Question-1: What is the difference between LTE FDD and LTE TDD?

Answer-1:The difference lies in the LTE frame structure in both the FDD and TDD versions of the LTE. In FDD
there will be pair of frequencies assigned in the downlink and uplink directions and hence transmissions from
multiple subscribes can happen at the same time but on different frequencies as mentioned. In TDD, one single
frequency will be used at different time instants by multiple subscriber terminals (UEs). Both frame versions of
LTE will have 1 ms sub-frame duration and 0.5 ms slot duration.

Difference between LTE FDD vs TDD LTE

TDD and FDD are two topologies by which critical resources time and frequency are shared among mobile
subscribers or terminals. LTE uses both of these flavors to provide facility for the mobile subscribers or UEs to
utilize the scares resource efficiently based on the need. To know more about TDD vs FDD refer our article
on Difference between TDD and FDD topologies.
Let us understand LTE FDD and TDD LTE versions with figures and band example below. LTE has radio frame
of duration 10ms consisting of 10 subframes. Each subframe has two slots. The slot is of 0.5ms duration. Hence
there are total 20 slots in a radio frame.
LTE FDD

In LTE base station is referred as eNodeB and mobile subscriber is referred as UE. The figure-1 describes LTE
FDD scenario. As shown in the figure f1 and f2 are one pair of frequencies allocated separately for both the
uplink and downlink direction.

Figure mentions LTE band-13 with uplink frequency of range 777 to 787MHz and downlink frequency of range
746 to 756 MHz. Hence f1 is allocated from uplink band and f2 is allocated from downlink frequency band. The
entire radio frame of 10ms is used simultaneously over downlink and uplink directions.
Pls. note that downlink always refers to transmission from LTE eNodeB to UEs and uplink refers to transmission
from UEs to eNodeB. Both uplink and downlink will have 10MHz bandwidth each on which entire frame will be
used.
TDD LTE

The figure-2 describes TDD LTE scenario.As shown in the figure both uplink and downlink has been allocated
same frequency f1 and but both uses different time slots for mapping their information data.

Figure mentions LTE band-33 which is from frequency 1900 to 1920MHz. Entire bandwidth of 20MHz is used for
both eNodeB and UEs. Figure mentions configuration of radio frame time slots 0 to 9 for UL/DL configuration of
zero and 5ms DL/UL switch point periodicity. It is D,S,U,U,U,D,S,U,U,U. Here D stands for downlink and U
stands for uplink.Hence the subframes of the entire radio frame is divided and used for both the uplink and
downlink direction.

Leading chipset manufacturers such as Ericsson,Altair semiconductor,Qualcomm support both TDD and FDD
versions of LTE on a single chip.
Following table summarizes LTE FDD and TDD versions.It compares both with respect to application,frame
structure, Guard period,frequency band,interference,data rate and interoperability with other RATs.

Feature LTE FDD TDD LTE

FDD version is used where both uplink

and downlink data rates are TDD version is used where both uplink and
Application symmetrical. downlink data rates are asymmetrical.

Frame structure Uses FDD frame structure Uses TDD frame structure, READ MORE

Provided in the center of special subframes and

Not provided,every downlink subframe used for the advance of the uplink transmission
can be associated with an uplink timing. The no. of downlink and uplink subframes
Guard periods subframe. is different

REFER LTE Frequency Bands for FDD REFER LTE Frequency Bands for TDD frequency
Frequency bands frequency ranges ranges
 Interference between neighbouring
base stations less as transmission and Interference between neighboring base stations
reception is done on seperate more, as transmission and reception is done on
Interference frequencies. the same frequency.

Peak Downlink
data rate for Minimum: 1.728 Mbps with 1.4MHz BW,6 RBs, QPSK modulation,
FDD/TDD LTE Maximum: 345.6 Mbps with 20MHz,100 RBs, 64QAM,4X4 MIMO

Peak Uplink data

rate for TDD/LTE Minimum: 1.8 Mbps with 1.4MHz BW, 6 RBs, QPSK modulation,
FDD Maximum: 86.4 Mbps with 20MHz BW, 100 RBs, 64QAM modulation

Working with other Interference will be higher than TD TDD LTE works well with minimum interference
RAT version along with TD-SCDMA RAT

Both LTE FDD and TDD versions have their own applications and the same can be exploited by telecom
operators based on traffic and other requirements.
Question-2: What is resource block in LTE?
Answer-2:LTE frame is divided based on time slots on time axis and frequency subcarrier on frequency axis.
Resource block is the smallest unit of resource allocation in LTE system. It is of about 0.5ms duration and
composed of 12 subcarriers in 1 OFDM symbol. One time slot is equal to 7 OFDM symbols in normal cyclic
prefix and 6 OFDM symbols in extended cyclic prefix. One full resource block is equal to 12 subcarriers by 7
symbols in normal CP. Hence it consists of total 84 time/frequency elements referred as resource elements in
LTE network

LTE Terminology
This page on LTE terminology covers LTE and LTE advanced technology related terms. It include terms
eNB,eNodeB,UE,OFDMA,SC-FDMA,LTE frame,Resource block(RB), Resource Element(RE),Slot,sub
frame,reference signal, synchronization signal,S-GW,MME,X2 interface, S1 interface, Uu interface, Control
channel, data channel,LTE channel types,logical channel, transport channel, physical channel, P-SS,S-
SS,PBCH,PDSCH,PDCCH,PCFICH,PCH,RS,SRS,DMRS,PRACH, PUSCH,PUCCH, carrier aggregation,voice
over LTE etc.
eNB or eNodeB It is similar to Base station which is used in GSM networks. Also called as eNodeB.
UE: It is similar to mobile subscriber.
OFDMA: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access, used in physical layer of LTE Downlink.
SC-FDMA: Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access, used in physical layer of LTE Uplink.
LTE Frame: LTE frame are of 2 types TDD and FDD. In both the cases, frame is composed of 10 sub frames
and each sub frame is made of 2 slots. Frame size is 10ms.
Resource Block (RB): It is the smallest block of resource that can be allocated to UE by eNB; it is 12
subcarriers for 7 symbols.
Resource Element (RE): The smallest unit of radio resources, one subcarrier for one symbol.
Slot: 7 consecutive symbols for short Cyclic Prefix, 6 symbols for long cyclic prefix.
Sub frame: 2 consecutive timeslots.
Reference Signal: Similar to pilot carrier and is used for channel estimation at the receiver.
Synchronization signal: There are two synchronization signals, Primary and secondary. Both are transmitted in
slot 0 and slot 10 in all the frames. It is same as preamble used in earlier systems and used for time, frequency
synchronization purpose.
S-GW: Serving Gateway
MME: Mobility Management Entity
X2 interface: Interface used between eNodeB and eNodeB.
S1 interface: Interface used between eNodeB and core network interface (MME/S-GW).
Uu interface: This is the air interface used between eNodeB and UE.
Control channel: This channel carry control information used to make, maintain and terminate the connection.
Used for the transfer of control plane information in LTE.
Data channel: This channel carry traffic information. Used for the transfer of user plane information.
Channel structure in LTE:
LTE adopts a hierarchical channel structure. LTE defined three channel types i.e. logical,transport and physical
channels. Each associates with a service access point (SAP). (SAP) between different layers. These channels
are used by lower layers to provide services to the upper layers.
Logical Channels: What to Transmit.
They are used by MAC layer to provide services to RLC layer. Each logical channel is defined as per type of
information it carries. In LTE, there are two categories of logical channels depending on the service they provide:
control channels and traffic channels. The new LTE categories M1 and NB1 are added in LTE 3GPP Release
13.
Transport Channels: How to Transmit.
PHY uses transport channel to offer services to the MAC layer. It is characterized by how and with what
characteristics data is transferred over the air.

Physical Channels: Actual Transmission

Each physical channel maps to a set of resource elements in the time frequency grid that carry information from
upper layers. The basic entities that make a physical channel are REs and RBs. A resource element is one
subcarrier by one OFDM symbol and typically this could carry one (or two with spatial multiplexing) modulated
symbol(s). A resource block is a collection of resource elements and in the frequency domain this represents the
smallest quanta of resources that can be allocated.
P-SS: Primary synchronization signal
S-SS: secondary synchronization signal
PBCH: Physical Broadcast Channel
PDSCH: Physical Downlink Shared Channel
PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control Channel
PCFICH: Physical Control Format Indicator Channel
PHICH: Physical Hybrid ARQ Indication Channel
PCH: Paging channel
RS: Reference Signal, used both in uplink and downlink
SRS: Sounding reference signal, used in uplink
DMRS: Demodulation Reference Signal
PRACH: Physical Random Access Channel used in uplink
PUSCH: Physical Uplink Shared Channel
PUCCH: Physical Uplink Control Channel
Question-3: What are the LTE logical, transport and physical channels? Answer-3:All these channels help LTE
UE establish the connection with the eNodeB, maintain the connection and terminate the same. Logical
channels are characterized by the information that is transferred. Transport channels are characterized by how
the data are transferred over the radio interface. Physical channel corresponds to a set of resource elements
used by the physical layer. Channels are further divided into control channel and traffic channel at logical
channel stage

LTE covers LTE channels.

LTE technology works based on three channel types viz. logical channel,transport channel and physical
channels. These channels are used by lower layers to provide services to the upper layers.
The access points to the Layer L2/L3 are transport channels. They get mapped to physical channels. These
physical channels will have different modulation-code rate as mentioned below and are exclusively used by LTE
PHYSICAL Layer to carry upper layer information.

LTE Logical,Transport and Physical channels

Following figure mentions LTE logical channels,transport channels and physical channels and mapping between
them.
As shown logical channels are of two types; one carrying control information and the other carrying traffic
informtion. These gets mapped to transport channels as depicted in the figure. The left side is downlink channel
mapping and right side is uplink channel mapping.

Physical Channels
PDSCH - Stands for Physical Downlink Shared Channel, mainly used to carry high speed data/multimedia
information. Can be either QPSK/16QAM/64QAM.
PDCCH - Stands for Physical Downlink Control Channel, mainly used to carry UE specific control information. It
will have QPSK modulation used.It is mapped on resource elements(REs) in first 3 OFDM syms(symbols) in first
slot of subframe.
CCPCH - Stands for Common Control Physical Channel, carries cell-wide control information. QPSK is used.
CCPCH is transmitted exclusively on 72 subcarriers centered around DC carrier.
Physical Signals
Physical signals do not convey L2/L3 layer information, but mainly used for synchronization and channel
estimation purpose. RS is used for estimating channel response. P-SS and S-SS synchronization signals used
for determining network frame timing information i.e. start of the information.

Transport Channels
• Downlink and Uplink transport channels carry L2/L3 information.
• It also configures LTE PHY layer.
• It sends status information such as packet error and CQI to upper layers.
• Also supports peer-peer signaling between higher layers.
Based on broadcast,unicast or multicast concept different transport channels exist. Downlink channels include
BCH(broadcast channel),DL-SCH(downlink shared channel, to multiple mobile subscribers or UEs),PCH(paging
channel, used for UE DRX and broadcasted over entire cell ),MCH(multicast channel, transmitted over entire
cell). Uplink channels include RACH(Random Access Channel), UL-SCH(Uplink Shared Channel).

Uplink PRBs(Physical Resource Blocks) are assigned to UE by eNodeB scheduler. PUSCH is used and shared
by multiple UEs to carry upper layer information towards eNodeB. It will employ QPSK/16QAM/64QAM
modulation types.
Question-4: Explain the difference between Reference signal (RS) and synchronization signal (SS) in the LTE?
Also mention types of RS and SS.
Answer-4:Reference signal (RS) is used as pilot subcarrier in LTE similar to other broadband wireless
technologies such as WLAN, WIMAX etc. Synchronization signal is used as preamble sequence in LTE for
synchronization purpose. RS is used for channel estimation and tracking. SS are of two types viz. P-SS and S-
SS. P-SS is used for initial synchronization. S-SS is used for frame boundary determination. RS are of two types
viz. Demodulation RS (DRS) and Sounding RS (SRS). DRS is used for sync and channel estimation purpose.
SRS is used for channel quality estimation purpose. DRS is used in both the uplink and downlink, while SRS is
used only in the uplink

pages to know insight concepts of synchronization signal and reference signal.

Question-5: Explain LTE cell search procedure followed by UE.
Answer-5:LTE cell search procedure is used by UE to camp onto the LTE cell i.e. eNodeB. Refer LTE UE
Question-6: What is the function of LTE physical broadcast channel i.e. PBCH?
Answer-6:After initial cell synchronization is completed, UE reads MIB (Master information block) on PBCH
(Physical channel). Broadcast channel is referred as BCH at transport level and BCCH at logical level. MIB
composed of downlink channel bandwidth in units of RBs, PHICH duration, PHICH resource and system frame
number
Question-7: What is the advantage of using SC-FDMA in the LTE uplink?
Answer-7:The main advantage of SC-FDMA is low PAPR compare to OFDMA used in LTE downlink. This
increases the efficiency of power amplifier and hence increases the battery life
Question-8: What is RSSI?
Answer-8:RSSI stands for Received Signal Strength Indication. It is used almost in all the RATs to identify power
received from the cell in idle as well as connected/dedicated modes. This helps UE always camped on to the
best cell all the time. In case of drop in power measured using RSSI, either UE or network initiates the handover
or cell re-selection is carried out
Question-9: Explain Circuit Switch Fall Back i.e. CSFB with respect to LTE and GSM.
Answer-9:Framework allowing the provisioning of voice services by reuse of legacy GSM served CS
infrastructure when the UE is served by E-UTRAN (LTE).To provide voice call support, Circuit Switch Fall Back
is carried out to GSM RAT from LTE RAT to facilitate the voice over LTE (VoLTE) feature.

Question-10: Explain LTE network architecture and various interfaces.

Answer-10:There are various entities forming the LTE network architecture, the main interfaces are U ubetween
UE and eNB, X2 interface between eNBs and S1 interface between eNB and EPC(Evolved Packet Core).

Question-11: What is SRVCC?

Answer-11:SRVCC is the short form of Single-Radio Voice Call Continuity. SRVCC handover is supported from
E-UTRAN (i.e. LTE) to UTRAN/GERAN (WCDMA/GSM). SRVCC procedure is used for transferring an on-going
PS voice call (IMS) in LTE to a CS voice call via Handover from LTE to GERAN/UTRAN.

Question-12:What is the difference between LTE and LTE Advanced?

Answer-12:LTE is specified in 3GPP release 8 and release 9. LTE advanced is specified in 3GPP release 10.
The main difference between them is carrier aggregation is introduced in LTE advanced. Number of antennas
supported by MIMO has been increased to 8 in LTE advanced.

LTE Objective Questions

1. Which type of cell provides the best level of service for average subscribers?

A.Acceptable cell
B.Barred Cell

C.Reserved Cell

D.Suitable Cell

2. Which UE categories support 64QAM on the uplink?

A.Only category 5

B.Categories 3, 4 and 5

C.None of them

D.All of them

3. What types of handover are supported in LTE?

A.Hard handover only

B.Hard and soft handovers

C.Hard, soft and softer handovers

D.Handover is not supported

4. Why is a Cyclic Prefix required in OFDMA?

A.To ensure the symbol time is an integer number

B.To help overcome multipath and inter-symbol interference

C.To maintain orthogonality

D.To make OFDMA scalable

5. What does the DC subcarrier indicate?

A.The identity of the cell

B.The antenna configuration

C.The center of the OFDM channel

D.The format of the data channel

6. What processing step combines multiple OFDM subcarriers into a single signal for transmission?

A.FFT

B.IFFT

C.RF Combining

D.Channel Mapping

7. What is the minimum amount of RF spectrum needed for an FDD LTE radio channel?

A.1.4 MHz

B.2.8 MHz

C.5 MHz

D.20 MHz

8. In MIMO, which factor has the greatest influence on data rates?

A.The size of the antenna

B.The height of the antenna

C.The number of transmit antennas

D.The number of receive antennas

9. What organization is responsible for developing LTE standards?

A.UMTS

B.3GPP

C.3GPP2

D.ISO

10. Which channel indicates the number of symbols used by the PDCCH?

A.PHICH

B.PDCCH

C.PBCH

D.PCFICH

11. How often can resources be allocated to a UE?

A.Every symbol

B.Every slot

C.Every subframe

D.Every frame

12. What property of OFDMA systems allows adjacent subcarriers to be used without interference?

A.Orthogonality
B.Orthodoxy

C.Octagonality

D.Originality

13. With the normal Cyclic Prefix, how many symbols are contained in 1 frame?

A.7

B.12

C.20

D.140

14. What is the largest channel bandwidth a UE is required to support in LTE?

A.20 MHz

B.10 MHz

C.5 MHz

D.1.4 MHz

15. In OFDM, what is the relationship between the subcarrier spacing f and the symbol time t?

A.There is no fixed relation

B.f = t

C.f x t = 2048

D.f = 1/t

16. What is the PBCH scrambled with?

A.The physical cell ID

B.The current frame number

C.The UE's C-RNTI

D.The PBCH is not scrambled

17. Why is the Cyclic Prefix a copy of the tail end of the symbol?

A.It ensures a continuous time domain signal

B.It maintains an integer number of cycles

C.It reduces the Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR)

D.It increases the useful symbol time

18. In LTE, what is the benefit of PAPR reduction in the uplink?

A.Improved uplink coverage

B.Lower UE power consumption

C.Reduced equalizer complexity

D.All of the above

19. Approximately what portion of a subframe in a 1.4 MHz channel is available for carrying the PDSCH?

A.1/2

B.1/4

C.3/4
D.1/6

20. If the UE detects primary synchronization sequence x and secondary synchronization sequence y, what is the physical cell ID?

A.The physical cell ID cannot be determined from the synchronization signals

B.x+y

C.3x+y

D.x+3y

21. Which RLC mode adds the least amount of delay to user traffic?

A.Acknowledged Mode (AM)

B.Unacknowledged Mode (UM)

C.Transparent Mode (TM)

D.Low Latency Mode (LM)

22. What coding scheme is used for the DL-SCH and UL-SCH?

A.1/3 tail-biting convolutional code

B.1/3 turbo code

C.Variable-rate block code

D.1/3 repetition code

23. How much bandwidth is required to transmit the primary and secondary synchronization signals?

A.1.4 MHz
B.1.08 MHz

C.930 kHz

D.up to 20 MHz

24. What is the length of the shortest possible PDCCH, in bits?

A.72

B.144

C.288

D.576

25. With PRACH configuration 14, what are the odds that two UE's will collide during their random accesses?

A.1 in 10

B.1 in 64

C.1 in 640

D.It is impossible to collide on the PRACH

What is Difference between MIB and SIB?

MIB and SIM are two types of System Information (SI) that is broadcasted in the serving are of particular cell. SI is
carried by the logical channel BCCH, which in turn is carried by either of the transport channels BCH or DL-SCH.
Master information Block (MIB): is a static part of SI and contain information like number of antennas, system
bandwidth,PHICH configuration, transmitted power and scheduling information on how the SIBs are scheduled
together with other data on DL-SCH. MIB is transmitted on the BBCH–> PBCH with periodicity of every 40 ms.
System Information Block (SIB): is a dynamic part of SI. It carry relevant information for the UE, which helps UE to
access a cell, perform cell re-selection, information related to INTRA-frequency, INTER-frequency and INTER-RAT
cell selections. It is mapped on DL-SCH –>PDSCH with periodicity of every 80 ms, 160ms or 320ms for SIB1,SIB2
and SIB3 respectively.
How many types of SIBs are available in LTE?
There are 13 types of SIBs for LTE.

What does SIB1/SIB2/ … /SIB13 do?

Each SIB carry information related to specific tasks.

Carries Cell access related parameters like cell ID, MCC, MNC, TAC, scheduling of other
SIB-1
SIBs

Carries Common and shared channel configuration, RACH related configuration are
SIB-2 present; RRC, uplink power control, preamble power ramping, uplink Cyclic Prefix
Length, sub-frame hopping, uplink EARFCN

SIB-3 Parameters required for intra-frequency, inter-frequency and I-RAT cell re-selections
 Information regarding INTRA-frequency neighboring cells (E-UTRA) carries serving cell
SIB-4
and neighbor cell frequencies required for cell reselection as well handover

Information regarding INTER-frequency neighboring cells (E-UTRA); carries E-UTRA LTE

SIB-5
frequencies, other neighbor cell frequencies from other RATs.

SIB-6 Information for re-selection to INTER-RAT (UTRAN cells)

SIB-7 Information for re-selection to INTER-RAT (GERAN cells)

SIB-8 Information for re-selection to INTER-RAT (CDMA2000)

SIB-9 Information related to Home eNodeB (FEMTOCELL)

SIB-10 ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System) information (Primary notification)

SIB-11 ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System) information (Secondary notification)

SIB-12 Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) information.

Contains the information required to acquire the MBMS control information associated
SIB-13
with one or more MBSFN areas.

Explore below link to know more about earch and every SIB,
http://www.rfwireless-world.com/Terminology/LTE-MIB-SIB-system-information-blocks.html
On which channels SIBs are transmitted?
BCCH–> DL-SCH–> PDSCH.
Which SIBs are essential?
In LTE, for a UE to access the eNB, at the most minimum 2 SIBs are required (SIB1 and SIB2). Information regarding
SIB2-SIB13 are carried in SI messages and are included in schedulingInfoList which is part of SIB1.

Why we need SIB19?

SIB 19 is needed when UE is coming back from 3G to 4G. LTE priority should be set high in 3G. SIB19 carries the
absolute priority of the serving UMTS cell, the absolute priorities of the LTE frequencies, and the cell reselection
thresholds.