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Understanding Downlink Power Allocation in LTE

Tue, 02/15/2011 - 10:56am by Andreas Roessler, Rohde & Schwarz

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UMTS Long Term Evolution, short LTE, is the technology of
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LTE is understood as the innovation platform for the wireless
industry for the next decade. That’s the reason why I link the
abbreviation LTE more to the term LONG TERM EMPLOYMENT.
The technology itself is high complex, utilizing advanced
procedures on top of what we know from existing standards Narrowband Internet of Things
such as WCDMA or HSPA. This blog picks interesting aspects
of LTE and takes a closer look while providing some
explanations around it. A basic understanding of the concepts
used for LTE and standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is assumed while reading.

You may ask why power allocation in the downlink is an aspect? It actually is ? and therefore I thought it is
interesting to shed some light on it. Well, downlink power allocation can vary from cell to cell and
furthermore it can be device specific. These settings – beside many others – will have an impact on the
performance of an LTE-capable device. And data throughput is, of course, a performance criteria that not
only network operators are judging, but also affect the user experience. But let’s start with the
fundamentals first.

Challenges of LTE Basestation and Handset Testing

Challenges of LTE Basestation and Handset Testing

click to enlarge

Figure 1. Downlink power allocation in LTE.

As you know, cell-specific reference signals (RS) are embedded into the overall signal bandwidth at certain
resource elements (RE). In the frequency domain every 6th subcarrier (= RE) carries a RS. The RS pattern
is a pseudo-random sequence, whose generation depends on the cell’s identity and used cyclic prefix. Personalized Daily Content
Further a frequency shift is applied that is based on a modulo-6 operation. The mapping of the pattern is
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therefore cell-specific, but the scattering is always six subcarriers.
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In the time domain every 4th OFDM symbol carries reference symbols. Due to their importance, reference
signals are the highest powered components within the downlink signal. The power level for the reference
signals is signaled within system information to the device, is cell-specific, and is in the range of -60 to +50
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dBm per 15 kHz. It is a requirement that the LTE base station transmits all reference signals with constant Business Marketing, its other brands, and partner sponsors to
power over the entire bandwidth. The power of all other signal components (synchronization signals, PBCH, provide me with more information as well as storing &
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PCFICH, PDCCH, PDSCH and PHICH) is set relative to this value. As mentioned above, there are OFDM processing my data in order to provide me the content
symbols that do contain RE carrying reference symbols and there are OFDM symbols that do not. The requested & personalized experiences in the future. I
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given by two different parameters: A and p B (see Figure 1). understand that I can unsubscribe from these communications
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Challenges of LTE Basestation and Handset Testing

click to enlarge

Figure 2. PB setting in a real LTE network captured with R&S®TSMW network scanner and R&S®ROMES drive test software.

For the majority of cases p A corresponds to the parameter PA, that is signaled via higher layers. Only for
some special cases, like transmit diversity with four antennas or Multi-user MIMO, p A is computed
differently. PA is device specific, comes as part of the RRCConnectionSetup message, and can take one out
of eight different values Figure 1 assumes PA to be -4.77 dB.

PB is related to the cell-specific RS power and can not be changed dynamically. It can take one out of four
integer values. Depending on the number of used transmit antennas (1, 2 or 4) each value corresponds to a
certain ratio and thus power offset. The LTE networks that are currently deployed worldwide are supporting
2x2 MIMO. Let’s assume PB = 3. In that case the RE carrying data in that OFDM symbol where RS are
present, are transmitted with an additional offset of 3 dB compared to symbols without RS [Ref.3]. For only
one transmit antenna (SISO) PB = 3 translates to -3.98 dB. This is shown in Figure 1.

Now the question is, why all this is necessary?

The overall goal is to have a constant power for all OFDM symbols to avoid power variations at the receiver
(UE). With less PDSCH power given by PB the boost of reference signals is compensated, compared to
OFDM symbols that do not contain reference signals. The PDSCH power depends always on the allocation,
i.e. the number of allocated Resource Blocks (RB). Allocation can change from subframe to subframe, thus
PA can also change on a 1 millisecond basis. While incorporating PA and PB it is ensured that the overall
OFDM symbol power remains constant, even when the PDSCH allocation is changed.

What are values for PA and PB in a real LTE network?

The later can be easily derived with Rohde&Schwarz drive test solution based on the TSMW network
scanner and ROMES drive test software as it is a common network parameter. The integrated BCH
demodulator decodes all system information, so PB and reference signal power can be easily found while
decoding SIB Type 2 (see Figure 2).

Now what is the impact of PB, PA on device performance in terms of high data
rates?

Challenges of LTE Basestation and Handset Testing

Challenges of LTE Basestation and Handset Testing

click to enlarge

Figure 3. Throughput Configuration Tool for LTE (TCT4LTE).

These types of investigation can be carried out with the R&S®CMW500 Wideband Radio Communication
Tester. With the software Throughput Configuration Tool for LTE (TCT4LTE), that comes at no costs, the
instrument can be easily configured for example for maximum throughput testing. Beside PA, PB and other
essential cell parameters, ciphering and authentication modes, resource allocation for downlink and uplink
with modulation and coding schemes can be changed on the fly (see Figure 3).

This type of testing helps design engineers to develop a good understanding on how the device performs at
different network settings in terms of downlink power allocation to optimize the protocol stack, algorithms
and hardware to deliver best results. Rohde & Schwarz helps to achieve these goals with its test solutions
and tools.

References
[1] 3GPP TS 36.211 V8.9.0 Physical channels and modulation (Release 8), 2009-12

[2] 3GPP TS 36.212 V8.8.0 Multiplexing and channel coding (Release 8), 2009-12

[3] 3GPP TS 36.213 V8.8.0 Physical layer procedures (Release 8), 2009-09

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