3G Technology

IMT 2000/ UMTS

1
Need of 3G cellular Network
 Common worldwide spectrum
 Global seamless roaming,

 Higher system capacity,

 higher data rate transfer, improved voice quality and better

standardization

 Multimedia services on the mobile internet

 Flexible, spectrum-efficient network

 Enhanced security and performance

Rapid introduction of new technology

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 IMT (International Mobile Telecommunication)- 2000
• IMT is a 3G standard adopted by ITU
• 2000 meant:
• Year it was supposed to go into service
• Frequency to operate 2000MHz
• target user data rates of 2000 kbps
• In ITU’s IMT 2000 there are 3 different data rates
Sr no Data Rate in Corresponds to channel Available for mobiles in
kbps
1 144 B-rate ISDN High speed vehicle
2 384 H-rate ISDN Slow moving vehicle
3 2000 P-rate ISDN Trains, airport departure
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lounges 3
 System Requirements
Some services require Circuit switching accomplished via Virtual
circuits. Virtual circuit are more efficient than real ones because
they send data during Pause in the conversation.
To save BW: Most videophone and videoconferencing protocols
send only the changed part of a picture of a complete new frame
Every bit of information is packetized including voice, fax and
video.
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 IMT-2000 Spectrum Requirements

To upgrade 2G network to 3G : 160 MHz more will be needed in each

region.
Three main 3G systems:
EDGE, W-CDMA & Cdma2000 (collectively known as IMT-2000)
1. EDGE- upgrade to GSM
2. W-CDMA: backward compatible with GSM also known as UMTS
3. Cdma2000 : upgrade to CdmaOne (IS95)

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Universal Mobile Terrestrial Telecommunication Systems (UMTS)

• The standard for delivering 3G services

• UMTS includes all aspects of the system, including

Physical layer

Network planning

Architecture & protocols

Services & applications

• It provides up to 2Mbps in local area & less than 1Mbps in wide area access

with full mobility

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 Objectives of UMTS
 Use of frequency bands of 1850 MHz-2025 MHz and 2110 MHz-2200MHz
 High frequency spectrum efficiency
 Radio resource flexibility to multiple networks and traffic types with in
frequency band
 Integration of residential, office and cellular services into single system and one
user equipment
 Seamless and global radio coverage achievable
 Service capability upto multi media
 Separation of service provision and network operation
 UMTS user no. independent of network or service provider
03/30/2025
Low cost of services and user equipment's 7
 UMTS Network Architecture

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 UMTS Network Architecture
• Partly based on 2G with some new components

• The MS of GSM=User Equipment (UE) in UMTS

• MSC has same function in GSM and UMTs

• SGSN: supports up to 2Mbps

• Iu interface: connects the core network element to radio network similar to ‘A-interface’ in GSM

• Major changes:

1. Radio Access Network (RAN) also called UMTS terrestrial RAN (UTRAN)

2. Iur interface : connects 2 neighboring Radio Network Controllers (RNCs)

3. Iub interface : connects BSs to RNC 9

 UTRAN Architecture

RNS : Radio Network Subsystems , is responsible for Radio resources and transmission/reception in
a set of cells.
RNC: Radio network controller, Node B= BTS
Iub = RNC to BSs
Iur interface
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 UTRAN Architecture
• RNS has main two elements : 1) Node B 2) RNC
1. Radio Network Controller (RNC):
Functions:
 Radio resource management
 Serving RNS relocation
 Frame synchronization
 Macro diversity combining
 Intra-UTRAN handoff
 Splitting of the Iub data streams
 Outer loop power control
 RLC sub layers function execution
• Functions equivalent to BSC in GSM
• RNCs can manage handovers without using MSC and SGNS
2. Node B
• equivalent to BTS
• physically co-located with GSM BTS to reduce the cost
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 UMTS interfaces
1. Uu –between UE and network, air interface. [‘Um’ In GSM]

2. Iu-CS-circuit switched connection for carrying voice traffic and

signaling between the UTRAN and core network[‘A’ interface]

3. Iub- used by RNC to control multiple Node Bs [‘A-bis’ interface]

4. Iu-PS: packet switched connection for data traffic and signaling between the UTRAN and core data

GPRS network, [Gb interface in GPRS]

5. Iur-to support inter MSC mobility. When a mobile user moves between areas served by diff RNCs

mobile subscriber data is transferred to new RNC via Iur.

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 UMTS Air Interface Specifications

WCDMA – is radio interface technology in UMTS network, CH BW-5 MHz

The UMTS air interface is based on DS-CDMA (direct sequence CDMA)
Spreading Factor – ratio of chip rate to data rate
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 UMTS Channels
• There are three types of channels defined in UMTS:
1. Physical channels
2. Logical channels
3. Transport channels

1. Physical channels

Physical channels are defined differently for FDD and TDD.

FDD identifies a physical channel by its carrier frequency, access code, and the relative
phase of the signal in the uplink.

TDD identifies a physical channel by its carrier frequency. access code, relative phase
of the signal for the uplink, and the time slot in which it is transmitted.
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 UMTS Channels
• UMTS Physical Channels : (cont.)

• All physical channels need guard symbols in every time slot.

• All physical channels follow four layer structure of superframes, radio

frames, sub-frames, and time slots/codes.

• The configurations of subframes or time slots are different depending on the

resource allocation scheme.

• The time slots or codes are used as a TDMA component so as to separate

different user signals in the time and the code domain.
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 UMTS Channels
2. Logical Channels:

• Two types of logical channels are defined:

a) Control/signaling & b) Traffic channels.

a) Control/signaling logical channels:

It consist of control information such as synchronization and information

related to the radio transmission required for process of a call.

b) Traffic logical channels: It is used to transfer user and/or signaling data.

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 UMTS Security Procedure
• UMTS Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) is a security mechanism used
to accomplish the authentication features.

• It is based on a challenge/response authentication protocol which is used for a

MS to verify the identity of another mobile subscriber without revealing a
secret password shared by the two.

• The key concept is that each mobile subscriber must prove to the other that it
knows the password without revealing or transmitting such a password.
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Confidentiality Key (CK),
Integrity Key (IK)
 Steps of Authentication and Key Agreement procedure:

Step 1: Visited network's VLR/SGSN requests a set of Avs [authentication

vectors] from the HLR/AuC in the mobile subscriber's home network.

Step 2. HLR/AuC computes an array of AVs. This is done by means of the

'authentication algorithms and the mobile subscriber's private secret key
K, which is stored only in the home network's HLR/ AuC and the user
Identity Module (USIM) in the mobile subscriber's mobile subscriber.

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 Steps of Authentication and Key Agreement procedure:

• Step 3. Home network's HLR/ AuC responds by sending n authentication

vectors back to the visited network's VLR/SGSN.

• Step 4. Visited network's VLR/SGSN chooses one AV and challenges the mobile
subscriber's USIM by sending the RAND and AUTN fields in the vector to it.

• Step 5. The mobile subscriber's USIM processes the AUTN.

With the aid of the private secret key K, the mobile subscriber can verify that the
received challenge data could only have been constructed by someone who had
access to the same secret key K.
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 Steps of Authentication and Key Agreement procedure: (cont)

• The USIM will also verify that the AV has not expired by checking its Sequence
Number (SEQ) field

• Provided that the network can be authenticated and that the AV is still valid, the
USIM proceeds to generate a Confidentiality Key (CK), an Integrity Key (IK) and a
Response for the network (RES).

• Step 6. The mobile subscriber responds with RES to the visited network.

• Step 7. Visited network's VLR/SGSN verifies that response is correct by comparing

the Expected Response (XRES) from the current AV with the Response (RES) received
from the mobile subscriber's USIM
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Comparison of 2G and 3G
 W-CDMA
 W-CDMA is designed, to provide backward compatibility and interoperability for
IS·136, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and PDC system except the wider air-interface bandwidth
necessitates a complete change of the base station RF equipment
 The wideband designation in W-CDMA has the channel bandwidth of 5 MHz.
 This is four times that of cdmaOne (1.25 MHz), and 25 times that of GSM (200 kHz).
 Each channel can support between 100 and 350 simultaneous voice calls. depending
on antenna sectoring, radio propagation conditions, and vehicle speed of the mobile
user.
 W-CDMA employs variable or selectable direct sequence spread spectrum chip rates
that can exceed16 Mcps per user.
 W-CDMA
03/30/2025 adjusts the gain depending on the received signal strength. 23
 Salient features of W-CDMA
 The W-CDMA system is capable to handle a mix of real time, variable bit rate, and packet

service, efficiently and flexibly.

 A data rate of 384 kbps is possible to provide with full coverage (everywhere) and a data rate
of 2 Mbps in indoor applications
 The advantage of multi rate is that the system can flexibly support multiple simultaneous
applications from a given mobile user and can efficiently use available capacity by only
providing the capacity required for each service.
 Multirate can be achieved with a TDMA scheme within a single CDMA channel, in which a
different number of time slots per frame are assigned to achieve different data rates.
 All the subchannels at a given data rate are protected by error correction and interleaving
techniques.
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 Salient features of W-CDMA
Coverage and capacity for speech services in the W·CDMA system is better than
GSM under the same operating conditions.

The W-CDMA system aims at efficient use of the available spectrum to provide
digital cellular services.

The W-CDMA system has larger frequency bandwidths of 5.0 MHz, 10.0 MHz and
15.0 MHz.

The system supports Type A hand-offs (equivalent to soft hand-offs in CDMA) and
Type B hand-offs (equivalent to hard hand-offs in CDMA).

The W-CDMA system uses Walsh functions for bandwidths of 5.0 and 10.0 MHz and
Hadamard
03/30/2025 functions for a bandwidth of 15.0 MHz. 26
Technical Parameters of W-CDMA with IS-95 CDMA system

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 Attributes of W-CDMA System

 Service flexibility

 Spectrum efficiency

 System Capacity and Coverage

 Multiple services per connection

 Variable Data Rates

 Asynchronous radio access

 Quality of Service

 Seamless access

 Economies of scale

 Multimode Transmission
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 Attributes of W-CDMA System

(a) Service Flexibility: W-CDMA allows each 5 MHz carrier to handle mixed data rate services
ranging from 8 kbps up to 2 Mbps. It allows true multimedia service with multiple packet or
circuit connections on a single mobile phone. Services with different quality requirements can
be supported with excellent capacity and coverage
(b) Spectrum Efficiency: Frequency planning is not necessary. A two-or three-layer network
can be deployed within the 2 x 15 MHz frequency allocated to service providers since each cell
layer requires 2 x 5 MHz spectrum only.
(c) System Capacity and Coverage provides improved system capacity due to improved coding
gain, voice activity, cell sectorisation and reuse of the same spectrum in every cell. W-CDMA
radio transceivers can handle eight times more voice traffic than narrowband transceivers

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 Attributes of W-CDMA System

(d) Improved Voice Capacity: 3G wireless access is also a very spectrum-efficient mechanism
for voice traffic. For instance, operators with a 2 x 15 MHz spectrum allocation will be able to
handle at least 192 voice calls per sector or 576 voice calls per cell having 3-sector
configuration.
(e) Multiple Services Per Connection W-CDMA accommodates circuit- and packet-switched
services with variable bandwidths to be mixed freely and delivered simultaneously while
maintaining specified quality levels to the same mobile user. Each mobile user can access
multiple services at the same time including voice or a combination of data services.
(f) Fast Service Access :that uses fast synchronization to handle 384 kbit/s packet-data
services to support instant access to multimedia services. The procedure requires only a few
tenth milliseconds to set up connections between a MS & BS.
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 Attributes of W-CDMA System

(g) Asynchronous Radio Access : W-CDMA has its own internal system for synchronizing base stations and

it does not depend on external system synchronization. (IS-95 depends on the GPS for synchronization)

(h) Quality of Service: The W-CDMA system provides robust operation in fading environment and

eliminates the possibility of a dropped call. The system exploits the advantage of multipath fading to

enhance communication link and voice quality. By using a RAKE receiver and other advanced signal-

processing technique: each mobile user selects the three strongest multipath signals and coherently

combines them to produce enhanced signal.

(i) Seamless Access: Dual-mode mobile phones provide seamless handover and roaming access with map­

ping of services between GSM or IS-136 and IMT-2000 networks. The choice of W-CDMA offers a unique

opportunity for creating a harmonised global standard with seamless global roaming for next-generation

cellular services.
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 Attributes of W-CDMA System

(j) Economies of Scale: The W-CDMA is a cost-effective technology that requires fewer, less
expensive and no costly frequency reuse planning. The average power transmitted by the
W-CDMA mobile phone averages about 6-7 mW only, which also means longer battery life.

(k) Modulation Technique Used in W-CDMA: W-CDMA system uses Direct Sequence
Spread Spectrum (DSSS) technique. The spreading the data is performed by means of a
spreading or PN code signal. The code signal is independent of the data and is of a much
higher rate than the data signal.
At the receiver, de-spreading is accomplished by the cross-correlation of received spread
signal with a synchronized replica of the same signal used to spread the data.
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 Attributes of W-CDMA System
(l) Variable Data Rates : support variable bit rate transport channels, to offer bandwidth-on-
demand services, and to be able to multiplex several services to one connection. With these
multiple data streams, forward-error correction is independently applied to each data stream
depending upon different service quality requirements.

For example, if a voice channel and a video channel are transmitted simultaneously, the voice
channel can generally tolerate a higher error rate than the video channel. Consequently, it would
use a less powerful or higher rate FEC code.

(m) Multicode Transmission: The simultaneous transmission of two or more CDMA channels by
the same mobile user is referred to as multi code transmission. This form of transmission tends to
increase the peak-to-average ratio of the transmitted waveform, thereby affecting the efficiency of
power amplifier of the mobile phone.
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 W-CDMA Channels

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 CDMA2000 Cellular Technology

Cdma 2000-1xMC (Multi-carrier)

3G CDMA Evolution Path

RTT: Radio transmission Technology

03/30/2025 EV: Evolutionary advancement, DV: data & voice DO: Data only 35
 Cdma2000 Technical Specifications

EV: Evolutionary advancement

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 Key Features of CDMA2000

• Leading performance in terms of data-speeds, voice capacity and latencies

• Efficient use of spectrum

• Support for advanced mobile services

• Compatible with IP

• Broadcast selection of mobile devices

• Seamless evolution path

• Flexibility

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 Forward and Reverse Channels
• Cdma2000 employs multiple carriers to provide a higher data rate compared
with W-CDMA

• All N carriers use the same single code for scrambling.

• The cell sites still need to be synchronized and use PN-code offsets for
differentiation as before.

• Pilot channels are used for fast acquisition and hand-off as before.

• Turbo codes are employed on Forward supplemental channels for high data rates.

• The reverse link is made more symmetrical with the forward link in many aspects
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 W-CDMA Versus CDMA2000

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 Power Control

• It is necessary to control mutual interference

• Inner loop power control :is supposed to adopt small scale fading for
speeds up to 500km/h

• Therefore power control procedures in UMTS have to be very fast.

• An update of transmit power occurs with every timeslot- i.e every 0.667ms

• Outer loop power control: continuously adjust the target SIR for inner
loop power control

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 Power Control in Uplink
• Uplink uses closed loop procedure for power control

• BS estimates the power of the received signal and controls it by

transmitting TPC instruction to MS which changes it transmit power
accordingly.

• TPC bits are transmitted with DPCCH & contain instruction to increase or
decrease power.

• The possible step sizes are 1dB or 2dB with uncertainties of +-0.5dB 0r 1dB.

• Transmit power is not decreased below a limit eq -44dB

• The RF amplifier has to cover a dynamic range of (given power+ limit) 41

 Power Control in Uplink
• Eg Maximum transmission power of 33dBm for class-1 units, so dynamic range
of RF amplifier will be 77dB (33 + 44dB)
• So this is a hardware requirement.
• The UMTS standard specifies an algorithm that determines a means of obtaining
a combined power control command from these different commands(i.e
different TCI bits from different BSs)
• The combined instruction is a function of weighted single power control
commands
• The weighting applied is proportional to reliability of the individual signals.
 Power Control in Downlink

• All signals on downlink (to one MS) suffer from the same attenuation.
• Power control in downlink aims mainly at maintaining a good SNR
• Downlink signals are orthogonal, due to use of OVSF codes for channelization, so that
the dispreading operation results in a good SIR.
• A closed loop is used for power control in downlink.
• Each MS measures signal strength and quality & transmits TPC commands to BS via
DPCCH.
• MSs at cell boarders actually control the transmission power of BS. (as long as at least
1 MS requests more transmission power the BS increases the power of all channels)
• One problem: MS estimates the SNR after RAKE receiver.
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 Handover
1. Intrafrequency Handover 2. Interfrequency Handover
1. Intrafrequency Handover:
 A connection handover between 2 BSs on the same carrier frequency is

performed as a SOFT Handover.

 MS has connection to both BSs during handover.

 Signals from BSs are used during this time and RAKE receiver processes

them similarly to two paths of a multipath signals with two or more fingers.
 As BSs use different scrambling codes in WCDMA, the RAKE receiver in MS

has to be able to apply different scrambling codes in each finger.

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 1. Intrafrequency Handover:

 Cell selection for soft handover can be made by different criteria, like

signal strength after dispreading or wideband power (RSSI).

 It is suggested to divide cells into active cells and neighboring

candidate cells that provide good signal strength.

 SOFTER Handover: is special case of handover: in which MS switches
between two sectors of the same BS. Algorithms and processes are
similar to those used for SOFT handover, with difference that only 1 BS
is involved.
 2. Interfrequency Handover
This kind of handover take place in following situations.
 Two BSs employ different carriers
The MS switches between hierarchy layers in the hierarchical cell structure.
Handover to other providers or systems eg GSM –is necessary.
The MS switches from TDD mode to FDD mode and vice versa
Interfrequency handover is HARD Handover (break before make type) during
which connection between MS & old BS is first interrupted before MS
establishes a new connection with a new BS.

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 2. Interfrequency Handover

There are 2 ways of measuring signal strength on other frequencies while

the 1st one still active.

i) the MS might feature two receivers, so that one can measure on other

frequencies while the first one still receives user data.

ii) transmission is done in compresses to 5ms. The time that is freed up can

then be used for measurements on other frequencies.

Compression can be achieved by puncturing the data stream or reduction

of the SF. 47
 3GPP Long Term Evolution(LTE)
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 What is LTE ?
 In Nov. 2004, 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) began a
project to define the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) of Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (UMTS) cellular technology.
 Higher performance
 Backwards compatible
 Wide applications

03/30/2025 49
 Introduction
 LTE is a standard for wireless data communications technology and an
evolution of the GSM/UMTS standards.
 The goal of LTE was to increase the capacity and speed of wireless data
networks using new DSP (digital signal processing) techniques and
modulations.
 A further goal was the redesign and simplification of the network
architecture to an IP-based system with significantly reduced transfer
latency compared to the 3G architecture.
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 Why cellular industry wants to move
to new standard ?
(i) Need for improved data rates and spectral
efficiency in particular in dense urban
environments,
(ii) For some operators, the possibility to “leapfrog”
from 2G directly to 4G technology,
(iii) The competition from WiMAX
(iv) The possibility of acquiring new spectrum in the
name of getting it for a new system.
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 Goals of LTE
Category Goal communication
Peak Data Rate 100 Mbit/s downlink
50 Mbit/s Uplink
spectrum 20-MHz Downlink
allocation
20-MHz Uplink
spectral efficiency 5 bit/s/Hz downlink
2.5 bit/s/Hz Uplink

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 Goals of LTE

LTE defines a number of different types of Mobile Stations (MSs) that

present a tradeoff between complexity and performance

03/30/2025 53
 Goals of LTE
For latency, the goals distinguish between
1. Control-plane latency is defined as the time for a handset to transition from
various nonactive states to active states, which are between 50 and 100 ms,
depending on the state in which the MS originally was. At least 400 active MSs
per cell should be supported.
2. User-plane latency is defined as the time it takes to transmit a small Internet
Protocol (IP) packet to the edge node of the Radio Access Network, RAN, which
should not exceed 5ms in a network with a single MS (i.e., no congestion
problems).
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 Goals of LTE
Generally, user throughput should improve 2–4 times compared to previous
technology.
The system is intended to be optimized for:
 Low speeds (0–15 km/h), since the main usage, especially for data
services.
 Slight performance degeneration is allowed for speeds up to 120 km/h,
 Truly high-speed applications (up to 500 km/h), only basic connectivity
needs to be retained.
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 Goals of LTE

 The transition from WCDMA/HSPA(High Speed Packet Access)

(including legacy Global System for Mobile communication (GSM)
systems) to LTE should be made as seamless as possible.
 Transitions from one system to another will be frequently required,
especially during the initial rollout of LTE, when only parts of the
country will be covered by LTE Base Stations (BSs).
 Transition times for real-time applications should be less than 300
ms, and for nonreal-time applications should be 500 ms
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 Evolution of Radio Access Technologies

802.16m

802.16d/e

03/30/2025 57
 LTE Basic Concepts
• LTE employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for
downlink data transmission and Single Carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) for uplink
transmission.

• SC-FDMA is a new single carrier multiple access technique which has similar
structure and performance to OFDMA.

• A salient advantage of SC-FDMA over OFDM is the low Peak to Average Power
(PAP) ratio : Increasing battery life
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 LTE-Downlink (OFDM)

• Improved spectral efficiency

• Reduce ISI effect by

multipath

• Against frequency selective

fading

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 LTE Uplink (SC-FDMA)
• SC-FDMA is a new single carrier multiple access technique which
has similar structure and performance to OFDMA

A salient advantage of SC-

FDMA over OFDM is low
Peak to Average Power Ratio
(PAPR) :
Increasing battery life

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 Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAPR)
The peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) is the peak amplitude squared
(giving the peak power) divided by the RMS value squared (giving the
average power). It is the square of the crest factor.
 Multi-antenna techniques

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 System Overview

[Link] bands and spectrum flexibility

[Link] Structure
[Link] Structure
[Link] and MAC Layer Overview

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 [Link] Bands and Spectrum Flexibility
• LTE can be operated in a variety of frequency bands
• This spectrum can be used for any member of the IMT-2000 and IMT-
Advanced family.
Bands Frequencies/application Used by country
3, 8 Migration from GSM to LTE Europe
2, 4, 10 PCS frequencies USA
5 Lower frequency operation USA
6. 9 Traditional Japanese operator Japan
12, 13, 14, 17 Auctioned off USA
03/30/2025 64
[Link] Bands and Spectrum Flexibility

03/30/2025 65
[Link] Bands and Spectrum Flexibility

03/30/2025 66
[Link] Bands and Spectrum Flexibility
• The most common bandwidths are 5 and 10 MHz
 lower bandwidths (1.4 and 3MHz)
 higher bandwidths (15 and 20 MHz)
• When peak data rates are in the 20-MHz spectrum,
• Bandwidths can be adjusted by changing the number of subcarriers (without
changing any of the other parameters in the system) in OFDM as modulation format.

67
 [Link] Structure

MME: Mobility Management Entity

X2 interface - the interface between different BSs.
EPC :Enhanced Packet Core
S1 interface- it connects each BS to the core network. 03/30/2025
68
 [Link] Structure

1. Access point, eNodeB (similar to BS). Each eNodeB can supply one or more
cells, providing the following functionalities:
 Air interface communications and PHYsical layer (PHY) functions;
 Radio resource allocation/scheduling;
 Retransmission control.

2.X2 interface: It is the interface between different BSs. Information that is

important for the coordination of transmissions in adjacent cells (e.g., for intercell
interference reduction) can be exchanged on this interface.

03/30/2025 69
 [Link] Structure
3. S1 interface: It is interface between BS to the core network.
4. System Architecture Evolution (SAE) or Enhanced Packet Core (EPC): new core network for LTE
 It is based on packet-switched transmission. It consists of
 Mobility Management Entity (MME),
 Serving gateway (connecting the network to the RAN)
 Packet data network gateway (connects the network to the Internet)
5. Home Subscriber Server (HSS): a separate entity or core network. It supports functions:
 Mobility management
 Subscriber management and charging
 QoS provisioning and policy control of user data flows
 Connection to external networks.
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 Network Structure

The core network fulfills the following functions:

• Mobility management;
• Subscriber management and charging;
• Quality of service provisioning, and policy control of user data flows;
• Connection to external networks.

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[Link] Structure
(Radio Resource Control)

72
 Protocol Structure
• At the top, the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) performs
functions related to data integrity (like enciphering) and IP header
compression.

• The PDCP handover its packets, called Service Data Units (SDUs) to the
Radio Link Control (RLC).

• The RLC segments and/or concatenates the SDUs into packets that are
more suitable for transmission over the radio channel, the Protocol Data
Units (PDUs).
03/30/2025 73
 [Link] Structure

Packet Data Convergence Protocol

Service Data Units

Protocol Data Units

Compression

Segment /
Radio Link Control concatenation

Transport format

03/30/2025 74
 Protocol Structure
• PDU can contain bits from one or more SDUs;
• The RLC also makes sure that at the receiver (RX), all PDUs arrive (and
arrange for retransmission if they do not) and hand them to the PDCP in
their correct order.
• The Medium Access Control (MAC) handles the scheduling of the PDUs, as
well as the Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) for retransmissions on
the PHY.
• PHY handles all the processes of actually transmitting data over the air,
including coding and modulation.
03/30/2025 75
 PHY and MAC Layer Overview

• In the downlink, LTE uses OFDM as modulation

• In the uplink, it uses OFDM precoded with a Discrete Fourier Transform

(DFT).

• If the transmitter (TX) (i.e., the MS) uses all available subcarriers, then this
is identical to the single-carrier transmission with Cyclic Prefix (CP),

• In LTE, an MS can also use just a subset of subcarriers and apply the DFT
precoding to this subset only.
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 PHY and MAC Layer Overview

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 Modulation
Uplink and downlink use different modulation formats: downlink employs
“classical” OFDM, the uplink uses DFT-precoded OFDM.
The implementation of the Downlink transmission :
 The modulation is OFDM with 15-kHz subcarrier spacing. Data intended for
different MSs are multiplexed onto the different RBs; each RB can employ a
different modulation format.
 For each OFDM symbol, the overall signal is then subjected to an Inverse
Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) transformation
 The cyclic prefix is prepended, and the signal is up converted to pass band for
transmission
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 Modulation

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 Modulation

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 Modulation
The implementation of the Uplink transmission :
 For the uplink, an MS has a number of contiguous subcarriers available for
signaling.
 The MS maps the symbols onto the input of a DFT whose size equals the number
of subcarriers.
 The output of this DFT is then mapped onto the subcarriers, which are processed
like in the downlink (IFFT, cyclic prefix, upconversion to passband).
 The combination of the DFT with the IFFT in the OFDM implementation results
in a single-carrier signal with cyclic prefix, which can be effectively equalized by
frequency domain equalization.
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 Coding

Cyclic Redundancy Check

Convolutional Codes
Turbo codes
HARQ [Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request]

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 Coding
 Cyclic Redundancy Check
For each transport block, we compute a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) of length 24
bits. It is calculated for each block of data for one transmission time interval.
 Convolutional Codes
Convolutional codes are used in LTE only for the encoding of control information, not
for the actual payload data. For BCH,DCI,UL control information.
 Turbo codes
Turbo codes are applied to the Uplink Shared CHannel (UL-SCH) and Downlink Shared
Channel (DL-SCH), Paging CHannel (PCH), and Multicast CHannel (MCH).
 HARQ [Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request]
LTE03/30/2025
employs various forms of HARQ for the DL-SCH and UL-SCH 83
 Cyclic Redundancy Check

 For each transport block, we compute a Cyclic Redundancy Check

(CRC) of length 24 bits.
 It is calculated for each block of data for one transmission time interval
from the code polynomials and attached at the end of the block

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 Cyclic Redundancy Check

 If the transport block is too large, data are

parsed into code blocks, where each block
has a maximum length of 6144 bits,
 if necessary filler bits are inserted such
that each code block has a permissible
length. Then for each code block, another
CRC is computed.

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 Convolutional Codes

 Convolutional codes are used in LTE only for the encoding of

control information, not for the actual payload data.

 This code is used for the following information:

• Broadcast CHannel (BCH);
• DCI (downlink control information);
• UL control information.

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 Turbo codes
 Turbo codes are applied to:
 Uplink Shared CHannel (UL-SCH)
 Downlink Shared CHannel(DL-SCH)
 Paging CHannel (PCH)
 Multicast CHannel (MCH)
 Only turbo codes are allowed to encode payload data . The turbo encoder
is the same as in WCDMA, with the exception of the interleaver.
 In LTE, the interleaver is a Quadrature Permutation Polynomial (QPP)
interleaver.
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 HARQ [Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request]

 LTE employs various forms of HARQ for

 DL-SCH (Downlink Shared Channel)
 UL-SCH (Uplink Shared Channel)

 When an RX receives a transport block, it attempts to decode and

sends a single feedback bit (whose timing indicates which transport
block it is associated with) to indicate whether a retransmission is
necessary.
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 Multiple-Antenna Techniques

LTE makes extensive use of multiple-antenna techniques. some notations used

are:
 Codewords are the parsed output of the decoders. In LTE, either one or two
codewords are transmitted simultaneously. In the case of transmit diversity,
the number of codewords is always 1.
 The codewords are mapped onto layers, which contain different symbols.
Codeword can be mapped onto several layers: the maximum number of
layers is 4, while the maximum number of codewords is 2.
 The layers are finally mapped onto antenna ports by means of a precoding.
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 MIMO Antenna Technology

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 Power Control
 Power control in the uplink of LTE consists of an open-loop and a closed-loop
power control.
 The open-loop mechanism establishes a baseline for the desired transmit
power: the MS determines the downlink path loss from a pilot with known
transmit power, and from that computes the necessary uplink power (including
necessary margins in the process).
 A power control signal that is transmitted in the PDCCH then “fine-tunes” the
transmit power.

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 Power Control

 One-bit power control signals request the power to be changed by ±1

dB; 2-bit signals select from the set [−1, 0, 1, 3] dB.
 No downlink power control is specified, though a BS can adjust the
power.
 For WCDMA, power control is essential for proper functioning of the
data transmission.
 In LTE (just like in GSM), power control is just used for increasing
battery lifetime, and reduction of intercell interference.

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 Handover
 Handovers in LTE are “hard handovers,” in the sense that communication
occurs between MS and one BS at one time, not to two simultaneously.
 1. Handover preparation
 (a)The source BS configures the measurements the MS has to perform and
report. it sets the thresholds such that reports from the MS to the BS are
required if certain measurement results exceed those thresholds.
 (b) MS sends its (periodic or aperiodic) measurement results.
 (c) BS makes a handover decision based on the measurement results (e.g., to a
cell with larger path gain).

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 Handover

 (d) The source BS sends a handover request to the target BS, usually via
the X2 interface (the interface between two BSs).

 (e) The target BS performs an admission control. If the target cell has no
resources available, the connection might have to be terminated.

 (f) If it admits the handover, the target BS sends a “handover request

acknowledgement” to the source BS

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 Handover
2. Handover execution
 (a) The source BS sends a handover command to the MS, and at
the same time starts to forward downlink packets (i.e., packets it
receives from the network for this MS) to the target BS.
 Transmission of those packets by the target BS has to wait until
the target BS can actually communicate to the MS .
 (b) The source BS tells the target BS which packets were already
acknowledged by the MS.
 (c) The MS synchronizes itself to the target BS via the RACH
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 Handover

 (d) The target BS transmits the uplink resource allocation and timing advance
to the MS.
 (e) The MS sends a “handover confirm” message to the target BS. From that
time on, target BS and MS can communicate with each other.
 3. Handover completion
 (a) The target BS sends a “path switch” message to the MME, requesting that
data for the MS are henceforth sent to the target BS.
 (b) The MME forwards this message to the serving gateway.

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 Handover

 (c) The serving gateway switches to the target BS the route the
data for the MS have to take.

 (d) The serving gateway confirms the switch to the MME.

 (e) The MME confirms the “path switch” message to the target BS.

 (f) The target BS sends a message to the source BS, telling it to

release the resources still reserved for the MS.

 03/30/2025
(g) The source BS releases the resources 97
 LTE Release 8 Key Features
• High spectral efficiency
 OFDM in Downlink
 Single‐Carrier FDMA in Uplink

• Very low latency

 Short setup time & Short transfer delay
 Short hand over latency and interruption time

• Support of variable bandwidth

 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20 MHz

• Compatibility and interworking with earlier 3GPP

• FDD and TDD within a single radio access technology

• Efficient Multicast/Broadcast
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