A Review of Critical LTE Network
Concepts (Initial Access Procedure)
Prepared by: M. R. Motazedi
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Initial Access Procedure
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Overview
Like all mobile communication systems, in LTE a terminal must perform certain
steps before it can receive or transmit data. These steps can be categorized in cell
search and cell selection, derivation of system information, and random access.
The complete procedure is known as LTE Initial Access. After the initial access
procedure, the terminal is able to receive and transmit its user data.
UE Data Cell
Read SIBs Random Access
Turn On Search&Selection
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Cell Search
UE Data Cell
Read SIBs Random Access
Turn On Search&Selection
There are two different types of synchronization procedures. The first one is
when the UE is not connected to LTE cell and wants to access LTE network. This
happens when the UE is switched on or when the reception is restored after
being in an area with no connection.
The second type of synchronization procedure happens when the UE is already
connected to LTE cell and detects a new cell. This means the UE will prepare for
a handover to a new cell and will report this to the old cell.
Both these procedures use two types of synchronization signals, that is the
primary synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal
(SSS) which are broadcasted in each cell.
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Cell Search (Stages)
Step 1 – PSS
Carrie Frequency Detection
SCH Symbol Timing Detection
Cell ID Identification (0-2)
Step 2 – SSS
Cell ID Group Detection (makes contribution to PCI)
Cyclic Prefix Length
FDD or TDD Detection
Radio Frame Timing Detection
Step 3 – Reference Signal Detection / PBCH Detection
(Receiving System Information)
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Cell Search (Synchronization Signals)
Primary & Secondary Synchronization Signal (PSS & SSS)
FDD:
PSS is transmitted within the last symbol of the first slot of
subframes 0 and 5
SSS is transmitted within the second last symbol of the same
slot, that is, just prior to the PSS
TDD:
PSS is transmitted within the third symbol of subframes 1 and 6,
that is, within the download pilot time slot (DwPTS)
SSS is transmitted in the last symbol of subframes 0 and 5, that
is, three symbols ahead of the PSS
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Cell Search (Synchronization Signals)
Primary & Secondary Synchronization Signal (PSS & SSS)
The UE has no knowledge of the system timing. Furthermore,
even though the device searches for a cell at a given carrier
frequency, there may, due to inaccuracy of the UE internal
frequency reference, be a relatively large deviation between
the device and network carrier frequency. The PSS has been
designed to be detectable despite these uncertainties
PSS present in the two symbols convey the same message. To
differentiate the first and second half of a frame, SSS present
in two symbols are not identical; however, they convey same
information
Time-domain structure difference between FDD and TDD
allows for the device to detect the duplex mode of the
acquired carrier if this is not known in advance
In the frequency domain, a frequency range of 1.08 MHz
(6*180 kHz) around the center frequency is considered for
transmission of synchronization signals
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Cell Search (Cell Acquisition)
After a mobile switches on, it runs a low-level acquisition
procedure so as to identify the nearby LTE cells and
discover how they are configured. In doing so, it receives
the primary and secondary synchronization signals, reads
the master information block (MIB) from the physical
broadcast channel (PBCH) and reads the remaining
system information blocks (SIB) from the physical
downlink shared channel (PDSCH)
The mobile starts by receiving the synchronization signals
from all the nearby cells. From the PSS, it discovers the
symbol timing and gets some incomplete information
about the physical cell identity. From the SSS, it discovers
the frame timing and the physical cell identity
The UE monitors the Downlink reference signal (RS) to
determine the signal quality in the cell
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Cell Search (MIB)
MIB payload is 24-bit
• 3 bits for system bandwidth
Number of PRB: 6, 15, 25, 50, 75, 100
• 3 bits for physical hybrid ARQ indicator channel (PHICH)
information
• 8 bits for system frame number (SFN) (0-1023, 2 LSBs not
transmitted)
• 10 bits are reserved for future use
Generation Periodicity – 40ms/Transmission Periodicity – 10ms
Mapped to first subframe of each frame in four consecutive
frames
BCH is transmitted within the first four OFDM symbols of the
second slot of subframe 0 and only over the 72 center
subcarriers
In the case of FDD, BCH follows immediately after the PSS and
SSS in subframe 0
MIB cyclic redundancy check (CRC) also provides the number of
transmit antennas used by the eNodeB
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Read SIBs
UE Data Cell
Read SIBs Random Access
Turn On Search&Selection
The SIBs represent the basic system information to be transmitted
As the functionalities of LTE evolves and start inter-play with other radio technologies, the
list of SIB is getting longer and longer. It was started with around 12 SIBs and now (as of Jan
2020. Release 15), the largest SIB Type number is SIB24. Followings are some of the SIBs.
SIB1 contains cell access related information (e.g. a public land mobile network (PLMN)
identity list, tracking area (TA) code, cell identity (PCI), etc.), information for cell selection
(e.g. minimum required Rx level in the cell and offset), p-Max, frequency band indicator,
scheduling information, TDD configuration, SI-window length and system information value
tag
After receiving the SIB1 UE gets the scheduling information about other SIBs (In which sub-
frame, the subsequent SIBs can be received).
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Read SIBs
SIB2 includes information that devices need in order to be able to access the cell
• This includes information about the uplink cell bandwidth, random-access parameters, and
parameters related to uplink power control
• Till now all the things that are happening is on downlink. After SIB2 reception UE configures
the random access channel and common shared channel and starts uplink synchronization
using random access procedure
SIB3 contains cell re-selection information common for intra-frequency, inter-frequency
and/or inter-RAT cell re-selection (i.e. applicable for more than one type of cell re-selection
but not necessarily all). It also contains cell re-selection priority information for the
concerned carrier frequency or a set of frequencies
SIB4 contains intra-frequency neighboring cell information for intra-LTE intra-frequency cell
reselection, such as neighbor cell list, and black listed Cell list
SIB5 contains neighbor cell related information for inter-frequency cell-reselection i.e. the
information about neighbor evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) frequencies
SIB6 contains information relevant only for inter-RAT cell re-selection i.e. information about
UTRA frequencies and UTRA neighboring cells relevant for cell re-selection
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Read SIBs
SIB7 contains inter-RAT cell re-selection information only for
GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN). It includes cell re-
selection parameters for each frequency. It also contains cell re-
selection priority information
SIBs are mapped to different system-information messages (SIs)
SIs correspond to the actual transport blocks to be transmitted
on DL-SCH
SIB1 (SI-1) transmitted every 80 ms
SI-1 is transmitted within subframe 1
Transmission period of higher order SIBs is flexible and vary
from one network to another
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General UE Initial Procedure
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LTE Cell Camping and Selection Procedure
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Initial Cell Selection Procedure
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Stored Cell Selection Procedure
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Cell Re-selection Procedure
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Random Access
UE Data Cell
Read SIBs Random Access
Turn On Search&Selection
RACH stands for random access channel. This is the first message
from UE to eNB when you power it on
The device transmits a random access preamble
The network estimates the transmission timing of the device
Uplink synchronization is necessary as the device otherwise cannot
transmit any uplink data
The network transmits timing advance command
Adjusts the device transmit timing, based on the timing estimate
obtained in the first step.
Assigns uplink resources to the device to be used in the third step in
the random-access procedure
The network broadcasts information about PRACH resources in SIB2
PRACH has a bandwidth of 6 RB (1.08MHz).
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Data Transmission Procedure
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
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