if the PDCCH resources are reduced then that means that the PDSCH resources can increase which

in turn me
there will be more data per subframe

PDCCH is used to give scheduling allocations to the UE on the PDSCH or PUSCH

if the UE is unable to decode PDCCH then the UE cannot read the PDSCH in that subframe and consistent deco
failures of PDCCH lead to RLF (Radio Link Failure) due to N310.

PDCCH is made up of CCEs (Control Channel Elements) and each CCE is made up of 36 REs (Resource Elements
There are 4 aggregation layers in the normal PDCCH(1 CCE ,2 CCE , 4 CCE , 8 CCE )
1 CCE = used in very good radio conditions.
2 CCE = the most common aggregation layer in normal radio conditions.
4 CCE = It can be used for signalling and control information allocations.
8 CCE = Users in very bad radio conditions are allocated with this layer or it can be used for control informatio
most of the vendors have introduced a dynamic algorithm that changes the PDCCH symbol count with respect
requirement of the users
Activating this algorithm is the first step to ensure optimum balance between PDCCH and PDSCH.
there is another way to increase the robustness and that is to increase the PDCCH power
Vendors have dynamic power features for PDCCH and if such a feature is used, it will increase the PDCCH pow
same aggregation layer to increase the robustness. 
Another approach is to tune the PDCCH BLER target. If the BLER target is slightly increased, then the eNB will u
PDCCH aggregation layer for longer and this will reduce expansion of PDCCH resulting in a lower CCE utilizatio
reduced overhead
Another dimension is the coding rate for the PDCCH aggregation layers

Another dimension is the coding rate for the PDCCH aggregation layers. If there is more number of bits in a pa
PDCCH allocation, then it might exceed the upper limit of the Aggregation Layer 1. So, the eNB will have to exp
bigger aggregation layer. This happens because the eNB has a threshold for maximum coding rate per aggreg
However, if the maximum coding rate threshold is increased, the eNB will be able to send more bits within the
aggregation layer. This would reduce the transitions to higher aggregation layers and might reduce the overhe
example, a transmit diversity allocation uses lesser number of PDCCH bits compared to a Open Loop Spatial M
(TM3) allocation. So, if a network has Transmit Diversity and it moves to Open Loop Spatial Multiplexing, an inc
aggregation layer will be observed. Similarly, if the network shifts from Open Loop to Closed Loop, another inc
aggregation layer will be observed as Closed Loop MIMO allocations take more number of bits on PDCCH com
Open Loop MIMO allocations. This can be mitigated by increasing the maximum coding rate threshold for the
increasing it reduces the robustness of the PDCCH and therefore, a balance must be maintained.
The spectral efficiency is simply the number of bits transmitted over a frequency bandwidth in a specific time a
measured in bits/s/Hz.
The most basic and common factor that controls the spectral efficiency and throughput is the SINR
A- factors that impact SINR:
1- Inter-site distance :
downtilts to improve SINR and reduce overshooting
Pa & Pb
2- Load & Utilization
As the load increases, the power per Resource Element increases which will result in higher aggregate power i
increasing the RSSI
 For neighbouring cell, such a power is considered interference. So, if the load increases above a threshold, it i
add another carrier or if another carrier already exists, then it will be better to offload the congested carrier an
load to the uncongested carrier. This can be done using Load Balancing features or by tuning the cell reselecti
mobility parameters.

if the load increases above a threshold???

Sometimes, the actual traffic volume is not that high but the utilization of the cell is still very high. This is usual
due to low signal quality as the users with bad SINR will take a lot RBs at a lower modulation

see the TA and CQI for the cell

 Introducing PDCCH optimization also helps in such cases as it can add to the PDSCH capacity relieving conges
extent.
PCI Planning(mod 3 )
B – CQI & MCS Mapping:
UE measures it’s SINR, it will convert it to a CQI value so it can report to the eNB. The eNB will take this CQI and
MCS (Modulation & Coding Scheme) value
n LTE, there are 16 CQI indexes and 32 MCS indexes. Usually, the CQI value of below 7 is considered bad and C
around 10 is considered fair.
1- CQI Adjustment Algorithms
the UEs have different chipsets from different vendors and can have a different CQI value for same SINR index
to address this issue, the eNB maintains another index which is like the outer loop of BLER (Block Error Rate)
Most of the vendors maintain a BLER target of 10%
the eNB calculates the BLER to be around 13% so the eNB will lower the MCS 
If the BLER still remains above 10%, the eNB will reduce it further to ensure that the BLER target is maintained
f the UE sends a CQI value of 8 and eNB initiates downlink data with a MCS of 16 and it finds out that the BLER
below 10%, it will increase MCS to 17 or 18 until the BLER target is achieved. This scenario will increase the spe
efficiency and the throughput.
we need to ensure that CQI adjustment or dynamic CQI assignment algorithms or outer loop control based on
activated to achieve maximum gains from the channel.
2-CQI Convergence
 low CQI values initially. For example, if the UE has just accessed the cell and it shares a CQI value of 9, the eNB
as a CQI of 7 and a corresponding MCS will be allocated to it.
Then after subsequent transmissions, the eNB will keep monitoring BLER and once the credibility of the UE’s C
ensured, the eNB will converge to the effective CQI.
3-CQI Periodicity
Usually CQI reports are shared every 40 or 80 ms but if the UE is moving or if the channel is fluctuating then 40
can be considered a large interval. If we shift the CQI period to a smaller value like 20ms or 10ms, then the CQ
more accurate and that should improve the spectral efficiency
if we reduce the CQI reporting interval, that will increase the load on PUCCH. This can lead to interference on P
it can also result in RRC rejections due to PUCCH congestion.
to solve PUCCH congestion :
Adaptive or Dynamic PUCCH
Adaptive CQI Period :this makes the CQI reporting interval dynamic and the eNB can adjust it based on the us
characteristics
There is another type of CQI reports known as Aperiodic CQIs
4-Adaptive BLER Targets
concept of BLER. It can be divided into two categories:

Initial BLER: When the eNB sends data to the UE and UE is unable to decode it, then it will send a HARQ NACK
A NACK means that the eNB will have to retransmit the data and this NACK is considered IBLER or Initial Block
Residual BLER: If the UE is unable to decode the data even after retransmission, the UE will send another NAC
eNB will have to retransmit again. However, there is a limit to these retransmissions and usually they are confi
Commonly, these retransmissions are set to 4 and after 4 retransmissions, the eNB will not retransmit at HARQ
consider this as a Residual Block Error.
D– Mobility Strategy:
1-Transition to Higher CQI layer

The easiest way is to give a higher priority to L1800 and that will shift most of the UEs in L1800 coverage away
Another way would be to keep them on same priority and provide a frequency offset to move the users to L18
more reasonable if L1800 is also getting overloaded then the amount of load to be shifted can be tuned by var
offsets.
inter-frequency handovers should be minimized as it can cause a 25% degradation in throughput. Cell reselect
idle mode so it is a much better way to move users between the layers.
2-Load Balancing( between the layers and ensuring that the higher CQI layer gets more load.)
Load balancing usually also comes in two modes
Connected Mode:
performing load based handovers between the layers.

Idle Mode: In this case, the eNB sends the frequency in the RRC Release command to the UE. eNB increases th
the target frequency for that UE temporarily and the UE tries to reselect to that frequency in idle mode.
I prefer idle mode based load balancing
idle mode based load balancing will not have significant impact in case the layers have different priorities 
3-Vertical Beam-Width
 If the beam-width of one layer is significantly wider than the other, then ensure to put a tilt offset between the
keep an optimum and balanced coverage.
F– Scheduler Fairness:
A scheduler can work in multiple modes
Round Robin: In this mode, the scheduler provides equal resources to all users. This is not an optimum algori
different users have different data requirements.
Max C/I: This mode provides significantly higher resources to users in good coverage conditions. This mode ca
cell edge users and they will not get enough data resulting in degradation in user experience.

This scheme is essentially a combination of both round robin and Max C/I as it provides more resources to use
higher CQI as compared to round robin but it also provides more resources to cell edge users when compared
The user throughput KPI improves with Max C/I scheduler as it provides more resources to good users resultin
user throughput
the cell throughput is improved with Proportional Fair algorithm as it strikes a balance between all users
Number of REs in one symbol : 50*12 = 600

Overhead in Symbol 1 = 200 RS + 16 REs of PCFICH + 84 REs of PHICH = 300 REs

Overhead in symbol 2 = 0 REs

Overhead in symbol 3 = 0 REs

Total REs available for PDCCH (REs available in 3 symbols) = 1800 – 300 = 1500 REs

Total CCEs available for PDCCH = 1500 REs / 36 = 41 CCEs