BASICS

Contents
What is LTE
Wireless Evolution
Key features of LTE
LTE system overview
Overview of LTE standard
LTE Architecture
LTE frame Structure
Generic Frame Structure
OFDMA
SC-FDMA
Downlink and uplink Signal and channels
Physical layer UL and DL Procedures.

What is LTE
LTE (Long Term Evolution) is the project name of a new high
performance air interface for cellular mobile communication systems.
It is the last step toward the 4th generation (4G) of radio technologies
designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone
networks. Where the current generation of mobile telecommunication
networks are collectively known as 3G, LTE is marketed as 4G.

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Wireless Evolution

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Key Features of LTE

Multiple access scheme

Downlink: OFDMA
Uplink: Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)

Adaptive modulation and coding

DL modulations: QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM

UL modulations: QPSK and 16QAM

Bandwidth scalability for efficient operation in differently sized

allocated spectrum bands
Possible support for operating as single frequency network (SFN)
to support MBMS

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Key Features of LTE

Multiple Antenna
performance.

(MIMO)

technology

for

enhanced

data

rate

and

ARQ within RLC sub layer and Hybrid ARQ within MAC sub layer.
Power control and link adaptation
Implicit support for interference coordination
Support for both FDD and TDD
Channel dependent scheduling & link adaptation for enhanced performance.
Reduced radio-access-network nodes
processing time & call set-up time

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to reduce

cost, protocol-related

LTE System Overview

LTE is the latest step in moving
forward from the cellular 3G
services( e.g. GSM to UMTS to HSPA to LTE or CDMA to LTE). LTE is based
on standards developed by the 3 rd Generation Partnership Project(3GPP).
The following are the main objectives for LTE:

Increased downlink and uplink peak data rates.

Scalable bandwidth
Improved spectral efficiency
All IP network
A standards based interface that can support a multitude of user types.

LTE networks are intended to bridge the functional data exchange gap
between very high data rate fixed wireless LAN and very high mobility
cellular networks.

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Overview of the LTE Standard

The original study item on Long Term Evolution (LTE) of 3GPP Radio
Access Technology was initiated with the aim to ensure that 3GPP
RAT(Radio Access Technology) is competitive in the future (next 10
years). Focus of the study was on enhancement ofthe radio-access
technology (UTRA) and optimization & simplification of radio access
network (UTRAN). The key driving factors for LTE are:

Efficient spectrum utilization

Flexible spectrum allocation
Reduced cost for the operator
Improved system capacity and coverage
Higher data rate with reduced latency

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LTE Architecture

UE :User Equipment
eNB : E-UTRAN Node B
S-GW : Serving gateway
PDN-GW : Packet data network gateway
PCRF :Policy and charging rule function
HSS :Home subscriber server
SGSN: Serving GPRS Support Node
ePDG: Evolved packet data gateway
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LTE Architecture
LTE encompasses the evolution of:

The radio access through the E-UTRAN

The non-radio aspects under the term System Architecture Evolution
(SAE)

Entire system composed of both LTE and SAE is called the Evolved
Packet System (EPS).
At a high-level, the network is comprised of:

Core Network (CN), called Evolved Packet Core (EPC) in SAE

Access network (E-UTRAN)

A bearer is an IP packet flow with a defined QoS between the gateway

and the User Terminal (UE)
CN is responsible for overall control of UE and establishment of the
bearers.
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LTE Architecture
Main logical nodes in EPC are:

PDN Gateway (P-GW)

Serving Gateway (S-GW)
Mobility Management Entity (MME)

EPC also includes other nodes and functions, such:

Home Subscriber Server (HSS)

Policy Control and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

EPS only provides a bearer path of a certain QoS, control of

multimedia applications is provided by the IP Multimedia Subsystem
(IMS), which considered outside of EPS.
E-UTRAN solely contains the evolved base stations, called eNodeB or
eNB

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LTE Frame Structure

One element that is shared by the LTE Downlink and Uplink is the generic frame
structure. The LTE specifications define both FDD and TDD modes of operation. This
generic frame structure is used with FDD. Alternative frame structures are defined for use
with TDD.
LTE frames are 10 msec in duration. They are divided into 10 sub frames, each sub
frame being 1.0 msec long. Each sub frame is further divided into two slots, each of 0.5
msec duration. Slots consist of either 6 or 7 ODFM symbols, depending on whether the
normal or extended cyclic prefix is employed

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Generic Frame structure

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OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)

OFDM is based on the idea of dividing a given high-bit-rate data stream into several parallel lower
bit-rate streams and modulating each stream on separate carriers-often called subcarriers.

The subcarriers are selected such that they are all orthogonal to one another over the symbol
duration, thereby avoiding the need to have non-overlapping subcarrier channels to eliminate intercarrier interference

No band gaps is required between subcarriers to prevent interference needed.

Currently OFDMA is used in 3GPP-LTE, WiMax (802.16 d/e) and Wi-Fi(802.11a/g)

The relation between FDM and OFDM is shown

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How OFDM Works

In OFDM many 15-kHz subcarriers are defined within the radio band. The bit stream is used
to modulate the subcarriers individually; in the most complex implementation, each of
hundreds of subcarriers is used to transmit 6 bits at a time with QAM-64. These are all added
together to produce a transmittable waveform and this is calculated in one step with
highly-complex digital signal processing called an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform
LTE uses OFDM for the downlink that is, from the base station to the terminal. OFDM meets
the LTE requirement for spectrum flexibility and enables cost-efficient solutions for very wide
carriers with high peak rates. OFDM uses a large number of narrow sub-carriers for multicarrier transmission.
The basic LTE downlink physical resource can be seen as a time-frequency grid. In the
frequency domain, the spacing between the subcarriers, f, is 15kHz. In addition, the OFDM
symbol duration time is 1/f + cyclic prefix. The cyclic prefix is used to maintain
orthogonality between the sub-carriers even for a time-dispersive radio channel.
One resource element carries QPSK, 16QAM or 64QAM. With 64QAM, each resource element
carries six bits.
The OFDM symbols are grouped into resource blocks. The resource blocks have a total size of
180kHz in the frequency domain and 0.5ms in the time domain. Each 1ms Transmission Time
Interval (TTI) consists of two slots (Tslot).
In E-UTRA, downlink modulation schemes QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM are available.
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LTE OFDM - Transmitter

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Why OFDM for the downlink?

OFDM already widely used in non-cellular technologies and was
considered by ETSI for UMTS in 1998
CDMA was favored since OFDM requires large amounts of baseband
processing which was not commercially viable ten years ago
OFDM advantages
Wide channels are more resistant to fading and OFDM equalizers are much
simpler to implement than CDMA
Almost completely resistant to multi-path due to very long symbols
Ideally suited to MIMO due to easy matching of transmit signals to the
uncorrelated RF channels

OFDM disadvantages
Sensitive to frequency errors and phase noise due to close subcarrier
spacing
Sensitive to Doppler shift which creates interference between subcarriers
Pure OFDM creates high PAR which is why SC-FDMA is used on UL
More complex than CDMA for handling inter-cell interference at cell edge

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SC-FDMA(Single carrier-FDMA)
The LTE uplink transmission scheme for FDD and TDD mode is
based on SC-FDMA
(Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple
Access).
SC-FDMA is sometimes referred to as Discrete Fourier Transform
Spread OFDM = DFT-SOFDM

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Why Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)?

This is to compensate for a drawback with normal OFDM, which has
a very high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR). High PAPR requires
expensive and inefficient power amplifiers with high requirements on
linearity, which increases the cost of the terminal and also drains the
battery faster.
SC-FDMA solves this problem by grouping together the resource
blocks in such a way that reduces the need for linearity, and so
power consumption, in the power amplifier. A low PAPR also improves
coverage and the cell-edge performance.
Still, SC-FDMA signal processing has some similarities with OFDMA
signal processing, so parameterization of downlink and uplink can be
harmonized

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Comparing OFDM and SC-FDMA

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Downlink Physical Signals and Channels

Downlink Physical Signals

Reference Signals
Synchronization Signals

Downlink Physical Channels

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Physical
Physical
Physical
Physical
Physical
Physical

Broadcast Channel (PBCH)

Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH)
Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)
Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH)
Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH)
Multicast Channel (PMCH)

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Uplink Physical Signals and Channels

Uplink Reference Signals

Demodulation Signals
Sounding Reference Signals

Uplink Physical Channels

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Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)

Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH)
Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH)

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Physical Layer UL and DL Procedures

Downlink Physical Layer Procedures
For E-UTRA, the following downlink physical layer procedures are especially important:
Cell search and synchronization:
Scheduling:
Link Adaptation:
Hybrid ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request)

Uplink Physical Layer Procedures

For E-UTRA, the following uplink physical layer procedures are especially
important:
Random access
Uplink scheduling
Uplink link adaptation
Uplink timing control
Hybrid ARQ
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