4G Relay

Mar. 22, 2011

Outline

Overview LTE-A Relay

LTE-A Relay

Overview
Main driver for the use of LTE is high data rate.
Reduced data rates at the cell edge
Signal levels are lower Interference levels are typically higher

The use of technologies such as MIMO, OFDM and advanced error correction techniques improve throughput under many conditions, but do not fully mitigate the problems experienced at the cell edge As cell edge performance is becoming more critical, with some of the technologies being pushed towards their limits, it is necessary to look at solutions that will enhance performance at the cell edge for a comparatively low cost LTE relays

Overview
Relay functionalities
Wirelessly connected to radio-access network via a donor cell. Connection type
Inband (same carrier frequency for backhaul and access links) Outband (different carrier frequency for backhaul and access links)

Duplex
Half duplex relay-> resource partitioning required Full duplex relay
Outband relay Inband relay with adequate antenna isolation no need to consider resource partitioning

Relay classification w.r.t the knowledge in the UE

Transparent Non-transparent

Uu
access link

Un
backhaul link

Depending on the relaying strategy, a relay may

Control cells of its own Be part of the donor cell

UE

RN

DeNB

Mobility
Fixed Mobile

Initial version of Rel-10 LTE-Advanced Relay

Design mainly for range extension Fixed Two-hop RN Inband and outband eNB-like device
Non-transparent Distributed scheduling Distributed security Distributed control

Compatible with Rel.8 UEs Provides more functionality to Rel-10 UEs

Overview
Type-2 relay
Throughput enhancement within an eNB cell It does not have a separate physical cell identification (PCI) and thus would not create any new cells It is transparent to Rel-8 UEs; a Rel-8 UE is not aware of the presence of a type-2 relay node It can transmit PDSCH At least, it does not transmit CRS and PDCCH

Relay Standards Comparison

LTE-A Relay

LTE-A Relay

Start architecture discussion Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Study item completed (Architecture Freeze)

Work item completed

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

2009

2010

2011

Leading Working Group is RAN1 RAN1 starts discussion in 2008 RAN2 and RAN3 start discussion in 2009

Resource Partitioning for Backhaul Link

Backward compatibility of Relay node
In certain subframes, a relay node receives DL transmissions In certain other subframes, a relay node transmits on DL In the subframes where a relay node receives DL transmissions, Rel-8 UE does not expect any relay transmission in PDSCH by configuring MBSFN subframe

Relay backhauling subframe

Create transmission gap in the relay-to-UE transmission
Relay is not transmitting any signal to UE when it is supposed to receive data from the donor eNB (DeNB)

Configuring MBSFN subframes

During gaps, UEs(including Rel-8 UEs) are not supposed to expect any relay transmission Relay-to-eNB transmissions can be facilitated by not allowing any terminal-torelay transmission in some subframes Relay should transmit PDCCH and CRSs in PDCCH region

Backhaul Resource Assignment

Backhaul Subframe allocation
At the RN, the access link DL subframe boundary is aligned with the backhaul link DL subframe boundary, except for possible adjustment to allow for RN transmit/receive switching The set of DL backhaul subframes
During which DL backhaul transmission may occur Semi-statically assigned

The set of UL backhaul subframes

During which UL backhaul transmission may occur Can be semi-statically assigned, or implicitly derived from the DL backhaul subframes using the HARQ timing relationship

R-PDCCH (Relay Physical Downlink Control CHannel)

R-PDCCH is used to assign resources for the DL backhaul data
Dynamically or semi-persistently assign resources May assign DL resources in the same and/or in one or more later subframes

R-PDCCH is used to assign resources for the UL backhaul data

Dynamically or semi-persistently assign resources May assign UL resources in one or more later subframes

Backhaul Resource Assignment

Relay Backhaul Link Design

TDM
Lower RPDCCH decoding time Not good for frequencyselective gain
10m s eNB radio fram e subfram e #0 1m s #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #0

PDCCH to macro UEs

FDM
Need more time to decode RPDCCH

PDSCH to m acro UEs Predefined backhaul resource for RN 1 Predefined backhaul resource for RN 2 Predefined backhaul resource for RN 3

Alt. 1: TDM

A lt. 2: FDM

PDSCH to m acro UEs

Guard tim e A lt. 3: TD M /FDM : CCH : SCH

TDM+FDM
Compromise solution

Type-1 Relay Architecture

Control plane

User plane

Radio link Failure (RLF)

Some companies assume backhaul link is very stable, but RLF can not be avoided For UE, the connection re-establishment succeeds only if the concerned cell is prepared (i.e. it has a valid UE context) The RLF procedure for UE is not suitable for RN
UE may handover to other cell before RLF; but no handover support for RN now, RLF is more possible to happen For RLF of UE, only one UE is impacted

Agreements
Specification will not mandate when the RN has to start/stop RN-Uu; is up to RN implementation After RLF, to recover the RLF, RN will fallback to UE mode and perform normal contention based RACH for re-establishment RRC connection reconfiguration procedures and Un subframe reconfiguration procedure after successful RRC connection reestablishment should be the same as procedures used during initial RN startup If re-establishment fails the RN goes to IDLE and tries to recover.
The details of the behaviour from IDLE are FFS. E.g. always start from ATTACH or more advanced mechanisms?

SI Information Update
Dedicated RRC signaling is used for inform the RN about DeNB SI updates System information can change only at the modification period boundaries; Notification of SI change in modification period n+1 has to be provided to the UE in period n Agreements
Subframe configuration on Un and RN-Uu can temporarily be misaligned, i.e. a new subframe configuration can be applied earlier by the RN on Un than on RN-Uu Un subframe re-configuration is activated immediately on Un by the RN

Un Configuration (OAM or RRC)

Configured by OAM
Using RRC to configure Un will increase complexity of RRC signaling Suitable for initial deployment

Configured by RRC
Provide more flexibility RN may be manufactured by different vendors, many signallings will be introduced if OAM is used to configure Un Un resource optimization can be provided

Agreements
Initial Un subframe configuration is supported by RRC signalling initiated from the DeNB Reconfiguration Un subframe configuration is done by RRC signalling initiated from DeNB

Un Subframe Configuration

{01010101} =85 =>patterns {1,3,5,7} pattern 01234567 Un subframes are {1,17,33, 3,11,27, 13,21,37, 7,23,31}

RACH Access Handling

D-SR(dedicated scheduling request ) failure/ UL data arrival in unsync
D-SR failure results in contention based RACH like in Rel8/9 In case a Type-1 RN performs contention based RACH access (apart from RLF), it suspends the Un subframe configuration. The Un subframe configuration is resumed at successfull RACH procedure completion (i.e. after the RN has received Msg4) For Type-1a and Type-1b, it is assumed that normal procedures apply

Intra-cell handover/DL data arrival in unsync

RN performing non-contention RACH, it suspends the Un subframe configuration. The Un subframe configuration is resumed at successful RACH procedure completion (i.e. after receiving Msg2) For Type-1a and Type-1b, it is assumed that normal procedures apply

Relay Startup Procedure

Two-phase procedure DeNB cell list is provided by RN OAM MME provides RN support indication to DeNB at S1 setup "I'm RN" indication will be in RRC Connection Setup Complete message Second indicator in RRC Connection Setup Complete ("need subframe partition", "do not need subframe partition") For re-establishment, only cells from the cell list are accessed, RN can not access other cells

Other
Bearer mapping
Will stay with 8 radio bearers over Un

DL Flow control
No flow control on Un

No header compression enhancements for Un Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS)

For Type1a, Type1b, there is no change so in principle SPS is supported on Un For Type1, SPS is not supported on Un

TTI bundling
Not supported

MBMS
Not supported

Integrity protection is also apply to DRB

Required for the DRB carrying S1AP and/or X2AP signalling Optional for other DRBs

LTE-A Relay

LTE-A Relay
Mobile Relay
Rel-11 study item is under progress Operators have requirements on high speed train Architecture may be modified

Backhaul enhancement
MIMO CA

Multi-hop Relay Indoor Relay

Operators have requirements It is expected to replace HeNB in some countries Interference will be a big problem

Thank you