5G Workshop Session-4

UR TechPlanet
5G Throughput Optimization
 UR TechPlanet
5G Throughput Optimization
5G Frame Structure CSI-RS & CSI-IM
Channel State
Information
DMRS PDSCH PDCCH Sounding Reference
Demodulation Carries actual Informs user about Signals (SRS)
Reference Signal user data location of data allocation
Time

Freq
Random Access
Channel (RACH)

Physical Uplink
Shared Channel
(PUSCH)

Physical Uplink
Control Channel
PSS PBCH SSB SSS (PUCCH)
Primary Sync Signal Carries the MIB Sync Signal Block Secondary Sync Signal: used for RSRP
measurements
Type of Reference Signals
There are multiple reference signals in a 5G system and we need to understand the significance of each of
the reference signals
• SSB RS : These are the reference signals inside the SSB and are used for the channel estimation of the
SSB and can also be used for SSB coverage estimation. In that case, all network entry and mobility
procedures are based on these reference signals.
• DMRS : The DMRS are only present when there is a PDSCH allocation. They are used for channel
estimation and equalization which helps in decoding the PDSCH.
• TRS : These are the Tracking Reference signals used for time and frequency tracking.
• CSI-RS : These are used for Channel State Information and serves as an input for UE’s CSI Reports. UE
can use these for channel measurements and interference estimation.
• CSI-IM : These are also used for Channel State Information and provide knowledge about the
interference estimation. Thus, they also serve as an input for CSI Reports.

CSI-IM TRS

SSB CSI-RS DMRS

Significance of CSI-RS Ports
More Tx per CSI-RS port
More power per CSI-RS port
4 Port
Lesser Ports so smaller codebook CSI-RS

8 Port
CSI-RS

16 Port
CSI-RS

32 Port
CSI-RS

Less Tx per CSI-RS port

Less power per CSI-RS port
More Ports so bigger codebook
CSI Feedback
CSI Feedback has three parts
- Rank Indicator (RI)
- Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) CQI Estimation
- Precoding Matrix Information (PMI) CQI is based on calculation
of Signal/Interference
CSI-IM

Rank Estimation CSI-RS

Estimate number of
uncorrelated paths using
CSI-RS and port information

PMI Estimation
From a known codebook,
find a precoding matrix
that provides the best SINR
5G Data Scheduling Algorithm

For the Data Scheduling, there are two

algorithms that work together CSI-RS & CSI-IM
➢ The first one is based on CSI
reports where the UE receives CSI-
RS/CSI-IM and estimate CSI CSI Report (CQI, RI, PMI)
feedback (CQI,RI,PMI) and then
sends this CSI feedback to the gNB.
DL Data (MCS & MIMO Layers)
The gNB uses this CSI feedback to
assign MCS and MIMO layers to the HARQ ACK
UE.
➢ The second part of the algorithm DL Data (MCS & MIMO Layers)
serves as an outer loop where the
gNB keeps checking the BLER HARQ NACK
statistics for each UE and then
modifies the MCS based on BLER DL Data (MCS-1 & MIMO Layers)
statistics. This ensures that a
target service is achieved by the UE
especially since the CSI feedback
might differ between different UEs
5G Control Scheduling Algorithm

For the Control (PDCCH) Scheduling, the CSI-RS & CSI-IM

algorithm is also based on CSI reports
➢ The algorithm is based on CSI reports CSI Report (CQI, RI, PMI)
where the UE receives CSI-RS/CSI-IM
and estimate CSI feedback
(CQI,RI,PMI) and then sends this CSI PDCCH Aggregation 8
feedback to the gNB. The gNB uses
this CSI feedback to estimate the UE’s HARQ ACK
channel conditions and assigns a
particular PDCCH Aggregation Layer PDCCH Aggregation 8
accordingly.
➢ The second part of the algorithm HARQ NACK
serves as an outer loop where the gNB
keeps checking the BLER statistics for PDCCH Aggregation 8
each UE’s PDCCH and then modifies
the aggregation layer based on PDCCH No Response
BLER. This part of the algorithm is not
present in all implementations yet. PDCCH Aggregation 16
Beam-Forming Optimization
Low CSI-RS Ports High CSI-RS Ports
Higher Rank
Lower Complexity
Improved Throughput
Lesser Overhead
More Cell Range
Higher UE Support
Larger i11 & i12
Smaller i11 & i12

8Ports 4,1 32Ports 8,2

i11=FFFF i11=FFFFFFFF
I12=NULL I12=FF
Total Beams=16 Total Beams=256

Beam Beam
Space Space
CSI-RS Lean Carrier

The CSI-RS provide CQI estimation and thus, if there is interference on CSI-RS, then the CQI estimation will be lower
So, if all the gNBs are transmitting CSI-RS then they will have interference and the UE will have poorer quality
Therefore, if Lean Carrier is activated then any gNB without any connected user will not transmit CSI-RS. This will
improve CQI results as interference will go down and it can also improve throughput.
Sounding Reference Signals
When PMI is used then the UE can
only choose from a fixed Read CSI-RS and
codebook set estimate PMI. Choose
This means that there is limited from a predefined CSI-RS & CSI-IM
flexibility and the precoding gain codebook
is limited due to low number of
pre-defined codebooks CSI Report (CQI, RI, PMI) Receive PMI
However, when the UE sends SRS and assign a
and since, in TDD network, the Beam based on PMI beam based
uplink and downlink channels on PMI
have reciprocity then the gNB
can use SRS to estimate the best
precoding matrix
This gives more flexibility and
the gain is not limited anymore Send SRS in uplink SRS
due to codebook limitation.
So, this can improve throughput
significantly in good radio Receive SRS and
conditions but in poor radio estimate best
conditions, PMI is still used due precoding and
to low uplink coverage of SRS. Beam based on SRS
beam candidate
ENDC Aggregation
In 5G NSA, the UE is connected to both
LTE and 5G – Hence the name ENDC
(EUTRA NR Dual Connectivity)
This means that the UE can receive data NR PDCP
on both LTE and NR legs
2 1 3 4 5
However, the PDCP is on the NR leg so the
gNB is responsible for user plane data
distribution between the two legs LTE RLC NR RLC
In this case, there will be one PDCP entity
but there will be more than one RLC and
MAC entities
Moreover, this also means that the overall LTE MAC NR MAC
bandwidth available for a peak test would
not be limited to NR only but it will be an
aggregation of both LTE + NR
Application level retransmission
Reduction in TCP data
Zero Window Issue
1 3 4 5
Reorder Timer Base Station
TCP

With ENDC Aggregation, it is important to understand NR PDCP

re-order timer and its working as this helps in 1 3 2
investigating low throughput issues
LTE RLC NR RLC
At the receiver side, the PDCP keeps a reorder timer
which starts when it receives packets out of order
This helps in ensuring that the delayed packets are LTE MAC NR MAC
received and not discarded and reduces unnecessary 2 Retransmissions
application level retransmissions over the air
However, if the reorder timer expires then the 1 3
packets that are not yet received are discarded and LTE MAC NR MAC
the remaining packets are sent to the application
layer LTE RLC NR RLC
The application layer can then request
retransmissions from the server 1 3
The value of reorder timer needs to be carefully NR PDCP Reorder Timer

selected so that long delays are not caused

1 3
TCP Throughput
TCP Impacted
Handset
Flow Control

How to find out about how much data needs to

be sent on each leg?
This question is answered by flow control NR PDCP
mechanism
Latency 30ms
The gNB keeps checking the buffer depth and Latency 2ms

delay on each leg and ensures that the traffic

distribution is done in a way that latency on both LTE RLC NR RLC
legs remain balanced and below a threshold
Lets understand with an example. If we have LTE
leg on a carrier with low bandwidth and high
load so if it gets more data on this leg, then it
LTE MAC NR MAC
will increase the delay on the packets on the LTE
leg compared to the NR leg. This will cause
application level throughput reduction as some
packets will be received out of order or some
can be delayed enough to cause an application
level retransmission or it can also cause OOW or
Zero Window issues
ENDC Aggregation + LTE CA
Another option that ENDC Aggregation brings is the combination of LTE CA with NR bandwidth
Since, we have many LTE carriers available so in case of peak tests, it might be a good idea to have a combination of
NR with all the available LTE carriers. This is done by sending LTE SCells along with NR carrier in RRC Reconfiguration
simultaneously or it can be done separately as well.

NR PDCP

LTE RLC LTE RLC LTE RLC NR RLC

LTE MAC LTE MAC LTE MAC NR MAC

Leg Switching Algorithms
Leg switching algorithm also works to provide the best user
experience along with Flow Control
The basic idea is to make sure that the best leg is used to
transmit data
This is estimated based on the CQI reports and if the NR CQI
goes below a certain threshold then gNB shifts the traffic to Good CQI
the LTE leg. Data on NR Leg
Note: This shift is not done via any RRC signaling
Bad CQI

Data on LTE Leg

Bad CQI

Data on LTE Leg

Good CQI

Data on NR Leg
 PDSCH (Data Channel)

5G Throughput Calculation PDCCH (Control Channel)

DMRS (Demodulation Reference Signals)

Time Domain
1 Slot = 14 Symbols (0.5ms)

1 Resource Block = 12 Subcarriers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
MCS Index
Modulation
Spectral The simplest way to estimate 5G Throughput is 2
Order
IMCS Qm efficiency to calculate the maximum data rate carried by 3

Frequency Domain

(360kHz = 12 x 30)
0 2 0.2344 a single Resource Block into one slot. 4
1 2 0.377 5
2 2 0.6016 For instance, on the right, we have a 30KHz 6
3 2 0.877
4 2 1.1758 example. In this case 7
5 4 1.4766
6 4 1.6953 Number of Subcarriers = 12 8
7
8
4
4
1.9141
2.1602 Number of Symbols = 14 9
10
9
10
4
4
2.4063
2.5703
Symbols for Data = 11 (2 for DMRS and 1 for PDCCH) 11
11
12
6
6
2.7305
3.0293
Total Data Resource Elements = 12 x 11 = 132 12
13
14
6
6
3.3223
3.6094
Maximum Bits per Symbol = 7.4063 (256QAM)
15 6 3.9023
16 6 4.2129 Data carried in this Resource Block over one slot = 132 x 7.4063 = 977 Bits in 0.5ms
17 6 4.5234
18
19
6
6
4.8164
5.1152
Now, lets say that the 5G Bandwidth is 100MHz
20
21
8
8
5.332
5.5547
Number of Resource Blocks in 100MHz = 100,000KHz / 360KHz = 277 (273 are used, 4 RBs are
22
23
8
8
5.8906
6.2266
used as guard)
24
25
8
8
6.5703
6.9141
Total Number of Slots available in one second = 1000 ms / 0.5ms = 2000 slots
26 8 7.1602 Downlink Slots = 1600 (if DL/UL Ratio is 4:1) or 1500 (if DL/UL Ratio is 3:1)
27 8 7.4063
28 2 Reserved Maximum Number of MIMO layers = 4
29 4 Reserved
30 6 Reserved 5G Throughput = 977 bits x 273 RBs x 1600 slots x 4 layers /1000/1000 = 1707 Mbps
31 8 Reserved
5G Throughput Calculation
A slight overhead is introduced in special slots where the Downlink changes to Uplink i.e. Slot-
4 shown below
The Slot-4 has some symbols used for Guard Period which is used by both transmitter and
receiver sides to shift from Tx to Rx and vice versa PDSCH (Data Channel)
It also has some symbols for uplink control channels like Sounding Reference Signals or SRS
PDCCH (Control Channel)
Hence, the Slot-4 has 7 symbols used for data in this example and if we incorporate that
DMRS (Demodulation Reference Signals)
overhead in our calculation then the throughput will be slightly lower
If we 8:2 (DL/UL) then 8 slots should have 88 Data Symbols but as we can see that 4 symbols Guard Period
below are used for Gap & Uplink so actual DL Data Symbols will be 88-4=84. Uplink SRS
In previous slide, out expected peak throughput was 1707 Mbps. So, removing this overhead, Uplink PUSCH (UL Slot)
the adjusted throughput would be = 1707 * (84/88) = 1629 Mbps

Slot-1 Slot-2 Slot-3 Slot-4 Slot-5

Note: These special slots can have different configurations and thus, different ratio between DL/UL/GP symbols is possible
DMRS Overhead Optimization

DMRS are very important to decode the PDSCH

data successfully. However, they have the DMRS Symbol
highest overhead as well as they usually Reduction
consume 2 symbols in each slot (~15% overhead)
So, in order to achieve peak throughputs, there
are possibilities to reduce this overhead
There are 2 possible ways to handle that
depending on requirement and implementation
One possibility is to use only one DMRS symbol
instead of two.
Another possibility is to multiplex PDSCH and
DMRS PDSCH
DMRS together. Multiplexing
Both of these approaches can increase peak
throughput and capacity but they can be
counter-productive in cases of fluctuating
channel or poor coverage.
PDCCH Overhead Optimization

Similar to DMRS, the PDCCH is also a very

important channel that is used to allocate
resources to UE
However, it also has a overhead as it PDSCH can use
consumes the full first symbol of every portion of the
first symbol
slot even if only one UE is to be that is not
scheduled being used by
Thus, there are options to multiplex PDCCH
PDCCH with PDSCH such that if the PDCCH anymore
is not using the full first symbol then the
remaining portion can be provided to the
PDSCH
This can increase PDSCH capacity and
reduce PDCCH overhead
CSI-RS Overhead Optimization

CSI-RS are less frequent so the overhead

introduced by CSI-RS are low
However, the overhead can be further
reduced by allowing PDSCH to utilize PDSCH can use
resource elements in between CSI-RS and portion
symbols and
CSI-IM subcarriers
This can increase the PDSCH peak between CSI-
capacity even in slots where CSI-RS and RS and CSI-IM
CSI-IM are present.
However, this can reduce the efficiency
of CSI-IM interference estimation and it
can also increase.
Link Adaptation & BLER Control

Receive CSI
Link Adaptation has two parts Report
The first part estimates MCS based on
received CQI
The second part adjusts the MCS based on Estimate MCS
IBLER (outer loop) based on CQI
This adjustment can be tuned by
changing the IBLER target
A higher IBLER target will result in higher Allocate MCS and
MCS and a lower IBLER target will result estimate IBLER
in lower MCS
However, if the IBLER target is too high
then the throughput will degrade due to Yes IBLER > No
retransmission overhead Target

NA

Decrease MCS Same MCS Increase MCS

Interference Randomization
By default, the gNB allocates user data from the start of the band. If all Users get the allocation in the
same location then they will all interfere with each other
Hence, an interference randomization option is added where the gNB can start allocation start point
based on the PCImod3. This can significantly reduce the interference on the PDSCH and improve BLER
and MCS.
Normal Scheduling Interference Randomization
PCI2 PCI0 PCI2 PCI0

Frequency

Frequency
UE#1

UE#3
UE#3 UE#1

PCI1 PCI1

UE#2
UE#2
Multi-User MIMO

Another important tactic to increase cell

capacity would be to use Multi-User MIMO
This technique allows different users to
utilize the same frequency and time
resources but on different beam
candidates
It requires that the users grouped as MU-
MIMO users should be having enough
horizontal or vertical separation
Hence, this technique only works when
number of beams are high and thus, it
needs higher number of CSI-RS ports or it
can be based on SRS (channel reciprocity)
Beam
Space
 UR TechPlanet
Thankyou