lte physical layer overview

LTE Physical-Layer Overview
Peter Wang
January, 16, 2011

OUTLINE
• LTE requirements & features
• OFDMA Frame and Resource Block Structure
• Protocol Architecture
• Physical Channel Structure and Procedure
• UE Measurements
• RSRP, RSRQ, & RSRP Ês/Iot
• Conclusion
• Appendix

LTE Requirements
• Peak bit (not data) rate
– 100 Mbps DL/ 50 Mbps UL within 20 MHz bandwidth (i.e., SISO)
• Up to 200 active users in a cell (5 MHz)
• Less than 5 ms user-plane latency condition (i.e., single user with single data
stream)
• Mobility
– Optimized for 0 ~ 15 km/h
– 15 ~ 120 km/h supported with high performance
– Supported up to 350 km/h or even up to 500 km/h
• Enhanced multimedia broadcast multicast service (E-MBMS)
• Spectrum flexibility: 1.25 ~ 20 MHz
• Enhanced support for end-to-end QoS & QoE

LTE Enabling Technologies
• OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) for Down Link
• Frequency domain equalization
• SC-FDMA (Single Carrier FDMA) for Up Link
• Utilizes single carrier modulation and orthogonal frequency Multiplexing using
DFT-spreading in the transmitter and frequency domain equalization in the receiver
• A salient advantage of SC-FDMA over OFDM/OFDMA is low PAPR.
• Efficient transmitter and improved cell-edge performance
• MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output)
• e.g., Open loop, Close loop, Diversity, Spatial multiplexing
• Multicarrier channel-dependent resource scheduling
• Fractional frequency reuse
• Active interference avoidance and coordination

LTE Key Features
• Multiple access scheme
• DL: OFDMA with CP (Cyclic Prefix)
• UL: Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) with CP
• Adaptive modulation and coding
• DL/UL modulations: QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM
• Convolutional code and Rel-6 turbo code
• Advanced MIMO spatial multiplexing techniques
• (2 or 4)x(2 or 4) downlink and uplink supported
• Multi-user MIMO also supported
• Support for both FDD and TDD
• H-ARQ, mobility support, rate control, security, and etc...

LTE Standard Specifications
Specification
index
Description of contents
TS 36.1xx Equipment requirements: Terminals, base stations, and repeaters
TS 36.2xx Physical layer
TS 36.3xx Layers 2 and 3: Medium access control, radio link control, and
radio resource control
TS 36.4xx Infrastructure communications (UTRAN = UTRA Network) including
base stations and mobile management entities
TS 36.5xx Conformance testing

OFDM (1/3)
Figure 1. Frequency-time representation of an OFDM signal

OFDM (2/3)
Figure 2. OFDM useful symbol generation using an IFFT
OFDM essential concept: Subcarrier spacing ( f) = 1/Tu

OFDM (3/3)
• High spectrum efficiency
• Inter-OFDMsymbol-interference caused
by Multipath Delay Spread
• Inter-carrier-interference caused by
Doppler Frequency Spread
• High Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR)
caused by multiple frequency harmonics
• UL SC-FDMA reduces PAPR, but of more
signiﬁcance - particularly for the ampliﬁer
– is the Cubic Metric (CM)

OFDMA FDD Frame Structure (Type 1)
Frame structure type 1

OFDMA FDD Frame Structure (Type 2)
Frame structure type 2

OFDMA Resource Block Structure

PSS and SSS frame and slot structure in time domain
in the FDD case

Physical Channel Structure
• DL
– PBCH: Transmit Broadcast channel
– PCFICH: Indicate PDCCH symbol
– PDCCH: Assign PDSCH/PUSCH
– PHICH: Indicate HARQ-ACK for UL
– PDSCH: Transmit Data
– PMCH: Transmit Multicast channel
– Synchronization Signal: UE synchronization
• UL
– PUCCH: Transmit ACK/NACK, CQI, SR
– PUSCH: Transmit Data
– PRACH: Transmit Random Access Preamble
– SRS: For UL CQI measurement

Physical Channel Procedure (1/2)
MIB: Master Information Blocks SIB: System Information Blocks

Physical Channel Procedure (2/2)
MIB: Master Information Blocks SIB: System Information Blocks

Cell Search
• Cell search: UE acquires time and frequency synchronization with a cell and detects
the cell ID
• Based on BCH (Broadcast Channel) signal and hierarchical SCH (Synchronization Channel)
signals.
• P-SCH (Primary-SCH) and S-SCH (Secondary-SCH) are transmitted twice per radio
frame (10 ms) for FDD
• Cell search procedure
• 5 ms timing identified using P-SCH
• Radio timing and group ID found from S-SCH
• Full cell ID found from DL RS
• Decode BCH

UE Measurements (1/4)
• In cellular networks, when a mobile moves from cell to cell and performs cell
selection/reselection and handover, it has to measure the signal strength/quality of
the neighbor cells.
• In UMTS, a UE measures Carrier RSSI, CPICH RSCP, and CPICH Ec/No on preamble.
• In LTE network, a UE measures two parameters on reference signal: RSRP (Reference
Signal Received Power) and RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality).

Definition Reference signal received power (RSRP), is defined as the linear average over
the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry cell-
specific reference signals within the considered measurement frequency
bandwidth.
For RSRP determination the cell-specific reference signals R0 according TS
36.211 [3] shall be used. If the UE can reliably detect that R1 is available it may
use R1 in addition to R0 to determine RSRP.
The reference point for the RSRP shall be the antenna connector of the UE.
If receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported value shall not be lower
than the corresponding RSRP of any of the individual diversity branches.
diversity branches.
Applicable for RRC_IDLE intra-frequency,
RRC_IDLE inter-frequency,
RRC_CONNECTED intra-frequency,
RRC_CONNECTED inter-frequency
3GPP TS 36.214 V9.2.0

Definition Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) is defined as the ratio N×RSRP/(E-
UTRA carrier RSSI), where N is the number of RB’s of the E-UTRA carrier RSSI
measurement bandwidth. The measurements in the numerator and
denominator shall be made over the same set of resource blocks.
E-UTRA Carrier Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), comprises the linear
average of the total received power (in [W]) observed only in OFDM symbols
containing reference symbols for antenna port 0, in the measurement
bandwidth, over N number of resource blocks by the UE from all sources,
including co-channel serving and non-serving cells, adjacent channel
interference, thermal noise etc.
The reference point for the RSRQ shall be the antenna connector of the UE.
If receiver diversity is in use by the UE, the reported value shall not be lower
than the corresponding RSRQ of any of the individual diversity branches.
Applicable for RRC_IDLE intra-frequency,
RRC_IDLE inter-frequency,
RRC_CONNECTED intra-frequency,
RRC_CONNECTED inter-frequency

• For example, assume that only reference signals are transmitted in a
resource block, and that data and noise and interference are not considered.
In this case RSRQ is equal to (1/2) or -3 dB. If reference signals and
subcarriers carrying data are equally powered, the ratio corresponds to
(1/12) or -10.79 dB.
• RSRQ is not suitable for LTE measurement. We use RSRP and Ês/Iot measurement defined in TS
36.133 to determine the intra frequency cell delectability.
• An intra frequency cell is considered to be detectable if: RSRP|dBm > -124 dBm for Bands 1, 4, 6,
10, 11, 18, 19, 21, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 and RSRP Ês/Iot -4 dB,…).
Ês: Received energy per RE (power normalized to the subcarrier spacing) during the useful part of the symbol,
i.e. excluding the cyclic prefix, at the UE antenna connector.
Iot: The received power spectral density of the total noise and interference for a certain RE
(power integrated over the RE and normalized to the subcarrier spacing)
as measured at the UE antenna connector.
CPICH RSCP: Received Signal Code Power, the received power on one code measured on the Primary CPICH.
UMTS FDD carrier RSSI: The received wide band power, including thermal noise and noise generated in the receiver,
within the bandwidth defined by the receiver pulse shaping filter.
CPICH_Ec/No: The received energy per chip divided by the power density in the band. If receiver diversity is not in use
by the UE,
the CPICH Ec/No is identical to CPICH RSCP/UTRA Carrier RSSI.

Reference Signal with 6 frequency-shift
predefined pattern
A
B
E
F
B
E
D
A
B
D
A
C
C
D
E
F
C
A
A
A
B
B
B
C
C
C
E
E
E
D
D
D
F
F
F
F

Conclusions
• LTE Requirements and Key Features
• OFDMA Frame and Resource Block Structures
• Physical Channel Structure and Procedure
• UE measurements
• RSRP & RSRQ

Reference
[1] 3GPP LTE http://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/html-info/36-series.htm.
[2] 3GPP TR 25.892; Feasibility Study for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) for
UTRAN enhancement (Release 6)
[3] S. Sesia, et.al. “LTE-The UMTS Long Term Evolution- from Theory to Practice”, John Wiley &
Sons Ltd. (Good book on PHY layer concept)
[4] H. Holma, et.al. “LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA Based Radio Access”, John Wiley & Sons
Ltd. (Good book on System Architecture concept)
[5] H.G. Myung, Technical Overview of 3GPP LTE. http://hgmyung.googlepages.com/scfdma.pdf
[6] P. Wang, et. Al. “RF Pattern Matching Performance in LTE”, Polaris Wireless internal report,
April 17, 2010.

LTE bit rate calculation
• From the 3gpp specification:
-1 Radio Frame = 10 Sub-frame
-1 Sub-frame = 2 Time-slots
-1 Time-slot = 0.5 ms (i.e 1 Sub-frame = 1 ms)
-1 Time-slot = 7 Modulation Symbols (when normal CP length is used)
-1 Modulation Symbols = 6 bits; if 64 QAM is used as modulation scheme
Radio resource is manage in LTE as resource grid....
-1 Resource Block (RB) = 12 Sub-carriers
Assume 20 MHz channel bandwidth (100 RBs), normal CP
Therefore, number of bits in a sub-frame
= 100RBs x 12 sub-carriers x 2 slots x 7 modulation symbols x 6 bits
= 100800 bits
Hence, data rate = 100800 bits / 1 ms = 100.8 Mbps
* If 4x4 MIMO is used, then the peak data rate would be 4 x 100.8 Mbps = 403 Mbps.
* If 3/4 coding is used to protect the data, we still get 0.75 x 403 Mbps = 302 Mbps as data rate.

3G LTE specification overview (1/2)
WCDMA
(UMTS)
HSPA
HSDPA / HSUPA
HSPA+ LTE
Max downlink
speed
bps
384 k 14 M 28 M 100M
Max uplink speed
bps
128 k 5.7 M 11 M 50 M
Latency
round trip time
approx
150 ms 100 ms 50ms (max) ~10 ms
3GPP releases Rel 99/4 Rel 5 / 6 Rel 7 Rel 8
Approx years of
initial roll out
2003 / 4
2005 / 6 HSDPA
2007 / 8 HSUPA
2008 / 9 2009 / 10
Access
methodology
CDMA CDMA CDMA
OFDMA / SC-
FDMA
LTE can be seen for provide a further evolution of functionality, increased speeds
and general improved performance.

3G LTE specification overview (2/2)
Parameter Details
Peak downlink speed
64QAM
(Mbps)
100 (SISO), 172 (2x2 MIMO), 326 (4x4 MIMO)
Peak uplink speeds
(Mbps)
50 (QPSK), 57 (16QAM), 86 (64QAM)
Data type
All packet switched data (voice and data). No circuit
switched.
Channel bandwidths
(MHz)
1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20
Duplex schemes FDD and TDD
Mobility
0 - 15 km/h (optimised),
15 - 120 km/h (high performance)
Latency
Idle to active less than 100ms
Small packets ~10 ms
Spectral efficiency
Downlink: 3 - 4 times Rel 6 HSDPA
Uplink: 2 -3 x Rel 6 HSUPA
Access schemes
OFDMA (Downlink)
SC-FDMA (Uplink)
Modulation types supported QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM (Uplink and downlink)

OFDM offers distinct advantages compared to
the CDMA technology
When compared to the CDMA technology upon which UMTS is based,
OFDM offers a number of distinct advantages:
• OFDM can easily be scaled up to wide channels that are more resistant
to fading.
• OFDM channel equalizers are much simpler to implement than are
CDMA equalizers, as the OFDM signal is represented in the frequency
domain rather than the time domain.
• OFDM can be made completely resistant to multi-path delay spread. This
is possible because the long symbols used for OFDM can be separated
by a guard interval known as the cyclic prefix (CP). The CP is a copy of
the end of a symbol inserted at the beginning. By sampling the received
signal at the optimum time, the receiver can remove the time domain
interference between adjacent symbols caused by multi-path delay
spread in the radio channel.
• OFDM is better suited to MIMO. The frequency domain representation of
the signal enables easy precoding to match the signal to the frequency
and phase characteristics of the multi-path radio channel.

OFDM does have some disadvantages
• The subcarriers are closely spaced making OFDM sensitive to frequency
errors and phase noise. For the same reason, OFDM is also sensitive to
Doppler shift, which causes interference between the subcarriers (ICI).
• Pure OFDM also creates high peak-to-average signals, and that is why a
modification of the technology called SC-FDMA is used in the uplink. SC-
FDMA is discussed later.
• It is known that OFDM will be more difficult to operate than CDMA at the
edge of cells. CDMA uses scrambling codes to provide protection from
inter-cell interference at the cell edge whereas OFDM has no such feature.
Therefore, some form of frequency planning at the cell edges will be
required.

• LTE system information is one of the key aspects of the air interface. It consists of the Master Information Block
(MIB) and a number of System Information Blocks (SIBs). The MIB is broadcast on the Physical Broadcast Channel
(PBCH), while SIBs are sent on the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) through Radio Resource Control
(RRC) messages. SIB1 is carried by "SystemInformationBlockType 1" message. SIB2 and other SIBs are carried by
"SystemInformation (SI)" message. An SI message can contain one or several SIBs.
• 1. The MIB is the first thing a UE looks for after it achieves downlink synchronization. The MIB carries the most
essential information that is needed for the UE to acquire other information from the cell. It includes:
• The downlink channel bandwidth
• The PHICH configuration. The Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel carries the HARQ ACKs and NACKs for uplink
transmissions
• The SFN (System Frame Number) which helps with synchronization and acts as a timing reference
• The eNB transmit antenna configuration specifying the number of transmit antennas at eNB such as 1, 2, or 4,
which is carried by CRC mask for PBCH
• 2. SIB1 is carried in a SystemInformationBlockType1 message. It includes information related to UE cell access
and defines the schedules of other SIBs, such as:
• The PLMN Identities of the network
• The tracking area code (TAC) and cell ID
• The cell barring status, to indicate if a UE may camp on the cell or not
• q-RxLevMin, which indicates the minimum required Rx Level in the cell to fulfill the cell selection criteria
• The transmissions times and periodicities of other SIBs
LTE system information (1/3)

• 3. SIB2 contains radio resource configuration information common for all UEs, including:
• The uplink carrier frequency and the uplink channel bandwidth (in terms of the number of
Resource Blocks, for example n25, n50)
• The Random Access Channel (RACH) configuration, which helps a UE start the random access
procedure, such as preamble information, transmit time in terms of frame and subframe number
(prach-ConfigInfo), and powerRampingParameters which indicates the initial Tx power and
ramping step.
• The paging configuration, such as the paging cycle
• The uplink power control configuration, such as P0-NominalPUSCH/PUCCH
• The Sounding Reference Signal configuration
• The Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) configuration to support the transmission of
ACK/NACK, scheduling requests, and CQI reports
• The Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) configuration, such as hopping

• 4. SIB3 contains information common for intra-frequency, inter-frequency, and/or inter-RAT
cell reselection. This information does not necessarily apply to all scenarios; please refer to
3GPP TS 36.304 for the details. The basic parameters include:
• s-IntraSearch: the threshold for starting intra-frequency measurement. When s-ServingCell
(i.e., cell selection criterion for serving cell) is higher than s-IntraSearch, the UE may choose
not to perform measurement in order to save battery life.
• s-NonIntraSearch: the threshold for starting inter-frequency and IRAT measurements
• q-RxLevMin: the minimum required Rx level in the cell
• Cell reselection priority: the absolute frequency priority for E-UTRAN or UTRAN or GERAN or
CDMA2000 HRPD or CDMA2000 1xRTT
• q-Hyst: the hysteresis value used for calculating the cell-ranking criteria for the serving cell,
based on RSRP.
• t-ReselectionEUTRA: the cell reselection timer value for EUTRA. t-ReselectionEUTRA and q-
Hyst can be configured to trigger cell reselection sooner or later.
• 5. SIB4 contains the intra-frequency neighboring cell information for Intra-LTE intra-
frequency cell reselection, such as neighbor cell list, black cell list, and Physical Cell Identities
(PCIs) for Closed Subscriber Group (CSG). CSG can be used to support Home eNBs.
• 6. SIB5 contains the neighbor cell related information for Intra-LTE inter-frequency cell-
reselection, such as neighbor cell list, carrier frequency, cell reselection priority, threshold used
by the UE when reselecting a higher/lower priority frequency than the current serving
frequency, etc.
• (Note that 3GPP states that LTE neighbor cell search is feasible without providing an explicit
neighbor list. Since the UE can do blind detection of neighbor cells in LTE, the broadcast of LTE
neighbor cells is optional.)

‘RSRQ reporting range’ and ‘RSRQ relationship to Es/Iot’
• “R4-081419_RSRQ_reporting_rang” gives an idea on how to
calculate RSRQ and how to define RSRQ reporting range.
• “R4-103007_Relay RSRQ Reporting Range” gives a relationship
between RSRQ and Ês/Iot .
• After a simple manipulation from this contribution,
• RSRQ(dB) = 10*log10[Ês/(12*(Ês+Iot)]. The unit is in dB.
– (where RSRQ =[(N*RSRP)/RSSI], RSSI=12*N*(Ês+Iot) and RSRP=Ês. The unit is in Watts.)

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