Module 3
Sumathi A
Introduction to LTE
• 2G and 3G cellular systems were designed mainly with voice services
in mind
• LTE was designed primarily for high-speed data services, which is why
LTE is a packet-switched network from end to end and has no support
for circuit-switched services.
• The low latency of LTE and its sophisticated quality of service (QoS)
architecture allow a network to emulate a circuit-switched
connection on top of the packet-switched framework of LTE.
Introduction to LTE Standardization
• Standardization effort started in late 2004
– With HSPA (downlink and uplink), UTRA will remain highly competitive for
several years
– IEEE is standardizing mobile WiMAX => Threat for loosing competitive edge
• LTE focus:
– Enhancement of the UTRA
– Optimisation of the UTRAN architecture
– To ensure the continued competitiveness of the 3GPP technologies for the future
• LTE was the first and only technology recognized by the Next Generation Mobile
Network alliance to meet its broad requirements
• Target deployment in 2010
Design Principles- Service Capabilities
• Reduced cost per bit
– Improve spectrum efficiency ( e.g. 2-4 x Rel6)
– Reduce cost of backhaul (transmission in UTRAN)
• Increased service provisioning
– more services at lower cost with better user experience
• Focus on delivery of services utilising ”IP”
• Reduced latency, to 10 msec round-trip time between user equipment and the base
station, and to less than 100 msec transition time from inactive to active
• Increase the support of QoS for the various types of services (e.g. VoIP)
• Increase “cell edge bit rate” whilst maintaining same site locations as deployed today
• Reasonable terminal power consumption
• Flexibility of use of existing and new frequency bands
Design Principles- System Capabilities
• Downlink peak data rates up to 326 Mbps with 20 MHz bandwidth
• Uplink peak data rates up to 86.4 Mbps with 20 MHz bandwidth
• Operation in both TDD and FDD modes.
• Variable duplex technology within bands as well as between bands
• Scalable bandwidth up to 20 MHz, covering 1.4, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20
MHz
• Increased spectral efficiency over Release 6 HSPA by a factor of two
to four
• Enhance the bit rate for MBMS (e.g. 1-3 Mbps)
Design Principles- Architecture & Mobility
Capabilities
• UTRAN Evolution and UTRA Evolution with simplified architecture
• Open interfaces to support Multi-vendor deployments
• Robustness – no single point of failure
• Support of multi-RAT with resources controlled from the network
• Support of seamless mobility to legacy systems as well as to other
emerging systems including
– Inter-RAT Handovers
– Service based RAT Selection
• Maintain appropriate level of security
Network Architecture
Radio Interface Protocol
Radio Resource Control (RRC)
The main services and functions include:
– Broadcast of System Information related to the NAS
– Broadcast of System Information related to the AS
– Paging
– Establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE
and the E-UTRAN
– Security Function: key management
– Establishment, maintenance and release of point to point Radio bearers
– Mobility functions
– Establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of Radio Bearers for
MBMS services
– QoS management functions
Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)
The main service and functions for User plane
– Header compression/decompression: ROHC
– Transmission and Retransmission of user data
– In-sequence delivery of upper layer PDU at HO for RLC AM
– Duplicate detection of lower layer SDUs
– Ciphering of user plane data and control plane data
– Integrity protection of control plane data
Radio Link Control (RLC)
The main service and functions include:
– Transfer of upper layer PDUs supporting Acknowledged Mode (AM) or
Unacknowledged Mode (UM)
• The UM mode is suitable for transport of Real Time (RT) services because
such services are delay sensitive and cannot wait for retransmissions.
• The AM mode, on the other hand, is appropriate for non-RT (NRT) services
such as file downloads.
– Transparent Mode (TM) data transfer
• The TM mode is used when the PDU sizes are known a priori such as for
broadcasting system information.
– Error Correction through ARQ
• CRC check provided by the physical layer no CRC needed at RLC level
Radio Link Control (RLC)
– Segmentation according to the size of the TB:
• only if an RLC SDU does not fit entirely into the TB
• then the RLC SDU is segmented into variable sized RLC PDUs, which do not
include any padding;
– Re-segmentation of PDUs that need to be retransmitted
• if a retransmitted PDU does not fit entirely into the new TB used for
retransmission then the RLC PDU is re-segmented
– Concatenation of SDUs for the same radio bearer
– In-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs except at HO
– Duplicate Detection; – Protocol error detection and recovery
– SDU discard
Medium Access Control (MAC)
The main services and functions include:
– Mapping between logical channels and transport channels
– Multiplexing/demultiplexing of RLC PDUs belonging to one or different
radio bearers into/from transport blocks (TB) delivered to/from the physical
layer on transport channels;
– Traffic volume measurement reporting
– Error correction through HARQ
– Priority handling between logical channels of one UE
– Priority handling between UEs by means of dynamic scheduling
– Transport format selection
– Padding.
Physical Layer(PHY)
The physical layer performs the following main functions:
– Error detection on transport channel
– Support for Hybrid ARQ
– Power weighting
– Physical channel modulation/demodulation & link adaptation
– Frequency and time synchronization
– Physical layer mapping
– Support for handover
– Support for multi-stream transmission and reception (MIMO)
Hierarchical Channel Structure
Logical Channels
LTE Logical Downlink Control Channels
LTE Logical Downlink Control Channels
LTE Logical Uplink Channels
LTE Logical Downlink Traffic Channels
LTE Downlink Transport Channels
LTE Downlink Transport Channels
LTE Uplink Transport Channels
LTE Downlink Physical Channels
LTE Downlink Physical Channels
LTE Uplink Physical Channels
Channel Mapping
Mapping between different channel types
Channel Mapping
Mapping of Control information to physical channels