifted is known as a root sequence. Zado-Chu sequences are used in the 3GPP LTE air
interface in the definition of Primary Synchronization Signal (P-SS), random access preamble (sent
on PRACH), HARQ ACK/NACK responses (sent on PUCCH) and Sounding Reference Signals
(SRS).
2
Correlation is a dependence between two variables. Intuitively, correlation between two variables means, that if we know the value of one of them, then we are able, at least in some cases, to
predict the value of the other variable with better accuracy than without this information. Crosscorrelation is a measure of similarity of two waveforms as a function of a time-lag applied to one of
them. This is also known as a sliding dot product or inner-product.
74
5.3 S-SS
Figure 5.3: Zado-Chu sequence transmitted on 31 lower frequency band subcarriers for physicalLayerId = 0, which corresponds to root index u = 25.
The mapping of P-SS as well as other physical channels and physical signals is
illustrated in Figure 5.4
5.3
S-SS
The sequence d(n) used for the S-SS is an interleaved concatenation of two length-31
binary sequences s0 (n) and s1 (n), hence the total length is 62. The two sequences
s0 (n) and s1 (n) are defined as two dierent cyclic shifts of a source sequence s(n),
see Table 5.1.
Table 5.1: S-SS sequence generation.
The sequence s(n) is used to generate, by its cyclic shift, two sequences s0 and s1 .
The Table 5.1 shows cyclic shifts of 1 and 4 respectively, which sent in subframe 0
encode physicalLayerCellIdGroup = 60. The sequences s0 (n) and s1 (n) are next
75
Figure 5.4: Mapping of Physical Channels on DL for FDD mode. Time on horizontal axis and frequency on vertical axis.
76
5.4 RS
concatenated with interleaving building 62-long sequence. The 3GPP standard specifies 168 dierent pairs of shifts, therefore one of 168 dierent 62-long concatenated
binary sequences may be transmitted on the S-SS, which encode the parameter
physicalLayerCellIdGroup = {0, 1, ....167}.
The concatenated sequence is next scrambled with a scrambling sequence given
by the P-SS.and, similar to the P-SS, transmitted on 62 central subcarriers. The
combination of two length-31 sequences defining the S-SS diers between subframe 0
and subframe 5 and is used to resolve the ambiguity of 5 ms mentioned above.
Parameters physicalLayerId and physicalLayerCellIdGroup compose the physical
layer cell identity according the below formula:
CellID = 3 physicalLayerCellIdGroup + physicalLayerId
(5.1)
The above formula makes available 504 dierent physical layer cell identities. Both
P-SS and S-SS must be transmitted on the same antenna port. Placing P-SS and SSS close to each other enables coherent detection of S-SS using the channel estimate
obtained from P-SS. A drawback of this placement is that the duration between
P-SS and S-SS depends on the length of the CP and its length must therefore be
blindly estimated.
5.4
RS
Reference Signals (RS) are transmitted in both downlink and uplink. The downlink
reference signals consist of so-called reference symbols, which are known symbols inserted within in the OFDM time/frequency grid. This section discusses the downlink
RS, which enable:
Coherent demodulation of other symbols into bits in UE. Without these reference symbols it would be very dicult for the UE to demodulate symbols
into bits in so dense modulations like 16-QAM and 64-QAM where dierent
between dierent modulation constellations may be small. If an NodeB is uses
2 or 4 antennas for transmission then dierent RS are transmitted by each
antenna.
Channel quality measurements for scheduling. Because the downlink RS are
sent in whole frequency band of the carrier therefore measurements done by
UE and provided to the NodeB may be used by the NodeB to allocate the
optimal downlink subcarriers for downlink transmission.
Measurements for mobility. RS are transmitted with constant output power,
therefore measurements on the m are good signal strength measure of a cell
and are used in cell reselection and handover process.
Specific predefined resource elements carry the cell specific reference signal, which
consists of so called reference symbols. The reference symbols are transmitted every
6-th subcarrier across the whole band of the carrier. In case of normal cyclic prefix,
the reference symbols are transmitted on symbols 0 and 4 in each slot (for one or two
antenna ports) and also on symbol 1 for four antenna ports in a cell, see Figure 5.5.
In case of extended cyclic prefix the reference symbols are transmitted on symbols
77
Figure 5.5: Downlink reference signal structure in a cell supporting non-MBSFN

transmission with normal cyclic prefix and CellID = 0.
78
5.5 PBCH
0 and 3 in each slot (for one or two antenna ports) and also on symbol 1 for four
antenna ports in a cell.
In case of one or two transmit antennas, each antenna has 4 reference symbols in
a RB. In case of four transmit antennas in a cell, antenna ports 0 and 1 have four
reference symbols in a RB, while antenna ports 2 and 3 have two reference symbols
in a RB.
The reference symbols, which are sent on a particular symbol every 6-th subcarrier
across the carrier frequency band, compose a pseudo random sequence of QPSK
modulation symbols. The sequence is generated with use of Gold codes3 and different pseudo random sequence is used for dierent symbols within a frame, but
are repeated every 10 ms frame. The pseudo random sequences are dierent for
each physical layer CellID. Not only the random sequence, but also the frequency
domain location of the reference symbols depends on the CellID. The cell-specific
frequency shift of the reference symbols is given by:
shif t = Cell ID mod 6
(5.2)
Figure 5.6 illustrates the above formula.
Figure 5.6: Cell specific RS frequency shift.

Downlink RS are transmitted in all downlink subframes in a cell supporting nonMBSFN transmission. In case the subframe is used for transmission with MBSFN,
only the first two OFDM symbols in a subframe can be used for transmission of cellspecific reference symbols. Downlink reference signals are defined for f = 15 kHz
only.
5.5
PBCH
As additional help during cell search a set of parameters, called System Information
(SI), is broadcast to all UEs in the whole cell area by the logical channel BCCH.
The SI is divided into two parts. The static part is called Master Information
Block (MIB) and is carried out by transport channels BCH. The dynamic part
contains dierent System Information Blocks (SIBs) and is carried out by DL-SCH
as presented in Figure 5.7.
3
A Gold code, also known as Gold sequence, is a type of binary sequence, used in telecommunication (CDMA, LTE) and satellite navigation (GPS). Gold codes are named after Robert Gold. Gold
codes have bounded small cross-correlations within a set, which is useful when multiple devices are
broadcasting in the same range.
79
Figure 5.7: System information.
5.5.1
MIB
The MIB contains a limited number of the most essential and most frequently transmitted parameters that are needed to acquire other information from the cell, and
is transmitted on PBCH. The MIB contains 24 bits of information plus 16 bits of
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) and transmits the following parameters:
DL carrier bandwidth.
PHICH configuration.
System frame number.
The MIB uses a fixed schedule with a periodicity of 40 ms and repetitions made
within 40 ms. The first transmission of the MIB is scheduled in subframe number
0 of radio frames for which the SFN mod 4 = 0, and repetitions are scheduled in
subframe number 0 of all other radio frames.
The PBCH is mapped onto the first four OFDM symbols of the second slot in the
first subframe of every frame. In the frequency domain PBCH uses the 72 centre
subcarriers, which corresponds to six resource blocks. Over one radio frame this
corresponds to 4 symbols 72 subcarriers = 288 RE.
In case of normal cyclic prefix, 48 REs (8 reference symbols per RB and 6
RBs) are occupied by RS and thus 288 48 = 240 REs are used for PBCH
per frame. This corresponds to 480 coded bits per frame, since QPSK is used.
In case of extended cyclic prefix, 72 resource elements (12 reference symbols per
resource block and 6 resource block) are occupied by RS and thus 288 72 =
216 resource elements are used for PBCH per frame. This corresponds to 432
coded bits per frame, since QPSK is used.
80
5.6 PCFICH
The BCH transport block is encoded with a convolutional encoder. The BCH TTI
is 40 ms and thus, in case of normal cyclic prefix, a BCH transport block of 4 480 =
1920 bits is delivered to L1 every 40 ms. In case of extended cyclic the block size
is of 4 432 = 1728 bits. The block of bits is scrambled with a cell-specific sequence
prior to modulation.
5.5.2
SIB
The remaining parameters are divided thematically into blocks, so called SIBs:
SIB1
contains information on e.g. access related information and scheduling

information on how the other SIBs are scheduled.
SIB2
contains radio resource configuration information that is common for all

UEs.
SIB3
transmits cell reselection parameters.
SIB4
contains info for intra frequency LTE neighbouring cell relevant for cell
reselection.
SIB5
contains info for inter frequency LTE neighbouring cell relevant for cell
reselection.
SIB6
contains info for UTRAN neighbouring cells relevant for cell reselection.
SIB7
contains info for GERAN neighbouring cells relevant for cell reselection.
SIB8
contains info for CDMA2000 neighbouring cells relevant for cell reselection.
SIB9
contains home eNB name.
SIB10
contains an Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System (ETWS) primary

notification.
SIB11
contains and ETWS secondary notifications.
SIB12
contains a CMAS notification.
SIB13
contains the information required to acquire the MBMS control information associated with one or more MBSFN areas.
Each SIB is transmitted periodically. SIB1 uses a fixed schedule with a periodicity
of 80 ms. SIBs other than SIB1 are carried in System Information (SI) messages.
Mapping of SIBs to SI messages is flexibly configurable by schedulingInfoList included in SIB1. SIBs are transmitted on DL-SCH, which in turn is transmitted by
the physical channel PDSCH. The scheduling of the SIB is indicated by sending a
single System Information RNTI (SI-RNTI) on PDCCH.
Parameters transmitted in SIBs are listed in Appendix A on page 157.
5.6
PCFICH
The Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) carries information about
the number of OFDM symbols used for transmission of PDCCHs in a subframe. The
81

set of OFDM symbols possible to use for PDCCH in a subframe is given in Table
5.2.
Subframe
DL > 10
NRB
DL 10
NRB
Subframe 1 and 6 in TDD

MBSFN subframes on a carrier supporting both PMCH
and PDSCH for 1 or 2 cell specific antenna ports
MBSFN subframes on a carrier supporting both PMCH
and PDSCH for 4 cell specific antenna ports
MBSFN subframes on a carrier not supporting PDSCH
All other cases
1, 2
1, 2
2
2
0
1, 2, 3
0
2, 3, 4
DL is the downlink
Table 5.2: Number of OFDM symbols used for PDCCH. The NRB
bandwidth configuration, expressed in number of RB, see Table 4.4.
Reception of the PCFICH is essential to correct operation of the system. If the

PCFICH is incorrectly decoded the terminal will neither know where to find the
control channels nor where the data region starts, and will therefore lose any DL-SCH
data transmission intended for the terminal as well as uplink scheduling grants
Two bits of information are coded into a 32-bit long sequence using a rate-1/16
simplex code. The coded bits are scrambled with a cell-specific sequence, modulated
with QPSK modulation and mapped to 16 resource elements grouped into 4 groups
of 4 elements each. The four groups are well-separated in frequency to obtain good
diversity. Furthermore, to avoid inter-cell PCFICH collisions, the location of the
four groups in the frequency domain depends on the CellID.
The PCFICH is transmitted on the same set of antenna ports as the PBCH.
5.7
5.7.1
PDCCH
PDCCH usage
The Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) carries scheduling assignments

and other control information:
Downlink scheduling assignments indicating downlink transmission of PDSCH.
Uplink scheduling grants informing the UE about grants of PUSCH. The uplink scheduling grants include:
PUSCH resource indication,
Transport format (coding and modulation to apply by the UE),
HARQ related information.
Power control commands of groups of terminals, which complements the power
control commands included in scheduling decisions.
82
5.7 PDCCH
5.7.2
PDCCH mapping
Multiple PDCCHs can be transmitted in a subframe. PDCCHs are mapped on the

first (up to four) OFDM symbols within a subframe, see Figure 5.4. The actual
number of symbols used for the PDCCHs may vary per subframe and is indicated
by PCFICH, see Table 5.2. Thus, each subframe can be said to be divided into a
control region (including PCFICH, PHICH and PDCCH), followed by a data region
(PDSCH). This maximises the spectral eciency as the control signalling overhead
can be adjusted to match the instantaneous trac situation.
Location of the PDCCH at the beginning of the subframe allows the terminal to decode the downlink scheduling assignment prior to the downlink transmission. The
downlink transmission, takes place on the PDSCH, which is mapped on upper symbols numbers in the subframe. This minimises the delay in the DL-SCH decoding
and thus the overall downlink transmission delay. Mobile terminals that are not
scheduled may turn o their receiver circuitry for a large part of the subframe, with
reduces terminal power consumption.
5.7.3
PDCCH format
A PDCCH carries messages listed in section 5.7.2. Because multiple mobile terminals can be scheduled simultaneously, on both downlink and uplink, there must be
a possibility to transmit multiple scheduling messages within each subframe. The
dierent scheduling messages have dierent payload sizes. For example, supporting
spatial multiplexing with non-contiguous allocation of resource blocks in the frequency domain require a larger scheduling message than an uplink grant supporting
frequency contiguous allocations only.
Note, that PDCCHs, which are sent to dierent terminals located in dierent radio
conditions, may require dierent codec rate. Matching of the codec rate to dierent
radio conditions is supported and carried out by the Link Adaptation (LA) algorithm. Thus, the size of the PDCCH is variable and the PDCCH is transmitted on
an aggregation of 1, 2, 4 or 8 consecutive Control Channel Elements (CCEs), where
a CCE corresponds to 9 Resource Element Groups (REGs) and each REG consists
of 4 RE, see Figure 5.8 and Table 5.3 (TS 36.211).
PDCCH
format
Number of
CCEs
Number of
REG
Number of
PDCCH bits
0
1
2
3
1
2
4
8
9
18
36
72
72
144
288
576
Table 5.3: Supported PDCCH formats.
5.7.4
PDCCH processing
The PDCCH processing consists of the following steps, which are also illustrated in
Figure 5.9:
83
Figure 5.8: Control Channel Element (CCE).
Figure 5.9: Physical layer PDCCH processing.
84
5.7 PDCCH
CRC attachment.
An CRC is attached to each PDCCH payload, where the MAC ID (Radio
Network Temporary Identity (RNTI)) is included in the CRC calculation.
Upon reception of a PDCCH, the terminal checks the CRC using its own
RNTI. If the CRC checks, the message is declared to be correctly received
and intended for the terminal. Thus, the identity of the terminal, which is
supposed to receive the PDCCH message, is implicitly encoded in the CRC
and not explicitly transmitted.
Channel coding and rate matching.
PDCCHs, which are sent to dierent terminals located in dierent radio conditions, may require dierent codec rate. Matching of the codec rate to dierent
radio conditions is supported and carried out by the Link Adaptation (LA)
algorithm. The number of bits after coding and rate matching depends on the
PDCCH format and is presented in Table 5.3.
Multiplexing of CCEs.
The bits of coded PDCCHs are multiplexed in such a way, that bits of the first
PDCCH are put first and they are followed by bits of the second PDCCH and
so on.
Scrambling.
The block of multiplexed bits is scrambled by the cell specific scrabbling sequence.
Modulation.
The block of scrambled bits is modulated with QPSK modulation resulting in
a block of complex-valued modulation symbols.
Layer mapping and precoding.
The block of modulation symbols is mapped to layers to support the following
TX schemes:
Transmission on a single antenna port.
Transmit diversity with 2 or 4 layers. In transmit diversity there is always
one codeword and the number of layers is equal to the number of antenna
ports. For details on precoding for transmit diversity see Section 5.8.9.
The PDCCHs are transmitted on the same set of antenna ports as the
PBCH.
5.7.5
PDCCH blind decoding
Each PDCCH may be of dierent format, see Table 5.3, and the number of CCEs
building the PDCCH is a-priori unknown to the UE. Therefore, the UE needs to
blindly detect the format of the PDCCH. Because the PDCCH must start at CCE,
which is a multiple of its size, therefore the number of blind decoding is reduced. For
example, a PDCCH of size 4 CCEs can only start at CCE 0, 4, 8, etc. If the control
region consists of only 8 CCEs the number of PDCCH candidates for blind decoding
85

is 15, see Figure 5.10. The UE tries to apply the MAC ID to each one PDCCH
candidates. First the UE assume that the PDCCH consists of 1 CCE, thereafter 2,
4 and 8 CCEs. The UE knows that the PDCCH is intended for it if the CRC is
OK.
If the number of CCEs is three times bigger then the number of channel PDCCH
candidates triples as well. Figure 5.11 shows an example of mapping of PDCCHs
into the Control Channel Element (CCE), when the control region consists of 24
CCEs.
In order to reduce the number of decoding attempts the common search space and
UE specific search spaces are also defined by the 3GPP:
Common search space is used to send PDCCHs for all users or a group of users
(e.g. indications about paging). All UEs monitor the common search space on
PDCCH.
The UE specific search space contains PDCCHs intended for one UE only (e.g.
scheduling grants for transmitting UL data.) The UE uses its RNTI to find
its specific search space.
5.8
PDSCH
The Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) processing consists of two parts:
1. DL-SCH processing.
Figure 5.12 shows the processing structure for each transport block for the DLSCH, PCH and MCH transport channels as described in TS 36.212. Data and
control streams from/to MAC layer are encoded/decoded to oer transport
and control services over the radio transmission link. Channel coding scheme
is a combination of: error detection, error correcting, rate matching, interleaving and transport channel or control information mapping onto/splitting from
physical channels.
CRC attachment,
Code block segmentation,
Channel coding,
Rate matching,
Code block concatenation.
2. Physical layer PDSCH processing.
Physical layer PDSCH processing is described in 3GPP 36.211 clause 6.3. The
processing consists of the following steps, which are also presented in Figure
5.13:
Scrambling.
Scrambling of coded bits in each of the code words to be transmitted on
a physical channel.
86
5.8 PDSCH
Figure 5.10: PDCH blind decoding example.
Figure 5.11: PDCH blind decoding.
87
Figure 5.12: Transport channel processing for DL-SCH, PCH and MCH.
Modulation mapper.
Mapping of scrambled bits to generate complex-valued modulation symbols.
Layer mapper.
Mapping of the complex-valued modulation symbols onto one or several
transmission layers. Layer mapper together with precoding are enables
for MIMO.
Precoding.
Precoding of the complex-valued modulation symbols on each layer for
transmission on the antenna ports.
Resource element mapper on antenna ports.
Mapping of complex-valued modulation symbols for each antenna port to
resource elements.
OFDM signal generation.
Generation of complex-valued time-domain OFDM signal for each antenna port.
88
5.8 PDSCH
Figure 5.13: Physical layer PDSCH processing.
89
5.8.1
CRC attachment
Error detection is provided on transport blocks through a Cyclic Redundancy Check

(CRC). CRC is used to detect if there are any uncorrected errors left after error
correction. The entire transport block a0 , a1 , ..., aA1 , where A is the size of the
input sequence, is used to calculate 24 parity bits of the CRC, which is attached to
the transport block bits a0 , a1 , ..., aA1 as presented in Figure 5.14.
Transmitter
Original data
10010111010011011...
CRC generator
Original data
10010111010011011...
Checksum 24 bits
11001110110101...
Radio frequency
transmission path
Received data
0
10010101010011011...
CRC generator
Received checksum
11001110110101...
If checksums do not match
there is an error
Regenerated checksum
00001110011101...
Receiver
Figure 5.14: CRC concept.
5.8.2
Code block segmentation
The input bit sequence to the code block segmentation (see Figure 5.12)is denoted
by b0 , b1 , ..., bB1 , where B > 0. If B is larger than the maximum code block size
Z, segmentation of the input bit sequence is performed and an additional CRC
sequence of L = 24 bits is attached to each code block. The number of code blocks
after segmentation is denoted by C and the code blocks are numbered accordingly
r = 0, ..., C 1.
The maximum code block size Z = 6144 bits.
5.8.3
Channel coding
The correction of bit errors, which may happen during air interface propagation, is
carried out by channel coding. Each code block is coded separately. The channel
coding consists of encoding on the transmitting side and decoding on the receiving
side. The encoding carried out by adding redundant bits (coding bits) to the user
90
5.8 PDSCH
date bits on the transmitting side. The receiver performs decoding of the signal by
removals of the additional encoding bits and correcting possible bit errors.
The following channel coding schemes can be applied to TrCHs:
Convolutional coding with rate 1/3, see Figure 5.15.
Turbo coding. The scheme of turbo encoder is a Parallel Concatenated
Convolutional Code (PCCC) with two 8-state constituent encoders and one
turbo code internal interleaver. The coding rate of turbo encoder is 1/3. The
structure of turbo encoder is illustrated in Figure 5.16.
Usage of coding scheme and coding rate for the dierent types of TrCH is shown in
Table 5.4.
TrCh
Coding scheme
Coding rate
UL-SCH
DL-SCH
PCH
MCH
Turbo coding
1/3
BCH
Tail biting
convolutional
coding
1/3
Table 5.4: Usage of channel coding scheme and coding rate for control information.
Figure 5.15: Rate 1/3 tail biting convolutional encoder.

Due to reflections from dierent objects, like for example buildings, the radio waves
propagate over several paths before they reach the receiver. The multipath propagation results in constructive or destructive interference of radio waves, which propagate over dierent paths. The destructive interference causes signal attenuation. The
signal attenuation leads to bursty errors (consecutive erroneous bits) that appear
repeatedly when receiver is moving. The decoder fails to recover bursty errors, but
it successfully recovers single errors spread over the whole coding block. Therefore
turbo coding has an internal Quadrature Permutation Polynomial (QPP) interleaver,
as shown in Figure 5.16, which spreads bursty errors over the whole coding block
and hence making the decoding more eective. The interleaver concept is presented
in Figure 5.17.
5.8.4
Rate matching
Rate matching algorithm repeats or punctures the bits of a mother codeword to

generate a requested number of bits according to a desired code rate that may
91
1st constituent encoder

D
Turbo code
internal
interleaver
2nd constituent encoder

D
Figure 5.16: Structure of rate 1/3 turbo encoder (dotted lines apply for trellis
termination only). The initial value of the shift registers of the 8-state constituent
encoders is all zeros when starting to encode the input bits.
Transmitter
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ... 39
Interleaver
0 13 6 19 12 25 18 31 24 37 30 3 36 9 2 15 8 21 14 27 20 33 26 39 ... 7
Amplitude
Time
Radio frequency
transmission path
0 13 6 19 12 25 18 31 24 37 30 3 36 9 2 15 8 21 14 27 20 33 26 39 ... 7
Consecutive
errors
Deinterleaver
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ... 39
Distributted errors
Receiver
To decoder
Figure 5.17: Interleaver.
92
5.8 PDSCH
be dierent from the mother code rate of the turbo coder. The rate matching
algorithm also facilitates enhanced HARQ operation by minimising repetition of
coded bits (when possible) for subsequent retransmissions of a packet in order to
increase coding gains via Incremental Redundancy (IR).
The rate matching for turbo coded transport channel is presented in Figure 5.18. For
an input block size of K bits, the output of a turbo encoder consists of three lengthK streams, corresponding to the systematic bit d(0) and two parity bit streams d(1)
and d(2) , referred to as P1 and P2 respectively. In the Circular Buer Rate Matching
(CBRM) method for rate-1/3 turbo codes, which is used in LTE, each of the three
output streams of the turbo coder is rearranged with its own sub-block interleaver.
Then, a single output buer is formed by placing the rearranged systematic bits in
the beginning followed by bit-by-bit interlacing of the two rearranged parity streams.
Interlacing allows equal levels of protection for each constituent code.
Figure 5.18: Operations of circular buer rate matching for turbo code.
For a desired code rate, the number of coded bits Ndata to be selected for transmission
is passed to the rate matching algorithm. The bit selection step of the CBRM simply
reads out the first Ndata bits from the start of the buer. In general, the bits to be
selected for transmission can be read out starting from any point in the buer. If
the end of the buer is reached, then the reading continues by wrapping around to
the beginning of the buer (hence the term circular buer). Thus, puncturing and
repetition is achieved using a unified method.
IR based HARQ operation is a key performance enabler in LTE. Thus, an LTE RM
algorithm is expected to provide dierent subsets, denoted by Redundancy Version
(RV), of the codeword for dierent transmissions of a packet (i.e., minimise repetition
93

of coded bits when possible). In CBRM, dierent RVs can be specified by simply
defining dierent starting points (to start reading out) in the CB. For the first
transmission (RV = 0), it is conventionally assumed the bits are read out from the
beginning of the circular buer, which means that all systematic bits are always
selected and puncturing, if needed, is applied to parity bits only.
5.8.5
Code block concatenation
If the transport block was segmented into code blocks, see section 5.8.2, then the
code blocks are concatenated. The number of code blocks is denoted by C and the
code blocks are numbered accordingly r = 0, ..., C 1. The bits input to the code
block concatenation are denoted by er0 , er1 , ..., er(Er 1) where Er is the number of
rate matched bits for the r-th code block, compare with Figure 5.12.
5.8.6
Scrambling
(q)
Each codeword q = 0, 1, the block of bits b(q) (0), b(q) (1), ..., b(q) (M bit 1), where
(q)
M bit is the number of bits in code word transmitted on the physical channel in one
subframe, is scrambled prior to modulation, resulting in a block of scrambled bits
b(q) (0), b(q) (1), ..., b(q) (M (q) 1) according to:
bit
(
)
b(q) (i) = b(q) (i) + c(q) (i) mod 2
(5.3)
The scrambling sequence c(q) (i) is dierent for each code word, CellID as well as
RNTI associated with the PDSCH transmission. Up to two code words can be
transmitted in one subframe.
5.8.7
Modulation mapper
(q)
For each codeword, the block of scrambled bits b(q) (0), b(q) (1), ..., b(q) (M bit 1) is
modulated using one of the three modulation schemes QPSK, 16QAM or 64QAM,
presented in section 1.6, resulting in a block of complex-valued modulation symbols
(q)
d(q) (0), d(q) (1), ..., b(q) (M symb 1).
5.8.8
Layer mapper
The complex-valued modulation symbols, for each of the codewords to be transmitted, are mapped onto one or several layers. A layer is an isolated (from other
layers) stream of modulation symbols that will be sent to the UE. Up to four layers
may be transmitted to the UE parallely increasing the downlink throughput. The
actual number of layers used for the transmission depends on the downlink radio
conditions and is decided by the eNB on the bases of the UE report, mainly Rank
Indicator (RI), see section 7.5.
Each layer has the same number of symbols, but modulation and coding may dier
between the codewords.
94
5.8 PDSCH
Single antenna port

For transmission on a single antenna port, a single layer is used, = 1, and the
mapping is defined by:
x(0) (i) = d(0) (i)
(5.4)
(0)
layer
with M symb
= M symb .
Spatial multiplexing
For spatial multiplexing, the layer mapping is done according to Table 5.5, which is
also illustrated in Figure 5.19. The number of layers = 1 is less than or equal to
the number of antenna ports P used for transmission of the physical channel. The
case of a single code word mapped to two layers is only applicable when the number
of antenna ports is 4.
Figure 5.19: Codeword-to-layer mapping for spatial multiplexing and transmit

diversity. The picture also presents the precoding for transmit diversity. The size
of the codeword(s) correspond to the maximum throughput possible to achieve for
particular layer mapping. It can be observed that in spatial multiplexing maximum
throughput increases with the the number of layers. In transmit diversity, regardless
of the number of antennas, the maximum throughput is not increased.
Trasmit diversity
For transmit diversity, the layer mapping is done according to Table 5.6, which is
also illustrated in Figure 5.19. There is only one codeword and the number of layers
= 1 is equal to the number of antenna ports P used for transmission of the physical
channel.
95
Number
of layers
Number
of codewords
Codeword-to-layer mapping
layer
i = 0, 1, ..., M symb
1
x(0) (i) = d(0) (i)
x(0) (i) = d(0) (i)
x(1) (i) = d(1) (i)
x(0) (i) = d(0) (2i)
x(1) (i) = d(0) (2i + 1)
x(0) (i) = d(0) (i)
x(1) (i) = d(1) (2i)
x(2) (i) = d(1) (2i + 1)
x(0) (i) = d(0) (2i)
x(1) (i) = d(0) (2i + 1)
x(2) (i) = d(1) (2i)
x(3) (i) = d(1) (2i + 1)
(0)
layer
M symb
= M symb
(0)
(1)
layer
M symb
= M symb = M symb
(0)
layer
M symb
= M symb /2
(0)
(1)
layer
M symb
= M symb = M symb /2
(0)
(1)
layer
M symb
= M symb /2 = M symb /2
Table 5.5: Codeword-to-layer mapping for spatial multiplexing.
Number
of layers
Number
of codewords
Codeword-to-layer mapping
layer
i = 0, 1, ..., M symb
1
x(0) (i) = d(0) (2i)
x(1) (i) = d(0) (2i + 1)
x(0) (i) = d(0) (4i)
x(1) (i) = d(0) (4i + 1)
x(2) (i) = d(0) (4i + 2)
x(3) (i) = d(0) (4i + 3)
(0)
layer
M symb
= M symb /2
layer
M symb
= M symb /4
(0)
Table 5.6: Codeword-to-layer mapping for transmit diversity.

(0)
In case when M (0)
(0)
symb mod 4 = 0 then two null symbols are appended to d (M symb
1).
96
5.8 PDSCH
5.8.9
Precoding
The precoder maps layers onto resources on each of the antenna ports. There are
several variants of precoding:
Precoding for transmission on a single antenna port,
Precoding for spatial multiplexing,
Precoding without Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD),
Precoding for large delay CDD,
Precoding for diversity.
Single antenna port

Precoding for transmission on a single antenna port is defined by:
y (p) (i) = x(0) (i)
(5.5)
where p {0, 4, 5, 7, 8} is the number of the single antenna port used for transmission
ap
ap
layer
of the physical channel and i = 0, 1, M symb
1, M symb
= M symb
.
Precoding for spatial multiplexing using antenna ports with cell-specific reference
signals is only used in combination with layer mapping for spatial multiplexing.
Spatial multiplexing supports two or four antenna ports and the set of antenna
ports used is p {0, 1} or p {0, 1, 2, 3}, respectively.
Precoding without CDD is defined by:
(0)
y (0) (i)
x (i)
..
..
= W (i)
.
.
(P
1)
(1)
y
(i)
x
(i)
(5.6)
ap
where the precoding matrix W (i) is of size P and i = 0, 1, ..., M symb
1,
ap
layer
M symb
= M symb
.
For spatial multiplexing, the values of W (i) are selected among the precoder
elements in the codebook configured in the eNB and the UE. The eNB can
further confine the precoder selection in the UE to a subset of the elements
in the codebook using codebook subset restrictions. For 2 antenna ports,
a codebook index from Table 5.7 must be selected. Dierent code book is
specified for 4 antenna transmission.
Figure 5.20 presents the precoding matrix W (i) selection for a relatively simple case of spatial multiplexing with one layer and two antenna ports. This
technique is also called beamforming. The possible precoding matrixes, which
may be applied in this case, are presented in Table 5.7 in the column = 1.
97
Codebook
index
0
1
2
3
Number of layers
1
2
]
[ ]
[
1
1
0
1
1
2 1
2 0 1
[ ]
[
]
1
1
1
1
1
2
2 1
1 1
[ ]
[
]
1
1
1
1
1
2
2 j
j j
[ ]
1
1
2 j
Table 5.7: Codebook for transmission on antenna ports {0, 1}.
Figure 5.20: Spatial multiplexing with one layer and two antenna ports.
98
5.8 PDSCH
[
Let us assume that currently W =
1
2
]
1
1
is used. Signals transmitted from
antennas can be calculated as follows:

[
y (0)
y (1)
y (0) =
y (1) =
1
=
2
1 (1
2
1 (1
2
]
1
1
x(0) ) =
x(0) ) =
x(0)
(5.7)
1 x(0)
2
1 x(0)
2
(5.8)
[
]
1
It can be seen from the above formulas that, for W =
, both antennas
1
transmit exactly the same signal. It means, that the transmitted signals have
the same phase. This is advantageous for the UE located in front of the
transmitted antennas, where it has equal distances to both antennas. Signals
transmitted from both antennas will change their phases during propagation,
but, because they cover the same distance, they will reach the UE with the
same phase leading to constructive interference and producing a gain in the
UE antenna.
1
2
The UE may change its location in the cell and move to an area, where it is
closer to the antenna TX0 (denoted by red colour in the figure) than to the
antenna TX1 (denoted by blue colour in the figure). If the dierence in the
paths is equal /4, then the blue wave reaches the UE later, with a phase
delay of 90 degrees, compared to the red wave. To compensate the phase shift,
the blue antenna should start its transmission earlier, which is achieved by
shifting its phase by 90 degrees. The phase shift takes place in the precoder
by multiplying the transmuted symbol x(0) by j. Multiplication by j, which
in the exponential notation is equal to e 2 j , results in 90 degree ( 2 ) phase

shift. (For exponential notation of complex numbers see section
[ 1.3.5).
] The
1
required phase shift is achieved by precoding matrix W = 12
, which
j
does not apply any phase shift (coecient 1) to antenna port 0 and applies a
phase shift of 90 degrees (coecient j) to the antenna port 1.
Figure 7.13 shows that, when the user moves further to the side of the cell,
the dierence between paths increases and may reach /2. /2 is a distance
between TX antennas, if polarisation diversity is not used, see Figure 5.20.
If the phase of the signals is not modified by the precoded, the two signals
reach UE with opposite phase leading to destructive interference and signal
cancelation. Because the blue signal has half of the wave length longer path
to cover, it reaches the UE with a phase shift of 180 degrees compared to
the red signal. 180 degree () phase shift is realised by multiplying a signal
by ej = 1.
the best precoding matrix for this UE location
[ Therefore,
]
1
is W = 12
, which does not apply any phase shift (coecient 1) to
1
99

antenna port 0 and a phase shift of 180 degrees (coecient 1) to the antenna
port 1.
It can be seen from Table 5.7, that, for spatial multiplexing with one layer,
no phase shift is applied to the signal transmitted from antenna port 0 (in all
matrixes the coecient corresponding to the antenna port 0 is equal 1). The
phase shift is applied to the signal transmitted from antenna port 1 and the
possible phase shifts are: 0 degree (coecient 1), 180 degrees (coecient 1),
90 degrees (coecient j) and 90 degrees (coecient j).
Precoding with large delay CDD is defined by:
(0)
x (i)
y (0) (i)
..
..
= W (i)D(i)U
.
.
(1)
(P
1)
x
(i)
y
(i)
(5.9)
ap
where the precoding matrix W (i) is of size P and i = 0, 1, ..., M symb
1,
ap
layer
M symb
= M symb
. The diagonal size- matrix D(i) supports cyclic delay
diversity and is specified in TS 36.211 6.3.4.2.2. The size- matrix U is
also specified in TS 36.211 6.3.4.2.2.
Transmit diversity
Precoding for transmit diversity is only used in combination with layer mapping for
transmit diversity described above. The precoding operation for transmit diversity
is defined for two and four antenna ports.
For transmission on two antenna ports, p {0, 1}, the output
[
]T
ap
y(i) = y (0) (i) y (1) (i) , i = 0, 1, M symb
1 of the precoding operation is defined
by:
y (0) (2i)
1 0
j
(1)
1
y
(2i)
0
1
0
(0)
=
y (2i + 1)
0
2 0 1
(1)
y (2i + 1)
1 0 j
(
)
0
Re x(0) (i)
)
(
j Re x(1) (i)
)
(
j Im x(0) (i)
(
)
0
Im x(1) (i)
(5.10)
ap
ap
layer
for i = 0, 1, ..., M symb
1 with M symb
= 2M symb
.
It can be seen from the equation 5.10 that in the transmit diversity two dierent
modulation symbols x(0) (i) and x(1) (i), that come from dierent layers, are transmitted simultaneously by dierent antennas and are transmitted twice, which is also
illustrated in Figure 5.19. First antenna port 0 transmits modulation symbol x0 (i)
and at the same time antenna port 1 transmits modulation symbol x1 (i). Next antenna port 0 transmits modulation symbol x(1) (i) and at the same time antenna port
1 transmits modulation x(0) (i), but with changed phase. This technique results in
sending each modulation symbol twice in dierent directions and therefore increases
probability of successful reception.
For transmission on four antenna ports p {0, 1, 2, 3} the output y(i) is described
in TS 36.211 6.3.4.3 and not presented in this book.
100
5.9 PHICH
5.8.10
Resource element mapping
For each of the antenna ports used for transmission of the physical channel, the block
ap
of complex-valued symbols y (p) (0), ..., y (p) (M symb
1) is mapped in sequence starting
(p)
with y (0) to resource elements (k, l) which meet all of the following criteria:
they are in the physical resource blocks corresponding to the virtual resource
blocks assigned for transmission, and
they are not used for transmission of PBCH, synchronisation signals, cellspecific reference signals, MBSFN reference signals or UE-specific reference
signals, and
they are not in an OFDM symbol used for PDCCH.
The mapping to resource elements (k, l) on antenna port p not reserved for other
purposes shall be in increasing order of first the index k over the assigned physical
resource blocks and then the index l, starting with the first slot in a subframe.
5.9
PHICH
The Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) is used for transmission
of hybrid-ARQ acknowledgements in response to UL-SCH transmission. There is
one PHICH present for each terminal expecting an acknowledgement in the subframe.
Each PHICH carries one bit, which is repeated three times, modulated, spread with
a spreading factor of four and mapped to three REGs. Multiple PHICHs form a
PHICH group and the PHICHs within a PHICH group are code-multiplexed using
dierent orthogonal sequences and share the same set of resource elements, see
Figure 5.21. There is in total eight 3GPP defined orthogonal sequences available
when using normal CP. Four orthogonal sequences are available in case of extended
CP. The use of use of code division multiplexing is motivated by power control of
the PHICH, because with code division multiplexing the power dierence between
subcarriers is not as large as with pure frequency division multiplexing. The capacity
of PHICH depends on the configured number of PHICH groups. Each PHICH group
is assigned a unique frequency resource.
Typically, the PHICH is transmitted in the first OFDM symbol only. However,
in some propagation environments, this would unnecessarily restrict the PHICH
coverage. To alleviate this, it is possible to configure a PHICH duration of three
OFDM symbols10. In this case the control region is three OFDM symbols long in
all subframes.
The PHICH configuration is part of the system information (MIB on the BCH);
one bit indicates whether the duration is one or three OFDM symbols and two bits
indicate the amount of resources set aside for PHICHs.
101
Figure 5.21: PHICH.
5.10
PMCH
The Physical Multicast Channel carries DL transmission of the MCH transport

channel.
5.11
Downlink physical channels modulation summary
Table 5.8 shows modulations used for dierent physical channels and physical signals,
which were discussed in this chapter.
Physical channel
or physical signal
P-SS
S-SS
RS
PBCH
PCFICH
PDCCH
PDSCH
PHICH
Modulation
Zado-Chu sequence
Interleaved concatenation of two length-31 binary sequences
Gold sequence (pseudo random) of QPSK symbols
QPSK
QPSK
QPSK
QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM
BPSK
Table 5.8: DL physical channels modulation.
102

During the LTE development phase dierent alternatives for the optimum uplink
transmission scheme were investigated. While OFDMA is seen optimum to fulfil the
LTE requirements in DL, OFDMA properties are less favourable for the UL. This is
mainly due to worse Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR) properties of an OFDMA
signal, resulting in worse UL coverage. Thus, the LTE UL transmission scheme for
FDD and TDD mode is based on Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access
(SC-FDMA) with cyclic prefix. SC-FDMA signals have better PAPR properties
compared to an OFDMA signal, see Figure 6.1. This was one of the main reasons
for selecting SC-FDMA as LTE UL access scheme. The PAPR characteristics are
important for cost-eective design of UE power amplifiers. Still, SC-FDMA signal
processing has some similarities with OFDMA signal processing, so parametrisation
of downlink and uplink can be harmonised.
Figure 6.1: SC-FDMA versus OFDMA spectral power distribution.

There are dierent possibilities of SC-FDMA signal generation. Discrete Fourier
Transform spread-OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) has been selected for LTE.
The principles of the DFT-s-OFDM are illustrated in Figure 6.2. A size-M DFT is
first applied to a block of M modulation symbols (i.e. complex numbers). QPSK,
16QAM or 64QAM may be used as uplink modulation schemes, the latter being
optional for the UE. The DFT transforms the M modulation symbols into another
M modulation symbols in the frequency domain. The result is mapped onto the
M available UL subcarriers, that is inputs of the size-N IDFT. Unused inputs of
the IDFT are set to zero. In UL, only localised transmission on consecutive M
subcarriers is allowed. An size-N IDFT, where N > M , is then performed as in
OFDM (see Figure 1.20), followed by addition of the cyclic prefix and parallel to
serial conversion.
M is the number of transmitted subcarriers and changes during UL transmission.
For example, if the currently transmitted bandwidth by the UE is equal to 6 RBs
103
Figure 6.2: Block diagram of the UL DFT-s-OFDM transmitter.

then M = 6 12 = 72. N is the size of the IDFT build in the UE microprocessor
and in LTE is equal to N = 211 = 2048, the same as in DL.
If the DFT size M would equal the IDFT size N , the cascaded DF T and IDF T
blocks of Figure 6.2 would completely cancel out each other. However, if M is
smaller than N and the remaining inputs to the IDF T are set to zero, the output
of the IDF T will be a signal with single-carrier properties, i.e. a signal with low
power variations, and with a bandwidth that depends on M .
6.1
PUSCH
The UL SC-FDMA subcarrier spacing equals f = 15 kHz and RBs, consisting of

12 subcarriers in the frequency domain, are defined also for the UL. However, in
contrast to the DL, no unused DC subcarrier is defined for the UL as this would
destroy the single-carrier property of the UL transmission (single-carrier characteristics require the transmission of consecutive subcarriers).
Similar to the DL, the SC-FDMA used for the UL, also allows for a very high degree
of flexibility in terms of transmission bandwidth by allowing for, in essence, any
number of UL subcarriers. However, from a DFT implementation point of view,
the DFT size M should preferably be constrained to a power of 2 (M = 2n ). On
the other hand, such constraint is in direct conflict with a desired flexibility of UL
bandwidth allocation to dierent terminals. From a flexibility point of view, all
possible values of M should rather be allowed. For LTE, a middle way has been
adopted where the DFT size is limited to products of the integers two, three and
five (M = 2 3 5 , where , , = 0, 1, 2, ...). Thus, as an example, DFT of
104
6.1 PUSCH
sizes 84 is not allowed, because 84 = 2 2 3 7. Observe, that M = 84 = 12 7
correspond to 7 RBs, therefore 7 RBs allocation is not allowed. As a consequence,
the number of UL RBs allocation is also limited to products of the integers two,
three and five.
Figure 6.3: UL resource allocation.

Also in terms of the more detailed time-domain structure the LTE UL is very similar
to the DL. Each 1 ms UL subframe consists of two slots of length Tslot = 0.5 ms,
see Figure 6.4. Each slot consists of seven or six DFT-s-OFDM blocks including the
cyclic prefix. Also similar to the downlink, two cyclic prefix lengths, a normal cyclic
prefix (for seven DFT-s-OFDM blocks symbol) and an extended cyclic prefix (for
six DFT-s-OFDM blocks symbol) are defined for the UL.
Figure 6.4: UL subframe structure for normal cyclic prefix.

In Figure 6.3, UEs gets radio resources on the same subcarriers in the two slots.
As an alternative, inter slot frequency hopping may be applied for the LTE uplink.
In this case dierent frequencies are used for transmission in the two slots of a
subframe as presented in Figure 6.5. There are two potential benefits with UL
frequency hopping if the hopping pattern are dierent in neighbouring cells.
Frequency diversity.
Interference averaging.
105
Figure 6.5: UL frequency hopping.
6.2
Uplink reference signals
There are two types of UL reference signals in LTE:

Reference Signals (RS) for channel estimation to support coherent uplink
transmission.
Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) to support UL frequency dependent scheduling.
6.2.1
RS
As illustrated in Figure 6.6, the uplink RSs used for channel estimation are transmitted within the fourth DFT-s-OFDM block of each uplink slot1 and with an
instantaneous bandwidth equal to the bandwidth of the data transmission.
Figure 6.6: UL RS.

The UL RS use cyclic extensions of Zado-Chu sequences at allocations of three
RBs (36 subcarriers) or more. The exceptions are the allocation of 1 or 2 RBs (12
or 24 subcarriers), which instead use QPSK-based sequences. This is because there
are too few Zado-Chu sequences available at such short sequence lengths.
1
This assumes the normal cyclic prefix, i.e. seven DFT-s-OFDM blocks per slot.
106
6.3 PUCCH
6.2.2
SRS
Channel dependent scheduling, in both the time and frequency domain, is a key LTE
technology. The RS allow for UL channel estimation on the subcarriers, which are
currently used by the UEs PUSCH. The intention with the SRS is for the network
to estimate the channel quality of the uplink frequencies, which are currently not
used by UEs PUSCH transmission. The sounding reference signals can also be used
to estimate the timing of UE transmissions and to derive timing control commands
for UL time alignment.
SRS are transmitted independently of the UEs PUSCH transmission, i.e. a UE may
transmit the SRS also in subframes, where it does not have any data transmission.
Furthermore, the bandwidth of SRS can be, and typically is, dierent from that of
the UEs PUSCH.
The SRSs are transmitted within the last DFT-s-OFDM block of a subframe as
shown in Figure 6.7. The SRS resources are shared by a number of UEs by their
multiplexing in the time, frequency and orthogonal codes domain:
SRS in the time domain.
Dierent UEs may by configured to transmit SRS in dierent subframes by
providing the UE with SRS periodicity and SRS subframe oset. The periodicity of the SRS transmission is selected from the set {2, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160,
320} ms or subframes.
SRS in the frequency domain.
UE may be configured to transmit SRS in the whole or a fraction of the
UL carrier bandwidth. For example, if srs-BandwidthConfig = 2 in a cell with
5 MHz UL bandwidth then some UEs in the cell may be configured to transmit
SRS in the bandwidth of 24 RBs, some in the bandwidth 4 RBs and some in
the bandwidth of 4 RBs.
SRS orthogonal codes.
Similar to the RS, the SRS is a Zado-Chu sequence. With cyclic shifts up to
8 shift can be configured, which implies that up to 8 UEs can transmit SRS
in the same time and in the same bandwidth but with dierent orthogonal
(independent) sequences.
Example of the SRS allocation is illustrated in Figure 6.7.
6.3
PUCCH
PUCCH supports uplink L1/L2 control signalling, which carriers one (or more) of
the following singling information:
HARQ acknowledgements related to reception of DL-SCH transport. HARQ
acknowledgements are sent by PUCCH format 1A, 1B or PUSCH.
Scheduling requests, used by the terminal to request UL-SCH resources in case
it does not have a valid scheduling grant. Scheduling request are transmitted
on the PUCCH format 1.
107
Figure 6.7: UL SRS.

Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) indicating the downlink channel quality perceived by the terminal. CQI is used by the network for DL modulation and
coding scheme selection. The CQI reports are transmitted periodically on
PUCCH format 2 or aperiodically on PUSCH. UE reporting is discuss in
section 7.5.
As illustrated in Figure 6.8, these resources are located at the edges of the total
available system bandwidth. Each such resource consists of 12 subcarriers (one resource block) within each slot of an uplink subframe. To provide frequency diversity,
these frequency resources are frequency hopping on the slot boundary, that is one
L1/L2 control resource consists of 12 subcarriers at the upper part of the spectrum
within the first slot of a subframe and an equally sized resource at the lower part of
the spectrum during the second slot of the subframe or vice versa, and it is referred
to as a resource block pair.
If more resources are needed for the uplink L1/L2 control signalling, for example,
in case of very large overall transmission bandwidth supporting a large number of
users, additional resources blocks can be assigned next to the previously assigned
resource blocks.
Figure 6.8: PUCCH resources.

108
6.3 PUCCH
6.3.1
PUCCH format 1A/1B
PUCCH format 1A and 1B are used for transmission of HARQ acknowledgements.

Format 1A supports one bit acknowledgement to one code word.
Format 1B supports two bits acknowledgement to two code words sent to the
UE during one subframe, which is the case of spacial multiplexing.
One (format 1A) or two (format 1B) acknowledgement bits are modulated using
BPSK or QPSK, respectively, resulting in one complex number (modulation symbol).
A length-12 Constant Amplitude Zero AutoCorrelation (CAZAC) sequence is applied to each symbol in order to spread the symbol over 12 symbols sent on dierent
subcarriers of an RB. Dierent cyclic shift of the length-12 CAZAC sequence are
applied by dierent users, therefore 12 UEs feedbacks can be transmitted over the
same subcarriers in the same time. Then scrambling is applied to all the symbols,
see Figure 6.9. Dierent scrambling codes are used in the two dierent slots within
one subframe.
The 12 complex numbers are further multiplied by an orthogonal cover sequence.
Orthogonal cover sequences are applied to both the four information symbols in a
slot as well as to the three reference signal symbols. Thus, with three reference
symbols per slot, up to three orthogonal cover sequences can be used. This implies
three dierent UEs acknowledgements can be transmitted at the same cyclic shift
of the length-12 CAZAC sequence resulting in up to 3 12 = 36 UEs with PUCCH
format 1A/1B sharing one resource block pair.
The same PUCCH structure is used in the two slots of a subframe. To further randomise the inter-cell interference between PUCCH resource blocks, cyclic shift hopping (per OFDM symbol) and orthogonal cover hopping (per slot) are used.
Figure 6.9: PUCCH format 1.

HARQ acknowledgements are transmitted at a fixed time after the reception of a
DL-SCH transport block (4 subframes in case of FDD). Furthermore, the PUCCH
resource to use is derived from the index of the first control channel element in the
109

PDCCH used for scheduling the downlink transmission (or from RRC signalling in
case of persistent scheduling).
6.3.2
PUCCH format 1
PUCCH format 1 is used for transmitting scheduling requests. The overall structure
is similar to that used for HARQ acknowledgements. Each active terminal is assigned
a dedicated resource for scheduling request through RRC signalling, providing the
possibility to request an uplink grant every x subframe.
If the UE do not want more scheduling, then it will not transmit anything on the
dedicated resources.
6.3.3
PUCCH format 2
PUCCH format 2 is used for CQI reports. The CQI reports are coded to 20 bits and
scrambled. The scrambling sequence depends on the CellID, slot number and Cell
RNTI (C-RNTI). The scrambled bits are then modulated using QPSK, resulting in
10 complex valued symbols, see Figure 6.10. Each of the QPSK symbols (assuming
normal cyclic prefix) is multiplied by a cyclically shifted length-12 CAZAC sequence
and transmitted in one DFT-s-OFDM symbol. As the same underlying principle
of cyclically shifted CAZAC sequences is used for PUCCH format 2 as for format
1A/1B, CQI from dierent terminals can be transmitted on the same time-frequency
resource by assigning dierent cyclic shifts. In theory, it is possible to use 12 dierent
cyclic shifts, hence twelve dierent UEs CQI can be transmitted in the same resource
block pair.
Figure 6.10: PUCCH format 2.

It is also possibility for one UE to send CQI reports together with ACK/NACK.
In that case format 2A or 2B is used. However, it is also possible to mix dierent
110
6.4 PRACH
formats, i.e. dierent UEs transmit dierent feedback (e.g. CQI and ACK/NACK)
in the same resource block. This is then signalled by higher layers.
6.4
PRACH
In the LTE, the UE uses the Random Access (RA) process to gain an access to a
cell for the following reasons:
Initial access to the network from the RRC IDLE state.
Regaining access to the network after a radio link failure.
As part of the handover process to gain timing synchronisation with a new
cell.
Before uplink data transfers when the UE is in RRC CONNECTED, but not
UL time synchronised with the cell. When UE is RRC CONNECTED and
UL synchronised then it uses scheduling request on PUCCH to request for UL
transmission.
In both RRC IDLE and RRC CONNECTED the UE is time synchronise to the DL
BCCH, however, due to the propagation (round trip) delay, there is a timing uncertainty in the uplink. Therefore, the RA process is used by the UE to obtain time
synchronisation. The PRACH shall reserve a sucient time window to accommodate various arrival times. During this time the UE transmits RA preamble. Five
formats of RA preamble exist (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4) (TS 36.211), see Table 6.1, which is
illustrated in Figure 6.11. Format 4 is used in TDD only.
Preamble format
TCP
TSEQ
0
1
2
3
4
3168 Ts
21024 Ts
6240 Ts
21024 Ts
448 Ts
24576 Ts
24576 Ts
2 24576 Ts
2 24576 Ts
4096 Ts
Table 6.1: Random access preamble parameters.

Ts 32.55 ns, see equation 7.1.
TDD mode and special subframe configurations with UpPTS lengths 4384 T and
s
5120 Ts only.
The RA preamble has dierent subcarrier spacing than other UL channels. Duration
of the RA preamble symbol is 0.8 ms, therefore RA subcarrier spacing is 1/800 ms
= 1250 Hz. The RA preamble consists of 840 such subcarriers leading to the total
eective bandwidth of 840 1250 Hz = 1.05 MHz. The bandwidth reserved for a RA
opportunity is 1.08 MHz (6 RBs), so it is slightly bigger leaving small spectral guard
bands on each side of the RA preamble. This is necessary since RA and regular UL
data are separated in frequency domain, but are not completely orthogonal.
The parameter prach-ConfigIndex specifies the preamble format and subframes where
where PRACH is allowed (TS 36.211). Location of the PRACH in the frequency do111
Figure 6.11: Preamble formats.
112
6.4 PRACH
main is defined by the parameter prach-FreqOset, which indicated the RB allocated
for the PRACH opportunity, which is illustrated in Figure 6.12.
Figure 6.12: Time-frequency structure of non-synchronised RA for FDD. Example

for prach-ConfigIndex = 6 and prach-FreqOset = 1.
113
114

7.1
Timing advance
7.1.1
Uplink-downlink frame timing
From the eNodeB perspective, the uplink and downlink frames have defined time
shift equal to NTA oset Ts , where NTA oset = 0 for frame structure 1 used in FDD
and NTA oset = 614 for frame structure 2 used in TDD, as presented in the upper
part of Figure 7.2.
Ts is the sampling time, which is the time unit used in LTE and specified in 3GPP
36.211 as follows:
Ts =
1s
15000
2048
32.55 ns,
(7.1)
1s
where 15000
is the symbol duration and 2048 is the FFT size. Thus, in case of
the frame structure 2 the uplink frame starts 614Ts 20.0s earlier than downlink
frame.
7.1.2
Timing advance range
In order to keep the alignment of downlink and uplink frames at the eNB as specified
by the NTA oset , the UE must advance its uplink transmission compared to the signal
received on downlink. The time advance compensates the radio waves propagation
delay from the eNB to the UE and back to the eNB. Therefore, from the UE perspective, transmission of the uplink radio frame number shall start (NTA + NTA oset )Ts
earlier than the start of the corresponding downlink radio frame at the UE, where
0 NTA 20512. The maximum timing advance 20512Ts 667.7s corresponds
to the cell range of 100 km. Figure 7.1 and Figure 7.2 present the time advance
compensation for FDD and TDD respectively.
Initially NTA is received by the UE from the eNB in the timing advance command
during random access and next is continuously adjusted by timing advance commands sent in the MAC control element.
7.1.3
Random access
Initial time alignment is performed by the random access process. Random access
response carries 11-bit timing advance command TA = 0, 1, 2, ..., 1282 and indicates
115
Figure 7.1: Uplink-downlink timing relation from UE perspective for FDD.
Figure 7.2: Uplink-downlink time relation from UE perspective for TDD.
116
7.1 Timing advance

NTA value (3GPP TS 36.213), which is presented in Figure 7.3:
NTA = 16TA ,
(7.2)
which means that the maximum timing advance value sent on the random access
channel is 16 1282 Ts 66.77 ms and corresponds to the distance of 100 km.
Figure 7.3: Random access timing advance.

The granularity of the timing advance is 16Ts 0.52 s and during this time radio
waves cover the distance of 156 m. This distance is the sum of downlink and uplink path, therefore one step of timing advance corresponds to the distance change
between the UE and the eNB of 78 m.
7.1.4
Other cases
The actual timing advance is continuously adjusted by timing advance command

sent as MAC control element. The timing advance command MAC control element
is identified by MAC PDU subheader with LCID = 11101, as specified in 3GPP TS
36.321.
The timing advance command field is 6 bits TA = 0, 1, 2, ..., 63 and indicates adjustment of the current NTA value (NTA,old ) to the new NTA value (NTA,new ) expressed
in multiples of 16 Ts , as specified by 3GPP TS 36.213:
NTA,new = NTA,old + 16(TA 31).
(7.3)
Adjustment of NTA value by a positive or a negative amount indicates advancing or

delaying the uplink transmission timing by a given amount respectively, as presented
in Figure 7.4. The maximum timing advance adjustment is equal to 16(63 31)Ts
16.7 s and corresponds to the distance change of 2.5 km.
For a timing advance command received on subframe n, the corresponding adjustment of the timing shall apply from the beginning of subframe n + 6. When the UEs
uplink transmissions in subframe n and subframe n + 1 are overlapped due to the
timing adjustment, the UE shall transmit complete subframe n and not transmit
the overlapped part of subframe n + 1.
117
Figure 7.4: Adjustment of timing advance by MAC control element.
7.1.5
Maintenance of uplink time alignment
The UE has a configurable timer timeAlignmentTimer, which is used to control how

long the UE is considered uplink time aligned. The timer is sent in the System
Information Block Type 2.
T imeAlignmentT imer = {sf500, sf750, sf1280, sf1920, sf2560, sf5120,
sf10240, infinity}.
(7.4)
Value in number of sub-frames. Value sf500 corresponds to 500 sub-frames, sf750

corresponds to 750 sub-frames and so on (3GPP TS 36.331).
The UE starts the timeAlignmentTimer after random access response message is
received and restarts the timer after each received timing advance command MAC
control element.
When timeAlignmentTimer expires the UE shall:
flush all HARQ buers,
notify RRC to release PUCCH/SRS,
clear any configured downlink assignments and uplink grants.
To get time alignment a new the UE must initiate the random access process, see
Figure 7.5.
7.2
Random Access (RA)
From the physical layer perspective, the L1 RA procedure encompasses the transmission of RA preamble and RA response. The remaining messages are scheduled for
transmission by the higher layer on the shared data channel and are not considered
part of the L1 random access procedure.
A RA channel occupies 6 RBs in a subframe or set of consecutive subframes reserved
for RA preamble transmissions. The eNB is not prohibited from scheduling data in
the resource blocks reserved for PRACH transmission.
118
7.3 Resource allocation
Figure 7.5: UE time synchronisation.

Since the initial access attempt cannot be scheduled by the network, the RA procedure is by definition contention based. Collisions may occur and an appropriate
contention-resolution scheme needs to be implemented.
The process of the RA is presented in Figure 7.6. UE sends the RA preamble with
initial power, which calculated based on the parameter preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower and waits for the response in the response window configured by the parameter ra-ResponseWindowSize. If the UE does not receive the RA response then
retransmits the RA increasing the power by powerRampingStep. The RA response
is recognised by its Random Access Radio Network Temporary Identity (RA-RNTI)
and contains the allocation of the PDSCH, which includes the RA preamble identity, timing and UL scheduling grant. The UE uses the granted PUSCH resources
to send message 3, which contains RRC CONNECTION REQUEST command to
the eNB.
7.3
Resource allocation
The resource allocation is sent to the UE on PDCCH. The downlink assignment

includes:
PDSCH resource indication,
Transport format (applied coding and modulation),
Transport block size,
HARQ related information,
MIMO related information (if applicable),
PUCCH power order commands.
Resource indications can be of three dierent types: 0, 1, and 2 as described in
3GPP TS 36.213, see also Figure 7.7. Type 0 and 1 use a bitmap to support noncontiguous allocation in the frequency domain. Type 0 does not allow to address a
single RB, therefore, type 0 is complemented by type 1. Type 2 allows to address
only continuous RBs.
119
Figure 7.6: RA process.
Figure 7.7: DL resource allocation.
120
7.3 Resource allocation

The Downlink Control Information (DCI) on the PDCCH has several supported
formats. The UE interprets the resource allocation field depending on the PDCCH
DCI format detected. A resource allocation field in each PDCCH includes two
parts:
resource allocation header,
resource block assignment.
PDCCH DCI formats 1, 2, 2A and 2B with type 0 and PDCCH DCI formats 1,
2, 2A and 2B with type 1 resource allocation have the same format and are distinguished from each other via the single bit resource allocation header field which
exists depending on the downlink system bandwidth, where type 0 is indicated by 0
value and type 1 is indicated otherwise. PDCCH with DCI format 1A, 1B, 1C and
1D have a type 2 resource allocation while PDCCH with DCI format 1, 2, 2A and
2B have type 0 or type 1 resource allocation. PDCCH DCI formats with a type 2
resource allocation do not have a resource allocation header field. A UE shall discard PDSCH resource allocation in the corresponding PDCCH if consistent control
information is not detected.
7.3.1
Resource allocation type 0
In resource allocation of type 0 the RBs are grouped into P consecutive RBs called
Resource Block Group (RBG). The reason for grouping RBs into RBG is to reduce
the size of the bitmap used for resource allocation. P is than the size of the RBG
and is a function of the system bandwidth, as specified in Table 7.1.
System bandwidth
RB
NDL
RBG size
(P)
10
11-26
27-63
64-110
1
2
3
4
Table 7.1: Type 0 resource allocation RBG size vs. downlink system bandwidth.
The total number of RBGs for the downlink system bandwidth is given by
NRBG
RB
NDL
=
P
(7.5)
One RBG may be of size lower than P. Assignment information includes a bitmap
indicating the RBGs that are allocated to the scheduled UE. The bitmap is of size
NRBG bits with one bitmap bit per RBG such that each RBG is addressable. The
RBG is allocated to the UE if the corresponding bit value in the bitmap is 1, the
RBG is not allocated to the UE otherwise.
The resource allocation type 0 allows to allocate all RBs if needed, but it allows to
allocate a single RB.
121
7.3.2
In resource allocations of type 1, the RBGs of size P are additionally divided into
P subsets. A UE may get assignment on RBs belonging to one subset only.
The resource allocation consists of a field, which indicates the selected subset, and
a bitmap, which indicates allocated RBs within the set of RBs belonging to the
selected subset.
The resource allocation type 1 does not allow to allocate all RBs to the UE, but it
allows to allocate one RB, if needed.
7.3.3
In resource allocations of type 2, the resource block assignment information indicates

to a scheduled UE a set of contiguously allocated RBs.
Resource allocation type 2 allows to allocate all RBs to UE or one RB only if needed.
However it does not allow for full allocation flexibility, because only continuous RBs
may be allocated.
7.4
MIMO
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) refers to the use of multiple antennas at
transmitter and receiver side. The concept of multiple transmitting and receiving
antennas is extensively used in LTE. MIMO systems form an essential part of
LTE in order to achieve the ambitious requirements for throughput and spectral
eciency. For the LTE downlink, a 2x2 configuration for MIMO is assumed as
baseline configuration, i.e. two transmit antennas at the base station and two receive
antennas at the terminal side. Configurations with four transmit or receive antennas
are also foreseen and reflected in specifications.
The 3GPP TS 36.211 defines two downlink modes of MIMO, which were described
in sections 5.8.8 and 5.8.9:
without Cyclic Delay Diversity (CDD) also called closed loop special
multiplexing, which requires UE feedback concerning received phase shifts
from transmitting antennas,
with CDD also called open loop special multiplexing, which does not
require UE feedback.
Transmit diversity.
Depending on the MIMO mode that is used dierent gains can be achieved, see
Figure 7.8:
With use of spatial multiplexing dierent data streams may be transmitted
from antennas resulting in data rate multiplication.
With use of spatial multiplexing modulation symbols from the same layer may
be transmitted from several antennas simultaneously. By adjusting the phase
122
7.4 MIMO
of the modulation symbols transmitted from dierent antennas a constructive
interference may be achieved in desired direction. This technique is called
beamforming and it results in signal strength gain (beamforming gain).
With use of transmit diversity the same data stream may be transmitted twice
and in dierent directions resulting in reduced signal fading.
Figure 7.8: Multi antenna possibilities.

In the following sections, a general description of spatial multiplexing and transmit
diversity is provided.
7.4.1
Spatial multiplexing allows for transmission of dierent data streams simultaneously

on the same resource block(s) by exploiting the spatial dimension of the radio channel. These data streams can belong to (see Figure 7.9):
one single user Single User MIMO (SU-MIMO), which increases the
data rate of one user and it may be applied for DL, because UE may have
multiple receiving antennas.
dierent users Multi User MIMO (MU-MIMO), which allows for increase of the overall capacity and it may be applied in the UL, because UE
has only one transmit antenna.
Figure 7.9: SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO.

123

Figure 7.10 shows the principles of spatial multiplexing. In this figure, antennas
TX0 and TX1 transmit dierent modulation symbols x(0) and x(1) respectively1 .
The signal received by antenna RX0 is a sum of signals transmitted by antenna
TX0 and TX1. The signal transmitted by antenna TX0 is attenuated by pathloss
h00 between antenna TX0 and RX0, while the signal transmitted by antenna TX1
is attenuated by pathless h10 between antenna TX1 and RX0. In the same way, also
signal received by antenna RX1 comes from antenna TX0 and TX1, but the transmitted signals are attenuated by path losses h01 and h11 respectively, see equations
in Figure 7.10. The path losses are measured by UE thanks to reference signals. It
is important that when one of the antennas transmits its reference signals then all
others antennas are silent. This lets the UE antennas measure the pathloss to this
particular antenna.
Because all the path losses are known, as well as the measured signals z(0) and z(1) ,
the UE may solve the set of equations in Figure 7.10 for x(0) and x(1) . This is how the
UE is able to detect signals transmitted simultaneously from two antennas.
Figure 7.10: Spatial multiplexing principles.

Let us consider a system with more than two TX antennas. A signal from each
TX antenna can be considered as an unknown. Therefore the number of unknowns
is equal to the number of TX antennas. On the other hand, for each RX antenna
one equation may be created, so the number of equations is equal to the number of
receiving antennas. To be able to solve a set of equations the number of equations
must be equal to or more than the number of unknowns. Therefore having 4 TX
antennas (unknowns) we must also have 4 receiving antennas (equations). Having
one or two receiving antennas would not let the UE to detect all 4 transmitted
signals.
Each antenna may transmit dierent layer. In spatial multiplexing, the number of
layers used for the transmission is equal to the bit rate multiplication. In order to
achieve bit rate multiplication of 4, four layers must be transmitted simultaneously,
which requires four TX and four RX antennas.
rmax = min{number of TX antennas, number of RX antennas}
(7.6)
Spatial multiplexing is only possible if the radio channel allows for it. Depending on
the radio channel properties, it may be impossible to transmit 4 independent layers
1
This is one of the spatial multiplexing transmission type. The complex numbers may also be
weighted and added so, that each antenna actually transmits a combination of the symbols x(0) and
x(1) . This process is called precoding, see section 5.8.9.
124
7.4 MIMO
between the transmitter and receiver. In this case the number of layers used for the
transmission may be less then rmax .
In the DL, the UE estimates the spatial properties of the radio channel by measuring
the DL reference symbols from dierent antenna ports. This estimation is reported
to the eNB, so that the eNB can use an appropriate number of layers an make
optimal antenna mapping.
The report consists of CQI, Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI) and RI (for details
see section 7.5):
CQI indicates the channel quality and is used whether or not spatial multiplexing is used.
RI indicates the number of useful layers and it must be equal to or less then
the maximum number of layers.
RI rmax
(7.7)
The maximum number of layers depends on the number of TX and RX antennas.

PMI indicates the precoder matrix that the UE considers as the best (gives
the highest estimated Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SINR)).
7.4.2
Transmit diversity
Instead of increasing data rate or capacity, MIMO can be used to exploit diversity
and increase the robustness of data transmission. Transmit diversity schemes are
already known from WCDMA release 99 and are also a part of LTE. Each transmit
antenna transmits essentially the same stream of data, so the receiver gets replicas
of the same signal, see Figure 7.11. This increases the signal to noise ratio at
the receiver side and thus the robustness of data transmission especially in fading
scenarios. Typically an additional antenna-specific coding is applied to the signals
before transmission to increase the diversity eect. Often, space-time coding is
used.
Figure 7.11: Transmit diversity
7.4.3
Transmission modes
Switching between two MIMO transmission schemes of transmit diversity and spatial
multiplexing is possible depending on channel conditions as presented in Figure
125

7.12.
Figure 7.12: Transmission mode 3: spatial multiplexing with large delay CDD or
transmit diversity.
In order to support dierent transmission schemes as well as switching between
dierent transmission schemes, eight transmission modes have been defined by the
3GPP TS 36.213, which are presented in Table 7.2. A transmission mode can use
one or more transmission schemes. Typically, the transmission mode is set up at session establishment and does not changed during the session, while the transmission
scheme is dynamically decided every TTI.
7.4.4
MIMO antennas
The antennas used for MIMO should be uncorrelated. A suitable way of achieving
uncorrelated antenna elements is to use polarisation diversity. A cross-polarisation
antenna (XPol) is a common solution for 2x2 MIMO. Two cross-polarised antennas
(XXPol) are used for 4x4 MIMO, see Figure 7.13.
Figure 7.13: MIMO antenna solutions.

126
7.4 MIMO
Transmission
mode
DCI
format
1A
1
1A
1
1A
2A
1A
2
1A
1D
1A
1B
Search space
Transmission scheme of PDSCH
Common and
UE specific
UE specific
Common and
UE specific
UE specific
Common and
UE specific
UE specific
Single-antenna port, port 0
Common and
UE specific
UE specific
Common and
UE specific
UE specific
Common and
UE specific
UE specific
1A
Common and
UE specific
1
1A
UE specific
Common and
UE specific
2B
UE specific

Transmit diversity
Transmit diversity
Transmit diversity
Large delay CDD or Transmit diversity
Transmit diversity
Closed-loop spatial multiplexing or
Transmit diversity
Transmit diversity
Multi-user MIMO
Transmit diversity
Closed-loop spatial multiplexing with
a single transmission layer
If the number of PBCH antenna ports
is one, Single-antenna port, port 0;
otherwise Transmit diversity
If the number of PBCH antenna ports
is one, Single-antenna port, port 0;
otherwise Transmit diversity
Dual layer transmission, port 7 and 8
or Single-antenna port, port 7 or 8
Table 7.2: PDSCH transmission scheme.
127
7.5
UE reporting
The UE reporting is used to support optimal radio resource allocation for the downlink transmission towards UE. It means, the UE reporting is used by eNB to select:
Transport Format (TF) and
frequency subbands.
The UE report may include indicators presented in Figure 7.14:
Channel Quality Indicator (CQI), which is a measure of DL quality and
it is used by eNodeB to choose the optimal modulation and coding rate for
downlink transmission.
Rank Indicator (RI), which is the optimal number of layers for the DL
transmission for spatial multiplexing. For transmit diversity RI is equal to
one.
Precoding Matrix Indicator (PMI), which is used for precoding matrix
selection when operating with MIMO.
Figure 7.14: UE reporting.

The time and frequency resources that can be used by the UE to report CQI, PMI,
and RI are controlled by the eNB. The UE reporting is periodic or aperiodic.
Periodic CQI/PMI, or RI reports are send by UE on PUCCH or PUSCH if
it collides in time domain with PUCCH.
Aperiodic CQI/PMI, and RI reports are transmitted by UE on PUSCH if
the conditions specified hereafter are met. For aperiodic CQI reporting, RI reporting is transmitted only if configured CQI/PMI/RI feedback type supports
RI reporting.
Regarding the reported frequency band the CQI reporting is of two kinds:
Frequency non-selective. One CQI value is reported by the UE for the
whole frequency band.
128
7.5 UE reporting
Frequency selective. UE provides several CQI values, one for each sub band
of the carrier. Frequency selective reporting is used for channel dependent
scheduling and it is always aperiodic and transmitted on PUSCH only, see
also Table 7.3.
Scheduling mode
Periodic CQI
Aperiodic CQI
reporting channels reporting channels
Frequency non-selective
Frequency selective
PUCCH
PUCCH
PUSCH
Table 7.3: Physical Channels for Aperiodic or Periodic CQI reporting.

The reporting described in this section is not used for the best cell selection or
handover, as dierent event triggered reporting of Reference Signal Received Power
(RSRP) and Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) is specified to support UE
mobility.
7.5.1
CQI definition
In Table 7.4 a list of 4-bit CQIs corresponding to the 16 possible combinations of

modulation scheme and code rate is shown, which is specified by 3GPP TS 36.213.
As can be seen in this table, CQI = 1 refers to the most robust transmission parameters i.e. QPSK as modulation scheme and the lowest code rate of 78 user
information symbols for 1024 transmitted symbols, which is selected for the worst
channel quality.
With increasing channel quality, higher order modulation schemes and higher code
rates can be selected. The highest order of modulation and highest code rate, which
can be selected are 64QAM and code rate of 948/1024 = 0.93 respectively and
correspond to a CQI value of 15.
Depending on the SINR a the biggest CQI value is selected, which ensures that the
Block Error Rate (BLER) is less than 0.1.
7.5.2
Aperiodic CQI/PMI/RI reporting using PUSCH
A UE performs aperiodic CQI, PMI and RI reporting using the PUSCH upon receiving a DCI format 0 or a Random Access Response Grant, if the respective CQI
request field is set to 1 and is not reserved.
The possible reporting modes on the PUSCH are presented in Table 7.5. For each
of the transmission modes, see Table 7.2, only some of the the reporting modes are
supported as specified in Table 7.6. The aperiodic CQI reporting mode, which UE
should use is given by the parameter cqi-ReportModeAperiodic.
The UE may be configured to report one CQI value for the whole carrier band (so
called wideband CQI) or to divide the whole carrier band into several sub bands and
provide one CQI value for each band (subband reporting). The subband reporting
may be of two dierent kinds:
129
CQI index
Modulation
Code rate x 1024

out of range
78
120
193
308
449
602
Eciency
(information bits
(per symbol)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
QPSK
QPSK
QPSK
QPSK
QPSK
QPSK
7
8
9
16QAM
16QAM
16QAM
378
490
616
1.4766
1.9141
2.4063
10
11
12
13
14
15
64QAM
64QAM
64QAM
64QAM
64QAM
64QAM
466
567
666
772
873
948
2.7305
3.3223
3.9023
4.5234
5.1152
5.5547
0.1523
0.2344
0.3770
0.6016
0.8770
1.1758
Table 7.4: 4-bit CQI Table.
PMI Feedback Type

No PMI Single PMI Multiple PMI
PUSCH
CQI
Feedback
Type
Wideband
(wideband CQI)
UE Selected
(subband CQI)
Higher Layer configured
(subband CQI)
Mode 1-2
Mode 2-0
Mode 3-0
Mode 2-2
Mode 3-1
Table 7.5: CQI and PMI Feedback Types for PUSCH reporting modes.
130
7.5 UE reporting
Transmission
mode
Reporting
mode
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
2-0, 3-0
2-0, 3-0
2-0, 3-0
1-2, 2-2, 3-1
3-1
1-2, 2-2, 3-1
2-0, 3-0
1-1, 2-2, 3-1
if the UE is configured
with PMI/RI reporting
2-0, 3-0
without PMI/RI reporting
Table 7.6: PUSCH reporting modes for dierent transmission modes.

Higher layer-configured subband feedback,
UE selected subband feedback.
In both cases a wideband average is computed and used as a reference. In addition,
M subbands (M could be fixed or configured) of size k (see Table 7.7) are selected
and encoded dierentially using two bits relative to the wide-band average.
In the case UE selected subband feedback the UE selects M subbands to report. The
UE internal procedure to select subbands is not specified but the selected subbands
should correspond to the highest CQI values. The subbands selected by UE are
N
) bits.
signalled using L = log2 ( M
System
Bandwidth
DL
NRB
Higher layer-configured
Subband size k
[RB]
6-7
8-10
11-26
27-63
64-110
N/A
4
4
6
8
UE-selected
Subband size k
M
[RB]
N/A
2
2
3
4
N/A
1
3
5
6
Table 7.7: Subband size (k) vs. System Bandwidth.
7.5.3
Periodic CQI/PMI/RI reporting using PUCCH
A UE is semi-statically configured by higher layers to periodically feed back dierent

CQI, PMI, and RI on the PUCCH using the reporting modes given in Table 7.8 and
described below.
131

PMI Feedback Type
No PMI Single PMI
PUCCH
CQI
Feedback
Type
Wideband
(wideband CQI)
UE Selected
(subband CQI)
Mode 1-0
Mode 1-1
Mode 2-0
Mode 2-1
Table 7.8: CQI and PMI Feedback Types for PUCCH reporting modes.
For each of the transmission modes defined in Table 7.2, the reporting modes specified in Table 7.9 are supported on PUCCH. The periodic CQI reporting mode is
given by the parameter cqi-FormatIndicatorPeriodic, which is configured by higherlayer signalling.
The periodicity of the QCI/PMI reporting is defined by the parameter cqi-PUCCHResourceIndex (TS 36.331) and can be set between 2 ms to 160 ms for FDD (TS
36.213). The periodicity of RI reporting is set by the parameter ri-ConfigIndex and
can be set between 1 to 32 ms.
Transmission
mode
Reporting
mode
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1-0, 2-0
1-0, 2-0
1-0, 2-0
1-1, 2-1
1-1, 2-1
1-1, 2-1
1-0, 2-0
1-1, 2-1
with PMI/RI reporting
1-0, 2-0
without PMI/RI reporting
Table 7.9: PUCCH reporting modes for dierent transmission modes.
7.6
Modulation order and transport block size determination
The DL Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) is selected by eNB. The eNB
decision may be based on CQI feedback and buer content. The eNB algorithm used
for modulation and transport block size determination is often referred to as LA.
Rapid interference variations make it dicult to predict the link quality accurately,
and select MCS based on such knowledge. Therefore, decision which MCS to used
132
7.6 Modulation order and transport block size determination

is based on averaged link quality and next adjusted depending if the objective is to
provide high throughput or low delay:
If the objective is to provide low delay (few retransmissions), a margin to
the interference variations can be included. This however leads to limited
throughput, as often an unnecessary robust MCS is used.
To reach high throughput, a low margin (even negative) is used. This will
instead lead to a larger number of retransmissions, and hence a larger delay.
The risk of throughput loss or large delays in case of negative margins is
reduced by the use of incremental redundancy for retransmissions.
7.6.1
Modulation determination
The eNB decision, which modulation and coding is used for the PDSCH, is communicated to the UE by the 5-bitmodulation and coding scheme field IMCS in the
DCI presented in Table 7.10.
7.6.2
Transport block size determination
The Transport Blok Size (TBS), that is the number user bits in the transport block,
is determined depending on the value of IMCS in the following way:
For 0 IMCS 28 the UE determines the TBS index ITBS using Table 7.10.
For transport blocks not mapped to two-layer spatial multiplexing, the
TBS is given by the (ITBS , NPRB ) entry of Table 7.11.
For transport block mapped to two-layer spatial multiplexing:
for 1 NPRB 55, the TBS is given by the (ITBS , 2NPRB ) entry
of Table 7.11. It means that the transport block is twice as much
as in case of one-layer spatial multiplexing, transmit diversity or no
MIMO.
for 56 NPRB 110 there is dierent way of deriving the TBS.
It results in the TBS a little less then twice as much as in case of
one-layer spatial multiplexing, transmit diversity or no MIMO.
For 29 IMCS 31, the TBS is assumed to be as determined from DCI
transported in the latest PDCCH for the same transport block using 0
IMCS 28.
For example, if the IMCS = 28 and NPRB = 100 then from Table 7.10 the ITBS = 26
and from Table 7.11 the TBS = 75376 bits. It means that the transport block will
be sent over 100 RBs and will contains 75376 user data bits. Taking into account
that the transport block transmission time is 1 ms, the momentary MAC layer user
bit
throughput will be 75376
75 Mbps and it is the maximum possible throughput
1 ms
per one layer in LTE. In two layer spatial multiplexing the throughput will be twice
bigger, that is 300 Mbps.
133
MSC index
IMCS
Modulation order
Qm
TBS index
ITBS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
2
4
6
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
reserved
Table 7.10: Modulation and TBS index table for PDSCH.
134
7.6 Modulation order and transport block size determination
ITBS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
NPRB
6
16
24
32
40
56
72
328
104
120
136
144
176
208
224
256
280
328
336
376
408
440
488
520
552
584
616
712
32
56
72
104
120
144
176
224
256
296
328
376
440
488
552
600
632
696
776
840
904
1000
1064
1128
1192
1256
1480
56
88
144
176
208
224
256
328
392
456
504
584
680
744
840
904
968
1064
1160
1288
1384
1480
1608
1736
1800
1864
2216
88
144
176
208
256
328
392
472
536
616
680
776
904
1000
1128
1224
1288
1416
1544
1736
1864
1992
2152
2280
2408
2536
2984
120
176
208
256
328
424
504
584
680
776
872
1000
1128
1256
1416
1544
1608
1800
1992
2152
2344
2472
2664
2856
2984
3112
3752
152
208
256
328
408
504
600
712
808
936
1032
1192
1352
1544
1736
1800
1928
2152
2344
2600
2792
2984
3240
3496
3624
3752
4392
98
99
100
176
224
296
392
488
600
712
840
968
1096
1224
1384
1608
1800
1992
2152
2280
2536
2792
2984
3240
3496
3752
4008
4264
4392
5160
2728
3624
4392
5736
6968
8760
10296
11832
13536
15264
16992
19848
22152
25456
28336
30576
31704
35160
39232
42368
45352
48936
52752
57336
59256
61664
73712
2728
3624
4392
5736
6968
8760
10296
12216
14112
15840
17568
19848
22920
25456
28336
30576
31704
35160
39232
42368
46888
48936
52752
57336
61664
63776
73712
2792
3624
4584
5736
7224
8760
10296
12216
14112
15840
17568
19848
22920
25456
28336
30576
32856
36696
39232
43816
46888
51024
55056
57336
61664
63776
75376
Table 7.11: Transport block size table.
135
7.7
UL power control
The 3GPP TS 36.213 specifies algorithms of power control on PUCCH and PUSCH.
Both algorithms are similar. The standard specifies open loop and closed loop power
control algorithms for PUCCH and PUSCH:
In open loop power control the UE calculates the output power based on downlink measurements and controlling parameters sent by eNB, see Figure 7.15.
Figure 7.15: Open loop power control.

In closed loop power control additional correction of the open loop power control algorithm is provided to the UE. The correction provided by eNB indicates
if the UE should increase or decrease its transmit power compared to the open
loop algorithm, see Figure 7.16.
Figure 7.16: Closed loop power control.
7.7.1
PUSCH power control
The UE calculates its output, which will transmit in a subframe i, on the bases of
the below formula. The formula is common for open loop and closed loop power
control. The dierence is, that in closed loop power control the eNB provides the
136
7.7 UL power control

UE with a Transmit Power Control (TPC) command that includes PUSCH . The
PUSCH is used to calculate the closed loop power adjustment f (i):
PPUSCH (i) = min{PCMAX ,
(7.8)
10 log10 (MPUSCH (i)) + P0 PUSCH (j) + (j) P L + TF (i) + f (i)} [dBm]
where,
PCMAX is the maximum allowed power by the terminal and depends on the
UE power class,
MPUSCH (i) is the bandwidth of the PUSCH resource assignment expressed in
number of resource blocks valid for subframe i.
P0 PUSCH (j) is the parameter composed of the sum of a cell specific nominal
component P0 NOMINAL PUSCH (j) sent in the SIB2 for j = 0 and 1 and a UE
specific component P0 UE PUSCH (j) sent in dedicated signalling for layers for
j = 0 and 1.
For PUSCH (re)transmissions corresponding to a semi-persistent grant
then j = 0.
For PUSCH (re)transmissions corresponding to a dynamic scheduled grant
then j = 1.
For PUSCH (re)transmissions corresponding to the random access response grant then j = 2 and:
P0 UE PUSCH (2) = 0
P0 NOMINAL PUSCH (2) = P0 PRE + P REAM BLE
M sg3 ,
(7.9)
where the parameter

PREAMBLE INITIAL RECEIVED TARGET POWER (P0 PRE )
and P REAM BLE M sg3 are signalled from higher layers.
is the pathloss compensation factor.
For j = 0 or 1, {0, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1} is a 3-bit cell specific parameter sent in SIB2.
For j = 2, = 0.
P L is the downlink pathloss estimate calculated in the UE in dB and
P L = ref erenceSignalP ower higher layer filtered RSRP,
where ref erenceSignalP ower is transmitted in SIB2.
FT (i) is the Transport Format dependent compensation oset. The value of
the oset depends on the UE specific parameter deltaM CS-Enabled provided
by higher layers.
f (i) is the current closed loop PUSCH power control adjustment. There are
two methods of the power control adjustments: accumulated and absolute.
User specific parameter Accumulation-enabled informs the UE which one to
use. In both cases the power control adjustment f (i) depends on the UE
specific correction value PUSCH , also referred to as TPC command. The TPC
command is transmitted on PDCCH and is used to calculate the power control
137

adjustment dierently for accumulated and absolute method:
f (i) = f (i 1) + PUSCH (i KP U SCH )
f (i) = PUSCH (i KP U SCH )
for accumulated
for absolute
(7.10)
KP U SCH is equal 4 for FDD and for TDD is equal 4, 6 or 7 depending

on the UL/DL TDD configuration.
PUSCH is the TPC command given in dB. PUSCH values are signalled
on the PDCCH with DCI format 0 or jointly coded with other TPC
commands in PDCCH with DCI format 3/3A whose CRC parity bits are
scrambled with TPC-PUSCH-RNTI. The PUSCH values signalled on the
PDCCH with DCI format 0 are given in Table 7.12. The PUSCH values
signalled on the PDCCH with 3/3A are one of SET1 given in Table 7.12
or SET2 given in Table 7.13 as determined by the parameter TCP-Index
provided by higher layers.
TCP Command Field
in DCI format 0/3
Accumulated
PUSCH [dB]
Absolute
PUSCH [dB]
only DCI format 0
0
1
2
3
-1
0
1
3
-4
-1
1
4
Table 7.12: Mapping of TPC Command Field in DCI format 0/3 to absolute and
accumulated PUSCH values.
TCP Command Field
in DCI format 3A
Accumulated
PUSCH
0
1
-1
1
Table 7.13: Mapping of TPC Command Field in DCI format 3A to accumulated

PUSCH values.
In the accumulated mode:
If UE has reached maximum power, positive TPC commands are not accumulated.
If UE has reached minimum power, negative TPC commands shall not accumulated.
UE reset accumulation:
when P0 UE PUSCH value is changed by higher layers.
when UE receives random access response.
In the absolute mode:
f (i) = f (i1) for a subframe where no PDCCH with DCI format 0 is decoded.
138

For both accumulated and absolute method the first value is set as follows:
f (0) = 0
f (0) = Prampup + msg2
if P0 UE PUSCH value is changed

other cases
(7.11)
msg2 is the TPC command indicated in the random access response,

rampup is provided by higher layers and corresponds to the total power rampup from the first to the last preamble.
Figures 7.17 and 7.18 present accumulated and absolute closed loop power control
adjustment.
Figure 7.17: Accumulated method of the closed loop power control adjustment.
Figure 7.18: Absolute method of the closed loop power control adjustment.
7.7.2
PUSCH power control example
Figure 7.19 illustrates the open loop power control for the path loss compensation
parameter = 1 (full path loss compensation). For = 1 then drop of the RSRP
by 10 dB, results in increase of the UE transmit power by 10 dB. This UE power
increase fully compensate the path loss increase and leads to constant P SDRX at
139

the eNB in accordance to the setting of the parameter P0 PUSCH = 109 dBm.
But for far enough distance UE reaches its maximum transmit power and it cannot
anymore compensate the path loss increase. In this example it happens for the
RSRP equal to 117 dBm. Therefore, when the UE moves further from the eNB
and RSRP drops below 117 dBm, the P SDRX at the eNB drops below the design
threshold P0 PUSCH = 109 dBm resulting in throughput reduction. It should also
be noted, that, as long as the P SDRX at the eNB is equal to the design threshold
P0 PUSCH = 109, the UE UL throughput is constant regardless of the UE location
in a cell.
Figure 7.19: Transmitted power and signal at eNB as a function of the RSRP
for the following parameters setting: PCMAX = 23 dBm, MPUSCH = 1, P0 PUSCH =
109 dBm, = 1, ref erenceSignalP ower = 15 dBm.
Figure 7.20 shows dependence of P SDRX and the TBS on the number of allocated
RBs to the UE. For low number of allocated RBs the UE is able to keep required
target P SDRX in accordance with the parameter P0 PUSCH = 109 dBm. To do so,
the UE must transmit more power when more RBs are allocated to it. Therefore
the transmitted power of the UE grows linearly with the number of allocated RB.
Accordance to the power control algorithm, UE transmits the same power for each
RB. Because the target P SDRX is achieved the same coding and modulation is used
and the TBS (that is also throughput) grows linearly with the number of allocated
RBs.
At some number of RBs the maximum power of the UE is achieved and the UE cannot further increase its power. Therefore the output power of the UE is distributed
evenly between the transmitted RBs leading to the power per RB below the target
P SDRX . To handle lower signal-to-interference ratio at the eNB, the eNBs link
140

adaptation algorithm decides about more robust coding or modulation to be used
by UE for the UL transmission. TBS still grows due to more RBs allocated, but
due to more robust coding and modulation the grow is less then linear.
Figure 7.20: The target P SDRX and the TBS.
P0 PUSCH
In this example the parameter P0 PUSCH = 109 dBm. This section show the process
of the parameters calculation.
The throughput depends on the bandwidth, which is used for the signal transmission, and SINR. Stronger the signal above noise and interference level, bigger the
throughput. This theoretical relation is know as Snannon theorem:
T hroughput = B log2 (1 + SINR),
(7.12)
where B is the bandwidth used for the transition.

Let us assume that the wanted UL SINR, which provides satisfactory throughput,
is SINRUL = 2 dB and the expected UL noise rise due to UEs transmitting in
neighbouring cells is Imarg,UL = 12 dB. With these assumptions, and also assuming
a typical noise figure of the eNB, the minimum value of P0 PUSCH can be calculated
as presented in Table 7.14.
141

No.
Element
1
2
3
4
5
Value
Boltzmann constant, k
Temperature, T
Thermal noise power density, kT
Bandwidth, BRB
eNB noise figure, Nf
)
(
BRB
Thermal noise, NRB,UL = 10 log kT1 mW
+ Nf
7
8
9
Interference margin, Imarg,UL

SINRUL
SeNB = NRB,UL + Imarg,UL + SINRUL
10
P0 PUSCH SeNB
1.38061023 J/K
290 K
4.00 1021 J
180000 Hz
5 dB
-119.4 dBm
12 dB
-2 dB
-109.4 dBm
-109 dBm
Table 7.14: P0 PUSCH calculation.
ref erenceSignalP ower

In this example the parameter and the ref erenceSignalP ower = 15 dBm. This
sections shows the process of the parameter calculation.
No.
Element
Value
1
2
3
eNB transmit power, PeNB

Number of RBs in the carrier bandwidth, NRB
Antenna feeder loss, Lf
40 W
50 RB
3 dB
RB )
ref erenceSignalP ower = 10 log PeNB1/(12N
Lf
mW
Table 7.15: ref erenceSignalP ower calculation.
142
15 dBm
8 LTE mobility
This chapter describes UE mobility in LTE with a focus on the algorithms, that are
used to choose the best cell to serve the UE.
In the RRC IDLE the cell selection algorithm S and cell reselection algorithm R are
used by the UE to choose a cell. Also the PLMN selection algorithm is presented in
this chapter.
In RRC CONNECTED the eNB chooses a cell, but its decision is supported by
the UE measurements. The UE measurement reports are triggered by events. For
example, the UE may send a measurement report when it finds a neighbouring cell
that is better than serving. This event may be used by the eNB to trigger a handover
to the reported better neighbouring cell. This chapter also presents a flow graph of
the handover process.
8.1
Idle mode mobility
In idle mode (RRC IDLE) the UE has no connection to the radio network, i.e.
no RRC connection is established. The purpose of keeping UE in idle mode is to
minimise the resource usage both for the UE and for the network. Yet the UE should
still be able to access the system and be reached by the system with acceptable
delays.
In idle mode the UE:
Monitors system information, that system and cell specific parameters transmitted to all UEs in a cell.
Selects the PLMN.
Selects a suitable cell of the selected PLMN to camp on by using the cell
selection algorithm.
After the cell selection the UE attaches and registers to the CN supported by
the PLMN. This process is called location registration.
Performs cell reselection based on radio measurements. Cell reselection makes
sure that the UE is always camping on the cell that gives the highest probability for successful establishment of a connection. The cell reselection process
may imply a change of the RAT i.e. (GSM/ GPRS/WCDMA/CDMA2000
LTE).
Monitors paging.
143
8 LTE mobility
May initiate a connection by sending random access.
Figure 8.1 illustrates relation between PLMN selection, cell selection and reselection
and location registration according to the TS 36.304.
Figure 8.1: Overall idle mode process.
8.1.1
PLMN selection
The PLMN selection process aims at finding an operator, where the UE can find a
suitable cell and access available services. The PLMN selection process is described
in TS 22.011.
The following concepts are use in the PLMN selection process:
PLMN selector lists.
Equivalent HPLMN (EHPLMN).
Forbidden TAs or LAs lists.
The above concepts are explained in the next sections and next the actual PLMN
selection algorithm is described.
PLMN selector lists

There are two PLMN priority lists stored on the Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM):
Operator Controlled PLMN Selector list.
User Controlled PLMN Selector list.
Both PLMN selector lists may contain a list of preferred PLMNs in priority order. It
shall be possible to have an associated access technology identifier e.g., E-UTRAN,
144
8.1 Idle mode mobility

UTRAN, or GERAN associated with each entry in the PLMN selector lists. A
PLMN in a selector list may have multiple occurrences with dierent access technology identifiers. The UE ignores those PLMN + access technology entries in the
PLMN selector lists where the associated access technology is not supported by the
UE.
EHPLMN
It shall be possible to handle cases where one network operator accepts access from
access networks with dierent network IDs. It shall also be possible to indicate to
the UE that a group of PLMNs are equivalent to the registered PLMN regarding
PLMN selection, cell selection/reselection and handover.
It shall be possible for the home network operator to identify alternative network
IDs as the Home PLMN (HPLMN). It shall be possible for the home network
operator to store in the USIM an indication to the UE that a group of PLMNs are
treated as the HPLMN regarding PLMN selection. Any PLMN to be declared as an
equivalent to the HPLMN shall be present within the EHPLMN list and is called an
EHPLMN. The EHPLMN list replaces the HPLMN derived from the International
Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI). When the EHPLMN list is present, any PLMN
in this list shall be treated as the HPLMN in all the network and cell selection
procedures.
Forbidden TAs and LAs for roaming

When a registration attempt by the UE is rejected by a network, the UE stores the
tracking area identity or the location area identity in the list of forbidden TAs or
LAs for roaming respectively. The lists of forbidden TAs and LAs are maintained
in the UE to avoid unnecessary registration attempts.
PLMN selection algorithm

Depending on the user setting the UE follows one of the following procedures for
network selection:
Automatic network selection mode.
The default behaviour for a UE is to select the last registered PLMN.
As an alternative option to this, if the UE is in automatic network selection
mode and it finds coverage of the HPLMN or any EHPLMN, the UE may
register on the HPLMN (if the EHPLMN list is not present) or the highest
priority EHPLMN of the available EHPLMNs (if the EHPLMN list is present)
and not return to the last registered PLMN. If the EHPLMN list is present
and not empty, it shall be used. The operator shall be able to control by
USIM configuration whether an UE that supports this option shall follow this
alternative behaviour.
The UE selects and attempts registration on other PLMNs, if available and
allowable, if the location area is not in the list of forbidden LAs for roaming
and the tracking area is not in the list of forbidden TAs for roaming, in the
following order, which is also illustrated in Figure 8.2:
145
8 LTE mobility
1. An EHPLMN, if the EHPLMN list is present, or the HPLMN (derived
from the IMSI), if the EHPLMN list is not present for preferred access
technologies, in the order specified. In the case that there are multiple
EHPLMNs present then the highest priority EHPLMN shall be selected.
2. Each entry in the User Controlled PLMN Selector list with access
technology data field in the SIM/USIM (in priority order).
3. Each entry in the Operator Controlled PLMN Selector list with
access technology data field in the SIM/USIM (in priority order).
4. Other PLMN/access technology combinations with sucient received
signal quality in random order. A PLMN is considered to have sufficient received signal quality if:
for LTE cell: RSRP 110 dBm (TS 36.304),
for WCDMA FDD cell: RSCP 95 dBm (TS 25.304),
for WCDMA TDD cell: RSCP 84 dBm (TS 25.304),
for GSM cell: rxlev > 85 dBm (TS 43.022).
5. All other PLMN/access technology combinations in order of decreasing signal quality.
Manual network selection mode.
1. A registered PLMN is selected if available.
2. A list of available PLMNs is presented to a user and the user selects one
of the PLMNs manually. If the registration cannot be achieved on the
selected PLMN, the UE shall indicate No Service. The user may then
select and attempt to register on another or the same PLMN.
Once the UE has selected a PLMN, the cell selection procedure shall be performed
in order to select a suitable cell of that PLMN to camp on.
8.1.2
Cell selection
After a UE has switched on and a PLMN has been selected, the cell selection process
takes place. This process allows the UE to select a suitable cell where to camp on in
order to access available services. In this process the UE can use stored information
(stored information cell selection) or not (initial cell selection).
Description
To select a cell the UE uses one of the following two cell selection procedures:
1. Initial cell selection.
This procedure requires no prior knowledge of which RF channels are Evolved
Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) carriers. The UE shall scan
all RF channels in the E-UTRA bands according to its capabilities to find
a suitable cell. On each carrier frequency, the UE need only search for the
strongest cell. Once a suitable cell is found this cell shall be selected.
146
Figure 8.2: Automatic PLMN selection process.
147
8 LTE mobility
2. Stored information cell selection.
This procedure requires stored information of carrier frequencies and optionally
also information on cell parameters, from previously received measurement
control information elements or from previously detected cells. Once the UE
has found a suitable cell the UE shall select it. If no suitable cell is found the
initial cell selection procedure shall be started.
NOTE: Priorities between dierent frequencies or RATs provided to the UE by
system information or dedicated signalling are not used in the cell selection process.
Cell selection criterion

The cell selection criterion S is fulfilled when:
S>0
(8.1)
where
S = Qmeas,s (q-RxLevMin + q-RxLevMinOset) Pcompensation
(8.2)
where
S
cell selection level value [dB].
Qmeas,s
measured cell RX level value RSRP [dBm].
q-RxLevMin
minimum required RX level [dBm] in the cell sent in SIB1

(Table A.2).
q-RxLevMinOset oset [dB] to the signalled q-RxLevMin taken into account in

the Srxlev evaluation as a result of a periodic search for a
higher priority PLMN while camped normally in a VPLMN.
Sent in SIB1 (Table A.2).
Pcompensation =
max(p-Max PPowerClass , 0) [dB].
p-Max
maximum TX power level [dBm] an UE may use when transmitting on the uplink in the cell. The parameter is sent in
SIB1 (Table A.2).
PPowerClass
maximum RF output power of the UE according to the UE

power class [dBm].
8.1.3
Cell reselection
Following rules are used by the UE to limit needed measurements:

If the cell parameter S-IntraSearch is sent in the SIB3 of the serving cell and
Ss > S-IntraSearch, UE may choose to not perform intra-frequency measurements.
If Ss S-IntraSearch, or S-IntraSearch is not sent in the serving cell UE shall
perform intra-frequency measurements.
The Ss is the S value of the serving cell as specified by formula 8.2.
148
Cell reselection criteria

The reselection criterion discussed in this section applies for:
Intra-frequency cell re-election.
Equal priority inter-frequency cell reselection.
All cells that fulfill the cell selection criterion S (formula 8.1) are ranked according
to the R criteria specified as follows:
Rs = Qmesa,s + q-Hyst
Rn = Qmesa,n Qoset
(8.3)
Rs
ranking criteria for serving cell [dBm].
Rn
ranking criteria for neighbouring cell [dBm].
Qmeas,s
averaged measured RSRP value for serving cell [dBm].
Qmeas,n
averaged measured RSRP value for neighbouring cell [dBm].
q-Hyst
cell reselection hysteresis parameter [dB] broadcast in the SIB3

of the serving cell (Table A.4).
{
q-OsetCells,n
q-OsetFreq + q-OsetCells,n
Qoset =
for intra LTE frequency neighbour

for inter LTE frequency neighbour
(8.4)
q-OsetCells,n
neighbour relation specific oset [dB] sent in SIB4 for intra

LTE frequency neighbouring cells (Table A.5) and in SIB5 for
inter LTE frequency neighbouring cells (Table A.6).
q-OsetFreq
frequency specific oset [dB] for equal priority E-UTRAN frequencies sent in SIB5 (Table A.6).
The UE reselects the new cell, if the cell reselection criteria are fulfilled during the
time interval t-ReselectionEUTRA, which is illustrated in Figure 8.3.
Mobility states of UE
Besides normal mobility state a high mobility state and a medium mobility state are
applicable. Reduced value of q-Hyst and t-ReselectionEUTRA are applied for UE in
high or medium mobility state, which result in earlier reselections compared to the
normal mobility state:
High mobility state. UE enters high mobility state if number of cell reselections during time period t-Evaluation exceeds n-CellChangeHigh.
Hysteresis and reselection time for high mobility state:
q-Hyst + q-HystSF(sf-High)
t-ReselectionEUTRA t-ReselectionEUTRA-SF(sf-High)
149
(8.5)
8 LTE mobility
Figure 8.3: Cell reselection criterion.

Medium mobility state. UE enters medium mobility stets if number of cell
reselections during time period t-Evaluation exceeds n-CellChangeMedium and
not exceeds n-CellChangeHigh.
Hysteresis and reselection time for medium mobility state:
q-Hyst + q-HystSF(sf-Medium)
t-ReselectionEUTRA t-ReselectionEUTRA-SF(sf-Medium)
(8.6)
q-HystSF and t-ReselectionEUTRA-SF are transmitted in the SIB3 of the serving cell (see Table A.4).
8.2
Connected mode mobility
In RRC CONNECTED, the eNB controls UE mobility, i.e. the eNB decides when
the UE shall move to which cell (which may be on another frequency or RAT).
For network controlled mobility in RRC CONNECTED, handover is the only procedure that is defined. The eNB triggers the handover procedure e.g. based on radio
conditions and load.
There are two cases of EPS handovers:
X2 handover.
The HO procedure is performed without EPC involvement, i.e. preparation
messages are directly exchanged between the eNBs. The release of the resources at the source side during the HO completion phase is triggered by the
eNB.
S1 handover.
150
8.2 Connected mode mobility

The HO procedure is performed with MME involvement. The MME and S-GW
may be reallocated.
8.2.1
X2 handover
The Figure 8.4 depicts the basic handover scenario where neither MME nor S-GW
changes (TS 36.300):
Figure 8.4: X2 handover.

1. To facilitate the handover decision the source eNB configures the UE to perform measurement reporting.
2. UE is triggered to send MEASUREMENT REPORT by the rules set by
i.e. system information, specification etc.
3. Source eNB makes decision based on MEASUREMENT REPORT and RRM
information to hand o UE. The network may also initiate handover blindly,
i.e. without having received measurement reports from the UE.
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8 LTE mobility
4. The source eNB issues a HANDOVER REQUEST message to the target eNB
passing necessary information to prepare the HO at the target side (UE X2
signalling context reference at source eNB, UE S1 EPC signalling context
reference, target cell ID, KeNB , RRC context including the C-RNTI of the UE
in the source eNB, AS-configuration, E-RAB context and physical layer ID of
the source cell + MAC for possible Radio Link Failure (RLF) recovery). UE
X2/UE S1 signalling references enable the target eNB to address the source
eNB and the EPC. The E-RAB context includes necessary Radio Network
Layer (RNL) and Transport Network Layer (TNL) addressing information,
and QoS profiles of the E-RABs.
5. Admission Control may be performed by the target eNB depending on the
received E-RAB QoS information. The target eNB configures the required
resources according to the received E-RAB QoS information and reserves a
C-RNTI and optionally a RACH preamble.
6. Target eNB prepares HO with L1/L2 and sends the HANDOVER REQUEST
ACKNOWLEDGE to the source eNB. The HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message includes a transparent container to be sent to the
UE as an RRC message to perform the handover. The container includes a
new C-RNTI, target eNB security algorithm identifiers for the selected security
algorithms, may include a dedicated RACH preamble, and possibly some other
parameters i.e. access parameters, SIBs, etc. The HANDOVER REQUEST
ACKNOWLEDGE message may also include RNL/TNL information for the
forwarding tunnels, if necessary.
NOTE: As soon as the source eNB receives the HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE, or as soon as the transmission of the handover command
is initiated in the downlink, data forwarding may be initiated.
7. The target eNB generates the RRC message to perform the handover, i.e RRCConnectionReconfiguration message including the mobilityControlInformation,
to be sent by the source eNB towards the UE. The UE does not need to delay
the handover execution for delivering the HARQ/ARQ responses to source
eNB.
8. The source eNB sends the SN STATUS TRANSFER message to the target
eNB to convey the uplink PDCP Sequence Number (SN) receiver status and
the downlink PDCP SN transmitter status of E-RABs for which PDCP status
preservation applies (i.e. for RLC AM). The uplink PDCP SN receiver status
includes at least the PDCP SN of the first missing UL SDU and may include
a bit map of the receive status of the out of sequence UL SDUs that the
UE needs to retransmit in the target cell, if there are any such SDUs. The
downlink PDCP SN transmitter status indicates the next PDCP SN that the
target eNB shall assign to new SDUs, not having a PDCP SN yet. The source
eNB may omit sending this message if none of the E-RABs of the UE shall be
treated with PDCP status preservation.
9. After receiving the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message including the mobilityControlInformation, UE performs synchronisation to target eNB and accesses the target cell via RACH, following a contention-free procedure if a
dedicated RACH preamble was indicated in the mobilityControlInformation,
152

or following a contention-based procedure if no dedicated preamble was indicated. UE derives target eNB specific keys and configures the selected security
algorithms to be used in the target cell.
10. The target eNB responds with UL allocation and timing advance.
11. When the UE has successfully accessed the target cell, the UE sends the RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message (C-RNTI) to confirm the handover, along with an uplink Buer Status Report, whenever possible, to the
target eNB to indicate that the handover procedure is completed for the UE.
The target eNB verifies the C-RNTI sent in the RRCConnectionReconfigurationComplete message. The target eNB can now begin sending data to the
UE.
12. The target eNB sends a PATH SWITCH message to MME to inform that the
UE has changed cell. Observe, that so far the handover process was carried
out without interaction with MME and S-GW.
13. The MME sends an UPDATE USER PLANE REQUEST message to the
S-GW.
14. The S-GW switches the downlink data path to the target side. The S-GW
sends one or more end marker packets on the old path to the source eNB
and then can release any UP/TNL resources towards the source eNB.
15. Serving Gateway sends an UPDATE USER PLANE RESPONSE message to
MME.
16. The MME confirms the PATH SWITCH message with the PATH SWITCH
ACKNOWLEDGE message.
17. By sending UE CONTEXT RELEASE, the target eNB informs success of HO
to source eNB.
18. Upon reception of the UE CONTEXT RELEASE message, the source eNB
can release radio and CP related resources associated to the UE context. Any
ongoing data forwarding may continue.
8.2.2
Event triggered reporting
The UE reports measurement information in accordance with the measurement configuration as provided by the eNB. eNB provides the measurement configuration applicable for a UE in RRC CONNECTED by means of dedicated signalling, i.e. using
the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message, which is step 1 in Figure 8.4.
The UE can be requested to perform the following types of measurements (TS
36.331):
Intra frequency measurements: measurements at the downlink carrier frequency of the serving cell.
Inter frequency measurements: measurements at frequencies that dier from
the downlink carrier frequency of the serving cell.
Inter RAT measurements of UTRAN frequencies.
153
8 LTE mobility
Inter RAT measurements of GERAN frequencies.
Inter RAT measurements of CDMA2000 High Rate Packet Data (HRPD) or
CDMA2000 1x Radio Transmission Technology (1xRTT) frequencies.
The measurement configuration includes the following parameters (TS 36.331):
1. Measurement objects: The objects on which the UE shall perform the
measurements.
For intra frequency and inter frequency measurements a measurement
object is a single E-UTRAN carrier frequency. Associated with this carrier frequency, E-UTRAN can configure a list of cell specific osets and
a list of blacklisted cells. Blacklisted cells are not considered in event
evaluation or measurement reporting.
For inter RAT UTRAN measurements a measurement object is a set of
cells on a single UTRAN carrier frequency.
For inter RAT GERAN measurements a measurement object is a set of
GERAN carrier frequencies.
For inter RAT CDMA2000 measurements a measurement object is a set
of cells on a single (HRPD or 1xRTT) carrier frequency.
2. Reporting configurations: A list of reporting configurations where each
reporting configuration consists of the following:
Reporting criterion: The criterion that triggers the UE to send a measurement report. This can either be periodical or a single event description.
Reporting format: The quantities that the UE includes in the measurement report and associated information (e.g. number of cells to report).
3. Measurement identities: A list of measurement identities where each measurement identity links one measurement object with one reporting configuration. By configuring multiple measurement identities it is possible to link more
than one measurement object to the same reporting configuration, as well as to
link more than one reporting configuration to the same measurement object.
The measurement identity is used as a reference number in the measurement
report.
4. Quantity configurations: One quantity configuration is configured per RAT
type. The quantity configuration defines the measurement quantities and associated filtering used for all event evaluation and related reporting of that
measurement type. One filter can be configured per measurement quantity.
5. Measurement gaps: Periods that the UE may use to perform measurements,
i.e. no (UL, DL) transmissions are scheduled.
The reporting criterion, which is a part of reporting configuration, can either be
periodical or a single event. The following events are specified for reporting:
A1: Serving becomes better than threshold.
A2: Serving becomes worse than threshold.
A3: Neighbour becomes oset better than serving.
154

A4: Neighbour becomes better than threshold.
A5: Serving becomes worse than threshold1 and neighbour becomes better than
threshold2.
B1: Inter RAT neighbour becomes better than threshold.
B2: Serving becomes worse than threshold1 and inter RAT neighbour becomes
better than threshold2.
An example of measurement configuration is presented in Figure 8.5.
Figure 8.5: Measurement configuration.
155
8 LTE mobility
8.2.3
A3 event
To illustrate the event triggered reporting, this section describes details of event A3.
Conditions to enter the event, reporting parameters and condition to leave the event
are presented.
Event A3 is the normal event, which is used to trigger intra LTE frequency handover
and this is the reason it was selected as an example. When UE is configured to reports measurements upon event A3 takes place, then the UE will sent measurements
if it finds cells, which are several dB (so called oset) stronger than the serving cell.
Figure 8.6 illustrates the event together with parameters controlling UE reporting
when the condition to enter the event is met.
Figure 8.6: Event A3: Neighbour becomes oset better than serving. Frequency
specific osets (Ofn and Ofs) as well as cell specific osets (Ocn and Ocs) are assumed
to be set to zero in this figure.
Condition to enter event A3 (TS 36:331):
M n + Ofn + Ocn hysteresis > M s + Ofs + Ocs + a3-Oset
(8.7)
Condition to leave event A3:

M n + Ofn + Ocn + hysteresis < M s + Ofs + Ocs + a3-Oset
(8.8)
where
Mn
the measurement result of the neighbouring cell, not taking into

account any osets. Expressed in dBm in case of RSRP, or in dB
in case of RSRQ
Ofn
the frequency specific oset of the frequency of the neighbour cell

(i.e. osetFreq as defined within measObjectEUTRA corresponding to the frequency of the neighbour cell) [dB].
156

Ocn
the cell specific oset of the neighbour cell (i.e. cellIndividualOset as defined within measObjectEUTRA corresponding to the frequency of the neighbour cell), and set to zero if not configured for
the neighbour cell [dB].
Ms
the measurement result of the serving cell, not taking into account
any osets. Expressed in dBm in case of RSRP, or in dB in case
of RSRQ
Ofs
the frequency specific oset of the serving frequency (i.e. osetFreq

as defined within measObjectEUTRA corresponding to the serving
frequency) [dB].
Ocs
the cell specific oset of the serving cell (i.e. cellIndividualOset

as defined within measObjectEUTRA corresponding to the serving
frequency), and is set to zero if not configured for the serving cell
[dB].
hysteresis
the hysteresis parameter for this event as defined within reportConfigEUTRA for this event [dB].
a3-Oset
the oset parameter for this event as defined within reportConfigEUTRA for this event [dB].
s-Measure
defines when the UE is required to perform measurements on

neighbouring cells.
riggerQuantity the quantities used to evaluate the triggering condition for the
event (RSRP or RSRQ).
timeToTrigger time during which specific criteria for the event needs to be met
in order to trigger a measurement report.
ReportInterval indicates the interval between periodical reports.
reportQuantity the quantities to be included in the measurement report. The
value both means that both the RSRP and RSRQ quantities are
to be included in the measurement report.
reportAmount number of measurement reports sent.
157
8 LTE mobility
158
MIB
dl-Bandwidth,
phich-Config
phich-Duration,
phich-Resource,
systemFrameNumber,
spare,
ENUMERATED {n6, n15, n25, n50, n75, n100}

ENUMERATED {normal, extended}
ENUMERATED {oneSixth, half, one, two}
BIT STRING (SIZE (8))
Table A.1: Master Information Block (MIB).
159
SIB1
cellAccessRelatedInfo
plmn-IdentityList,
SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..6)) OF PLMN-IdentityInfo
PLMN-IdentityInfo
plmn-Identity
mcc,
SEQUENCE (SIZE (3)) OF MCC-MNC-Digit
mnc,
SEQUENCE (SIZE (2..3)) OF MCC-MNC-Digit
cellReservedForOperatorUse,
ENUMERATED {reserved, notReserved}
trackingAreaCode,
cellIdentity,
BIT STRING (SIZE (28)
cellBarred,
ENUMERATED barred, notBarred
intraFreqReselection,
ENUMERATED allowed, notAllowed
csg-Indication,
BOOLEAN
csg-Identity,
cellSelectionInfo
q-RxLevMin,
INTEGER (-70..-22)
q-RxLevMinOset,
INTEGER (1..8)
p-Max,
INTEGER (-30..33)
freqBandIndicator,
INTEGER (1..64)
schedulingInfoList
si-Periodicity,
ENUMERATED {rf8, rf16, rf32, rf64, rf128, rf256, rf512}
sib-MappingInfo,
SEQUENCE (SIZE (0..maxSIB-1)) OF SIB-Type
tdd-Config
subframeAssignment,
ENUMERATED {sa0, sa1, sa2, sa3, sa4, sa5, sa6}
specialSubframePatterns, ENUMERATED {ssp0, ssp1, ssp2, ssp3, ssp4, ssp5,
ssp6, ssp7, ssp8}
si-WindowLength, ENUMERATED {ms1, ms2, ms5, ms10, ms15, ms20, ms40}
systemInfoValueTag,
INTEGER (0..31)
nonCriticalExtension
spare bits set to zero
Table A.2: SIB1.
160
SIB2
ac-BarringInfo
ac-BarringForEmergency,
BOOLEAN
ac-BarringForMO-Signalling,
AC-BarringConfig
ac-BarringForMO-Data,
AC-BarringConfig
AC-BarringConfig
ac-BarringFactor,
ENUMERATED {p00, p05, p10, p15, p20, p25, p30,
p40, p50, p60, p70, p75, p80, p85, p90, p95}
ac-BarringTime, ENUMERATED {s4, s8, s16, s32, s64, s128, s256, s512}
ac-BarringForSpecialAC,
BIT STRING (SIZE(5))
radioResourceConfigCommon
rach-ConfigCommon
preambleInfo
numberOfRA-Preambles, ENUMERATED {n4, n8, n12, n16 ,n20, n24,
n28, n32, n36, n40, n44, n48, n52, n56, n60}
preamblesGroupAConfig
powerRampingParameters
powerRampingStep,
ENUMERATED {dB0, dB2,dB4, dB6}
preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower,
ENUMERATED {dBm-120,
dBm-118, dBm-116, dBm-114, dBm-112,dBm-110,
dBm-108, dBm-106, dBm-104, dBm-102, dBm-100,
dBm-98, dBm-96, dBm-94, dBm-92, dBm-90}
ra-SupervisionInfo
preambleTransMax, ENUMERATED {n3, n4, n5, n6, n7, n8, n10, n20,
n50, n100, n200}
ra-ResponseWindowSize,
ENUMERATED {sf2, sf3, sf4, sf5, sf6, sf7,
sf8, sf10}
mac-ContentionResolutionTimer,
ENUMERATED {sf8, sf16, sf24,
sf32, sf40, sf48, sf56, sf64}
maxHARQ-Msg3Tx,
INTEGER (1..8)
bcch-Config
pcch-Config
prach-Config
pdsch-ConfigCommon
referenceSignalPower,
INTEGER (-60..50)
p-b,
INTEGER (0..3)
pusch-ConfigCommon
pusch-ConfigBasic
n-SB,
INTEGER (1..4)
hoppingMode,
ENUMERATED {interSubFrame,
intraAndInterSubFrame}
pusch-HoppingOset,
INTEGER (0..98)
enable64QAM,
BOOLEAN
161
ul-ReferenceSignalsPUSCH
pucch-ConfigCommon
soundingRS-UL-ConfigCommon
uplinkPowerControlCommon
p0-NominalPUSCH,
INTEGER (-126..24)
alpha,
ENUMERATED {al0, al04, al05, al06, al07, al08, al09, al1}
p0-NominalPUCCH,
INTEGER (-127..-96)
deltaFList-PUCCH
deltaPreambleMsg3,
INTEGER (-1..6)
ul-CyclicPrefixLength,
ENUMERATED {len1, len2}
ue-TimersAndConstants
t300,
ENUMERATED {ms100, ms200, ms300, ms400, ms600,
ms1000, ms1500, ms2000}
t301,
ENUMERATED {ms100, ms200, ms300, ms400, ms600,
ms1000, ms1500, ms2000}
t310, ENUMERATED {ms0, ms50, ms100, ms200, ms500, ms1000, ms2000}
n310,
ENUMERATED {n1, n2, n3, n4, n6, n8, n10, n20}
t311,
ENUMERATED {ms1000, ms3000, ms5000, ms10000,
ms15000, ms20000, ms30000}
n311,
ENUMERATED {n1, n2, n3, n4, n5, n6, n8, n10}
freqInfo
ul-CarrierFreq,
ARFCN-ValueEUTRA
ul-Bandwidth,
ENUMERATED {n6, n15, n25, n50, n75, n100}
additionalSpectrumEmission,
INTEGER (1..32)
mbsfn-SubframeConfigList
timeAlignmentTimerCommon,
ENUMERATED {sf500, sf750, sf1280, sf1920,
sf2560, sf5120, sf10240, infinity}
Table A.3: SIB2.
162
SIB3
cellReselectionInfoCommon
q-Hyst,
ENUMERATED {B0, dB1, dB2, dB3, dB4, dB5, dB6, dB8, dB10,
dB12, dB14, dB16, dB18, dB20, dB22, dB24}
speedStateReselectionPars
mobilityStateParameters
t-Evaluation,
ENUMERATED {s30, s60, s120, s180, s240,
spare3, spare2, spare1}
t-HystNormal,
ENUMERATED {s30, s60, s120, s180, s240,
spare3, spare2, spare1}
n-CellChangeMedium,
INTEGER (1..16)
n-CellChangeHigh,
INTEGER (1..16)
q-HystSF
sf-Medium,
ENUMERATED {dB-6, dB-4, dB-2, dB0}
sf-High,
ENUMERATED {dB-6, dB-4, dB-2, dB0}
cellReselectionServingFreqInfo
s-NonIntraSearch,
INTEGER (0..31)
ThreshServingLow,
INTEGER (0..31)
cellReselectionPriority,
INTEGER (0..7)
intraFreqCellReselectionInfo
q-RxLevMin,
INTEGER (-70..-22)
p-Max,
INTEGER (-30..33)
s-IntraSearch,
INTEGER (0..31)
allowedMeasBandwidth, ENUMERATED {mbw6, mbw15, mbw25, mbw50,
mbw75, mbw100}
presenceAntennaPort1,
BOOLEAN
neighCellConfig,
t-ReselectionEUTRA,
INTEGER (0..7)
t-ReselectionEUTRA-SF
sf-Medium,
ENUMERATED {oDot25, oDot5, oDot75, lDot0}
sf-High,
Table A.4: SIB3.
163
SIB4
intraFreqNeighCellList,
intraFreqBlackCellList,
csg-PhysCellIdRange,
SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxCellIntra)) OF

IntraFreqNeighCellInfo
SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxCellBlack)) OF
PhysCellIdRange
PhysCellIdRange
IntraFreqNeighCellInfo
physCellId,
INTEGER (0..503)
q-OsetCell, ENUMERATED {dB-24, dB-22, dB-20, dB-18, dB-16, dB-14,
dB-12, dB-10, dB-8, dB-6, dB-5, dB-4, dB-3, dB-2, dB-1,
dB0, dB1, dB2, dB3, dB4, dB5, dB6, dB8, dB10, dB12
dB14, dB16, dB18, dB20, dB22, dB24}
PhysCellIdRange
start,
INTEGER (0..503)
range,
ENUMERATED {n4, n8, n12, n16, n24, n32, n48, n64, n84, n96,
n128, n168, n252, n504, spare2, spare1}
Table A.5: SIB4.
164
SIB5
interFreqCarrierFreqList,
SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxFreq)) OF

InterFreqCarrierFreqInfo
InterFreqCarrierFreqInfo
dl-CarrierFreq,
INTEGER (0..maxEARFCN)
q-RxLevMin,
INTEGER (-70..-22)
p-Max,
INTEGER (-30..33)
t-ReselectionEUTRA,
INTEGER (0..7)
t-ReselectionEUTRA-SF
sf-Medium,
sf-High,
threshX-High,
INTEGER (0..31)
threshX-Low,
INTEGER (0..31)
allowedMeasBandwidth, ENUMERATED {mbw6, mbw15, mbw25, mbw50,
mbw75, mbw100}
presenceAntennaPort1,
BOOLEAN
cellReselectionPriority,
INTEGER (0..7)
neighCellConfig,
q-OsetFreq,
dB-24, dB-22, dB-20, dB-18, dB-16, dB-14, dB-12, dB-10,
dB-8, dB-6, dB-5, dB-4, dB-3, dB-2, dB-1, dB0, dB1, dB2, dB3, dB4,
dB5, dB6, dB8, dB10, dB12, dB14, dB16, dB18, dB20, dB22, dB24}
interFreqNeighCellList,
InterFreqNeighCellList
interFreqBlackCellList,
SEQUENCE (SIZE (1..maxCellBlack)) OF
PhysCellIdRange
InterFreqNeighCellInfo
physCellId,
INTEGER (0..503)
q-OsetCell,
dB-24, dB-22, dB-20, dB-18, dB-16, dB-14, dB-12, dB-10,
dB-8, dB-6, dB-5, dB-4, dB-3, dB-2, dB-1, dB0, dB1, dB2, dB3, dB4,
dB5, dB6, dB8, dB10, dB12, dB14, dB16, dB18, dB20, dB22, dB24}
Table A.6: SIB5.
165
166
List of Figures
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.10
1.11
1.12
1.13
1.14
1.15
1.16
1.17
1.18
1.19
1.20
1.21
1.22
2.1
2.2
2.3
Two way communication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) and Time Division Duplex (TDD).
Multiple access. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cellular technologies evolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA). . . . . . . . . . . . .
Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA). . . . . .
OFDM subcarriers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Geometric representation of a complex number in the rectangular
notation in a complex Cartesian plane. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conjugate z of a complex number z. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Geometric representation of a complex number in the polar notation.
Eulers formula. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fourier Transform (FT) principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Example of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). . . . . . . . . .
The coecient wn in the DFT for N = 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The coecient wn in the IDFT for N = 8. When comparing with
Figure 1.16 notice that wn is a conjugate of wn . . . . . . . . . . .
Graphical presentation of the IDFT example. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OFDM concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OFDM transmitter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OFDM receiver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LTE modulations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5
5
6
7
8
8
9
10
11
13
13
14
15
16
17
18
20
21
24
24
24
25
30
33
2.5
EPS architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EPS bearer concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
E-UTRAN, UTRAN and GERAN architecture. GPRS one tunnel
approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Typical implementation of LTE/SAE. Combined SGSN/MME one
tunnel approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Inter-pool mobility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
User plane for LTE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Control plane for LTE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Relation between NAS and AS. . . . . . . . . . .
HARQ principle - four multiple HARQ processes.
LTE radio interface structure for DL. . . . . . . .
.
.
.
.
.
49
50
52
54
56
4.1
4.2
LTE channels mapping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LTE FDD time domain structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
60
62
2.4
167
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37
38
44
LIST OF FIGURES
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
5.1
Cyclic prefix concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

LTE TDD frame structure for UL-DL configuration 2. . . . . . . .
Special subframe configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
LTE downlink physical resource. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Definition of channel bandwidth and transmission bandwidth configuration for one E-UTRAN carrier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
An example of DL resource allocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Localized and distributed VRB. The picture illustrates Ngap,1 = 48
RB = 100. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
for NDL
62
62
64
65
66
66
68
5.20
5.21
Primary/secondary synchronization signal and PBCH structure for

FDD (normal cyclic prefix). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Primary/secondary synchronization signal and PBCH structure for
TDD (normal cyclic prefix). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Zado-Chu sequence transmitted on 31 lower frequency band subcarriers for physicalLayerId = 0, which corresponds to root index
u = 25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Mapping of Physical Channels on DL for FDD mode. Time on horizontal axis and frequency on vertical axis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Downlink reference signal structure in a cell supporting non-MBSFN
transmission with normal cyclic prefix and CellID = 0. . . . . . . . 76
Cell specific RS frequency shift. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
System information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Control Channel Element (CCE). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Physical layer PDCCH processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
PDCH blind decoding example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
PDCH blind decoding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Transport channel processing for DL-SCH, PCH and MCH. . . . . . 86
Physical layer PDSCH processing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
CRC concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Rate 1/3 tail biting convolutional encoder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Structure of rate 1/3 turbo encoder (dotted lines apply for trellis
termination only). The initial value of the shift registers of the 8state constituent encoders is all zeros when starting to encode the
input bits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Interleaver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Operations of circular buer rate matching for turbo code. . . . . . 91
Codeword-to-layer mapping for spatial multiplexing and transmit
diversity. The picture also presents the precoding for transmit diversity. The size of the codeword(s) correspond to the maximum
throughput possible to achieve for particular layer mapping. It can be
observed that in spatial multiplexing maximum throughput increases
with the the number of layers. In transmit diversity, regardless of
the number of antennas, the maximum throughput is not increased.
93
Spatial multiplexing with one layer and two antenna ports. . . . . . 96
PHICH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.1
6.2
6.3
SC-FDMA versus OFDMA spectral power distribution. . . . . . . 101

Block diagram of the UL DFT-s-OFDM transmitter. . . . . . . . . 102
UL resource allocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9
5.10
5.11
5.12
5.13
5.14
5.15
5.16
5.17
5.18
5.19
168
LIST OF FIGURES
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
6.10
6.11
6.12
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
7.9
7.10
7.11
7.12
7.13
7.14
7.15
7.16
7.17
7.18
7.19
7.20
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
UL subframe structure for normal cyclic prefix. . . . . . . . . . . . .

UL frequency hopping. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UL RS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UL SRS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PUCCH resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PUCCH format 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PUCCH format 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Preamble formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Time-frequency structure of non-synchronised RA for FDD. Example for prach-ConfigIndex = 6 and prach-FreqOset = 1. . . . . . . .
103
104
104
106
106
107
108
110
Uplink-downlink timing relation from UE perspective for FDD. . . .

Uplink-downlink time relation from UE perspective for TDD. . . . .
Random access timing advance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Adjustment of timing advance by MAC control element. . . . . . . .
UE time synchronisation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RA process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
DL resource allocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Multi antenna possibilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spatial multiplexing principles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transmit diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Transmission mode 3: spatial multiplexing with large delay CDD or
transmit diversity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MIMO antenna solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
UE reporting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Open loop power control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Closed loop power control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Accumulated method of the closed loop power control adjustment. .
Absolute method of the closed loop power control adjustment. . . .
Transmitted power and signal at eNB as a function of the RSRP for
the following parameters setting: PCMAX = 23 dBm, MPUSCH = 1,
P0 PUSCH = 109 dBm, = 1, ref erenceSignalP ower = 15 dBm. .
The target P SDRX and the TBS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
114
114
115
116
117
118
118
121
121
122
123
Overall idle mode process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Automatic PLMN selection process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cell reselection criterion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
X2 handover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Measurement configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Event A3: Neighbour becomes oset better than serving. Frequency
specific osets (Ofn and Ofs) as well as cell specific osets (Ocn and
Ocs) are assumed to be set to zero in this figure. . . . . . . . . . . .
142
145
148
149
153
169
111
124
124
126
134
134
137
137
138
139
154
LIST OF FIGURES
170
List of Tables
2.1
2.2
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
QoS Class Identifier (QCI) defined for LTE/SAE. . . . . . . . . . .

Mapping between standardized QCIs and pre-Relese-8 QoS parameter values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
Cyclic prefix types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Uplink-downlink configuration for LTE TDD. denotes a subframe
reserved for downlink transmission. denotes a subframe reserved
for uplink transmission. S denotes a special subframe. . . . . . . . .
Special subframe configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Number of RBs for dierent channel bandwidths in FDD and TDD.
RB gap values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
GSM, UMTS, WiMAX and LTE comparison. The table presents
gross bit rate, spectral eciency and system spectral eciency, which
include not only user date bit rate but also system signalling. The
table does not consider MIMO which can further increase spectral
eciency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
63
S-SS sequence generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

DL is the downNumber of OFDM symbols used for PDCCH. The NRB
link bandwidth configuration, expressed in number of RB, see Table
4.4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Supported PDCCH formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Usage of channel coding scheme and coding rate for control information.
Codeword-to-layer mapping for spatial multiplexing. . . . . . . . . .
Codeword-to-layer mapping for transmit diversity.
In case when M (0)
symb mod 4 = 0 then two null symbols are appended
36
63
64
65
67
70
73
80
81
89
94
(0)
5.7
5.8
to d(0) (M symb 1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Codebook for transmission on antenna ports {0, 1}. . . . . . . . . . 96
DL physical channels modulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
6.1
Random access preamble parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
7.9
Type 0 resource allocation RBG size vs. downlink system bandwidth. 119
PDSCH transmission scheme. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Physical Channels for Aperiodic or Periodic CQI reporting. . . . . . 127
4-bit CQI Table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
CQI and PMI Feedback Types for PUSCH reporting modes. . . . . 128
PUSCH reporting modes for dierent transmission modes. . . . . . 129
Subband size (k) vs. System Bandwidth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
CQI and PMI Feedback Types for PUCCH reporting modes. . . . . 130
PUCCH reporting modes for dierent transmission modes. . . . . . 130
171
LIST OF TABLES
7.10 Modulation and TBS index table for PDSCH. . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.11 Transport block size table. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.12 Mapping of TPC Command Field in DCI format 0/3 to absolute and
accumulated PUSCH values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.13 Mapping of TPC Command Field in DCI format 3A to accumulated
PUSCH values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.14 P0 PUSCH calculation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.15 ref erenceSignalP ower calculation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
132
133
A.1
A.2
A.3
A.4
A.5
A.6
157
158
160
161
162
163
Master Information Block

SIB1. . . . . . . . . . . .
SIB2. . . . . . . . . . . .
SIB3. . . . . . . . . . . .
SIB4. . . . . . . . . . . .
SIB5. . . . . . . . . . . .
(MIB).
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
172
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136
136
140
140
Acronyms
1G
1st Generation
16QAM
16 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
1xRTT
1x Radio Transmission Technology
2G
2nd Generation
3G
3rd Generation
3GPP
3rd Generation Partnership Project
3GPP TS
3GPP Technical Specification
4G
4th Generation
64QAM
64 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
AAA
Authentication, authorisation and accounting
ACK
Acknowledge
A/D
Analogue-to-Digital converter
AM
Acknowledged Mode
AMPS
Advanced Mobile Phone Systems
ARQ
Automatic Repeat reQuest
AS
Access Stratum
AS
Application Server
BCCH
Broadcast Control Channel
BCH
Broadcast Channel
BLER
Block Error Rate
BPSK
Binary Phase Shift Keying
BS
Base Station
BSS
Base Station System
Carrier
CAZAC
Constant Amplitude Zero AutoCorrelation
CCCH
Common Control Channel

173
ACRONYMS
CCE
Control Channel Element
DCI
Downlink Control Information
CDD
Cyclic Delay Diversity
CDMA
Code Division Multiple Access
CDMA2000
Code Division Multiple Access 2000
CM
Connection Management
CN
Core Network
CP
Control Plane
CQI
Channel Quality Indicator
CRC
Cyclic Redundancy Check
C-RNTI
Cell RNTI
CS
Circuit Switched
D/A
Digital-to-Analogue converter
DAB
Digital Audio Broadcasting
D-AMPS
Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Systems
DCCH
Dedicated Control Channel
DFT
Discrete Fourier Transform
DFT-s-OFDM Discrete Fourier Transform spread-OFDM

DL
Downlink
DL-SCH
Downlink Shared Channel
DRX
Discontinuous Reception
DTCH
Dedicated Trac Channel
DwPTS
Downlink Pilot Time Slot
DVB-T
Digital Video Broadcasting Terrestrial
ECM
EPS Connection Management
EDGE
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
EGPRS
Enhanced GPRS
EHPLMN
Equivalent HPLMN
EIR
Equipment Identify Register
EMM
EPS Mobility Management
eNB
Evolved Node B
EPC
Evolved Packet Core
EPS
Evolved Packet System

174
E-RAB
E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer
ETWS
Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System
E-UTRA
Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access
E-UTRAN
Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network
FDD
Frequency Division Duplex
FDMA
Frequency Division Multiple Access
FFT
Fast Fourier Transform
FT
Fourier Transform
GBR
Guaranteed Bit Rate
GERAN
GSM EDGE Radio Access Network
GGSN
Gateway GPRS Support Node
GP
Guard Period
GPRS
General Packet Radio Service
GMM
GPRS Mobility Management
GSM
Global System for Mobile communication
GTP
GPRS Tunnelling Protocol
GTP-C
GTP Control plane
GTP-U
GTP User data tunnelling
HARQ
Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest
HO
Handover
HPLMN
Home PLMN
HRPD
High Rate Packet Data
HSDPA
High Speed Downlink Packet Access
HSPA
High Speed Packet Access
HSS
Home Subscriber Server
Interferer
ICI
Inter Carrier Interference
IDFT
Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform
IETF
Internet Engineering Task Force
IFFT
Inverse Fast Fourier Transform
IMS
IP Multimedia Subsystem
IMSI
International Mobile Subscriber Identity
IP
Internet Protocol
175
ACRONYMS
Inter-RAT
Inter Radio Access Technology
ISI
Inter Symbol Interference
ITU
International Telecommunication Union
IWLAN
Interworking Wireless Local Area Network
L1
Layer 1
L2
Layer 2
LA
Link Adaptation
LTE
Long Term Evolution
LTE/SAE
Long Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution
MAC
Medium Access Control
MBMS
Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Services
MBSFN
Multicast Broadcast Single Frequency Network
MCCH
Multicast Control Channel
MCH
Multicast Channel
MCS
Modulation and Coding Scheme
MIB
Master Information Block
MIMO
Multiple Input Multiple Output
MM
Mobility Management
MME
Mobility Management Entity
MMS
Multimedia Messaging Services
MTCH
Multicast Trac Channel
MU-MIMO
Multi User MIMO
Noise
NACK
Negative Acknowledge
NAS
Non-Access Stratum
NMT
Nordic Mobile Telephony
OFDM
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OFDMA
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
PAPR
Peak-to-Average Power Ratio
PBCH
Physical Broadcast Channel
PCCH
Paging Control Channel
PCEF
Policy and Charging Enforcement Function
PCFICH
Physical Control Format Indicator Channel

176
PCH
Paging Channel
PCRF
Policy and Charging Rules Function
PDCCH
Physical Downlink Control Channel
PDCP
Packet Data Convergence Protocol
PDP
Packet Data Protocol
PDSCH
Physical Downlink Shared Channel
PDU
Packet Data Unit
P-GW
Packet Data Network Gateway
PHICH
Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel
PLMN
Public Land Mobile Network
PMCH
Physical Multicast Channel
PMI
Precoding Matrix Indicator
PMIP
Proxy Mobile IP
PoP
Point of Presence
PRACH
Physical Random Access Channel
PRB
Physical Resource Block
PS
Packet Switched
P/S-GW
Packet Data Network/Serving Gateway
PSK
Phase Shift Keying
P-SS
Primary Synchronisation Signals
PUCCH
Physical Uplink Control Channel
PUSCH
Physical Uplink Shared Channel
QAM
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QCI
QoS Class Identifier
QoS
Quality of Service
QPSK
Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
RA
Random Access
RACH
Random Access Channel
RAN
Radio Access Network
RANAP
RAN Application Part
RA-RNTI
Random Access Radio Network Temporary Identity
RAT
Radio Access Technology
RB
Resource Block
177
ACRONYMS
RE
Resource Element
REG
Resource Element Group
RF
Radio Frequency
RI
Rank Indicator
RLC
Radio Link Control
RLF
Radio Link Failure
RNC
Radio Network Controller
RNL
Radio Network Layer
RNTI
Radio Network Temporary Identity
ROHC
Robust Header Compression
RRC
Radio Resource Control
RRM
Radio Resource Management
RS
Reference Signals
RSRP
Reference Signal Received Power
RSRQ
Reference Signal Received Quality
S1AP
S1 Application Protocol
SAE
System Architecture Evolution
SAE-GW
System Architecture Evolution Gateway
SB
Scheduling Block
SC-FDMA
Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access
SCTP
Stream Control Transmission Protocol
SDF
Service Data Flow
SDU
Service Data Unit
SGSN
Serving GPRS Support Node
S-GW
Serving Gateway
SI
System Information
SIB
System Information Block
SINR
Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio
SI-RNTI
System Information RNTI
SM
Session Management
SMS
Short Message Service
SN
Sequence Number
SRB
Signalling Radio Bearer

178
SRS
Sounding Reference Signal
S-SS
Secondary Synchronisation Signals
SU-MIMO
Single User MIMO
TA
Tracking Area
TAU
Tracking Area Update
TBS
Transport Blok Size
TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
TDD
Time Division Duplex
TDMA
Time Division Multiple Access
TFT
Trac Flow Template
TNL
Transport Network Layer
TPC
Transmit Power Control
TS
Time Slot
TTI
Transmission Time Interval
TX
Transmit
UE
User Equipment
UL
Uplink
UM
Unacknowledged Mode
UMTS
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
UP
User Plane
UpPTS
Uplink Pilot Time Slot
UL-SCH
Uplink Shared Channel
USIM
Universal Subscriber Identity Module
UTRAN
Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network
VoIP
Voice over IP
VPLMN
Visited PLMN
VRB
Virtual Resource Block
WCDMA
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
WiMAX
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
WLAN
Wireless Local Area Network
X2AP
X2 Application Protocol
179
ACRONYMS
180

ELP 4003 LTE Air Interface

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ELP 4003 LTE Air Interface

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LTE Air Interface

ESB 4003 R2D

c April 28, 2014 by ENKI Adam Girycki.

Two way communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) and Serving Gateway

4 LTE radio interface introduction

5 LTE downlink physical channels

6 LTE uplink physical channels

7 Physical layer procedures

Idle mode mobility . . . . . . . .

Two way communication

In order to provide two way communication, so called duplex, two directions of

Figure 1.1: Two way communication.

Access network evolution overview

Apart from duplex transmission separation, a harmonised access of multiple UEs to

Figure 1.3: Multiple access.

1.2 Access network evolution overview

Figure 1.4: Cellular technologies evolution.

1st Generation (1G), the first generation of wireless telecommunications technology,

2G, the second generation of wireless telecommunications technology, was introduced

Figure 1.5: Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA).

Figure 1.6: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA).

1.2 Access network evolution overview

3G, the third generation of wireless telecommunication technology, was introduced

Figure 1.7: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA).

4G, the fourth generation of mobile telecommunications technology, must support 1

Figure 1.8: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA).

1.2 Access network evolution overview

Figure 1.9: OFDM subcarriers.

1.3 Complex numbers

Complex numbers are used in OFDMA signal processing. A complex number is a

Figure 1.10: Geometric representation of a complex number in the rectangular

Relation between rectangular and polar notation

Figure 1.11: Conjugate z of a complex number z.

Figure 1.12: Geometric representation of a complex number in the polar notation.

1.4 Fourier analysis

Figure 1.13: Eulers formula.

Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and Fast Fourier

Figure 1.14: Fourier Transform (FT) principles.

1.4 Fourier analysis

Figure 1.15: Example of the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT).

We may calculate Ak numbers from the above matrix notation. As an example

1.4 Fourier analysis

Figure 1.16: The coecient wn in the DFT for N = 8.

Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) example

back into the following sequence of numbers in the time domain:

1.5 OFDM concept

Figure 1.18: Graphical presentation of the IDFT example.

Figure 1.19: OFDM concept.

In OFDM the carrier signal is a sum of orthogonal subcarriers. In each subcarrier

Figure 1.20: OFDM transmitter.

Figure 1.21: OFDM receiver.

In telecommunications, modulation is the process of conveying a message signal, for

Figure 1.22: LTE modulations.

2.2 EPS architectural principles

EPS architectural principles

Evolved Packet Core (EPC)

Figure 2.1: EPS architecture.

Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN)

To keep the questions of mobility and connection management independent of the

Non-Access Stratum (NAS)

Access Stratum (AS)

The services, access signalling, mobility and subscriber management specific to CN

2.4 EPS Bearer and QoS