National Conference on Information Technology and Computer Science (CITCS 2012)

Analysis and Application of Carrier Aggregation

Technology in Wireless Communications
Binglin Li  Hao Zhang
China Electric Power Research Institute China Electric Power Research Institute
Nanjing Jiangsu, 211106, 13951022347 Nanjing Jiangsu, 211106
libinglin@erpi.sgcc.com.cn

Jiming Yao Hongbin Yao

China Electric Power Research Institute North China Grid Company Limited,
Nanjing Jiangsu, 211106 Beijing, 10053

Abstract—Carrier aggregation is a key technology in the LTE-A. 10 simplex frequency points and 15 duplex frequency points
Carrier aggregation can be achieved within the same frequency for the power system in the 223-231Mhz. The interval is
bands continuous carrier aggregate, non-continuous carrier 7MHz bandwidth between sending and receiving. But each
aggregation and different frequency bands within the carrier working frequency bandwidth is small. It is only about tens of
aggregation. It analyses the two implementations of carrier kHz. It can’t meet the high bandwidth communications needs
aggregation: MAC layer aggregation and physical layer of the smart grid.
aggregate. Combined with demand for power applications, the
carrier aggregation HARQ hybrid scheduling control policy is In the field of mobile communications, mobile broadband
applied, then proposes subcarrier allocation method of the users are growing quickly. The higher peak rate is required for
230MHz band. It can realize the 230MHz frequency band multimedia services and video on demand(VOD) services. In
wireless communication system by using carrier aggregation and order to meet the challenges of broadband access and the
spectrum-sensing technology. And then completed functional demand for new wireless services, LTE-Advanced (Long
testing in laboratory. It validates that the system does not affect Term Evolution) is the evolution technology of the 3G system
the original 230MHz radio at work. by 3GPP. The 3GPP proposes LTE-A system key technical
indicators[1]. In LTE-A system, the minimum bandwidth is
Keywords-LTE-A; carrier aggregation ; spectrum sensing; 20MHz, the maximum bandwidth is 100MHz. The downlink
230MHz frequency; smart grid peak rate supported in LTE-A is 1Gbit/s, the uplink peak rate
I. INTRODUCTION is 500Mbit/s. The downlink peak spectrum efficiency is up to
30bit/s/Hz and the uplink is up to 15bit/s/Hz in LTE-A. In
Smart Grid is built on an integrated, high-speed, system capacity, LTE-A requires to support 200 to 300
bi-directional communications network. It supports system concurrent users within each 5M bandwidth. LTE-A delay
applications by using advanced sensing and measurement control is more stringent. The latency of control layer from the
techniques, advanced equipment, advanced control methods, transition status to the idle in the connection is lower than
and advanced assistant decision. With the construction of the 50ms, the latency of conversion from dormant status to the
smart grid, it applies high capacity, extra-high voltage (EHV) connection is lower than 10 ms; The delay of user level in the
and a variety of new power electronic components. The FDD mode is less than 5ms, the delay in the TDD mode is
electric equipment interconnected will be more large-scale, a less than 10ms.
huge number, wide variety and widely distributed. What is
means of communication can be used for data acquisition and The potential bands of LTE-A comprise the 450~470MHz,
control of these power facilities? It is always an important 698~862MHz, 790~862MHz, 2.3~2.4GHz, 3.4~4.2GHz,
research topic in the field of electric power communication. 4.4~4.99GHz, etc. The system maximum bandwidth supports
Especially in the field of transmission and distribution, the 100MHz. But it is difficult to find such a wide continuous
optical fiber communication network coverage is lower. The spectrum, so LTA-A proposes the carrier aggregation (CA)
wireless technology is useful for intelligent monitoring and technology [2].This technology can combination multiple
protection of electric equipment, line and tower, real-time discrete spectrum and use them together.
dynamic smart metering, intelligent interaction between power
II. THE PRINCIPLE OF CARRIER AGGREGATION
grids with the user. However, the smart grid construction
requires monitoring the large number of power nodes. The The carrier aggregation technology can aggregate multiple
wireless systems can provide sufficient communication discrete or continuous small sub-band to support higher
bandwidth. A major means to improve the bandwidth of the bandwidth transmission. Among them, each band aggregated
wireless system is using the wider spectrum resources. is called the component carrier. LTE-A supports continuous
Currently, the State Radio Regulatory Commission allocated carrier aggregation, non-continuous carrier aggregation
between same bands or different bands. It can support a
This paper is supported by National High Technology Research and
Development Program (863 Program) funded projects（2012AA050802）.

303 © 2012. The authors - Published by Atlantis Press

  
maximum bandwidth of 100MHz.Terminal of the LTE-A Comparing the above two polymerization, the method
system can normally access one of the carrier, also can receive using asymmetric carrier aggregation can get a higher peak
the services of multiple carriers. Non-continuous carrier rates, lower peak-to-average ratio. It can reduce the control
aggregation is also called spectrum aggregation. There are channel and meet the diversity of users and other advantages.
three main scenarios of carrier aggregation[3] . It is also more in line with the actual application requirements.
In addition, when using the carrier aggregation, it doesn’t
consider only the aggregate 20 MHz sub-carrier, it can also be
considered the aggregation of other bandwidth carrier.
Different bandwidth of the sub-carrier can have a variety of
combinations to meet the requirements of the carrier
aggregate bandwidth. But in order to reduce complexity of
transceiver design, we limit the carrier type number. It can be
used to regulate the aggregate carrier combination. For
example, in the 2 numbers of carriers case, if you need to
30MHz bandwidth, we only need one 20MHz sub-carrier and
one 10MHz sub-carrier combination. The combination of
20MHz and two 5MHz subcarriers will not appear. On the
basis of meeting the aggregate bandwidth demand, the way
that restrictions the carrier types can limit the number of
aggregate carrier, it greatly reduces the complexity of the
  transceiver design.

Fig.1 carrier aggregation principle III. CARRIER AGGREGATION SCHEME

In LTE-A system, each subcarrier corresponds to an
If the terminal uses carrier aggregation in the current independent data stream. According the layer of aggregate, the
communications, we hope that the terminal is still supporting aggregate spectrum can be separated into two types: Option A,
the carrier aggregation in the switching process and after the sub-carrier data stream aggregated at the MAC layer; Option
switch. It is simple and easy to maintain continuity of the B, the sub-carrier data stream aggregated at the physical
carrier aggregation in the same bands for process of switching layer[5-6]. Shown in Figure 3:
and switched. But it may be very complicated in different
frequency bands. Therefore, in order to achieve switch easily, Option A, each sub-carrier occupies an independent
the carrier aggregation may only be considered in the same transmission block. So each sub-carrier can be based on the
band and the same base station (eNodeB) by 3GPP. actual link state to use a separate link adaptation techniques,
use different modulation and coding scheme, has different bit
The bandwidth requirements of uplink and downlink are rate, etc. Each sub-carrier has independent HARQ (hybrid
different in LTE-A FDD system. The peak rate requirements automatic repeat request) process and the corresponding ACK
of uplink and downlink are different also. The number of (positive acknowledgment) / NACK (negative
aggregation carriers may not be the same in uplink and acknowledgment) feedback. Each RLC (Radio Link Control)
downlink .The number of carriers is different. It can support entity can use PDU which defined in the LTE system. It can
asymmetric business of the uplink and downlink[4]. Figure 2 reuse the structure and design of LTE. The changes in the
is a reference model of symmetric and asymmetric carrier Layer2 are small. It continue to follow the design of the
aggregation in LTE-A system. physical layer, such as data block and buffer size,
mathematical algorithms, and the operation of the software
and hardware can be reused.
In option B, all sub-carriers share a transmission block.
They use the same transmission level, the same modulation
and coding, the same bit rate for the all sub-carriers. Since all
sub-carriers use the same transmission block, it need to
redesign the physical layer standard，such as the control
channel format, need to redesign the size of the PDU in the
RLC layer. All sub-carriers share one HARQ process and the
corresponding ACK / NACK feedback. It will conflict with
physical layer, MAC layer, RLC layer structure of the original
LTE system. It needs to redesign the PDU size of RLC. It will
reduce the HARQ efficiency when the transmission block
contains too much data.
 
Fig.2 symmetrical carrier or non-symmetrical carrier reference model

304
  
feedback channel. It requires the sender re-sending the error
packets. Depending on the retransmission of the contents of
hybrid automatic retransmission mechanism, HARQ is
separated into three categories: I-type of HARQ, type II
HARQ and Type III of HARQ. In I-type HARQ, the
transmitter send a new packet while the receiver decoding
error occurs, the feedback NACK to the transmitter requires
retransmission, the transmitter receives a request and then
send the same packet, the receiver merges multiple
retransmission of packets. II-Type and III-Type HARQ
scheme is incremental redundancy (IR) mechanism, the error
packet received will not be discarded. When retransmission,
the sender will send a new check bits, the receiver will be
stored and decode the subsequent retransmission of the data
after the merger.
IV. POLICY APPLIED OF CARRIER AGGREGATE IN POWER
With the deepening of China's smart grid construction
work, especially in the power transmission condition
monitoring and distribution automation, the use of wireless
  systems for information collection and data transmission is
Fig.3 sub-carrier aggregation project
proposed, and has a good attempt. Reference [7] uses the
Mobitex technology to build the distribution wireless
Two options, Option A can reuse the structure and design communication network. Mobitex is a cellular
of the LTE system, each carrier has a separate link adaptation packet-switched network of dedicated data communication. Its
process. In the case of aggregate inter-band sub-carriers, the working band is downlink 821-825MHz, uplink 866-870MHz;
effects that each carrier used the effect of link adaptation adjacent channel spacing is 12.5kHz.The rate of downlink and
techniques are obvious. Option A physical layer, MAC layer uplink are 8kbit/s, the spectrum utilization is about 0.64bit/Hz.
and RLC layer are identical with LTE systems, it has good Later, the Mobitex work band can be moved to 230MHz. But
backward compatibility, and thus can support the LTE system because of its low rate and capacity, it is not suitable for the
hardware and software equipment. Option B, due to all communication requirements of large-capacity power
sub-carriers share a transmission block transfer, the terminal.
transmission block contains too much data, the efficiency The information of power transmission condition
using HARQ becomes low, or even totally unsuitable for the monitoring includes the transmission line dancing, arc sag,
use of HARQ. Option B is not compatible with the LTE inclination, line ice, line stress and line temperature, insulator
system, also need to redesign the physical layer, MAC layer, contamination, the tower tilted, meteorological environment
RLC layer. By comparison, we can see that Option A is easier of line, line video, etc. The business of distribution automation
to achieve a smooth evolution from LTE to the LTE-A. includes power distribution automation, distribution
Therefore, Option A is more suitable to carry out follow-up transformer monitoring, power quality monitoring, the
study. information collection, intelligent demand side management,
HARQ is a key technology in the aggregate carrier etc. They achieve information collection and controlled
scheduling, it combines effectively two kinds of basic error among the switching station, the ring network cabinet,
control method: the FEC (forward error correction) and the box-type substation, column switching, column transformers,
ARQ (automatic re-peat request).It provides higher reliability electricity meters and other equipment. It is estimated that the
and throughput of the system. Retransmission on the downlink systems of distribution automation and distribution
supports asynchronous mode, and retransmission in the uplink transformer monitoring require 803kbps bandwidth. The
supports synchronous mode. The retransmission of HARQ is system of distribution monitoring and controlling requires
based on the ACK, NACK, HARQ ACK, HARQ NACK about 2480kbps bandwidth, it will up to 4536kbps coupled
return, It uses on 1-bit signal to do fast and frequently return, with the visualization of business needs. According to
rather than the past return ARQ packet (such as the status calculate 3.7 of the average spectral efficiency of LTE-A
report). FEC can be used to correct the error pattern often system, wireless systems need to occupy at least about
happened, and to reduce the number of retransmissions. In the 1.2MHz spectrum resources.
HARQ way, the code sending by originator not only use to About the 230MHz band of power, the signal transmission
detect errors, but also has a certain degree of error correction distance is far, the ability of diffraction is better. It can realize
ability. Receiving end decoder check errors firstly when it a wide range of high-quality wireless coverage combined with
receives a code word. If it is within the error correction efficient terminal-launch technology and high-sensitivity
capability, it completes the correction automatically. If it is out receiver. It is a valuable resource in the power system.
of the error correction capability, the error can be detected. However, in the 230MHz frequency range, there have been
The receiver send a judgment signal to the sender through the carried out more narrowband wireless communication

305
  
services, such as power load management system occupied 15 In the distributed mapping sub-band mode, the user's data
pairs of pairs frequency and 10 single frequency from 223 symbols occupy more than one sub-band dispersedly, the
MHz to 231 MHz. It is difficult to find a 1.2MHz bandwidth sub-band is distributed by equivalent interval in all sub-band.
available continuous spectrum in the 230MHz band. The numbers of sub-band occupied by different user and
Combined with the spectrum sensing technology, different interval between sub-bands are different. The
polymerization technique described in this paper can be used sub-band distribution is shown in Figure 4-a. The user can
to build the 230MHz power wireless communication systems. obtain higher frequency diversity gain by reusing the
It can avoid automatically the carrier that has been occupied. distributed sub-band.
The 230MHz power wireless communication system In the centralized mapping sub-band mode, the user's data
occupies 1.4MHz spectrum bandwidth. The whole band of symbols  concentrated occupied more than one sub-band, the
223-231Mhz can be divided into seven bands. It facilitates to sub-band continuously distribute in all sub-band. The numbers
build the networking of wireless systems. One base station of sub-band occupied by different user can be different. The
works in a band. The 1.4MHz spectrum is divided into 512 sub-band distribution is shown in Figure 4-b. The user gets
sub-carriers, each sub-carrier bandwidth is 2.8kHz. When the better performance of anti-multi-user interference by reusing
interference of the environment is lower, the spectrum the centralized sub-band.
resources can occupy 8MHz spectrum bandwidth. Then the
8MHz of spectrum is divided into 1024 sub-carriers, each V. APPLICATION EFFECTS
subcarrier bandwidth is 8kHz. We implement the wireless system by using above
Each subcarrier is small, It is different with LTE-A system. techniques, and test the function in the laboratory. The test
In order to improve the carrier carrying data capacity, and method is shown in Fig.5.
improve the frequency efficiency, we must reduce the
overhead of each subcarrier signal control. Considering the
reusability of existing LTE technology, the carrier aggregation

Attenuator

Attenuator
uses hybrid method of data stream aggregated both at the
MAC layer and the physical layer. Wireless systems can
provide communications services for multiple users, each user
can occupy a different numbers of sub-carrier. The sub-carrier
aggregation of same user aggregated the data stream at the

Coupler
Attenuator
physical layer. The subcarriers of the same user share a
transmission block. The transmission block contains more
valid data and less overhead, it will help improve the spectral
efficiency. The sub-carrier aggregation of different users

Attenuator
Coupler
aggregated the data stream at the MAC layer. Each user use
independent transmission block, it is helpful to modulate
individually for each user, and also to control HARQ dispatch
between users.
 
Each user can occupy different numbers of sub-band, and Fig.5 the test system structure
you can use different modulation methods. The method of
each user's data transmission mapping to the sub-carriers has The wireless system consists of base station unit (BS) and
two kinds: distributed occupation of multiple sub-band user terminal equipment (CPE), where BS is divided into two
transmission and centralized occupation of multiple sub-band parts of the indoor part (the BBU) and the outdoor part (the
transmission. Shown in Fig.4. RRU). BBU is responsible for baseband processing in
wireless communications, control signaling, spectrum sensing.
The RRU includes radio frequency unit(RF), antenna system,
it is responsible for the wireless signal transceiver which is
analog front-end part of the system. The CPE is equipped with
a standard ethernet port, USB port and RS232 port. It
connects with the user equipment, carries wireless data
transmission. The connection between BBU and RRU is fiber,
the connection between RRU and CPE is radio. But because
the test is in the laboratory, we use cable to connect the RRU
and CPE. In the cable, we add the attenuator to control the
signal strength. At the both end of BS and CPE, we use the PC
to simulate the user equipment. So the experiment is to send
and receive data between the test two PCs. In order to view
the work of the spectrum, spectrum analyzer is also added in
the cable, which can record the real-time spectrum of working.
  Meanwhile, we also verify the functions that the system can
Fig.4 sub-band mapping method automatically detect the interference spectrum, startup the

306
  
conflict avoidance mechanism, automatically shut down the system for power by using spectrum sensing and carrier
conflict sub-carriers. In the experimental system, we use the aggregation technology. With the gradual deepening of the
voice transceiver, it can simulate the interference occurrence. construction process of the smart grid, the numbers of
The test uses the 1.4MHz bandwidth. The results are shown in monitoring points needed communication are more and more,
Fig.6. they are scattered more widely. The wireless communication
systems based on carrier aggregation will be the rapid
development and application.
REFERENCES
[1]. 3GPP TR 36 ． 913 v8 ． 0 ． 0 ． Requirements for Further
Advancements for E—UTRA(LTE—Advanced)
[2]. 3GPP REV-080030 ， Technology components, ERICSSON ，
April,7-8，200
[3]. Motorola ， Carrier Aggregation for LTE-A ： E-NodeB Issues ，
3GPP R1—083232，Jeju，Korea，2008．
[4]. Huawei ， DL/UL Asymmetric Carrier aggregation ， 3GPP
R1-083706，Prague，Czech Republic，2008．
[5]. Shen Tan, Wang lin, Wei Qinfang. A new scheme of wireless
communications based on multicarrier and code weaving technology.
Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications transaction
(Natural Science) 2008，20(2)：160—164．
[6]. 3GPP TR 36．814．Further advancements for E—UTRAN physical
layer aspects．
[7]. Qi Bing, Wang Dongfan, Jiang Dawei．Analysis of communication
network technology in the distribution automation system. China
Power 2004，37（4）：71-7

 
Fig.6 test results

The system occupies 1.4MHz bandwidth while working,

the center of spectrum is 227MHz. When the transceiver is
turned off, the system occupies the entire continuous spectrum,
all sub-carriers can be used. As the test result, the maximum
bi-directional throughput of the single-carrier wireless system
can be up to 2.46Mbps in the 1.4MHz bandwidth mode. The
maximum bi-directional throughput can be up to 20.16Mbps
in the 8MHz bandwidth mode. The center frequency of the
transceiver is near 227.4MHz, the bandwidth is 200kHz.
When the transceiver is turned on, the system automatically
detects the presence of interference spectrum. It automatically
start the avoidance mechanism, the 72 sub-carriers centered of
227.4MHz are disable. The system automatically avoids
200kHz spectrum near the center 227.4MHz. It is shown in
Fig.6.(b). The two PCs can communicate normally with each
after the system adjusted. At the same time, the voice
communication is also normal through the transceiver
between microphone and speaker. It verifies that the system
does not have any impact on the original 230MHz radio at
work.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In the 230MHz band of power, the signal transmission
distance is far, the ability of diffraction is better. Although this
band exist other traditional 230MHz wireless system, we can
still provide a high-bandwidth wireless communication

307