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 2

Agenda

 Air interface solutions (channel bandwidth,

aggregation, etc.)
 RAN solutions (cell splitting, small cells, etc.)
 Network solutions (load balancing, admission
control, etc.)
 3

RAN Capacity Solutions

 4

Air Interface Solutions

 Carrier Aggregation-Introduction 5

The need for CA in LTE-Advanced arises from the requirement to support bandwidths larger
than those currently supported in LTE (LTE Rel-8 Component Carriers / Band Numerology)
while at the same time ensuring backward compatibility with LTE.

 Higher bandwidth - higher data rates.

 Exploit fragmented spectrum to achieve flexible spectrum usage.

 Potential to aggregate five 20MHz blocks for 100MHz.

 In LTE Rel-10, both symmetric as well as asymmetric CA are supported.

 Symmetric CA - number of DL and UL Component Carriers are the same.

 Asymmetric CA - number and bandwidth of DL and UL Component Carriers are different.

 For simplicity, LTE Rel-10 only supports asymmetrical CA where Number of DL Carriers ≥
Number of UL Carriers. In TDD deployments, however, the number of component
carriers in UL and DL is typically the same.
 6

Type of carrier Aggregation

 The downlink and uplink can be configured completely independently, with only the limitation that
the number of uplink carriers cannot exceed the number of downlink carriers.

 Each aggregated carrier is referred to as a component carrier, CC. The component carrier can have
a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz.

 With a maximum of five component carriers, the maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. 3
types of allocation have been defined in 3GPP to meet different operator’s spectrum scenario.
• Intra-band contiguous aggregation.
• Intra -band non-contiguous aggregation.
• The Inter-band non-contiguous aggregation.
 7
LTE Advanced : Carrier Aggregation

Carrier Aggregation — fatter pipe to enhance user experience

 8

Different type of CA allocation in LTE-A

.
 Types
9

Intra-band
The release 10 version of the 3GPP specifications defines intra-band contiguous Carrier Aggregation for FDD within
operating band 1, and for TDD within operating band 40.

Carrier EUTRA Uplink Operating Downlink

Duplex Technology
Aggregation Band Operating Band Band Operating Band
CA_1 1 FDD 1920 – 1980 MHz 2110 – 2170 MHz
CA_40 40 TDD 2300 – 2400 MHz

Within each of these operating bands, a range of channel bandwidths can be used for Carrier Aggregation. The
channel bandwidths specified for intra-band Carrier Aggregation within operating bands 1 and 40

Carrier
EUTRA
Aggregation 10 MHz + 20 MHz 15 MHz + 15 MHz 20 MHz + 20 MHz
Operating Band
Configuration
CA_1C 1 - Yes Yes
CA_40C 40 Yes Yes Yes
 Types
10

Inter-band
The release 10 version of the 3GPP specifications defines inter-band Carrier Aggregation for
FDD within operating bands 1 and 5.

Carrier EUTRA Uplink Operating Downlink

Duplex Technology
Aggregation Band Operating Band Band Operating Band
1 FDD 1920 – 1980 MHz 2110 – 2170 MHz
CA_1-5
5 FDD 824 – 849 MHz 869 – 895 MHz

Inter-band carrier aggregation within operating bands 1 and 5 is currently specified to use 10
MHz channel bandwidth. The same channel bandwidth is used in both operating bands.

Carrier
EUTRA
Aggregation 10 MHz
Operating Band
Configuration
1 Yes
CA_1A-5A
5 Yes
 Carrier Aggregation
11

PCell (Primary Serving Cell): Handles the RRC Connection

establishments/ re-establishments.
-PCC (Primary Component Carriers): Uplink and Downlink CCs
Corresponding to the PCell.
SCell (Secondary Serving Cell): Configure after Connection
establishments to provide additional resources.
SCC (Secondary Component Carriers): Uplink and Downlink CCs
Corresponding to the SCell.
 Carrier Aggregation
12

PCell
• PDCCH/PUSCH/PDSCH/PUCCH can be transmitted
• Measurement and mobility procedures are based on Pcell
• RACH Procedure is performed over Pcell
• Can’t be deactivated
• DL Pcell and UL Pcell lInked via SIB2
SCell
• PDCCH/PDSCH/PUSCH can be transmitted (not PUCCH)
• MAC Layer based dynamic activation/deactivation procedure is support for Scell for UE Battery Saving
• Can be Cross Scheduled
 13

Deployment Scenario
Deployment Scenario
14
 Limitations
15

 There are some limitations that should be considered when CA is applied to

network deployments:

• One of them is the existence of frequency selective repeaters that boost specific
CCs only. When these repeaters are existent, the propagation delay may be different
across boosted and non boosted CCs, hence requiring separate transmission timing
control for the UL.

• In LTE-Advanced the focus is on scenarios not requiring separate management of

transmission timings and synchronization status per CC for the UL. Therefore,
scenarios with repeaters and scenarios with RRS which may also require separate UL
timing control, are not considered for LTE-Advanced for the UL.

However, scenarios with RRS and repeaters have already been considered for the
DL in LTE-Advanced
 16

Small cells
 Factors impacting operator small cell deployment timing
17

Limited spectrum availability

Network is full Limitations on macro site

availability & enhancements

Strong data traffic growth Small cell No refarming options

deployment
urgency
High urban density & LTE launch not feasible
complexity

Technology maturity
 18

Small cell site examples

 19

Network solutions
 Intra-eNB Inter-frequency Load Balancing
Without Load Balancing With Load Balancing

100 100
90 90
80 Freq1 Freq2 Freq1 Freq2
80
70
70
High Load Thresh
Cell Load (%)

Cell Load (%)

60
60
50
50 Target Load
40
30
40 Thresh
30
20
20
10
10
0
t0 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t10 t11 t12 0
Time t0 t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t10 t11 t12
Time
Cell becomes New UEs connect
overloaded and some to the cell and cell
UEs are not allocated enters Active iF-LB
resources state Incoming UEs
switching from
Idle to
Connected state
are offloaded to
Freq2
New UEs connect
to the cell
Heterogeneous Networks
 22

Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets)

 Small cells are primarily added to increase capacity in hot spots with high user
demand and to fill in areas not covered by the macro network – both outdoors
and indoors.
 They also improve network performance and service quality by offloading from
the large macro-cells.
 The result is a heterogeneous network with large macro-cells in combination
with small cells providing increased bitrates per unit area.

HeNB (Home eNB):

 It was introduced in LTE Release 9 .

 It is a low power eNB which is mainly used to provide indoor coverage,

femto-cells, for Closed Subscriber Groups (CSG), for example, in office
premises.
 Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets)
23

 They are privately owned and deployed without coordination with the macro-
network.

 If the frequency used in the femto-cell is the same as the frequency used in the
macro-cells, and the femto-cell is only used for CSG, then there is a risk of
interference between the femto-cell and the surrounding network.
Heterogeneous Network (HetNet)
24
 25

Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) Enhancements

 Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets)
26

Heterogeneous Networks – The

Combined Benefit of Wide & Local Area

Wide Area sites

Medium Medium
area sites area sites

Local Local Local Local Local

area area area area area

WLAN WLAN

WLAN
WLAN
WLAN
 Coordinated Multi-Point
Transmission/Reception (CoMP)
 28

CoMP (Introduction)
 CoMP refers to a wide range of techniques that enable dynamic coordination or transmission and
reception with multiple geographically separated eNBs.
 Its aim is to enhance the overall system performance, utilise the resources more effectively and improve
the end user service quality.
 One of the key parameters for LTE is the high data rates that are achievable. These data rates are
relatively easy to maintain close to the base station, but as distances increase they become more difficult
to maintain.
 The cell edges are the most challenging. Not only is the signal lower in strength because of the distance
from the base station (eNB), but also interference levels from neighbouring eNBs are likely to be higher
as the UE will be closer to them.
 29

Introduction
• Full frequency reuse (reuse one) is highly desirable for future communication systems so as to
exploit the spectrum efficiently.
• The effects of interference is crucial if carrier frequencies of cells are the same as in OFDMA
systems. It limits the spectral efficieny mostly at cell edge.
• The main purpose is to increase the SINR of the user.

Drawbacks: - Interference to other users

- Extra power consumption
- Additional cost
 30

Working

 4G LTE CoMP, requires close coordination between a number of geographically separated eNBs. They
dynamically coordinate to provide joint scheduling and transmissions as well as providing joint
processing of the received signals.
 In this way a UE at the edge of a cell is able to be served by two or more eNBs to improve signals
reception / transmission and increase throughput particularly under cell edge conditions.
 COMP Transmission Schemes
31

Joint processing:
• Joint processing occurs where there is
coordination between multiple base
stations - that are simultaneously
transmitting or receiving to or from UEs.
• The aim is to improve the received signal
quality and strength. It may also have the
aim of actively cancelling interference
from transmissions that are intended for
other UEs.
 COMP Transmission Schemes
32

Coordinated scheduling or beamforming:

 Using this concept, data to a single UE is transmitted from

one eNB. The scheduling decisions as well as any beams are
coordinated to control the interference that may be
generated.

 The advantage of this approach is that the requirements for

coordination across the backhaul network are considerably
reduced for two reasons:

• UE data does not need to be transmitted from multiple

eNBs, and therefore only needs to be directed to one
eNB.
• Only scheduling decisions and details of beams needs to
be coordinated between multiple eNBs.
 33

Intra-site CoMP within a homogeneous network

 34

CoMP within a homogeneous network with high power Remote Radio Heads (RRH)
 35

CoMP within a heterogeneous network with a combination of high and low power Remote
Radio Heads (RRH)
 36

UPLINK

A range of uplink CoMP solutions have been discussed and studied by 3GPP. The main categories include:
• Joint Reception (JR): characterized by the network receiving the PUSCH transmission from the UE at more than a single
location. This provides a macro diversity gain
• Coordinated Scheduling (CS) I Coordinated Beamforming (CB): characterized by the network receiving the PUSCH
transmission from the UE at only a single location. However, scheduling and beamforming decisions are coordinated
between locations
• In the uplink direction, the CoMP Cooperating Set is defined as a set of locations which can potentially receive the
PUSCH transmissions from the UE. The actual locations which receive the PUSCH are known as CoMP reception
locations. These are a subset of the Cooperating Set.

In the case of JR, there are multiple reception locations, whereas in the case of CSICB there is only a single reception
location.
37
 Issues In Deployment
38

 When the TX/RX-points are controlled by different eNBs extra delay might be
added, since the eNBs must communicate, for example in order to make scheduling
decisions. The critical system deployment issue is the communication between the
cells.

 When CoMP is used , additional radio resources for signaling is required e.g. to
provide UE scheduling information for the different DL/UL resources.

 CoMP technologies have high potential from a single user point of view but there
are open issues on the operation of large scale networks and the signalling between
UE and network to characterize the radio environment for multi-site transmission.

 Signalling should provide enough information to enable high performance, but not
at the cost of excessive overhead or additional energy and radio resource
consumption.
 Key CoMP Challenges
39

Key CoMP Challenges: Low Latency, Processing, Coordination and Backhaul (especially on
the UL – burden on X2 Interface)
Relaying
 Relaying
41

 Low power base stations that will provide enhanced coverage and capacity at
cell edges

 It can also be used to connect to remote areas without fiber connection.

 increases the possibility of heterogenous network planning.

 In the case of relaying, the UEs communicate with the relay node which in turn
communicates with a donor eNodeB also called anchor eNodeB.

 The relay node is wirelessly connected to the donor cell of a donor eNodeB via
the Un interface, and UEs connect to the relay station via the Uu interface.

 The (anchor) eNodeB may, in addition to serving one or several relays, also
communicate with non-relayed UEs directly.
Relaying
42
 3GPP Classification - Type 1 Relay
43

Type 1 Relay Station

 A Type 1 relay effectively creates its own cell, i.e.

transmits its own identity number (Cell ID) and own
synchronization and reference signals.

 The UE receives scheduling information and HARQ

feedback directly from and sends its own control
channels to the relay station.

 From an UE perspective this Type1 relay station

looks like a eNodeB.

 It is also required that LTE Release 8 terminals are

supported by this Type 1 relay station. It has already
been agreed to include Type 1relay stations into
LTE-Advanced specifications.
 3GPP Classification - Type 2 Relay
44

Type 2 Relay Station

 Type 2 relay station will not have its own CellID and thus would not create
any new cell(s).

 Consequently the UE will not be able to distinguish between transmitted

signals form the eNodeB and the relay station

 In such a scenario it would be possible to transmit control information

from the eNodeB and data via the relay station.
 45

SON
Self-Healing: automatic detection, localization and removal of failures

Self-Optimization: auto-tune the network with the help of UE and eNodeB

measurements on local eNodeB level and/or network management level

Self-Configuration: automated network integration of new eNodeB by auto

connection and auto configuration, core connectivity (S1) and automated neighbor site
configuration (X2)
 46

Functionality Of SON
The main functionality of SON includes: self-configuration, self-optimization and self-
Healing.
 47

Self-configuration Procedure
 48

Inter-cell Interference Coordination and

(e-ICIC)
Interference – Why is it a Problem?
49
 50

Inter-cell Interference in LTE

 In non-hierarchical (homogenous) cell deployments interference causes problems
mainly at cell edge.

 However, in hierarchical (heterogeneous) deployments interference happens also

between macro cells and small cells

 Interference can be mitigated by:

– Separation of interfering cells and/or frequencies by means of operator
provisioning
– Dynamic cooperation between cells in order to coordinate transmissions in
such a way to minimize interference
 Why do we need eICIC?
51

 To provide more capacity and coverage, more and more cells are required
– Both homogenous and heterogeneous deployments suffer from interference
problems.
– Too much interference would cause the network capacity to actually decrease.
 Operators can plan and manually configure networks in such a way that
interference is minimized.
– Static configuration does not allow to effectively use resources in case of always
changing traffic load distribution
– Static configuration is inefficient in case of HetNets
– Expensive
 Operators need a way for the network to automatically detect interference and
mitigate it by reconfiguring itself accordingly
– eICIC provides such a solution
 52

ICIC Status
 53

Inter-cell Interference vs LTE design

LTE is designed for intra-frequency operation
– Reference signals are repeated on every 6th subcarrier, or every 3rd for MIMO
operation; subcarriers used depend on the Physical Cell ID.
– Similarly the frequency position of some of the control channels (PHICH, PCFICH)
depends on the Physical Cell ID, and others (PDCCH) are controlled to some extent
by the eNB.
– Time shift between cells (Tcell) to control interference in the time domain.
 ICIC: Principles
54

 ICIC (Inter-Cell Interference Coordination) has the task to manage radio resources (radio resource blocks)
such that inter-cell interference is kept under control.

• It is an optional network-based method which can be used to decrease interference between resources used
for data channel (PDSCH) of neighboring eNBs

• This is done by decreasing the power of selected DL frequency subcarriers, and introducing a mechanism for
eNBs to report their experienced UL interference to neighbor eNBs
– These subcarriers interfere much less with the same ones used by neighbor cells
– Neighbor cells can use this information to perform interference-aware UE
scheduling, especially near the cell edge; cell edge SINR can therefore be
improved.
 ICIC: eNB Coordination 55

 Information about frequency/power restrictions and uplink/downlink load

conditions is dynamically exchanged between eNBs over the X2 interface.
– X2-AP messages are used (3GPP TS 36.420)
– Information can change, as cell load and radio conditions change
– eNB ICIC behavior is not fully standardized; the eNBs should however have a
consistent view of how to set their interference-aware scheduling policies.
 ICIC: X2 Messages 56

 The LOAD INFORMATION X2-AP message is used on the X2 interface to exchange Information
Elements about cell load conditions between neighboring eNBs.

– UL Interference Overload Indication IE: indicates the interference level

experienced by the indicated cell on all resource blocks, per Physical Resource
Block (PRB, spanning 180kHz): high, medium, low.
– UL High Interference Indication (HII) IE: indicates, per PRB, the occurrence of
high interference sensitivity, as seen from the sending eNB. The receiving eNB
should try to avoid scheduling cell edge UEs in its cells for the concerned PRBs.
– Relative Narrowband Tx Power (RNTP) IE: indicates, per PRB, the Tx power
threshold that the source cell is using in that frequency range and some other
information needed by a neighbour eNB for interference aware scheduling.

 The interaction between the indication of UL Overload and UL High Interference, and their
interpretation, are implementation specific .
 ICIC and HetNet Scenarios
57

 ICIC works well in case of cell edge interference, but not in case of HetNet
(heterogeneous network) scenarios.
– Small cells are often well in range of macro cells, so macro cell power reduction
has limited effect.
– Both control and data traffic can suffer from high interference.
 58

Problems with ICIC

Control channel (PDCCH) and data channel( PDSCH)

 In a homogenous network, this is not a big problem because there is not much
difference in TX power from neighbor cell’s antenna, and hence no significant inter-
channel interference by control channels is caused between neighbor cells at cell
edge.
 In HetNet where a macro cell has much higher TX power than a small cell, the small
cell’s control channel is inevitably interfered with by the macro cell’s, making ICIC
applied to the data channel ineffective.
 Problems with ICIC
59

Issues with ICIC HetNet: Interference by macro cell’s control channel

In a HetNet , even ICIC cannot completely prevent control information of UE s in

a small cell from being significantly interfered with by its neighbor macro cell.
 eICIC Concept 60

 eICIC introduces the concept of Almost Blank Sub frames (ABS) in 3GPP Release [Link] can
prevent cell-edge UEs in small cells from being interfered with by the neighboring macro cell by
having both cells still use the same radio resources but in different time ranges(sub frames).

 The basic idea of e ICIC is that it allows macro cell and its neighbor small cells to deliver data,
sub frame by sub frame, by using different time ranges.

So, when communicating with cell-edge UE s, small cells use the sub frames that are not used
by their neighbor macro cell , avoiding interference by the macro cell.
 eICIC: Principles
61

 A macro cell cannot send data in configured ABS sub frames; small cells can use
those sub frames to schedule UEs connected to them.
– The eNB ensures backwards compatibility towards UEs by transmitting only
necessary control channels and physical signals as well as System Information
in ABS.
– Is well suited to work with both FDD and TDD.
– Can be used together with ICIC.
– eICIC comes at the cost of hard, but reconfigurable, radio resources split .
 62

eICIC Operation

eIcIc Operation: Delivering ABS

pattern information over X2
interface

Basic idea of ABS: Macro cell UE s and small cell UE s at cell-edge use different sub frames
for communication .
 eICIC: Parameters 63

 eICIC configuration parameters are exchanged between eNBs using the X2 interface. The same LOAD
INFORMATION message as for ICIC is used, with some new information elements:
• ABS Information IE, containing:
- ABS Pattern Info IE: indicates the sub frames designated as almost blank sub
frames by the sending eNB for the purpose of interference coordination. A
pattern up to 40 (FDD) or 70 (TDD) sub frames long can be indicated. The first
position of the ABS pattern corresponds to sub frame 0 in a radio frame where
SFN = 0. The ABS pattern is continuously repeated in all radio frames

- Measurement Subset IE: for the configuration in the receiving eNB of specific
measurements towards the UE .

• Invoke Indication IE: indicates which type of information the sending eNB would like the receiving eNB
to send back by invoking a return LOAD INFORMATION procedure. In Release 10 it can only be set to
"ABS Information”
 Load Reporting for eICIC
64

 The ABS pattern can be dynamically modified based on radio resource conditions,
load and scheduling patterns of the small cell.

• For this purpose the RESOURCE STATUS procedure is used on the X2 interface
– An eNB (typically macro cell) can request another eNB (typically small cell) to
provide its ABS Status.

– The ABS STATUS IE is returned in RESOURCE STATUS RESPONSE and contains

information about the percentage of used ABS resources and usable ABS subset.
The latter is a bitmap indicating which ABS sub frames does the small cell really
use for its downlink scheduling.
 UE Measurements for eICIC
65

 Patterns based on ABSs are signaled to the UE to restrict the UE measurements to

specific sub frames, called measurement resource restrictions.

• The UE can be instructed to measure specific resource restrictions for the PCell
(Primary Cell), or also neighbor cells on the same frequency.
• Two sub frame subsets can be configured per UE. The UE reports CSI (Channel State
Information) for each configured sub frame subset. Typically the two sub frame
subsets are chosen so that one sub frame subset indicates ABSs while the second sub
frame subset indicates non-ABSs; this way the network knows how effective the eICIC
configuration is.
 66

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