LTE data rate Calculation

1 Resource element = 15 KHz

1RB in freq domain=180KHz

1RB in time domain=0.5 ms

1 Resource Block (Basic allocation Unit) = 12 Subcarriers

20MHz channel = 100 Resource Blocks

5MHz channel = 25 Resource Blocks

As figure Shows:

1 Resource Block contains:

 7 OFDM Symbol in Time domain

 12 subcarriers in frequency domain

So,

1 Resource Block = 7 x 12 = 84 symbols (Bits) in 0.5 ms millisecond

8 Bits are used for reference signal in every resource block so data can be
carried on 76 symbols (Bits)

1 Resource Block = 76 Data symbols (Bits)

25 Resource Blocks = 76*25=1900 Bits in 0.5 millisecond (ms)

25Resource Blocks data rate in 1 second = 1900 * 1000/0.5

= 3.8Mbits/sec

Now when signal is modulated, in case of 64QAM5/6

25 Resource Block data rate = 3.8 * 6*5/6 = 19Mbps = 20Mbps (Aprox)

In case of MIMO 2X2 = 20 * 2 = 40 Mbps

In case of MIMO 4X4 = 20 * 4 = 80 Mbps

With 20 MHZ and MIMO-4x4 300 Mbps can be achieved

With 10 MHZ and MIMO-4x4 150 Mbps can be achieved

With 20 MHZ and MIMO-2x2 150 Mbps can be achieved

With 10 MHZ and MIMO-2x2 75 Mbps can be achieved

Uplink data rate remains 75Mbps maximum only if 64QAM modulation

supported by UE. MIMO is generally not available on Uplink.
Enodeb to Enodeb X2 Interface

Enodeb to MME S1 Interface

Enodeb to UE UU Interface
Quadrature amplitude modulation

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is both an analog and a digital modulation scheme. It
conveys two analog message signals, or two digital bit streams, by changing (modulating)
the amplitudes of two carrier waves, using the amplitude-shift keying(ASK) digital modulation
scheme or amplitude modulation (AM) analog modulation scheme. The two carrier waves,
usually sinusoids, are out of phase with each other by 90° and are thus called quadrature carriers or
quadrature components — hence the name of the scheme. The modulated waves are summed, and
the final waveform is a combination of both phase-shift keying (PSK) and amplitude-shift
keying (ASK), or (in the analog case) of phase modulation (PM) and amplitude modulation. In the
digital QAM case, a finite number of at least two phases and at least two amplitudes are used. PSK
modulators are often designed using the QAM principle, but are not considered as QAM since the
amplitude of the modulated carrier signal is constant. QAM is used extensively as a modulation
scheme for digital telecommunication systems. Arbitrarily high spectral efficiencies can be achieved
with QAM by setting a suitable constellation size, limited only by the noise level and linearity of the
communications channel.[1]
Physical Channels
Logical Channels

In order to describe Logical Channels it is best to identify where Logical Channels are locatedin relation to the
LTE protocols and the other channel types. Figure 2-21 shows Logical Channels located between the RLC and
the MAC layers.
Logical channels are classified as either Control Logical Channels, which carry control datasuch as RRC
signaling, or Traffic Logical Channels which carry user plane data

Control Logical Channels

The various forms of these Control Logical Channels include:

BCCH (Broadcast Control Channel) - This is a downlink channel used to send SI(System Information)
messages from the eNB. These are defined by RRC.

PCCH (Paging Control Channel) - This downlink channel is used by the eNB to send paging information.

CCCH (Common Control Channel) - This is used to establish a RRC (Radio Resource Control) connection,
also known as a SRB (Signaling Radio Bearer). The SRB is also used for re-establishment procedures. SRB
0 maps to the CCCH.

DCCH (Dedicated Control Channel) - This provides a bidirectional channel for signaling.

Logically there are two DCCH activated:

− SRB 1 - This is used for RRC messages, as well as RRC messages carrying high priority NAS signaling.

− SRB 2 - This is used for RRC carrying low priority NAS signaling. Prior to its establishment low priority
signaling is sent on SRB1.
Traffic Logical Channels
Release 8 LTE has one type of Logical Channel carrying traffic, namely the DTCH

(Dedicated Traffic Channel). This is used to carry DRB (Dedicated Radio Bearer) information,

i.e. IP datagrams.

Figure 2-24 Dedicated Traffic Channel

The DTCH is a bidirectional channel that can operate in either RLC AM or UM mode. This is

Configured by RRC and is based on the QoS (Quality of Service) of the E-RAB (EPS Radio

Access Bearer).

Transport Channels
BCH (Broadcast Channel) - This is a fixed format channel which occurs once per frame
and carries the MIB (Master Information Block). Note that the majority of System
Information messages are carries on the DL-SCH (Downlink - Shared Channel).
PCH (Paging Channel) - This channel is used to carry the PCCH, i.e. paging messages. It
also utilizes DRX (Discontinuous Reception) to improve UE battery life.
DL-SCH (Downlink - Shared Channel) - This is the main downlink channel for data and
signaling. It supports dynamic scheduling, as well as dynamic link adaptation. In
addition, it supports HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) operation to improve
performance. As previously mentioned it also facilitates the sending of System
Information messages.
RACH (RandomAccess Channel) - This channel carries limited information and is used
in conjunction with Physical Channels and preambles to provide contention resolution
procedures.
UL-SCH (Uplink Shared Channel) - Similar to the DL-SCH, this channel supports
dynamic scheduling (eNB controlled) and dynamic link adaptation by varying the
modulation and coding. In addition, it too supports HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat
Request) operation to improve performance
Downlink Air Interface
OFDMA( orthogonal freq division multiple access)

Each carrier is used to transmit small portion of data is called OFDMS

Fast Fourier Transform

• Two characteristics define a signal:
– Time domain: represents how long the symbol lasts on air
– Frequency domain: represents the spectrum needed in terms of bandwidth
• Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and the Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) allow
to move between time and frequency domain representation and it is a
fundamental block in an OFDMA system
 OFDM signals are generated using the IFFT

OFDM Basics (I)

• Transmits hundreds or even thousands of separately modulated radio signals
using orthogonal subcarriers spread across a wideband channel
OFDM Basics (II)
• Data is sent in parallel across the set of subcarriers, each subcarrier only
transports a part of the whole transmission
• The throughput is the sum of the data rates of each individual (or used) subcarriers
while the power is distributed to all subcarriers
• FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) is used to create the orthogonal subcarriers. The
number of subcarriers is determined by the FFT size (by the bandwidth)

• In LTE, these subcarriers are separated 15kHZ

OFDM and Multipath

• Multipath causes Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) which affects the subcarrier
orthogonality due to phase distortion
• Solution to avoid ISI is to introduce a Guard Period (Tg) after the pulse
– Tg needs to be long enough to capture all the delayed multipath signals
• To make use of that Tg (no transmission) Cyclic Prefix is transmitted
Uplink Air Interface
SC-FDMA
For the LTE uplink, a different concept is used for the access technique. Although still using a form
of OFDMA technology, the implementation is called Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple
Access (SC-FDMA).

One of the key parameters that affects all mobiles is that of battery life. Even though battery
performance is improving all the time, it is still necessary to ensure that the mobiles use as little
battery power as possible. With the RF power amplifier that transmits the radio frequency signal via
the antenna to the base station being the highest power item within the mobile, it is necessary that it
operates in as efficient mode as possible. This can be significantly affected by the form of radio
frequency modulation and signal format. Signals that have a high peak to average ratio and require
linear amplification do not lend themselves to the use of efficient RF power amplifiers. As a result it
is necessary to employ a mode of transmission that has as near a constant power level when
operating. Unfortunately OFDM has a high peak to average ratio. While this is not a problem for the
base station where power is not a particular problem, it is unacceptable for the mobile. As a result,
LTE uses a modulation scheme known as SC-FDMA - Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplex
which is a hybrid format. This combines the low peak to average ratio offered by single-carrier
systems with the multipath interference resilience and flexible subcarrier frequency allocation that
OFDM provides.
Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access:
Transmission technique used for Uplink
• Variant of OFDM that reduces the PAPR:
– Combines the PAR of single-carrier system with the multipath resistance and flexible
subcarrier frequency allocation offered by OFDM
– It can reduce the PAPR between 6…9dB compared to OFDMA
– TS36.201 and TS36.211 provide the mathematical description of the time domain
representation of an SC-FDMA symbol.
• Reduced PAPR means lower RF hardware requirements (power amplifier)

PCI(Physical Cell Identity) Planning

 Total we have 504 PCIs in LTE network

PCI has two types of reference signals

 SSS= Secondary Synchronization Signal

 PSS=Primary Synchronization Signal

Formula to get PCI #

 PCI= 3xSSS+PSS
QCI Qos Class Identifier

GBR
Guaranteed Bit Rate. A minimum bit rate requested by an application. In LTE, minimum GBR
bearers and non-GBR bearers may be provided. Minimum GBR bearers are typically used for
applications like Voice over Internet Pro- tocol (VoIP), with an associated GBR value; higher bit rates
can be allowed if resources are available. Non-GBR bearers do not guarantee any particular bit rate,
and are typically used for applications as web-browsing.
EPS barrir is combination of radio and core network
SDF
An SDF template consists of IP packet filters, and each IP packet filter has a set of filter rules (5-tuple
consisting of Source IP, Destination IP, Source Port number, Destination Port number, and Protocol ID).
IP flows arriving at P-GW are identified by matching these packet filters (SDF template), one by one,
and those that match the same filter rule are grouped together and classified as an SDF.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 There are two types of EPS bearers: default and dedicated. In the LTE network, the
EPS bearer QoS is controlled using the following LTE QoS parameters:

▶ Resource Type: GBR or Non-GBR

▶ QoS Parameters

 QCI
 ARP
 GBR
 MBR
 APN-AMBR
 UE-AMBR

Every EPS bearer must have QI and ARP defined. The QCI is particularly important
because it serves as reference in determining QoS level for each EPS bearer. In case
of bandwidth (bit rate), GBR and MBR are defined only in GBR type EPS bearers,
whereas AMBR (APN-AMBR and UE-AMBR) is defined only in Non-GBR type EPS
bearers.

Below, we will explain the LTE QoS parameters one by one.

Resource Type = GBR (Guaranteed Bit Rate)

For an EPS bearer, having a GBR resource type means the bandwidth of the bearer is
guaranteed. Obviously, a GBR type EPS bearer has a "guaranteed bit rate" associated
(GBR will be further explained below) as one of its QoS parameters. Only a dedicated
EPS bearer can be a GBR type bearer and no default EPS bearer can be GBR type. The
QCI of a GBR type EPS bearer can range from 1 to 4.
Resource Type = Non-GBR

For an EPS bearer, having a non-GBR resource type means that the bearer is a best
effort type bearer and its bandwidth is not guaranteed. A default EPS bearer is always
a Non-GBR bearer, whereas a dedicated EPS bearer can be either GBR or non-GBR.
The QCI of a non-GBR type EPS bearer can range from 5 to 9.

QCI (QoS Class Identifier)

QCI, in an integer from 1 to 9, indicates nine different QoS performance

characteristics of each IP packet. QCI values are standardized to reference specific
QoS characteristics, and each QCI contains standardized performance characteristics
(values), such as resource type (GBR or non-GBR), priority (1~9), Packet Delay
Budget (allowed packet delay shown in values ranging from 50 ms to 300 ms), Packet
Error Loss Rate (allowed packet loss shown in values from 10-2 to 10-6. For more
specific values, search on Google for "3GPP TS 23.203" and see Table 6.1.7 in the
document. For example, QCI 1 and 9 are defined as follows:

QCI = 1
: Resource Type = GBR, Priority = 2, Packet Delay Budget = 100ms, Packet Error
Loss Rate = 10-2 , Example Service = Voice
QCI = 9
: Resource Type = Non-GBR, Priority = 9, Packet Delay Budget = 300ms, Packet Error
Loss Rate = 10-6, Example Service = Internet

QoS to be guaranteed for an EPS bearer or SDF varies depending on the QCI values
specified.
QCI, though a single integer, represents node-specific parameters that give the details
of how an LTE node handles packet forwarding (e.g. scheduling weights, admission
thresholds, queue thresholds, link layer protocol configuration, etc). Network
operators have their LTE nodes pre-configured to handle packet forwarding according
to the QCI value.

By pre-defining the performance characteristics of each QCI value and having them
standardized, the network operators can ensure the same minimum level QoS
required by the LTE standards is provided to different services/applications used in an
LTE network consisting of various nodes from multi-vendors.

QCI values seem to be mostly used by eNBs in controlling the priority of packets
delivered over radio links. That's because practically it is not easy for S-GW or P-GW,
in a wired link, to process packets and also forward them based on the QCI
characteristics all at the same time (As you may know, a Cisco or Juniper router would
not care about delay or error loss rate when it processes QoS of packets. It would
 merely decide which packet to send first through scheduling (WFQ, DWRR, SPQ, etc.)
based on the priority of the packets (802.1p/DSCP/MPLS EXP)).

ARP (Allocation and Retention Priority)

When a new EPS bearer is needed in an LTE network with insufficient resources, an
LTE entity (e.g. P-GW, S-GW or eNB) decides, based on ARP (an integer ranging from
1 to 15, with 1 being the highest level of priority), whether to:

 remove the existing EPS bearer and create a new one (e.g. removing an EPS bearer
with low priority ARP to create one with high priority ARP); or refuse to create a new
one.

So, the ARP is considered only when deciding whether to create a new EPS bearer or
not. Once a new bearer is created and packets are delivered through it, the ARP does
not affect the priority of the delivered packet, and thus the network node/entity
forwards the packets regardless of their ARP values.
One of the most representative examples of using the ARP is an emergency VoIP call.
So, an existing EPS bearer can be removed if a new one is required for a emergency
119 (911 in US, 112 in EC, etc) VoIP call.

GBR (UL/DL)

This parameter is used for a GBR type bearer, and indicates the bandwidth (bit rate)
to be guaranteed by the LTE network. It is not applied to a non-GBR bearer with no
guaranteed bandwidth (UL is for uplink traffic and DL is for downlink traffic).

MBR (UL/DL)

MBR is used for a GBR type bearer, and indicates the maximum bit rate allowed in the
LTE network. Any packets arriving at the bearer after the specified MBR is exceeded
will be discarded.

APN-AMBR (UL/DL)

As you read the foregoing paragraph, you may wonder why a non-GBR type bearer
does not have a "bandwidth limit"? In case of non-GBR bearers, it is the total
bandwidth of all the non-GBR EPS bearers in a PDN that is limited, not the individual
bandwidth of each bearer. And this restriction is controlled by APN-AMBR (UL/DL). As
seen in the figure above, there are two non-GBR EPS bearers, and their maximum
bandwidths are specified by the APN-AMBR (UL/DL). This parameter is applied at UE
(for UL traffic only) and P-GW (for both DL and UL traffic).
 UE-AMBR (UL/DL)

In the figure above, APN-AMBR and UE-AMBR look the same. But, please take a look
at the one below.
A UE can be connected to more than one PDN (e.g. PDN 1 for Internet, PDN 2 for VoIP
using IMS, etc.) and it has one unique IP address for each of its all PDN connections.
Here, UE-AMBR (UL/DL) indicates the maximum bandwidth allowed for all the non-
GBR EPS bearers associated to the UE no matter how many PDN connections the UE
has. Other PDNs are connected through other P-GWs, this parameter is applied by
eNBs only.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P-GW keeps traffic mapping information (TFT filters) that indicates which EPS bearer can support (QoS
of) which SDFs, i.e. QoS the LTE network can support for UE.

Each SDF has a set of QoS parameters (e.g. QCI, ARP, MBR, GBR) and so does each EPS bearer (e.g.
QCI, ARP, MBR, GBR, UE-AMBR, APN-AMBR). An EPS bearer has the same variety of QoS parameters that
mapped SDF(s) have, except it has access system-dependent parameters as well.
SDFs (or SDF aggregate) with the same QCI and ARP can be delivered through the same EPS bearer. If
an SDF cannot be served at any of the currently available EPS bearers (e.g. if a new SDF, SDF 5
(GBR=500Kbps), arrives when SDF 3 (GBR=1Mbps) and SDF 4 (GBR=1Mbps) have already been
delivered through EPS bearer 5 (GBR=2Mbps)), another EPS bearer can be created to serve the new
SDF.
LTE Architecture:

eNodeB:
• Inter Cell RRM
• RB Control
• Connection Mobility Control
• Radio Admission Control
• eNodeB Measurement and Configuration
• Dynamic resource Allocation

MME: (Mobile Management Entity)

• Authentication
• NAS signaling ( Non access stratum)
• GW selection
• Bearer management
• Idle mode tracking
• Paging
• Inter-MME and IRAT mobility
• Idle State mobility Handling

PDN GW: (Packet Data Network Gateway)

• External IP point of interconnect
• IP address allocation
• Packet routing & forwarding
• Lawful intercept
• Policy enforcement
• In home or visited network

S-GW: (Serving Gateway)

• In visited network in case of roaming
• Intra-LTE mobility anchor
• Packet routing & forwarding
• Lawful intercept
• LTE idle mode DL buffering
• Charging per UE, PDN and QC.

PCRF: (Policy and Charging Rule Enforcement)

• Provides Service Data Flow gating
• Set QoS for each Service Data Flow
• Define Charging for each Service Data Flow
• Enables Bearer QoS Control
• Correlation between Application and Bearing Charges
• Notification of bearer events to application Function

HSS: (Home Service Subscription)

• Maintain and provide subscription data
• User Identification handling
• Access Authorization
• Provide Keys for Authentication and Encryption
• User Registration management
• Maintain knowledge of used PDN GW

1.2 Interfaces:

S1-MME: - Reference point for the control plane protocol between E-NodeB and MME.
S1-U: - Reference point between E-NodeB and Serving GW for the per bearer user plane tunneling
and inter eNodeB path switching during handover.
S5: - It provides user plane tunneling and tunnel management between Serving GW and PDN GW. It
is used for Serving GW relocation due to UE mobility and if the Serving GW needs to connect to a
non-collocated PDN GW for the required PDN connectivity.
S8: - Inter-PLMN reference point provides user and control plane between the Serving GW in the
VPLMN and the PDN GW in the HPLMN. S8 is the inter PLMN variant of S5.
S6a: - It enables transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user
access to the evolved system (AAA interface) between MME and HSS.
S11: - Reference point between MME and Serving GW.
SGi: - It is the reference point between the PDN GW and the PCRF. Packet data network may be an
operator external public or private packet data network or an intra-operator packet data network,
e.g. for provision of IMS services. This reference point corresponds to Gi for 3GPP accesses.
Gx: - It provides transfer of (QoS) policy and charging rules from PCRF to Policy and Charging
Enforcement
Rx: - The Rx reference point resides between the AF and the PCRF in the TS 23.203
LTE Transmission types

 SISO(Single Input Single Output)

 SIMO(Single Input Multi Output)
 MISO(Multi Input Single Output)
 MIMO(Multi Input Multi Output)

MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple output)

 A set of techniques that rely on the use of multiple antennas at the receiver
and/or transmitter. It can be used to achieve improved system capacity and
improved coverage area.
 LTE basic antenna configuration is DL 2*2 (Double Transmitters Double
Receivers) and UL 1*2 (Single Transmitter Double Receivers). LTE maximum
antenna configuration is 4*4 (Quadruplex Transmitters Quadruplex Receivers)

MIMO Types
MIMO-A Coverage Gain
In a 2x2 antenna configuration (2 transmitter antennas, 2 receiver antennas), a single data stream is transmitted
in parallel over the two paths. A mathematical algorithm known as Space Time Block Codes (STBC) is used to
encode the data streams of the two antennas to make them orthogonal to each other. This improves the signal to
noise ratio at the receiver side which can be used to:
  Increase the cell radius
 To provide better throughput for subscribers that are difficult to reach (e.g. deep indoors or moving at
higher speeds).
 For terminals which already experience good signal conditions Matrix A has the benefit that higher order
modulation (e.g. 64QAM) can be used and fewer error correction bits are necessary which in turn
increases transmission speeds to that subscriber.

MIMO-B Capacity Increase

This flavor of MIMO, also known as Special Multiplexing MIMO (SM-MIMO), sends an independent data stream over
each antenna. Thus, in case signal conditions are excellent, the data rate is doubled, tripled or quadrupled
depending on the number of antennas used in both the transmitter and receiver.
Different MIMO Modes in LTE

 We normally used the Transmission Mode-3 in LTE system at

ZTE Pakistan
 Transmission Mode-3 has the Special Multiplexing( will be
explained by Kaleem )

ICIC and eICIC (Inter-cell interference coordination)

Background
 LTE is designed for frequency reuse 1 (To maximize spectrum efficiency), which means that
all the neighbor cells are using same frequency channels and therefore there is no cell-planning to
deal with the interference issues
 There is a high probability that a resource block scheduled to cell edge user, is also being
transmitted by neighbor cell, resulting in high interference, eventually low throughput or call drops
(see figure)
 Traffic channel can sustain upto 10% of BLER in low SINR but control channels cannot.
Neighbor interference can result in radio link failures at cell edge.
 Heterogeneous networks require some sort of interference mitigation, since pico-cells/femto
cells and macro-cells are overlapping in many scenarios
ICIC (Inter-cell interference coordination)
 Inter-cell interference coordination is introduced in 3GPP release 8
 ICIC is introduced to deal with interference issues at cell-edge
 ICIC mitigates interference on traffic channels only
 ICIC uses power and frequency domain to mitigate cell-edge interference from neighbor
cells
 One scheme of ICIC is where neighbor eNBs use different sets of resource blocks through
out the cell at given time i.e. no two neighbor eNBs will use same resource assignments for their
UEs. This greatly improves cell-edge SINR. The disadvantage is decrease in throughput throughout
the cell, since full resources blocks are not being utilized.
 In the second scheme, all eNBs utilize complete range of resource blocks for centrally
located users but for cell-edge users, no two neighbor eNBs uses the same set of resource blocks at
give time
 In the third scheme (probably the preferred scheme), all the neighbor eNBs use different
power schemes across the spectrum while resource block assignment can be according to second
scheme explained above. For example, eNB can use power boost for cell edge users with specific
set of resources (not used by neighbors), while keeping low signal power for center users
with availability of all resource blocks (see the figure)
 X2 interface is used to share the information between the eNBs
eICIC (enhanced Inter-cell interference coordination)
 eICIC introduced in 3GPP release 10
 eICIC introduced to deal interference issues in Heterogeneous Networks (HetNet)
 eICIC mitigates interference on traffic and control channels
 eICIC uses power, frequency and also time domain to mitigate intra-
frequency interference in heterogeneous networks
 eICIC introduces concept of "Almost blank subframe" (ABS). ABS subframes do not send
any traffic channels and are mostly control channel frames with very low power. If macro cell
configure ABS subframes then UEs connected to pico/femto cells can send their data during such
ABS frames and avoid interference from macro cell (see the figure)
 ABS configuration is shared via OAM or x2 interface

ICIC Vs e-ICIC

 Inter-cell interference coordination is introduced in 3GPP release 8

 ICIC is introduced to deal with interference issues at cell-edge
 ICIC mitigates interference on traffic channels only
ICIC uses power and frequency domain to mitigate cell-edge interference from neighbor
 eICIC introduced in 3GPP release 10
 eICIC introduced to deal interference issues in Heterogeneous Networks (HetNet)
 eICIC mitigates interference on traffic and control channels
 eICIC uses power, frequency and also time domain to mitigate intra-
frequency interference in heterogeneous networks
LTE measurement report triggering for HO

A1 (Serving becomes better than threshold)

A2 (Serving becomes worse than threshold)

A3 (Neighbour becomes offset better than PCell)

A4 (Neighbour becomes better than threshold)

A5 (PCell becomes worse than threshold1 and neighbor becomes better than threshold2)

A6 (Neighbor becomes offset better than SCell)

B1 (Inter RAT neighbor becomes better than threshold)

B2 (PCell becomes worse than threshold1 and inter RAT neighbor becomes better than threshold2)
DRX function is characterized by DRX cycle(calculate by RRc signaling and enode b congifured UE
DRX cycle),on duration period and inactivity timer Read below topic for detail pls
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MIB = MIB is transmitted on PBCH

SIB = SIB is transmitted on PDSCH
What is PRACH in LTE
I will try to answer as closely I can as the questions looks like having multiple queries.
First of all, PRACH configuration will be broadcasted in SIB2 to UE for following but not limited to these:

1. prach-ConfigIndex and prach-freqOffset

prach-configIndex (range 0 to 63) determines the preamble format to be used and the occurrence of the PRACH in subframe.I.e
out of 4 preamble format (0-3) (FDD) which UE can use when sending the RACH request and prach-configIndex also determines
which sub-frame to use. Refer Spec 36.211 Table 5.7.1-2.

Preamble Format
Format 0 is commonly used for Normal Cell size where PRACH sequence duration is of 800 microsec plus 200 micro sec of Cyclic
Prefix and Guard band.
Format 1 is for larger cell size where PRACH sequence duration is of 800 microsec plus increased cyclic prefix and guard period
increased to 1200 micro sec, which means 2 Subframes are required for PRACH
 Format 2 is used if PRACH received signal is week i.e PRACH duration is 1600 Microsec plus the Cyclic prefix and Guard band of
400 Microsec.
Format 3 is used in large cell and week received signal where PRACH duration is 1600 microsec plus Cyclic prefix and Guard band
is increased to 1400 Microsecs.
So based on the requirement PRACH format will be used.

I will now explain PRACH frequency offset: PRACH occupy 6 RBs in frequency domain, frequency offset tells the starting RB
position of the PRACH. For e.g. if freOffset is set to 10, means PRACH will occupy space from RB=10 to 15th RB in Frequency
domain.
And Prach configuration Index tells the time domain space in terms of Subframe and which PRACH format to use.

Random Access Procedure:- In order to be synchronized with the network,

RACH procedure is used.
Suppose a UE wants to access the network, so first it will try to attach or syncronise
with the network. In LTE a separate channel PRACH ( Physical Random Access Channel)
is provided for initial access to the network.

When does UE need to perform Random Access Procedure :-

As per specifications, RACH can be performed in below mentioned scenarios :-

 Initial Access - UE is trying to access the network in RRC idle state.

 During RRC connection re-establishment procedure .
 Handover
 When uplink synchronization is lost :- It means from a certain duration network has not
received anything from UE in uplink.
 When UE does not have any PUCCH resources available for SR(Scheduling Request) .
 When timing advance is needed for positioning purpose in RRC connected state for UE.

To initiate the procedure UE lower layers will send a Random Access Request(RACH
Request) after receiving request from UE RRC.

UE receives a lot of information from eNodeB in System Information (SIB2). It's

important to understand those terminologies first.

You can also refer LTE(Long Term Evolution) SIB2 parameters section.
1. RACH Configurations
2. PRACH Configurations

How UE decides about when and where it needs to send RACH Request:-
It is decided on the basis of parameters received in SIB2 PRACH configurations.
UE can use 6 Resource blocks for sending the RACH Request.
What exactly RACH Request contains:-
1. Preamble Index :- There are total of 64 preambles( Prach cong index)
available which are divided into two groups Group A and Group B. UE decides the
preamble index from a group on the basis of parameters received in SIB2:-

numberofRaPreambles :- eNodeB sends this value in SIB2 which denotes the

total number of preambles available for UE to send a Rach Request.

sizeOfRaPreamblesGroupA :- It represents the number of preambles available

within Group A.

So number of preamble in Group B = numberofRaPreambles -

sizeOfRaPreamblesGroupA

MessageSizeGroupA :- It is used for selecting a preamble from a group. Its value

is in bits.

Now UE needs to decide the group from which it needs the preamble. Group is
decided on the basis of size of MSG3( RRC connection request ).
If Msg3 size > messageSizeGroupA , preamble will be selected from GroupB
else preamble will be selected from Group A

The actual formula for selecting a preamble is given in spec 36321 sec 5.1.2.
That contain factors other than MSG3 size as well. But mainly this is how UE
decides the Group. From the selected group, randomly UE selects a preamble
index.

How UE decides the Power used for Rach request Transmission:-

Now UE need to decide the power which will be used for RACH Request
transmission. Power is decided on the factors received in SIB2 as:-

preambleInitialReceivedtargetPower:- Power factor which will be used for first

transmission of Rach Request.Value varies from -120dBm to -90 dBm .

powerRampingStep:- This is mainly used when eNodeB is not able to detect the
Rach Request then UE will re transmit the RACH Request by increasing the power
to powerRampingStep factor.

power used for Rach Request transmission =

preambleInitialReceivedTargetPower + DELTA_PREAMBLE +
(PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER – 1) *powerRampingStep

DELTA_PREAMBLE = This is preamble format based delta offset. There are four
formats available for preamble which are called as preamble formats. We will be
explaining them in detail later. Most of the time preamble format 0 is used.

For Example:-
In Sib2, preambleInitialReceivedtargetPower = -100
powerRampingStep = 2

First Transmission of Rach Request:-

PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER = 1
For preamble format 0, DELTA_PREAMBLE = 0
Power used = -100 + 0 + (1- 1) *2
= -100

Suppose eNodeB is not able to receive it

Second transmission of Rach request:-
PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER = 2
Power used = -100 + 0 + (2-1) * 2
= -98

UE will send the RACH Request containing these values in the specified subframe
by using the specified resources.

In nutshell, steps followed by UE for sending a Rach request:-

How eNodeB behaves after receiving Random Access Request:-

1. Allocation of temporary RNTI(Radio Network temporary Identifier) :-

After receiving RACH Request, enodeB allocates a temporary identity to the UE
which is made permanent after successful RACH procedure. The permanent
identity is called as CRNTI ( Cell RNTI ). This TC-RNTI is transmitted to the UE as
part of RACH Response which will be used for further communication between
the UE and the network.

2. Timing Advance :- After receiving RACH Request, eNodeB PHY(Physical

layer) calculates the timing advance which is transmitted to the UE as part of
response message.

As part of Rach response, absolute Timing advance value is transmitted.

Timing advance calculation for RACH Response message:-

As per 3GPP spec,
Ts = 1/(15000 * 2048) seconds
NTA = TA * 16 where TA = 11 bit value for random access response varying from
0,1,2 .... 1282

NTA = Amount of time alignment

 So transmission of uplink radio frame from the UE shall start =
(NTA + NTA offset) * Ts

NTA offset = 0 ( For type 1 frame structure)

= ((NTA + 0) * 1)/ (15000 * 2048)

= (TA * 16)/(15000 * 2048 )seconds

Mainly this timing advance fundamental is used for eNodeB PHY to receive the
UE message at correct timing. It is possible that UE is far away from the eNodeB
, so for eNodeB to receive the data from UE at correct timing this timing
adjustments are done.

If timing advance is received in subframe n, UE should do the

adjustment from the starting of subframe (n +6) .

After the Random access response message, enodeB does not send absolute
timing advance value. It will send a value which UE will use to adjust the already
stored timing advance value. We will explain this in Timing advance section
later.

Refer spec 36213 sec 4.2.3 and spec 36211 sec 8.1 for details about timing
adjustments

3. Allocate uplink Resources ( UL GRANT ):- eNodeB will provide the

required information in Random Access Response(RAR) message for UE to send
the MSG3( RRC Connection Request) .

UL Grant is a 20 bit message with contents from MSB to LSB as:-

 Hopping Flag :- This is 1 bit of information which governs whether frequency hopping is
enabled or not. If the value of the bit is 1 and resource block assignment is type 0 , UE
should perform PUSCH frequency hopping.
What is Frequency Hopping:-
As we know that RB allocation is contiguous in uplink which means eNodeB allocates
continuous RB's in frequency domain. As in downlink we have multiple resource
allocation policies to achieve frequency diversity.

So in uplink, to achieve frequency diversity Frequency Hopping is used. eNodeB

communicates required parameters to UE's in SIB2 which are needed for performing
frequency hopping at UE.

For Example:-
Suppose eNodeB has allocated 5 RB's to a particular UE in uplink as shown below.
 It is clear that the allocation in uplink in terms of RB is contiguous. But eNodeB has
enabled frequency hopping for this UE.

We are able to achieve frequency diversity in contiguous allocation as well due to

hopping. In the figure above, same color represents the hopping of UE data in different
slots for a particular RB.

There is a lot more to discuss in frequency hopping. we will be taking it later in that
particular section.

As of now,we can summarize it as :-

Frequency hopping is used to provide frequency diversity in uplink. Its main advantage
is, suppose in frequency domain at RB0 channel conditions are bad but at RB3
conditions are good. So in that case, UE can decode the data of RB0 after combining
the same colored data.

 Resource Block Assignment :- It is 10 bits of information embedded in UL Grant

message.
How UE decodes the 10 bit RB Assignment :-
According to spec 36213 sec 6.1.1, UE decodes it as:-
 If NULRB <= 44
Truncate the fixed size resource block assignment to its b least significant bits where,
b = ceiling ( log2(NULRB * (NULRB + 1)/2) )

and interpret the truncated resource block assignment according to the rules for a
regular DCI format 0

else
Insert b most significant bits with value zero where,
b = (ceiling ( log2(NULRB * (NULRB + 1)/2) )) - 10
and interpret the expanded resource block assignment according to the rules for a
regular DCI format 0

For Example :-
Lets assume the 10 bits of the information as :- 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Assume Total number of uplink RB's in system = 100

b = (ceiling ( log2(NULRB * (NULRB + 1)/2) )) - 10

= (ceiling ( log2(100 *101/2))) - 10
= (ceiling ( 12.3)) - 10
= 13 -10
=3

So, RB assignment will be :- 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

RB assignment ( value in decimal) = 127
Now we need to interpret it according to the rules of DCI(Dowlink control information)
format 0.

Number of RB's allocated = Floor( 127 /100 ) + 1

=1+1
=2
RB start index = 127 mod 100
= 27

 Modulation and Coding scheme to be used by UE:- It is 4 bits of information in UL

grant message whose value varies from 0 to 15. The modulation and coding is
determined by UE from MCS indices 0 to 15 in table 8.6.1.1 from spec 36213.
 Power used by UE for PUSCH :- It is indicated in 3 bits as a TPC command whose value
varies from 0 to 7. TPC command to power mapping is mentioned in table below
 UL delay :- 1 bit of information which can be set to 0 or 1. It indicates whether the
delay of PUSCH is introduced or not.
 CSI field :- This 1 bit of information determines whether an aperiodic CQI, PMI and RI
report can be included in the PUSCH transmission. For contention based Random access
CSI field is reserved.

eNodeB will prepare a response ( Random Access Response) with above

discussed fields and send it to UE. But we need to understand the timing of
response message corresponding to Rach Request.

Timing w.r.t to Rach Request and Random Access Response:-

RAR Response Window is the value transmitted in SIB2. You can refer the LTE basic
section for more details. Its value is in subframes.
What is Difference B/W CINR & SINR?
What is NCS(Number of cyclic shift)
The PRACH transmits a preamble constructed from ZC sequences to establish initial
access along with uplink synchronization with the base station. A reconfigurable hardware
architecture was implemented to generate these preambles on the fly with high accuracy
based on the proposed algorithm, eliminating the need for storing a large number of long
complex ZC sequence elements. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed
architecture is capable of achieving detection error rates for LTE PRACH that are close to
ideal rates achieved using floating-point precision.

From ZTE Dump what is NCS

The parameter is used to determine the shift number of cyclic shift. There are 64 preambles available in
each cell. The set of 64 preamble sequences in a cell is found by including first, in the order of increasing
cyclic shift, all the available cyclic shifts (correlative to Ncs) of a root Zadoff-Chu sequence with the logical
index RACH_ROOT_SEQUENCE, where RACH_ROOT_SEQUENCE is broadcasted as part of the
System Information. Additional preamble sequences, in case 64 preambles cannot be generated from a
single root Zadoff-Chu sequence, are obtained from the root sequences with the consecutive logical
indexes until all the 64 sequences are found.

Cell Size Configuration in RACH (II) – Cyclic Shift

We have discussed the preamble format configuration vs. the maximum cell radius during the random access
procedure. For example, Preamble Format 0 supports a maximum cell radius of 14.5 km. Another random access
parameter that affects the cell size is the cyclic shift. Let's look at it now.

The random access preamble is generated using Zadoff-Chu sequences; there are multiple root Z-C sequences used
in LTE. From each root sequence, multiple preambles can be obtained by applying different cyclic shifts. This cyclic
shift also determines the maximum radius of the cell.

The cyclic shift, Ncs, is defined in 3GPP TS 36.211, section 5.7. (Note that the unrestricted set is for normal speed
cells, and the restricted set is for high mobility cells.)
Table 5.7.2-2: for preamble generation (preamble formats 0-3).

How is the cyclic shift related to cell radius? As shown in Figure 1, assume that there are 2 UEs, UE1 at the cell edge
and UE2 close to the eNB. The cyclic shift used by UE1 is 0 and the cyclic shift used by UE2 is Ncs. At the eNB, the
observed cyclic shift of UE1 will not be 0 but some value x because of the transmission delay. As long as x is less
than Ncs, the auto-correlation between the shifted x and shifted Ncs (as perceived by the eNB) will be zero, and the
eNB will be able to distinguish between the accesses from UE1 and UE2 (This is one of the nice properties of Z-C
sequences). So, the maximum cell radius is limited by the cyclic shift.

Now, let's calculate the maximum supported cell radius by a cyclic shift, Ncs. Based on 3GPP, the preamble
sequence length is 839 and spans 800 milliseconds.

Exercise time: Please fill the blanks.]

Getting back to the basics, why is a cyclic shift needed? The cyclic shift can be used to expand the preamble
capacity. There are a total of 838 Zadoff-Chu sequences defined in LTE, and the default setting for the number of
preambles in each sector is 64. For areas covered with a large number of small cells, if the preamble capacity is
limited, preamble interference may cause more collisions and longer random access delay. A small Ncs value
generates more preambles, which extend the preamble reuse distance and mitigate the interference. However, the
cyclic shift cannot be configured smaller than expected cell radius, since that will block random accesses from the cell
edge and may cause drops during handovers.
SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS AND SIMULATION MODEL Since this study compares the
performance of three types of scheduling algorithms, this section will present a brief overview of these
algorithms which are: Round Robin, best Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) and Proportional Fair (PF). In
addition, the simulation model used in this study will be described.

Round Robin (RR) Scheduling Algorithms Round Robin scheduling is a non-aware scheduling
scheme that lets users take turns in using the shared resources (time/RBs), without taking the
instantaneous channel conditions into account. Therefore, it offers great fairness among the users in
resource assignment, but degrades the system throughput performance. Round Robin scheduling can be
implemented on both into two ways, namely the Time Domain Round Robin (TDRR) and Time and
Frequency Domain Round Robin (TFDRR). In TDRR the first reached user is served with the whole
frequency spectrum for a specific time period (1TTI), not making use of the information on his channel
quality and then these resources are revoked back and assigned to the next user for another time
period. The previously served user is placed at the end of the waiting queue so it can be served with
radio resources in the next round. This algorithm continues in the same manner [5]. In TFDRR multiple
users are allowed to be scheduled within one TTI in a cyclic order [8, 9]. The principal advantage of
Round Robin scheduling is the guaranty of fairness for all users. Furthermore Round Robin is easy to
implemented, that is the reason why it is usually used by many systems. Since Round Robin ignores the
channel quality information, it usually results in lower user and overall network throughput levels.

This scheduling method is based on the idea of being fair in the long term by assigning equal no. of
Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) to all active UEs. It operates by assigning the PRBs to UEs in turn i.e
one after another without taking into account their CQI. Hence the users are equally scheduled. For
e.g. If we have 4 users U1, U2, U3, U4 and PRBs, this algorithm will assign the resources in the
following manner: U1, U2, U3, U4, U1, and U2.

The main advantage of this kind of scheduling is the relative ease in its implementation whereas the
major disadvantage is the fact that it does not take into account user CQI feedback, which may lead
to lower and unequal throughput.

Best CQI Scheduling Algorithm As the name implies, this scheduling strategy assigns
resource blocks to the user with the best radio link conditions. In order to perform scheduling, terminals
send Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) to the base station (BS). Basically in the downlink, the BS transmits
reference signal (downlink pilot) to terminals. These reference signals are used by UEs for the
measurements of the CQI. A higher CQI value means better channel condition. Best CQI scheduling [2]
can increase the cell capacity at the expense of the fairness. In this scheduling strategy, terminals
located far from the base station (i.e. celledge users) are unlikely to be scheduled
Proportional Fair (PF) Scheduling Algorithm
Proportional Fair scheduler is a commonly used scheduling algorithm for Timefrequency
shared multi-user systems. Originally it was implemented in Time Domain
Scheduling (TDS) systems and latter it was adopted to LTE to exploit the OFDMA
capabilities in TDS and Frequency Time Scheduling (FDS) systems. The main purpose of
combined TDS and FDS systems is to achieve a good trade-off between Overall system
throughput and data-rate fairness among the users by exploiting multi-user diversity [6].
The commonly known parameter Allocation Fairness (FA) in Proportional Fair

scheduling refers to the amount of resources allocated within a given time window.

In order to find a trade-off between throughput and fairness a new scheduling

algorithm that operates somewhere between the Best CQI scheduling and the Round
Robin scheduling is examined. This scheduling algorithm demonstrates an acceptable
throughput level while providing some fairness between users. The scheduling algorithm
assigns RBs to the user that maximizes the CQI in the first slot period of each sub frame;

This algorithm assigns the PRBs to the UE with the best relative channel quality i.e. a combination of
CQI & level of fairness desired. There are various versions of PF algorithm based on values it takes
into account. Main goal of this algorithm is to achieve a balance between Maximising the cell
throughput and fairness, by letting all users to achieve a minimum QoS (Quality of Service).

Such an algorithm is designed to be better in terms of average user throughput as well as being fair
to most of the users and meeting the minimum QoS requirements during the scheduling process.
CFI (Control Format Indicator)

CFI is a indicator telling how many OFDM symbols are used for carrying control channel
(e.g, PDCCH and PHICH) at each subframe. If CFI is set to be 1 for a subframe, it means
one symbol (the first symbol) at the subframe is used for PDCCH allocation. If CFI is 2, it
means two symbols (the first and the second symbol) are used for PDCCH. If CFI is 3, you
know the answer -:)
(I created following subframe structure using LTE Resource Grid and edited to fit the topics
of this page)

This CFI is carried by a specific physical channel called PCFICH. PCFICH is carrying only CFI
without any other information. You may ask "why do we need a special physical channel
carrying only one number ?". It is because CFI is made up of 31 bits data even though the
types of the bit pattern is only 4. The bit pattern and the CFI value mapping is as follows
(3GPP 36.212 5.3.4 Control format indicator).
< What would be the best CFI value ? >

Would there be any value that is the best for every subframe ? or for every situation ?
The answer would be No best value for every subframe and every situation.. but there can
be some recommended value for a specific situation.

First, let's think about the general guide from 3GPP specification. We have a couple of
different places of 3GPP specification mentioning about CFI.

First place is 3GPP 36.212 5.3.4 Control format indicator.. you can see following statement.

The CFI takes values CFI = 1, 2 or 3.

For system bandwidths with "Max Number of RBs for the System Bandwidth > 10", the span
of the DCI in units of OFDM symbols, 1, 2 or 3, is given by the CFI.
For system bandwidths with "Max Number of RBs for the System Bandwidth <= 10", the
span of the DCI in units of OFDM symbols, 2, 3 or 4, is given by CFI+1.
=> Basically this says.. you can specify any value of 1,2,3 in any bandwidth, but the
conversion from 'CFI value' to 'number of OFDM symbols for the span of DCI' is different as
follows.
Case 1 : For system bandwidths with "Max Number of RBs for the System Bandwidth
> 10"
the number of OFDM symbols for the span of DCI = CFI Value
Case 2 : For system bandwidths with "Max Number of RBs for the System Bandwidth
<= 10"
the number of OFDM symbols for the span of DCI = CFI Value + 1
According this rule, only System BW 1.4 Mhz is supposed to follow Case 2 rule and all other
system BW is supposed to follow Case 1.

The description above would tell you the whole possible range of value of CFI, but does not
tell you much about which value would be better than others.

You can find another guide lines in 4.3.3.3 Mapping of downlink physical channels and
signals to physical resources of 36.508 as follows.
CFI = 3 for 1.4, 3 and 5 MHz system bandwidths
CFI = 2 for 10, 15 and 20 MHz system bandwidth
It seems to narrow down the value a little bit better for a couple of cases. It may be
recommended well for most of the situation. However, if you are trying to achieve or test
maximum throughput. You may have to think more carefully.
Large CFI value measn less space for PDSCH.. it means .. you would have higher code rate
in the subframe with large CFI comparing to the subframe with low CFI value. You would
also know that it would get more difficult for UE to decode PDSCH when Code Rate gets
higher. According to my experience, the value specified in 36.508 works fine for most of the
case including max throughput case in Cat 3 device. But in case of Cat 4 or higher, it would
be harder to achieve max throughput with CFI value 2 or 3.. in this case most of UE fails at
PDSCH decoding and report HARQ NACK causing PHY layer retransmission. So general tips
for max throughput case would be "Use CFI = 1 for Cat 4 or higher max throughput case".

Then you may ask.. why don't we just set CFI = 1 for every case ?
Answer to this question is not as simple as you might have expected. The bottom line is
'you have to secure the minimum number of CCEs for the necessary PDCCH for each
subframe'. If you set CFI to 1 in a very narrow bandwidth you may break this rule.

For the number of CCE required for number of PDCCH, refer to 36.213 Table 9.1.1-1. If you
want to get more detailed explanation on CCE, PDCCH related issues, refer to following
pages.
 Resource Allocation and Management Unit
 PDCCH Candidate and Search Space
 PDCCH Resource Allocation
 CCE Index Calculation/PDCCH Decoding/Blind
To many things to study just to figure out proper CFI number ?
True.. Simple rule of thumb is that you may easily set CFI value to 1 in case of 10 Mhz and
higher bandwidth.. but in case of 5 Mhz and lower, you have to be very careful to check if
the value meets the minimum number of CCE requirement. Since this requirement is
influenced by phich-Resource IE in MIB and aggregation level, you have to consider those
factors as well.

User Plane Domains

Cyclic Redundancy Check:

A cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is an error-detecting code commonly used in digital networks and
storage devices to detect accidental changes in data. Blocks of data entering these systems get a
short check value attached, based on the remainder of a polynomial division of their contents; on
retrieval the calculation is repeated, and corrective action can be taken against presumed data
corruption if the check values do not match.
There are two CRC schemes for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in LTE: ‘gCRC24A’
and ‘gCRC24B’. Both of them have a 24 parity bits length, but work with different cyclic generator
polynomials. The ‘gCRC24A’ focuses on a transport block, while the ‘gCRC24B’ focuses on the code
block, which is the segmentation of a transport block when the size of a transport block is larger than
the upper limit (6144 bits).
Turbo Coding:
The channel coding scheme for PDSCH adopts Turbo Coding, which is a kind of robust channel
coding. When using an AWGN channel, the performance of Turbo codes can be close to the
theoretical Shannon capacity limits. The typical error performance of an uncoded versus a FEC
coded system is:

The scheme of the Turbo encoder for LTE is a Parallel Concatenated Convolutional Code (PCCC)
with two 8-state constituent encoders and one Turbo code internal interleaver. The theoretical
structure of a Turbo encoder is represented in the next figure:
The tail bits are independently appended(added) at the end of each information bit stream to clean
up the memory of all registers, for example, by terminating the encoder trellis to a zero state.
Generally, the length of the tail bits is equal to the number of registers in one constituent encoder (3
registers are used in one constituent encoder in LTE). The sequence of tail bits is rearranged and 4
tail bits are attached after each information bit stream. Hence, the length of each bit stream becomes
4+K.
With the three information bit streams, the original Turbo coding rate is 1/3. However, after padding
tail bits, the coding rate will decrease a bit. Furthermore, by puncturing or repeating the output of
Turbo coding, it can accomplish an alterable channel coding rate under different scenarios,
according to the channel conditions. Such process is implemented by the circular buffer at the rate-
matching block, which we will explore in the next post ;-)

CCE Index Calculation

CCE Index is the CCE number at which the control channel data (PDCCH) is allocated.

1 CCE = 36 REs
Refrence Signal::

is always transimited in first ofdm symbol or the last 3rd ofdm symbol.1 RB carries 4 RS.as you can see
below,