LTE Page- 1

1. LTE Architecture:

EnodeB:
Radio recourse management, Radio bearer control, Radio admission control.

MME:
Paging, Authentication, HO, Select S-GW.

HSS:
User database (IMSI), Service subscriptions, User indemnifications and addressing, User information.

S-GW:
Routing and forwarding user data packet.

P-GW:
IP allocation for UE.

PCFR:
Billing and chagrining information, QOS

IMS (IP Multimedia Service)

IMS offers several multimedia IP services, including VoIP (Voice over IP). In IMS, voice is just ‘another’
service! IMS brings together voice features such as authentication, service authorization, call control,
routing, and interoperability with PSTN, billing, additional services and VAS. None of these exist in the
EPC: this is the reason why the pure EPC without IMS cannot process a voice call

2. LTE Interfaces:

Uu:
The LTE-Uu is the radio interface that connects the UEs to the eNodeBs, eNodeB with the UE. It handles
all the signaling messages between the eNodeB.

X2:
The X2 interface provides connectivity between two or more eNodeBs.
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There are two parts of the X2 interface, the X2-C, the interface between the control planes of eNodeBs,
and the X2-U, the interface between the user planes of eNodeBs.

S1-MME:
Reference point for the control plane protocol between eNodeB and MME.

S1-U:
Reference point between eNodeB and Serving GW for the per bearer user plane tunneling and inter
eNodeB path switching during handover.

S5:
It provides user plane tunneling and tunnel management between Serving GW and PDN GW. It is used
for Serving GW relocation due to UE mobility and if the Serving GW needs to connect to a non-collocated
PDN GW for the required PDN connectivity.

S8:
Inter-PLMN reference point providing user and control plane between the Serving GW in the VPLMN and
the PDN GW in the HPLMN. S8 is the inter PLMN variant of S5.

SGi:
It is the reference point between the PDN GW and the packet data network. Packet data network may be
an operator external public or private packet data network or an intra operator packet data network, e.g.
for provision of IMS services.

Gx:
Provides transfer of (QoS) policy and charging rules from PCRF to Policy and Charging Enforcement
Function (PCEF) in the PDN GW.

S6a:
It enables transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to
the evolved system between MME and HSS.

S11:
Reference point between MME and Serving GW.

3. Connectivity time/ TTI time:

3G= 10 ms
LTE= 2 ms

4. LTE Frame Structures:

PRB (Physical Resource Block):

Frame Size=10ms
Sub-frame= 1 ms
No of Slots per Sub frame =2 (1 sub-frame divided into 2 timeslot)
Slot=0.5 ms
No of slots=20.

A resource block (RB) is the smallest unit of resources that can be allocated to a user. The resource
block is 180 kHz wide in frequency and 1 slot long in time. In frequency, resource blocks are 12 x 15 kHz
subcarriers s wide the number of subcarriers used per resource block for most channels and signals is 12
subcarriers.
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Frequency units can be expressed in number of subcarriers or resource blocks.

The smallest modulation structure is the Resource Element (RE) in LTE frame.The resource element,
which is 1 subcarrier x 1 symbol, is the smallest discrete part of the frame and contains a single complex
value representing data from a physical channel or signal.

Normal symbol in RB: 7

Extended symbol in RB: 6

There are two types of frame structure in the LTE standard, Type-1 and Type-2. Type 1 uses for FDD and
Type-2 uses for TDD

FDD Frame type-1:

In FDD mode, uplink and downlink frames are both 10ms long and are separated either in frequency or in
time.

For full-duplex FDD, uplink and downlink frames are separated by frequency and are transmitted
continuously and synchronously.
For half-duplex FDD, the only difference is that a UE cannot receive while transmitting.

TDD Frame type-2:

In TDD mode, the uplink and downlink sub-frames are transmitted on the same frequency and are
multiplexed in the time domain. The locations of the uplink, downlink, and special sub-frames are
determined by the uplink-downlink configuration
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Special sub-frames:
Special subframes are used for switching from downlink to uplink and contain three
sections: DwPTS, GP, and UpPTS.
DwPTS is the Downlink Pilot Time Slot. DwPTS contains P-SS. PDSCH can also be transmitted during
DwPTS when DwPTS is configured to be longer than a slot.
UpPTS is the Uplink Pilot Time Slot. UpPTS can contain PRACH and SRS, but cannot contain
or PUCCH or PUSCH.
GP is a guard period between DwPTS and UpPTS. PRACH format 4 begins in the guard period.
Otherwise, nothing else is transmitted during the guard period.

Operating Frequencies range:

700 MHZ to 2.7 GHZ

Variable Bandwidth Physical resource block Sub-farm
1.4 MHZ 6 72
3 MHZ 15 180
5 MHZ 25 300
10 MHZ 50 600
15 MHZ 75 900
20 MHZ 100 1200

5. LTE Features:

The key features of LTE physical layer are mentioned below.

Channel Bandwidth: 1.4/3/5/10/15/20 MHz

FFT size : 128/256/512/1024/1536/2048
Cyclic Prefix : Normal, Extended
DL multiple access: OFDMA
UL multiple access: SC-FDMA
Duplexing :FDD & TDD
Subcarrier mapping: Localized
Subcarrier hopping: Yes
Data Modulation : QPSK/16QAM/64QAM
Subcarrier spacing: 15KHz
Channel Coding : convolution coding and turbo coding
MIMO :2 or 4 at transmit and 2 or 4 at receive side
HARQ :incremental redundancy

MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) :

A transmission scheme between a transmitter and a receiver both equipped with multiple antennas.
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FDD (Frequency Division Duplex):

Separate downlink/uplink frequency is used for communication at the same time.

TDD (Time Division Duplex):

One frequency is used for communication but at different time (full duplex communication using half
duplex link)

ANR (Automatic NBR Relation):

ANR is Self Optimization function. It automatically maintains the integrity of NBR cell list and improved the
HO performance.
ANNR automatically detect missing NBR, PCI collision an abnormal NBR cell coverage.

CSFB (Circuit Switch Fall Back):

In case of MOC/MTC UE measures the RSCP of UMTS or Rx Lev of GERAN network and if its meet the
criteria then eNodeB will HO or redirection to UMTS or GERAN.
CSFB Based on PS HO/on PS re direction/ on redirection.

256 QAM: Theoretically Increasing the DL Peak Rate by 33% :

Benefits:

1), increased downlink peak rate

2), improved downlink network capacity.
3), increased competitiveness of the downlink rate.

CA for Uplink: Improving UL Service Experience and Providing a Peak Rate of 150 Mbps :

Benefits:

1), for customers: Increased uplink peak rate; improved brand value.
2), for Operator: Improved competitiveness of LTE-Advanced CA.

VOLTE Rate Control: Improving Uplinlk Coverage by 1 to 2 dB:

Benefits:

1), in the cell center, the mean opinion score (MOS) is increased by 0.2 to 0.4. At the cell edge, the
coverage is improved by 1 to 2 Db.
2), the competitiveness of VOLTE uplink coverage is improved

6. Theoretical THP:

DL = 300 Mbps
UL= 75 Mbps

7. Multiple Access Technologies:

DL= O-FDMA (Orthogonal- Frequency Division Multiple Access)

UL= SC-FDMA (Single Carrier- Frequency Division Multiple Access)

8. Modulations:

64 QAM
128 QAM
256 QAM
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9. LTE Protocol Stack Layers:

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Control Plane (Signaling):

RRC protocol writes the signaling messages that are exchanged between eNodeB to UE and MME.
LTE control plane protocol stack layers in LTE consist of NAS, RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC and PHY.

NAS (Non-Access Stratum):

Signaling message between UE to MME.
UE to direct MME Non-Access Stratum.
It is responsible for the following functions: mobility management, session management, Bearer
management, paging control, UE authentication and security control.

AS (Access Stratum):
UE to eNodeB Uu Access Stratum.
eNodeB to MME S1 Access Stratum.

L3-RRC:
Broadcast and paging
RRC Connection management
Mobility Management functions
Cell selection and reselection, handover, paging control
Security key management

L2-PDCP:
It’s exists in UE and eNodeB. It is a part of LTE air interface control plane and user plane.
User Plane: Header compression and decompression transfer of user data, in sequence delivery of upper
layers PDUs, Duplicate detection of lower layer SDUs.
Control Plane: Ciphering and integrity protection, transfer of control plane data.

L2-RLC:
Concatenation, segmentation and Reassembly of RLC SDUs.
Re-segmentation and reordering of RLC PDUs.
Duplicate and protocol error detection.

L2-MAC:
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Mapping between logical and transport channels.

Multiplexing/Demultiplexing of MAC SDUs.
Scheduling information reporting.
Error correction through HARQ.
Priority handling between UE by means of dynamic scheduling.

L1-PHY:
Carries all the information from the MAC transport channels over the air interface.
Link adaptation (AMC),
Power control
Scrambling/descrambling
Modulation/de-modulation
Cell search (for initial synchronization and handover purposes) and other measurements (inside the LTE
System and between systems)
Resource element mapping/demapping
HARQ
MIMO

S1AP (S1 Application Protocol):

Provides the control plane signaling between E-UTRAN and evolved packet core (EPC). The user
interface is S1-MME which is located between eNB and MME. S1-AP support signaling procedure such
as Radio Access Bearer management, Paging, NAS transport etc.

SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol):

is the key protocol utilized as transport for all signaling between the RAN and EPC.
SCTP is preferred because of better redundancy and better transmission efficiency.

GTP-C (GPRS Tunneling protocol):

GTP-C is used within the GPRS core network for signaling between the gateway GPRS support nodes
(GGSN) and serving GPRS support nodes (SGSN).

User Plane (Data transfer):

It is the Application creates data packets that are processed by protocols such as TCP, UDP, IP.
LTE User plane layer consists of IP, PDCP, RLC, MAC and PHY.

SDU vs. PDU):

SDU is Service Data Unit and PDU is Protocol Data Unit.
The data packet received by any layer is called SDU and this SDU is modified by the layer and
transmitted as PDU.
Modifications done can be encapsulation, concatenation, segmentation, padding etc.

GTP-U (GPRS Tunneling protocol):

GTP-U is used for carrying user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access
network and the core network. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6

IP (Internet Protocol):
Internet Protocol, actual version IPV4, connectionless service between networks and includes feature for
addressing types of service specification, fragmentation and reassembly and security.
The next generation is IPV6.

UDP (User Datagram Protocol):

UDP is connectionless, host to host protocol that is used on PS networks for real time applications.

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol):

TCP is used to provide reliable connection-oriented full duplex point-to-point services.
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UDP TCP
Faster but not guaranteed transfer. Slow but more reliable transfer.
Connectionless Connection-oriented
Typical applications, VOIP, Video streaming, online Typical applications, Web browsing, MMS, Email, FTP
gaming, Live streaming ,
RT Services NRT Services
Conversational (VOIP) Interactive (Web browsing)
Streaming (Video streaming, online gaming, Live Background (MMS, Email, FTP)
streaming

10. LTE Channels Mapping:

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(1), Transport Channels:

Transport channels define how something is transmitted over the air, e.g. what are encoding,
interleaving options Data and signaling messages are carried on transport channels between the MAC
and the physical layer.

Downlink Channels:

Downlink Transport Channels: LTE has 4 Downlink Transport Channels.

1-Broadcast Channel (BCH): This LTE transport channel maps to Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH)
and carries information like used for MIB and send information to Physical Broadcast channel (PBCH)
2-Downlink Shared Channel (DL-SCH): This transport channel is the main channel for downlink data
transfer. It is used by many logical channels like BCCH, CCCH, DCCH DTCH, MCCH, and MTCH and
sends its information to Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). The information carried by this
channel is SIB, Data transfer
3-Paging Channel (PCH): To convey the PCCH information and mapped to Physical Downlink Shared
Channel (PDSCH) and carries Paging Information
4-Multicast Channel (MCH): This transport channel is used to transmit MCCH information to set up
multicast transmissions. This channel is mapped to Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH) this is basically
used for MBMS services.

Uplink Channels:

Uplink Transport channel: LTE has 2 channels.

5-Uplink Shared Channel (UL-SCH): This transport channel is the main channel for uplink data transfer.
It is used by many logical channels like CCCH, DCCH DTCH.
6-Random Access Channel (RACH): This is used for random access procedure.

(2), Logical Channels:

Logical Channels define what type of information is transmitted over the air, e.g. traffic channels,
control channels, system broadcast, etc. These channels define the data-transfer services offered by the
MAC layer. Data and signaling messages are carried on logical channels between the RLC and MAC
layers.
Logical channels further can be divided into two categories as Traffic Channels & Control Channels.
Traffic Channels carry data in the user plane, while logical Control Channels carry signaling messages in
the control plane.
In LTE we have 7 logical channel in Downlink and 3 Logical channels in Uplink.

Downlink Channels:

In Downlink there are 4 Control channels which carried Common channel information as well as 1
dedicated channel information and 2 Traffic Channels.

1-Broadcast Control Channel (BCCH: Used for broadcasting MIBs/SIBs.

2-Paging Control Channel (PCCH: Used for paging the UE.
3-Multicast Control Channel (MCCH): Used for transmit information for Multicast.
4-Common Control Channel (CCCH): It is Common to multiple UE’s.
5-Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH): Used to transmit dedicated control information for particular UE.
6-Dedicated Traffic channel (DTCH): Dedicated Traffic for a particular UE.
7-Multicast Traffic Channel (MTCH): Used to transmit Multicast data.

Uplink Channels:
LTE Page- 11

 In Uplink we have 2 control channels and 1 traffic channel.

8-Common Control Channel (CCCH): It is Common to multiple UE’s.

9-Dedicated Control Channel (DCCH): Used to transmit dedicated control information for particular UE.
10-Dedicated Traffic channel (DTCH): Dedicated Traffic for a particular UE.

(3), Physical Channels:

Physical Channels: Define where something is transmitted over the air. Data and signaling messages
are carried on physical channels between the different levels of the physical layer.

These channels are also in both direction downlink and uplink directions. So we can divide these into
Downlink Physical channels and uplink Physical Channels. Based on Data and signaling messages are
carried on physical channels in LTE, we can further classified as
Physical Data channels (DL, UL)
Physical Control Channels (DL, UL)

Downlink Channels:
Downlink physical Data Channel (PBCH, PDSCH, PMCH)
Downlink Physical Control Channel (PCFICH, PHICH, PDCCH)

1-Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH): This physical channel carries system information for UEs
requiring to access the network. It only carries what is termed Master Information Block, MIB, messages
2-Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH): The PDSCH can carry DL-SCH or PCH. It carries SIB
information, Paging Information and user plan Data.
3-Physical Multicast Channel (PMCH): This channel type is used to carry MCH and mainly used for
MBMS Services.
4-Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH): As the name indicates the PCFICH informs
the UE about the format of the signal being received. It indicates the number of OFDM symbols used for
the PDCCH channel, 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 (PDCCH). A PCFICH is transmitted on
the first symbol of every sub-frame and carries a Control Format Indicator CFI.
5-Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH): The PDCCH carries information known as the
Downlink Control Information or DCI. It carries the control information for a particular UE or group of UEs.
Basically A DCI provides the following information. Downlink resource scheduling, Uplink power control
instructions. Uplink resource grant The DCI format has several different types which are defined with
different sizes. The different format types include: type 0, 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 2, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3, 3A etc
6-Physical Hybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH): This channel is used to report the Hybrid ARQ
status. It carries the HARQ ACK/NACK signal indicating whether a transport block has been correctly
received. The PHICH is transmitted within the control region of the sub frame and is typically only
transmitted within the first symbol. If the RF conditions are poor, then the PHICH is extended to a number
symbols for robustness

Uplink Channels:
Uplink physical Data Channel (PUSCH, PRACH)
Uplink Physical Control Channel (PUCCH)

7-Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH): This physical channel is used for Uplink data
transmission by the UE. They may also carry the uplink control information sometimes. This channel is
the counterpart of PDSCH channel in Uplink
8-Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH): This Uplink physical channel is used for random
access procedure called RACH procedure. UE does RACH procedure to get the Uplink synchronization
9-Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH): The Physical Uplink Control Channel, PUCCH provides
the various control signaling. These signaling are known as Scheduling request, Downlink data
ACK/NACK and CQI information.
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11. KPI’s:

12. Definitions:

RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power):

It is the power of the LTE Reference Signal spread over the full bandwidth and narrowband.
A minimum of -20 db SINR is needed to detect RSRP/RSRQ.

RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality):

It indicates the quality of the received reference signal. The RSRQ measurement provided additional
information when RSRP is not sufficient to make a reliable handover or cell reselection decision.
LTE Page- 13

SINR (Signal to Interference & Noise Ratio):

SINR is a measure of signal quality as well. Unlike RSRQ it is not defined in 3GPP specs but defined by
the UE vender. A it better express the relationship between RF conditions and throughput. UEs typically
used SINR to calculate CQI they report to the network.

BLER (Block error rate):

It is the ratio of received wrong block to the total number of data block transmitted.

RTT (Round Trip Time):

Is defined as RTT= Trx-Ttx, where
Trx, the time of reception of the beginning of the corresponding uplink DPCCH/DPDCH frames from UE.
Ttx, the time of transmission of the beginning of a downlink DPCH Frame to UE.

IRC (Interference Rejection Combining):

An IRC receiver calculates and applies a set of antenna weights in the receiver to maximize the SINR of
the signal post-combining, taking into account the instantaneous direction of arrival of the wanted and
interfering signals.

MLB (Mobility Load Balancing):

MLB is one of the most important functions of Self-Organizing Network (SON) in LTE. The conventional
MLB schemes based on HO conflict with Mobility Robustness Optimization (MRO) because both
operations adjust the same HO parameters.

ICIC (Inter-Cell Interference Coordination):

Techniques for the reduction of interference between cells, replying on exchange of information (for
example on transmission resource scheduling) between different cells. ICIC techniques typically involve
constraints on transmission resource allocations and/or power levels. In LTE ICIC may be static or semi-
static, with different levels of associated communication required between eNodeBs.

SRVCC (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity):

Provides an interim solution for handing over VOLTE to 2G/3G networks. The voice calls on LTE network
are meant to be packet switched calls which use IMS system to be made. To make it inter operable with
existing networks, these calls are to be handed over to Circuit switched calls in GSM/WCDMA
networks.QOS is ensured by SRVCC operators for calls made.
3GPP also standardized SRVCC to provide easy handovers from LTE network to GSM/UMTS network.

DRX (Discontinuous Reception):

The periodic switching-off of a receiver, usually to save energy. DRX cycles can be configured in the LTE
downlink so that the UR does not have to decode the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) or
received Physical Downlink Shred Channel (PDSCH) transmission in certain sub-frames.

Synchronization signal: There are two synchronization signals, Primary and secondary. Both are
transmitted in slot 0 and slot 10 in all the frames. It is same as preamble used in earlier systems and used
for time, frequency synchronization purpose.

P-SS:
Primary Synchronization Signal helps for Slot Timing Detection and Physical Layer ID

S-SS:
It helps for Radio Frame Timing detection, find Physical Layer Cell ID, cyclic prefix length detection, and
FDD or TDD detection

TA (Timing Advance):
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TA is a negative offset, at the UE, between the start of a received downlink sub frame and a transmitted
uplink sub frame. This offset at the UE is necessary to ensure that the downlink and uplink sub frames are
synchronized at the eNodeB.

RI (Rank Indicator):
The rank indication or the RI in LTE is one of the control information that a UE will report to eNodeB on
either PUCCH or PUSCH based on uplink scheduling.
The eNodeB configures the RI reporting periodicity for every UE during the attach procedure and UE has
to honor it.

CQI (Channel Quality Indicator):

This is a indicator carrying the information how good or bad the communication channels quality is. CQI is
the information that UE sends to the network and it implies the following two:
(1), Current communication channel quality.
(2), UE want to get the data with this CQI which report to eNodeB.

In LTE, there are 15 different CQI Values.

CQI Modulation Bits/Symbol

1 to 6 QPSK 2
7 to 9 16QAM 4
10 to 15 64QAM 6

TA (Tracking Area) Concept:

The network knows the location of a UE that’s reaming within a network. This make it is possible for the
mobile subscriber to receive a call wherever it is. To keep the network up to date with the subscriber’s
location, the UE performs location updating to eNodeB to MME.

PLMN (Public Land Mobile Network) = MCC (Mobile Country Code) + MNC (Mobile Network Code)

LAI (Location Area Identify) = MCC (Mobile Country Code) + MNC (Mobile Network Code) + LAC
(Location Area Code)

RAI (Routing Area Identity) = MCC (Mobile Country Code) + MNC (Mobile Network Code) + LAC
(Location Area Code) + RAC (Routing Area Code)

CGI (Cell Global Identity) = MCC (Mobile Country Code) + MNC (Mobile Network Code) + LAC
(Location Area Code) + CI (Cell Identity)

13. EPS (Evolved Packet System) Bearer:

LTE provides an end-to-end service using the Bearer, (User plane).

EPS Bearer provides user plane connectivity between the UE and PDN Gateway.

Default EPS Bearer:

Whenever mobile connected to a Packet data network, a mobile receive one default bearer as soon as it’s
registered with the EPS, mobile receive an IP address for communication with the network.

Dedicated EPS Bearer:

This types of Bearer may be activated on demand such as a guarantee bit rate or a prioritized scheduling.
Each dedicated bearer share the IP address with its parent default bearer.
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EPS Bearer:
The EPS Bearer provides connectivity between the UE and PGW, is composed of E-RAB and S5/S8
bearer.

Radio Bearer:
The Radio bearer provides connectivity between UE and eNodeB.

S1 Bearer:
The S1 bearer provides connectivity between eNodeB and SGW.

E-RAB:
The E-RAB provided connectivity between UE and SGW, is composed of RB and S1 bearer.

S5/S8 Bearer:
The S5/S8 bearer provided connectivity between SGW and PGW.

The S5 interface provides connectivity between a home SGW and a home PGW.
The S8 interface provides roaming connectivity between a visited SGW and a home PGW.

LTE Signaling Radio Bearer:

There are 3 types of SRB in LTE network.

1), SRB0: It’s used to transfer RRC messages which use CCCH channel (Common Control Channel).
2), SRB1: It’s used to transfer RRC messages which use DCCH channel (Dedicated Common Channel).
3), SRB2: It’s used to transfer RRC messages which use DCCH channel and certain NAS messages.

14. Multiple Access Technologies:

(1), FDD (Frequency Division Duplex):

The base station and mobile transmit and receive at the same time, but having different frequencies.

(2), TDD (Time Division Duplex):

The base station and mobile transmit and receive on the same frequency but at different time.

(3), Half Duplex FDD:

LTE Page- 16

The base station can still transmit and receive at the same time, but mobile transmit and receive at
different time.
From terminal perspective, half duplex FDD is similar to TDD in the sense of time.

(4), FEC (Forward Error Correction):

It’s an error correction technique to detect and correct errors in transmitted data without the need of re-
transmission. In this method, a sender sends an extra error-correcting code along with the data frame
upon the additional extra bits. If it’s finds that the data is free of errors, it executes error-correcting code
that generates the actual frame. It then removes the extra bit before passing the messages to the upper
layer.

(5), OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Accesses) (DL) :

Multiple Accesses: Several sub-carriers carrying the data separately and not interfering with each others.
12 Sub-carrier transmit
Using 15k for one carrier mean 12x15 k = 180 KHz
Better spectral effectively on OFDMA.
Large Peak to Average Ratio (PAR), because OFDMA signal consist of a number of independently
modulated sub-carriers.
The main difference between OFDM and OFDMA system, In OFDM system user are allocated on the
time domain while, In OFDMA system user would be allocated by both time and frequency.

(6), SC-FDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Accesses) (UL) :

Its deal with the assignment of multiple user to shared communication resource, mean using single carrier
for multiple users.
OFDMA is not used in UL because of power amplifier inefficacy and UE high battery power consumption.
OFDMA is not used in UL because high Peak to Average Ratio (PAR).
In SC-FDMA Peak to Average Ration (PAR) is less.
Cost is higher.

(7), HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request):

It’s a technique when the receiver gets a new data with some errors then it tries to make correction if the
error is minor, but if the error is not minor then it sends for re-transmission request to the senders. After
getting the new data again, it combines the new data with the pervious erroneous data.
It works at physical layer but controlled by MAC layer.
RT Traffic: Voice

(8), ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request):

The ARQ mechanism takes care of the leftover errors data which passed from HARQ. If there is an error
then it discards the packets and sends the new re-transmission request. ARQ is an error control protocol.
It works at RLC layer.
NRT Traffic: Web pages, emails.

15. Multiple Antenna Techniques:

There are 3 types of multiple antenna techniques in LTE network.

1), Diversity Processing:

The transmitter, the receiver or both use multiple antennas to increase the received signal power.
Reduce the amount of fading, improve the reliability.

2), Spatial Processing:

The transmitter, the receiver both uses multiple antennas to increase the data throughput.
LTE Page- 17

MIMO:
If the transmitter and the receiver both have multiple antennas, then we can have multiple parallel data
streams between them, then combine the multiple data streams through the digital signal power (DSP),
so it will increase the data rate.
MIMO: 4x4, 8x8, 64x64, 256x256.

MU-MIMO:
Multi user-MIMO, the transmitter simultaneity sends different steams to different users using the same
time and frequency resource, thereby increasing the network capacity, Low Latency, Higher throughput.

Massive-MIMO:
It has many small antennas, which are used to serve multiple users simultaneously. These tightly located
antennas generate narrow beams which can be exactly focused. These tight beams strength the received
signal power, reduce interference, increase throughput significantly.

3), Beam Forming:

Beam-forming is a method to point several antennas towards the same device, rather than having the
signal propagates in all the detections, as typical. Beam-forming can be direct both horizontal and vertical
beams at the user.

Benefits:

1), Higher throughput

2), Great reliability
3), Great improving capacity
3), Reducing interference
3), Use of MIMO technology

16. LTE SIBs:

The system information is very essential and the same is broadcasted by LTE eNB over logical channel
BCCH. This logical channel information is further carried over transport channel BCH or carried by DL-
SCH.
SIBs carry relevant information for the UE, which helps UE to access a cell, perform cell re-selection,
information related to INTRA-frequency, INTER-frequency, and INTER-RAT cell selections.
There are two parts in SI (System Information) dynamic part and static part.
Dynamic part is called as SIB and is mapped on RRC SI messages(SI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11) over DL-
SCH and transmitted using PDSCH at periodic intervals.
SI-1 transmitted every 80ms, SI-2 every 160ms and SI-3 every 320 ms.
Static part is called as MIB and is transmitted using BCH and carried by PBCH once every 40ms.
MIB carries useful information which includes channel bandwidth, PHICH configuration details; transmit
power, no. of antennas.
SI Descriptions
MIB Carries physical layer information. (Downlink channel bandwidth, PHICH configurations)
SIB-1 Contain key information about the cell and network, PLMN Id, TAC, Cell selection parameters,
frequency band, cell barring, scheduling information for other SIB
SIB-2 Contain radio resource configuration information that is common for all UEs.
RACH,BCCH,PCCH,PRACH,PDSCH,PUSCH,PUCCH parameters, UE timers, uplink carrier
frequency
SIB-3 Contains Cell reselection parameters, mainly related to the serving cell.
SIB-4 Cell reselection parameters for Intra-frequency neighboring cells.
SIB-5 Cell reselection parameters for Inter-frequency neighboring cells.
SIB-6 IRAT cell reselection to UTRAN.
LTE Page- 18

SIB-7 IRAT cell reselection to GERAN.

SIB-8 IRAT cell reselection to CDMA2000.
SIB-9 Contains a home Enb name (HeNB Name)
SIB-10 Primary notification for ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System)
SIB-11 Secondary notification for ETWS (Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System)
SIB-12 Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) notification.
SIB-13 MBMS Single Frequency Network (MBSFN) configuration information

17. LTE Events:

LTE HO Events (7 events):

A1: Triggers when the serving cell becomes better than a threshold.
A2: Triggers when the serving cell becomes worse than a threshold
A3: Triggers when a neighboring cell becomes better than the serving cell.
A4: Triggers when a neighboring cell becomes better than a threshold.
A5: Triggers when the serving cell becomes worse than Thd1 and while a neighboring cell becomes
better than Thd2
B1: Triggers when Inter RAT neighbor becomes better than threshold.
B2: Triggers when serving cell becomes worse than Thd1 and Inter RAT neighbor becomes better than
Thd2.

18. LTE Timers:

Below is a list of timers and constants which are used in LTE.

LTE Timers Start Stop At expiry

T300  At the transmission of At the reception of RRC Reset MAC
RRC Connection Connection Setup or RRC configuration and
Request  Connection Reject message, cell inform upper layers
re-selection and upon abortion of about the failure 
connection establishment by upper
layers 
T301  At the transmission of At the reception of RRC Moves to RRC_IDLE
RRC Connection Connection Reestablishment or state 
Reestablishment RRC Connection Reestablishment
Request  Reject message or when the
selected cell becomes unsuitable 
T302  At the reception of Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED Inform upper layers 
RRC Connection state and upon cell re-selection
Reject while mode 
performing RRC
connection
establishment 
T303  When access is Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED Inform upper layers 
barred while state and upon cell re-selection
performing RRC mode 
connection
establishment for
mobile originating
calls 
T304  At the reception of A the successful completion of Perform the actions
RRC Connection Handover to EUTRA  defined as per the
Reconfiguration specifications
LTE Page- 19

message including the applicable for the

Mobility Control Info.  source RAT 
T305  When access is Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED Inform upper layers 
barred while state and upon cell re-selection
performing RRC mode 
connection
establishment for
mobile originated
signaling 
T306  When access is Upon entering RRC_CONNECTED Inform upper layers 
barred while state and upon cell re-selection
performing RRC mode 
connection
establishment for
mobile originating CS
fallback 
T310  Upon detecting Upon receiving N311 consecutive If security is not
problems in physical in-sync indications from lower activated it goes to
layer i.e. upon layers, upon triggering the RRC_IDLE state else
receiving N310 handover procedure and upon it initiates the RRC
consecutive out-of- initiating the connection re- connection re-
sync indications from establishment procedure  establishment
lower layers  procedure
T311  After initiating RRC On selection of a suitable EUTRA Moves to RRC_IDLE
connection re- cell or a cell using another RAT  state 
establishment
procedure 
T312  Upon triggering a Upon receiving N311 consecutive If security is not
measurement report in-sync indications from lower activated it goes to
for a measurement layers, upon triggering the RRC_IDLE state else
identity for which handover procedure, upon it initiates the RRC
T312 has been initiating the connection re- connection re-
configured, while establishment procedure, and establishment
T310 is running  upon the expiry of T310  procedure 
T313  Upon detecting Upon receiving N314 consecutive Inform E-UTRAN
physical layer in-sync indications from lower about the SCG radio
problems for the layers for the PSCell, upon link failure by
PSCell i.e. upon initiating the connection re- initiating the SCG
receiving N313 establishment procedure, upon failure information
consecutive out-of- SCG release and upon receiving procedure 
sync indications from RRCConnectionReconfiguration
lower layers  including MobilityControlInfoSCG 
T320  Upon receiving t320 Upon entering Discard the cell
or upon cell RRC_CONNECTED, when PLMN reselection priority
(re)selection to E- selection is performed on request information provided
UTRA from another by NAS, or upon cell (re)selection by dedicated
RAT with validity time to another RAT (in which case the signalling 
configured for timer is carried on to the other
dedicated priorities (in RAT) 
which case the
remaining validity time
is applied) 
T321  Upon receiving Upon acquiring the information Initiate the
measConfig including needed to set all fields of measurement
a reportConfig with cellGlobalId for the requested cell, reporting procedure,
LTE Page- 20

the purpose set to upon receiving measConfig that stop performing the
reportCGI  includes removal of the related
reportConfig with the purpose set measurements and
to reportCGI  remove the
corresponding
measId 

1), Cell Search Procedure:

Cell searching is a procedure in which a UE achieves time and frequency synchronization with a cell,
obtains the physical cell identifier (PCI), and learns the signal quality and other information about the cell
based on the PCI. A UE performs cell search on all frequencies before selecting or re-selecting to a cell.
In an LTE system, two types of synchronization signals for cell search: primary synchronization signals
(PSS) and secondary synchronization signals (SSS). The cell search procedure is as follows:

 A UE monitors the PSS to acquire slot synchronization accurate to within 5 ms, and to identify the
cell number.
 The UE monitors the SSS to acquire frame synchronization and to identify the cell group number.
 The UE calculate the PCI by using (3 x cell group number + cell number).
 The UE monitors the Downlink reference signal (RS) to determine the signal quality in the cell.
 The UE reads information on the broadcast channel (BCH) and decode Master Information Block
(MIB) to acquire detailed about the cell.

Transmission of Random Access Preambles on the PRACH:

When the mobile sends a PRACH transmission to the base station, it initiates the random access
procedure. There are two variants of this procedure, namely non-contention-based and contention-based

Non-Contention-Based Procedure:
If the network can reserve a preamble sequence for a mobile, then it can guarantee that no other mobile
will be using that sequence in the same set of resource blocks. This idea is the basis of the non-
contention-based random access procedure, which is typically used as part of a handover.

Before the procedure begins, the old base station sends the mobile an RRC message known as RRC
Connection Reconfiguration. This tells the mobile how to reconfigure itself for communication with the
new base station and identifies a preamble sequence that the new base station has reserved for it. The
mobile reads the RRC message and reconfigures itself as instructed. However, it does not yet have
timing synchronization, so it triggers the random access procedure. The mobile reads the new cell’s
random access configuration from SIB 2, chooses the next available PRACH transmission time and
LTE Page- 21

sends a preamble using the requested sequence (step 1). The transmission frequency is fixed in FDD
mode, while in TDD mode it is chosen at random. Together, the transmission time and frequency
determine a mobile identity known as the random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). If necessary, the mobile
repeats the transmission in the manner described above, until it receives a response. Once the base
station receives the preamble, it measures the arrival time and calculates the required timing advance. It
replies first with a PDCCH scheduling command (step 2a), which it writes using DCI format 1A or 1C and
addresses to the mobile’s RA-RNTI. It follows this with a random access response (step 2b), which
identifies the preamble sequence that the mobile used, and gives the mobile an uplink scheduling grant
and an initial value for the uplink timing advance. (The base station also gives the mobile an identity
known as the temporary C-RNTI, but the mobile does not actually use it in this version of the procedure.)
The base station can identify several preamble sequences in one response, so it can simultaneously reply
to all the mobiles that transmitted on the same resource blocks but with different preambles. The mobile
receives the base station’s response and initializes its timing advance. It can then reply to the base
station’s signaling message, using an RRC Connection Reconfiguration Complete. A base station can
also initiate the non-contention-based random access procedure if it wishes to transmit to the mobile on
the downlink, but has lost timing synchronization with it. To do this, it triggers the procedure using a
variant of DCI format 1A known as a PDCCH order [11]. The procedure then continues in the manner
described above.

Contention-Based Procedure:
A mobile uses the contention-based random access procedure if it has not been allocated a preamble
index. This typically happens as part of a procedure known as RRC connection establishment, in the
manner shown in Figure 9.3. In this example, the mobile wishes to send the base station an RRC
message known as an RRC Connection Request, in which it asks to move from RRC_IDLE to
RRC_CONNECTED. It has no PUSCH resources on which to send the message and no PUCCH
resources on which to send a scheduling request, so it triggers the random access procedure. The mobile
reads the cell’s random access configuration from SIB 2 and chooses a preamble sequence at random
from the ones available for the contention-based procedure. Optionally, the base station can divide these
into two further groups, namely group A, which is used either for small packets or for large packets in poor
radio conditions, and group B, which is used for large packets in good radio conditions. A preamble in
group A will eventually lead to a small scheduling grant that is suitable for a small transmission or for a
buffer status report. A preamble in group B will lead to a larger scheduling grant, with which the mobile
can start a larger uplink transmission and may even be able to complete it
LTE Page- 22

The mobile then transmits the preamble in the usual way (step 1). There is a risk of contention, if two or
mobiles transmit on the same resource blocks using the same preamble sequence. As before, the base
station sends the mobile a scheduling command followed by a random access response (steps 2a and
2b). Using the uplink grant, the mobile sends its RRC message in the usual way (step 3a). As part of the
message, the mobile uniquely identifies itself using either its S-TMSI or a random number (Section
11.3.1). There is still a risk of contention between the mobiles that initiated the procedure, but if one of the
transmissions is much stronger than the others, then the base station will be able to decode it. The other
transmissions will only cause interference. The base station sends an acknowledgement using the PHICH
resource that was indicated by the scheduling grant (step 3b). The base station now sends the mobile
another scheduling command (step 4a), which it addresses to the temporary C-RNTI that it allocated
earlier. It follows the command with a MAC control element called the UE contention resolution identity
(step 4b). This echoes back the RRC message that the mobile transmitted in step 3, so it includes the
identity of the successful mobile. If a mobile receives an echo of the message that it originally transmitted,
then it sends an acknowledgement using the PUCCH resource indicated by the scheduling command
(step 4c). It then promotes the temporary C-RNTI to a full C-RNTI and continues the RRC procedure. If
the message does not match, then the mobile discards the temporary C-RNTI and tries the random
access procedure again at a later time. As a result, the base station has selected one of the mobiles that
were originally competing for its attention and has told the others to back off. A mobile can also initiate the
contention-based procedure in RRC_CONNECTED state, if it wishes to transmit to the base station but
has lost timing synchronization, or if it has reached a maximum number of scheduling requests without
receiving a reply. In this situation, however, the mobile already has a C-RNTI. In step 3 of the procedure,
it replaces the RRC message with a C-RNTI MAC control element (Chapter 10) and the base station then
uses the C-RNTI as the basis for contention resolution.

2), L3 Signaling Procedure:

LTE Attach Procedure:

LTE attached procedure in which the UE register to the network and create the EPS Bearer between the
UE and PGW, in order to be able to send and receive data, to and from PDN..

 The UE sends Attached request to the MME. This includes the GUTI of the UE received from the last
attached, and APN that UE would like to connect to.
 The MME performs authentications and security for the UE, in order to authenticate the UE, and to
secure the messages exchanged between the MME and the UE.
 The MME send update location request to the HSS, this includes the MME ID of the MMR, This is
done because the HSS should always knows the MME ID of the MME that currently serves the UE.
 The HSS replies with the Update location response. This included the subscription information of UE.
 Now the MME starts to create the EPS bearer between the YE and PGW by sending create session
request to SGW. This includes the APN that the UE would like to connect to.
 The SGW sends create secession request to the PGW including the APN the UE would like to
connect to.
 The PGW assigns an IP address and a QOS profiles for this EPS bearer, and replies with create
session response, including the IP address and the QOS that PGW assigned to the bearer.
 The SGW sends create session response to the MME including the IP address and the QOS that the
PGW assigned to the bearer.
 The MME sends initials context setup request to the eNodeB, and this message included Attach
Accept message that the eNodeB should forward to the UE. The Attached accept message included
the IP address and the QOS of the EPS bearer.
 The eNodeB ESTABLISHES THE Radio Bearer with the UE, and replies the MME with initial context
setup response.
 And the UE replies the MMR with Attached complete.
 Finally the MME performs modify bearer with the PGW, in order to complete the exchange of the EPS
Bearer parameters.
LTE Page- 23

3) X2 HO Call Flow Procedures:

Intra-LTE (Intra-MME/SGW) handover using the X2 interface is used to handover a UE from a source
eNodeB (S-eNB) to a target eNodeB (T-eNB) using the X2 interface when the Mobility Management
Entity (MME) and Serving Gateway (SGW) are unchanged.

X2 Handover Case:
The X2 handover is used when direct connectivity exits between the source and target eNBs with X2
interface.

Handover Preparation:
The X2 handover procedure is performed without Evolved Packet Core (EPC) involvement, i.e.
preparation messages are directly exchanged between Source eNB and Target eNB

Handover Execution:
There is direct tunnel formed between source and target eNBs for downlink data forwarding in handover
execution time.
LTE Page- 24

Intra-LTE Handover Call Flow Description:

 UE is in connected state and a data call is up. Data packets are transferred to/from the UE to/from the
network in both directions (DL as well as UL).
 The network sends the MEASUREMENT CONTROL REQ message to the UE to set the parameters
to measure and set thresholds for those parameters. Its purpose is to instruct the UE to send a
measurement report to the network as soon as it detects the thresholds.
 The UE sends the MEASUREMENT REPORT to the S-eNB after it meets the measurement report
criteria communicated previously. The S-eNB makes the decision to hand off the UE to a T-eNB
using the handover algorithm; each network operator could have its own handover algorithm.
 The S-eNB issues the RESOURCE STATUS REQUEST message to determine the load on T-eNB
(this is optional). Based on the received RESOURCE STATUS RESPONSE, the S-eNB can make the
decision to proceed further in continuing the handover procedure using the X2 interface.
 The S-eNB issues a HANDOVER REQUEST message to the T-eNB passing necessary information
to prepare the handover at the target side (e.g., UE Context which includes the Security Context and
RB Context (including E-RAB to RB Mapping) and the Target cell info).
 The T-eNB checks for resource availability and, if available, reserves the resources and sends back
the HANDOVER REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGE message including a transparent container to be sent
to the UE as an RRC message to perform the handover. The container includes a new C-RNTI, T-
eNB security algorithm identifiers for the selected security algorithms, and may include a dedicated
RACH preamble and possibly some other parameters (i.e., access parameters, SIBs, etc.).
 The S-eNB generates the RRC message to perform the handover, i.e, RRCCONNECTION
RECONFIGURATION message including the mobility Control Information. The S-eNB performs the
necessary integrity protection and ciphering of the message and sends it to the UE.
 The S-eNB sends the eNB STATUS TRANSFER message to the T-eNB to convey the PDCP and
HFN status of the E-RABs.
 The S-eNB starts forwarding the downlink data packets to the T-eNB for all the data bearers (which
are being established in the T-eNB during the HANDOVER REQ message processing).
 In the meantime, the UE tries to access the T-eNB cell using the non-contention-based Random
Access Procedure. If it succeeds in accessing the target cell, it sends the RRC CONNECTION
RECONFIGURATION COMPLETE to the T-eNB.
 The T-eNB sends a PATH SWITCH REQUEST message to the MME to inform it that the UE has
changed cells, including the TAI+ECGI of the target. The MME determines that the SGW can
continue to serve the UE.
LTE Page- 25

 The MME sends a MODIFY BEARER REQUEST (eNodeB address and TEIDs for downlink user
plane for the accepted EPS bearers) message to the SGW. If the PDN GW requested the UE’s
location info, the MME also includes the User Location Information IE in this message.
 The SGW sends the downlink packets to the target eNB using the newly received addresses and
TEIDs (path switched in the downlink data path to T-eNB) and the MODIFY BEARER RESPONSE to
the MME.
 The SGW sends one or more “end marker” packets on the old path to the S-eNB and then can
release any user plane / TNL resources toward the S-eNB.
 The MME responds to the T-eNB with a PATH SWITCH REQ ACK message to notify the completion
of the handover.
 The T-eNB now requests the S-eNB to release the resources using the X2 UE CONTEXT RELEASE
message. With this, the handover procedure is complete.

4), CSFB (Circuit Switched Fall Back):

LTE is an all-IP technology and therefore cannot transport switched services such as voice or SMS, so
CSFB is needed. When an LTE device is used to make or receive a voice call or SMS, the device “falls
back” to the 3G or 2G network to complete the call or to deliver the SMS text message

CSFB is often seen as an interim solution for LTE operators:  Voice-over-LTE (VOLTE) is considered to
be the long-term goal for the delivery of voice services on LTE networks.

LTE -3G CSFB overview:

At a high level the circuit switched fallback involves the following steps:
 The UE connects to the LTE network by performing a random access procedure.
 The UE registers with the network with an attach type of Combined EPS/IMSI attach. The UE gets
registered in the 4G LTE and the 3G networks.
 The MME keeps the 3G network updated with the UE position. This information is needed for
handling paging from the 3G to the LTE network.
 When the mobile user wishes to initiate a voice call, the UE de-registers from the LTE network and
registers with the 3G network.
 The UE sets up the voice call.
 When the voice call ends, the UE de-registers from the 3G network and registers with the 4G
network.
LTE Page- 26
LTE Page- 27

5), VOLTE:

VOLTE is based on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) framework Voice over LTE (VOLTE) is a digital
packet technology that uses 4G LTE networks to route voice traffic and transmit data

The IMS SIP client registration calls flow. There are three main elements viz. P-CSCF, I-CSCF and S-
CSCF.Following are the functions of each of these elements.
P-CSCF: It acts as gateway for UE into home network. It identifies home IMS network and helps in routing
the traffic to/from the home IMS network.
I-CSCF: It acts as edge of home IMS. It interfaces with P-CSCF in visited network. It interfaces and
queries HSS and selects the S-CSCF.
S-CSCF: It handles actual registration request received from I-CSCF. It extracts authentication data from
HSS (via I-CSCF). It authenticates user after second registration attempt.
LTE Page- 28

VOLTE call flow with explanation:

 UE initiates VOLTE call. Hence it is known as originating VOLTE terminal.

 INVITE message is transmitted to VOLTE terminating terminal via P-CSCF/S-CSCF/TAS. The
message consists of terminal IDs, codes used by originating terminal.
 Terminating terminal responds with "183 session progress". This message carries codec used by
terminating terminal.
 P-CSCF receives above message and signals PCRF to establish dedicated bearer for voice media.
 Dedicated bearer is established by PGW, SGW, eNB and originating terminal. Appropriate QCI is
assigned to such dedicated bearer. QCI of value 1 is used for conversational speech.
 In parallel to (5), P-CSCF forwards "183 session progress" message to originating terminal. Using
this, originating terminal compares codecs of terminating terminal with its own and decides which
codec type to be used further.
 Originating terminal sends PRACK to terminating terminal which notifies codec to be used.
Terminating terminal responds with "200 OK".
 This establishes voice bearer. This is confirmed by "UPDATE" message initiation from originating
terminal and response of "200 OK" from terminating terminal.
 After the confirmation in (8), terminating terminal starts ringing.
 Terminating terminal transmits "PRACK" message which confirms ringing.
 The "Ser" at terminating terminal answers the call.
 The terminating terminal sends "200 OK" to originating terminal. This indicates that call has been
answered. This refers to establishment of session. Now voice traffic can flow through established
dedicated voice bearer which utilizes QCI of value 1.

6), VOIP:

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a
broadband Internet connection instead of a regular public switched telephone network (PSTN),
LTE Page- 29

19. LTE Releases:

1), Release-8-(2008):

 LTE uses Flat All-IP architecture, it means that LTE has fewer network elements compared to the
legacy 3G network, the base station in 3G is replaced by eNodeB in LTE and there is no RNC in RAN
of LTE and due to fewer network elements the latency is reduced, which reduce the signaling time
providing high spectral efficiency.

 Operating frequency ranges from 700 Mhz to 2.7 Ghz with scalable bandwidths.
 Bandwidths available for deployment are 1.4,3,5,10,15 and 20 Mhz.
 Short round trip time: 5 ms latency for IP packets in ideal radio conditions
 High peak data rates: Up to 300 Mbps in downlink and 75 Mbps in uplink when using 4×4 MIMO
and 20 MHz bandwidth.
 Support multiple antenna (MIMO) technology.
 Provides both FDD and TDD solutions.
 Use OFDMA as the transmission scheme in downlink and SC-FDMA in uplink.
 Modulation techniques uses are QPSK, 16-QAM and 64 QAM.
 Only PS domain, No CS domain.
 Support SON (Self Organizing Network), Hone Enb, Femto cells.

2), Release-9-(2009):

 eMBMS: With  Multimedia broadcast Multicast Services (MBMS), operators have capability to

broadcast services over LTE network. The idea is not novel to the LTE and has been used in legacy
networks as well but for LTE, the MBMS channel has evolved from data rate and capacity
perspective. The MBMS was already defined at physical layer in release8 but with release 9, higher
layer and network layer aspects were completed

 MIMO Beam forming: Beamforming is used to increase cell edge throughput by directing beam
towards specific UE by position estimation at eNB. In release 8, LTE supported single layer beam
forming based on user-specific Reference Symbols. In release 9, single layer beam forming has been
extended to multilayer beam forming

 Femto Cell: Femto cell is basically a small cell used in offices or homes and connected to providers’
networks through landline broadband connection. 3G Femto cells are deployed around world and in
order for LTE users to take advantage of Femto cell, new requirements were added to release 9

 LTE Positioning: Three position methods are specified in LTE release 9 i.e. Assisted GPS (A-GPS),
Observed Time difference of arrival (OTDOA) and Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID). The goal is to improve
the accuracy of user locations in case of emergency scenarios where the user itself is unable to
disclose his whereabouts

3), Release-10-(2011):

 Rel-10 is referred as LTE-Advance which meets the actual LTE requirements defined by
International Telecommunication Union, as LTE was introduced in REL-8 but It couldn’t meet the
requirement defined by 3GPP, so after introducing the new enhancement and features in later
Releases the performance of LTE improved and it could finally meet the actual LTE standard in REL-
10 version.

 The enhancement that REL-10 saw are higher capacity, increased peak data rate that is downlink
speed up to 1 Gbps and uplink speed up to 500 Mbps, then higher spectral efficiency and
improved performance in a cost efficient way, the two major factors that saw such enhancement in
data rate are carrier aggregation and advanced multi-antenna techniques.
LTE Page- 30

 The principle of Carrier aggregation is to extend the transmission bandwidth to maximum up to 100
MHZ, in REL-8 the maximum bandwidth the network can provide is 20 MHZ with single carrier but in
REL-10 the carrier aggregation allows to transmit using bandwidth up to 100 MHZ, this is done by
adding secondary component carrier to the existing primary carrier, so up to 5 component carrier can
be added which would increase the transmission bandwidth up to 100 MHZ, hence increasing the
data rate.

Carrier Aggregation (CA) is a feature of LTE-Advanced that allows mobile operators & devices to
combine two or more LTE carriers into a single data change. It leads to an increase in the capacity of
the network and the data rates, LTE-Advanced allows a mobile to transmit and receive on up to five
component carriers (CCs), Each with a bandwidth of up to 20 MHz, resulting in a total transmission
bandwidth of up to 100 MHz.

There are three scenarios,

First, when two or more component carriers belong to the same frequency band then they come
together. This arrangement is intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation. 
Secondly, when the component carriers are from the same frequency band. However, they are
separating by a spectrum gap then it’s intra-band non-contiguous carrier aggregation.
Lastly, when the component carriers belong to different frequency bands then they are placed in
separate frequency blocks. It’s called inter-band carrier aggregation

 After CA the second factor that support high data rate is Advanced multi antenna techniques
enhanced MIMO, Its support antenna configuration of up to 8x8 in downlink and 4x4 in uplink, it’s
also provided high spectral efficiency and increased capacity.

 Support for Heterogeneous network (mixture of femto, pico, macro cell) to improves capacity,
throughput and coverage, the main goal of Heterogeneous network (diversified) is to offload the traffic
from macro network

 Support for Relay nodes and repeaters to improve coverage and flexibility. Relay nodes can be
thought of as a low power note base connected to the network, basically they are effective in
extending network coverage, where users will be provided with increasing throughput in area such as
malls, offices, stadiums, parking etc with additions of features link heterogeneous network and relay
nodes in REL-10 there can be strong interference between signals from different cells due to varying
power levels from small cells, hence as advanced interference management technique is required.

 Support eICIC (Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination)

It’s a technique for the reduction of interference between cells, in which high power nodes such as
macro cells transmit data in limited sub-frames while the low powered small cells transmit data in the
other sub-frames.

 Seamless interoperation between LTE and WLAN to support traffic offload to unlicensed spectrum.

4), Release-11-(2012):

 Carrier Aggregation enhancements: Following are the major enhancements to carrier aggregation
in REL-11
– Multiple timing advances (TAs) for uplink carrier aggregation
– Non contiguous intra band carrier aggregation
– Physical layer changes for carrier aggregation support in TDD LTE

 Coordinated multipoint transmission and reception (CoMP): With CoMP the transmitter can
share data load even if they are not collocated. Though they are connected by high speed fiber link.
LTE Page- 31

 ePDCCH: New enhanced PDCCH introduced in 3GPP release 11 to increase control channel

capacity. ePDCCH uses PDSCH resources for transmitting control information unlike release 8
PDCCH which can only use control region of sub-frames.

 Network based Positioning: In release 11, support for uplink positioning is added by utilizing
sounding reference signals for time difference measurements taken by many eNBs.

5), Release-12-(2014):

 Small cells enhancements: Small cells were supported since beginning with features like ICIC and
eICIC in release 10. Release 12 introduces optimization and enhancements for small cells including
deployments in dense areas. Dual connectivity i.e. inter-site carrier aggregation between macro and
small cells is also a focus area.

 Carrier aggregation enhancements: Release 12 now allows carrier aggregation between co-located

TDD and FDD carriers. In addition to carrier aggregation between TDD and FDD, there is also now
three carrier aggregations possible for total of 60 Mhz spectrum aggregated.

 Machine Type communication (MTC): Huge growth is expected in machine type communication in

coming years which can result in tremendous network signaling, capacity issues. To cope with this,
new UE category is defined for optimized MTC operations.

 Wifi integration with LTE: With integration between LTE and Wifi, operators will have more control
on managing WiFi sessions. In release 12, the intent is to specify mechanism for steering traffic and
network selection between LTE and WiFI.

 LTE in unlicensed spectrum: An LTE operation in unlicensed spectrum is one of the study items in
release 12. Operations in Bandwidth rich unlicensed spectrum brings many benefits to operators like
increase in network capacity, load and performance

6), Release-13-(2015):

 Carrier Aggregation enhancements: The goal in release 13 is to support carrier aggregation of upto

32 CC (component carriers) where as in release 10, the carrier aggregation was introduced with
support of only upto 5 CC.

 enhancements for Machine-Type communication (MTC): Continuing from release 12, there are
further enhancements in MTC, a new low complexity UE category is being defined to provide support
for reduced bandwidth, power and support long battery life.

 LTE in unlicensed spectrum enhancements: The focus in release 13 is the aggregation of primary

cell from licensed spectrum with secondary cell from unlicensed spectrum to meet the growing traffic
demand.

 Indoor Positioning: In release 13 there is work going on improving existing methods of indoor
positioning and also exploring new positioning methods to improve indoor accuracy.

 Enhanced multi-user transmission techniques: Release 13 also covers potential enhancements

for downlink multiuser transmission using superposition coding.

 MIMO enhancements: Upto 8 antenna MIMO systems are currently supported, the new study in this
release will look into high-order MIMO systems with up to 64 antenna ports.
LTE Page- 32

7), Release-14-(2017):

 Support for V2x (Vehicle to everything) services.

 eLAA (enhancement in Licensed assisted access)

 Enhanced LTE-WIFI Aggregation

 4 band Carrier aggregation

 Advanced Inter-band carrier aggregation

 Enhancement in eMBMS