Carrier Aggregation

Mobile Devices Solutions

Carl Anderson
Sr. Business Development Manager

July 2014

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Topics

The Case for Carrier Aggregation

Carrier Aggregation: Concepts, Drivers & Roadmap
Network Deployment Options
Overview of Carrier Aggregation in LTE-A
Testing of Carrier Aggregation
Anritsu Solutions for LTE Carrier Aggregation
Conclusions and Q&A

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The Case for

Carrier Aggregation
Mobile Devices Solutions

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Mobile Data Usage

Huge growth is predicted

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Spectrum Congestion
Technology is reaching the limits of spectral efficiency (bps/Hz)
Ever increasing user demand (applications) requires more bandwidth
Few areas with large contiguous blocks of spectrum
Mainly at frequencies greater than 3GHz

Available prime spectrum is fragmented in small blocks

US Spectrum Allocation 300 MHz to 3 GHz

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Carrier Aggregation:
Concepts, Drivers & Roadmap
Mobile Devices Solutions

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Carrier Aggregation (CA) Concepts

Increasing RF and Baseband chipset integration opens the possibility
to receive and transmit on more than one carrier simultaneously

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CA Drivers
Intra-band Contiguous
aggregation driven by >5 MHz 3G
licenses and spectrum becoming
available from WRC07
Scale to wider bandwidths while

Multi-Carrier UE

still supporting existing UEs

on a single CC

Inter-band aggregation driven by

existing licenses, mergers and
acquisitions, and digital dividend
Piece together spectrum to
compete with carriers having
contiguous spectrum

North American
Licensed Spectrum

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CA Roadmap for LTE

Release 12+
Release 11

1.4 40
MHz
1200 Mbps

Release 10

DOWNLINK

Release 8

1.4 20
MHz
300 Mbps
4 x 4 MIMO
4 Layers

1.4 40
MHz
600 Mbps

8 x 8 MIMO
8 Layers

4 x 4 MIMO
4 Layers

8 x 8 MIMO
8 Layers

Release 12+
Release 11

1.4 40
MHz
600 Mbps

Release 10
Release 8

UPLINK

1.4 100
MHz
3000 Mbps

1.4 20
MHz
75 Mbps
SISO/SIMO
1 Layer

1.4 40
MHz
300 Mbps

4 x 4 MIMO
4 Layers

2 x 2 MIMO
2 Layers

1.4 100
MHz
1500 Mbps
4 x 4 MIMO
4 Layers

Note: Likely Peak Performance Indicated

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Industry and Certification Trends for CA

Commercial Carriers

Deploying/PreCommercial

Trial/Planning: 30

& 3 more in
Kuwait and
Saudi Arabia
RFT-103 Carrier
Aggregation

Certification Started

WI-162 E-UTRA Carrier

Aggregation

Certification Start 2014

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Network Deployment
Options
Mobile Devices Solutions

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Network Deployment Options

f1
f2

Intra-band Contiguous CCs

Diverse Coverage

Identical Coverage
Using wideband transceiver in the eNB

Improve coverage at sector edges

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Network Deployment Options

(continued)

f1
f2

Inter-band Non-Contiguous CCs

Remote Radio Heads

CA in a Heterogeneous Network

High frequency carrier used to provide hotspots of greater capacity

Pico-cells / femto-cells used to offload the

macro-cell
Intra-cell interference coordination used to
increase capacity

Note: Conceptual only. Distributed antennas not currently supported by 3GPP

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Carrier Aggregation
in LTE-A
Mobile Devices Solutions

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CA Band Notation and Rel. 11 Implementations

Format for CA Band Notation

Intra-Band
Contiguous

Intra-Band
Non-Contiguous

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Inter-Band

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CA Band Notation and Rel. 11 Implementations

Rel. 10 and 11 Examples

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CA UE Bandwidth Classes

Channel bandwidth BWChannel [MHz]

1.4

10

15

20

Transmission bandwidth configuration

NRB

15

25

50

75

100

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CA Band/Bandwidth Class Combinations

Format for CA Band/Bandwidth Class Notation

Intra-Band
Contiguous

Intra-Band
Non-Contiguous

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Inter-Band

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CA Band/Bandwidth Class Combinations

Rel. 10 and 11 Band/Bandwidth Combinations

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3 Carrier CA
3GPP RAN 4 is working on 3 Carrier Combinations as well as
FDD+TDD for Release 12

The work needs to move to RAN5 and be finalized before test cases
for these features are known
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LTE-A CA Overview
Uses R8/9 backward-compatible carriers as the basic building blocks
Signaling supports aggregation of up to 5 CCs in both UL and DL
One CC acts as the anchor (Primary) for mobility, others (Secondaries)
are added/released through signaling on Primary
Supports Intra-band contiguous, non-contiguous, and Inter-band

Supports use of Remote Radio

Heads and Relay Nodes
Supports both symmetric and
asymmetric aggregations
Note: Although signaling supports up to 5 CCs, 3GPP Releases support specific configurations
Release 10: In DL max 2 DL inter or intra-band contiguous or non-contiguous CCs,
In UL max 2 intra-band contiguous CCs
Release 11: In DL same as Rel10,
In UL max 2 intra-band contiguous or non-contiguous CCs
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Changes from LTE to LTE-A

Introduction of PDSCH-only downlink

Cross-carrier scheduling with Carrier Identifier Field (CIF) in PDCCH

Measurements

PCC Primary Component Carrier

SCC Secondary Component Carrier

New event A6 added for Scell change

DRX
Added capability for S-Cell
activation/deactivation

BSR
New BSR table added to support
higher data rates

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LTE-A Upper Layers

NAS
No impact; only uses
P-Cell

RRC
New signaling for
management of SCC
New measurement
control

PDCP/RLC
Same architecture but
need to handle higher
data throughputs

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LTE Categories

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Carrier Activation and DRX

Additional Scell CCs are Activated Through a MAC Control Element
(CE)
CC is Available for Scheduling 8 Subframes Later

Timer Starts on SCell Activation

If No Data is Scheduled by PDCCH for Timer Period, SCell is Deactivated

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Physical Layer Aspects of CA (1)

Downlink Channel Quality
CQI reported for each CC on the PUCCH or PUSCH if active

Uplink Control Signaling

Rel. 8 HARQ bandwidth not adequate for additional CCs
PUCCH format 3 created to allow for 10 ACK/NACK bits (FDD)

Uplink Channel Quality

Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) request and transmission on PCells and
SCells enabled

Uplink Transmit Power Control (TPC)

PUCCH and 1 or more PUSCHs can be power controlled independently
PDSCH TPCs on PDCCH of PCell or SCell

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Physical Layer Aspects of CA (2)

Downlink Radio Link
Monitoring
UE evaluates Radio Link quality and
failure through the Pcell
More effective to deploy Pcells as
lower frequency in inter-band CA
scenarios due to better propagation

Timing and Synchronization

In the case of a co-located eNB,
timing advance the same regardless
of frequency (band)

Cross-Carrier Scheduling
Decreases interference for HetNets
3 Bit Carrier Indicator Field (CIF)
Allows for Up to 7 Carriers

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RRC Layer Aspects of CA (1)

UE Capability Transfer Procedure
UE Category
CA support implied by cat. 6-8 - CA config signaled separately

Cross-Carrier Scheduling Support

Simultaneous PUSCH and PUCCH TX
Supports simultaneous PUSCH and PUCCH on different CCs

Supported Band Combinations

Support for specific frequency band and bandwidth comb.

Event A6 Support
Neighbor PCell becomes stronger than a serving SCell by D

SCell Addition During Handover to E-UTRAN

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RRC Layer Aspects of CA (2)

SCell Addition and Removal
SCells cannot be added immediately at RRC establishment
Added and removed through RRC Connection Reconfiguration
procedure

Since intra-LTE handover is treated as RRC Connection

Reconfiguration, CA handover is possible

Handover Procedures for CA are Largely the same as

Release 8 and 9
New event A6 when neighbor PCell becomes larger than service
SCell
Handover to neighbor Pcell depending on network conditions

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Testing of
Carrier Aggregation
Mobile Devices Solutions

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Testing of Carrier Aggregation

- High-Level Test Requirements
Potentially Large Numbers of Transmitters and Receivers

5 CCs with 8 x n MIMO with Handover => 80 Transmitters

All may require independent up-conversion
5 CCs with n x 4 MIMO with Handover => 40 Receivers
All may require independent down-conversion

High Peak Data Rates

Up to 50K IP Packets/sec with some functions requiring processing per
packet (e.g. ROHC)
e.g., Current solutions use 1Gbps Ethernet

Logging
Tracing problems may require very smart search and filter tools
Logging at each layer can generate huge amounts of data

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Testing of Carrier Aggregation

Development Testing

New L1 and L2 features

New RRC signaling
High rate bearers
New connected mode mobility permutations

Conformance Testing
New RF tests for each band combination
New RRM tests for new measurement types
New Protocol tests for L2 extensions and for R10 RRC signaling

Carrier Acceptance Testing

Operator specific band combinations
Device performance

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Device Test Market Model

OEM
Integration
BB Chipset
Development

OEM
Factory
Conf.& Carrier
Acceptance Test

ODM
UE Integration

EMS
Factory

Carrier
Distribution
Consumer

Aftermarket
Service

Alternate Channel
Distribution/Integ.

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FDD TRX/Perf CA Test Examples Inter-Band

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CA Signaling Test Examples

7.1.3.11

Addition of new CA test case: CA / Correct HARQ process handling / DCCH and DTCH /
Pcell and Scell

7.1.4.21 CA / UE power headroom reporting / Extended PHR

Rel-10
Rel-10

7.1.9.1

CA / Activation/Deactivation of SCells / Activation/Deactivation MAC control element

reception / sCellDeactivationTimer

Rel-10

8.2.2.3

CA / RRC connection reconfiguration / SCell addition/modification/release / Success

Rel-10

8.2.2.4

CA / RRC connection reconfiguration / SCell SI change / Success

Rel-10

8.2.2.5

CA / RRC connection reconfiguration / SCell Addition without UL / Success

Rel-10

8.2.4.17

CA / RRC connection reconfiguration / Handover / Success / PCell Change and SCell

addition

Rel-10

8.2.4.18 CA / RRC connection reconfiguration / Handover / Success / SCell release

Rel-10

8.3.1.17

CA / Measurement configuration control and reporting / Intra E-UTRAN measurements /

Event A6

Rel-10

8.3.1.18

CA / Measurement configuration control and reporting / Intra E-UTRAN measurements /

Additional measurement reporting

Rel-10

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LTE Carrier Aggregation Solutions

Chipset Design /

Integration /

Conformance

Core UE R&D

Functional Test

Test

MD8475A
Signaling Tester
(Application Test)

MT8820C
Radio Communication
Analyzer
(UE Calibration and
RF Parametric Test)

ME7873L
RF/RRMConformance
Test System

MS269xA & MS2830A

Signal Analyzer

MD1230B
Data Quality Analyzer

Production

MD8475A
Signaling Tester
(Application Test)

MD8430A
Signaling Tester with RTD
(L1/L2, Protocol Stack Test)

MG3710A
Signal Generator

Carrier
Acceptance
Test (CAT)

ME7873L
RF Conformance
Test System

MT8820C
Radio Communication
Analyzer
(RF Parametric Test)

MT8870A
Universal Wireless
Test Set
(UE Calibration and
RF Parametric Test)

ME7834L
Mobile Device
Test Platform
ME7834L
Mobile Device
Test Platform

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MWC LTE Advanced CA Demos

2012 Intra-Band CA with Signalion UEs

2013 Inter-Band CA with Qualcomm FFA

B4 + B17
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MD8430A Carrier Aggregation Demos at MWC

2014 Cat. 6 Inter-Band CA

Intel 7260 Ref. Design

2012 Intra-Band CA with

Signalion UEs

2013 Inter-Band CA with

Ref. Design B4 + B17
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Conclusions
Huge growth in mobile data usage is driving demand for
more network capacity
Carrier Aggregation provides a highly flexible solution with
excellent re-use of existing standards and an easy route to provide
backwards compatibility with legacy devices

Carrier Aggregation Drives Complexity in both the Wireless

Device and Base Station Simulator (Test Equipment)
Anritsu Supports the Evolution to Carrier Aggregation with
a Parallel Portfolio of Both HSPA and LTE Capabilities

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Thank You!

For more information on Anritsus products please visit:

www.anritsu.com
or call

1-800-ANRITSU (267-4878)

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