LTE Physical Channels

LTE Channels
•
 PBCH – Physical Broadcast Channel
• DL transmission of the BCH transport channel and BCCH logical
channel using QPSK modulation
• It only carries what is termed Master Information Block, MIB,
messages
• The MIB message on the PBCH is mapped onto the central 72
subcarriers or six central resource block
• The PBCH occupies 240 RE when using the normal CP i.e. 72 x 4 -
48 where 48 is the number of RE allocated to RS. The PBCH
occupies 216 RE when using ECP i.e. 72 x 4 - 72 where 72 is the
number of RE allocated to RS
• The PBCH represents an overhead which reduces the number of
RE available for user plane data.
• Overhead decreases for larger channel bandwidths
• Overhead is comparable for both the normal CP & ECP
PCFICH – Phy Control Format Indicator Channel
• Indicates the PDCCH format in DL
•It indicates the number of OFDM symbols used
for the PDCCHs, whether 1, 2, or 3
• The information within the PCFICH is essential
because the UE does not have prior information
about the size of the control region
• Always uses QPSK modulation to ensure robust
reception
•The PCFICH is used at the start of each 1 ms
downlink subframe to signal the number of
symbols used for PDCCH.
PCFICH – Phy Control Format Indicator Channel
• The PCFICH occupies 16 RE within the first
OFDMA symbol of each 1 ms downlink subframe
• Total of 160 RE are allocated for PCFICH per 10
ms radio frame for all bandwidths
• The PCFICH represents an overhead which
reduces the number of RE available for user plane
data
•Overhead increases for larger channel bandwidths
•Overhead increases when using the cyclic prefix
 PHICH-Phy HARQ Indicator Channel
• DL HARQ info (i.e. carries HARQ ACK/NACK in response to UL
transmissions on PUSCH
• Uses QPSK Modulation
• The MIB on PBCH indicates whether the PHICH uses a normal or
extended duration
• The PHICH represents an overhead which reduces the number of
RE available for user plane data
• For a specific channel BW the overhead increases because the number of
PHICH groups also increases.
• Max & min overheads remain approx constant as the channel BW
increases because the number of PHICH groups also increase
• The overhead for ECP is only slightly greater than for the normal CP
despite the number of PHICH groups being double because the number of
RE per group is half that of the normal CP
 PDCCH – Phy DL Control Channel
• DL L1/L2 control signaling
• Uses QPSK modulation
• Informs the UE about the resource allocation of
•PCH & DL-SCH
•HARQ info related to DL-SCH
• Carries the UL scheduling grant
 PDSCH – Phy DL Shared Channel
• Transmission of the DL-SCH transport channel
• Carries the DL-SCH & PCH
• Modulations is used here (QPSK,16-QAM, 64
QAM)
• PDSCH carries all data in the DL direction to the
UEs within a cell
• RBs with their REs are modulated with user data
(MAC PDUs, Packet Data Units)
 PMCH – Phy Multicast Channel
• DL transmission of the MCH transport channel
(carries the MCH).
• Uses QPSK, 16-QAM & 64-QAM
• Basically similar to the PDSCH, but designed for
a multi cell reception
 PUSCH – Phy UL Shared Channel
• Transmission of the UL-SCH transport channel
(carries the UL-SCH)
• UL data transmission is shared channel based
similar to the DL-SCH approach
•All UL higher layer control plane (in-band
signaling) and user plane information is sent via
the PUSCH
• Uses QPSK, 16-QAM and 64-QAM modulation
 PUCCH – Phy UL Control Channel
• UL L1/L2 control signaling
• UL physical layer control information (UCI) is sent via the
PUCCH
• Carries the HARQ ACK/NACK in response to DL
transmission
• Carries SR(scheduling requests) & CQI reports
• Carries PMI (used with multiple antenna tx)
• Carries RI (Rank Indicator)- MIMO Case
• Uses BPSK & QPSK modulation
• PUCCH resources are allocated at both system
bandwidth edges in order to decrease interference
and gain frequency diversity
 PRACH – Phy Random Access Channel
• UL transmission of the random access preamble
as given by the RACH transport channel
• The frequency and time location of the six
consecutive RBs used for PRACH are cell-wide
signaled using the SIB type 2.
• The random access preambles are generated
from Zadoff - Chu sequences with zero correlation
zone
• There are five random access formats defined,
specifying different CP and preamble length
• Format for FDD (4 formats) & TDD (1 format)