LTE - RACH Procedure & Troubleshooting

LTE - RACH Procedure, Parameters &
Troubleshooting
PRACH Objectives & Scenarios
Main Purpose of Random Access:

1. Gain initial access to the network
2. Obtain time synchronization in the uplink after a period of inactivity
Scenarios where random access on PRACH is required:

1. UE initial access to network
2. RRC re-establishment after RLF
3. Handover to a new cell.
4. UE is synchronized in uplink but requires to send scheduling request
on PUCCH.
5. UE not synchronized but needs to receive or send data.
6. UE triggers an LCS (Location Service).
High probability of UE collision (multiple Preambles are pre-determined and

UEs using the same preamble due to assigned by eNB to UEs. No collision and
random assignment) during random DOES NOT require contention resolution
access on PRACH (MSG1). Requires (MSG4).
contention resolution on MSG4.
Due to preambles being assigned in random to UEs, the risk is high of a

collision, where multiple UEs would use the same preamble to gain
access to the network.
Random access on
PRACH applies to these
6 scenarios..
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Scenarios where non-contention based RACH procedure is applicable:

1. Handover to a new cell.
2. Downlink data arrival.
3. UE triggers an LCS (Location Service).
Handover or UE bound data

PRACH Preamble Types
Huawei default
RandomPreambleRatio:
52 <--- Available preambles for contention-based
64 <--- Total preambles in a cell
Few RA preambles available poses a

high probability of UE collision.
Huawei default
52 <--- Available preambles for contention-based
64 <--- Total available preambles in a cell
Few dedicated preambles

for contention-free access
introduces delays in HO
assignments and executions.
Remaining (52 – 28 = 24 preambles) are

allocated to GrpB or Type B preambles.
Huawei default RaPreambleGrpARatio:

28 <--- Available GrpA preambles for contention-based
52 <--- Huawei default RandomPreambleRatio

Before UE chooses a preamble for RACH

procedure, UE already has figured out
MSG3 size which is stored in its buffer.
If condition ( MSG3 < MessageSizeGroupA ),

UE will use Type A Preambles.
If condition ( MessageSizeGroupA
< MSG3 ), UE will use Type B
Preambles.
PRACH Config Index
PRACH Config Index
Preamble format, time and

frequency domain information is
determined by this parameter.
During preamble selection, UE needs to know:

1. Preamble format (Ex. Format 0, 1, 2 or 3).
2. At which frame or sub-frame to transmit the RA preamble.
3. Location of PRACH on the frequency domain (PRACH freq. offset).
The above information will allow the eNB to determine when and
where to detect the RA preamble.
a. Frame/sub-frame is time domain.
b. PRACH freq. offset is frequency domain.
PRACH Config Index
PrachConfigIndex will not work if

this parameter is not set to CFG.
PRACH config. index

Preamble format
Frame/sub-frame number
PRACH Config Index
Preamble Format 0, PRACH Config Index 0, Even Frame and Sub-frame 1
10 msec.
PRACH Config Index
Preamble Format 0, PRACH Config Index 5, Any Frame and Sub-frame 7
10 msec.
PRACH Config Index
Preamble Format 0, PRACH Config Index 13, Any Frame and Sub-frame 1,3,5,7,9
10 msec.
PRACH Config Index
If this parameter is set to NOT_ CFG,

eNB will dynamically allocate
PrachConfigIndex settings based on
HighSpeedFlag parameter.
PRACH Config Index
FDD dynamic allocation based on HighSpeedFlag TDD dynamic allocation based on HighSpeedFlag
when PrachConfigIndexCfgInd is set to NOT_CFG when PrachConfigIndexCfgInd is set to NOT_CFG
RACH Preamble Generation
PRACH preamble is shorter than the PRACH

slot duration to accommodate for a guard
period necessary absorb propagation delays.
eNB is not aware of the arrival of the PRACH

preamble and guard time mitigates this issue.
UE_A is in a good radio condition,

thus, preamble arrival has no delays
UE_B is in cell edge and with poor radio

condition. Therefore PRACH slot duration should
be sufficient such that the preamble does not
fall outside of this slot duration. Otherwise, eNB
will receive this preamble in error.
Preamble formats 1 & 3 is able to tolerate

longer time delays due to longer CP duration.
By aggregating 2 preamble sequences in formats

2 & 3, there is better pathloss compensation
which also means these 2 formats are suited for
large radius cells.
These formats are able to counter varying delay

spreads due to the different position of the
mobile with regards to the cell.
There are 4 preamble formats that are defined

by their respective Cp and Seq lengths.
Maximum cell radius is limited by NCs

(Cyclic Shift)
Nzc samples of each

formats (0 to 3)
Nzc samples of
format (4)
There are 838 logical root sequence

numbers (Zc) from 0 – 837 where each Physical root
Zc contains (Nzc = 839 samples). sequence number
NCs Value
ZeroCorrelationZoneConf
When HighSpeedFlag
is FALSE
When HighSpeedFlag
is TRUE.
Ncs = 59
Max number of cyclic

shift that can be
used to generate the
preamble sequence.
Count from 0 to 13 = 14 cyclic shifts
RSI is used to derive PRACH Zadoff Chu (Zc)

sequence.
u=37
u=802



Preamble[13]=cyclic shift to base sequence by 13*59

Sample1: High Speed Flag is FALSE

Sample2: High Speed Flag is TRUE
PRACH Procedure, Signaling and
Delay Analysis
PRACH Procedure, Signaling and Delay Analysis
UE has an inbound data traffic or data

stored in the buffer to send uplink.
UE is paged for an
inbound data traffic.
Index of the specified

UE chooses a random PRACH within the sub-
preamble from the available frame. For FDD, f_id = 0
preambles stated in
RandomPreambleRatio and
sends it through PRACH.
Index of the first sub-

frame of the specified
PRACH.
PRACH Procedure, Signaling and Delay Analysis
PreambInitRcvTargetPwr
PwrRampingStep
Modify PreambInitRcvTargetPwr or
PwrRampingStep
RootSeqConflictDetSwitch (alarm is
generated) and RandomPreambleRatio
FlowCtrlTriBackoffSwitch and BackOffSwitch A smaller value of this parameter results in a
May need to re-tune T300 and T301 higher probability of preamble collision and a
longer delay of contention-based random access,
and a higher probability of allocating dedicated
preambles to and a short delay of non-contention-
based random access.
raResponseWindowSize
Pointer to PDSCH
resource grants
T300 or T301 ( re-

establishment)
RRC Conn Req from UE Id: 53 01 E0 E6 D3 D6
ContentionResolutionTimer
Contention resolution
RRC Conn Setup to UE Id: 53 01 E0 E6 D3 D6
Assuming collision happened at Msg 1 where multiple UEs used the same RACH preamble to access. All those UEs will listen for the
same RAR on Msg 2 and will have the same Temp C-RNTI.
All listening UEs will send Msg 3 to eNB stating their respective UE-Ids. Then eNB will send contention resolution on Msg 4 stating
the UE-Id of the admitted UE. All listening UEs will then compare their UE-Id with that of Msg 4 and only the UE with a match can
declare a successful contention resolution.
The contention resolution message is sent via PDSCH using the Temp C-RNTI stated on Msg 2. Since time-synchronization in the UL
is already established, HARQ will be applied. The eNB upon receipt of Msg 3 from admitted UE, will send an HARQ Ack(msg 3) to
admitted UE. Afterwards, eNB will send the contention resolution Msg 4. Admitted UE in return will send an HARQ Ack(msg 4).
UEs whose respective UE-Ids did not match with that of Msg 4 are considered a failure in the RACH procedure and may repeat the
process again and will not be sending HARQ Ack(msg 4).
PRACH Troubleshooting
Contention-free
Preamble is sent on Msg 1 using open-loop

power control. In this case, UE cannot adjust
its transmit power during poor radio condition
such as weak receive level or high uplink
interference.
Upper layer will

declare a RACH
failure when
PreambleTransMax
Preamble is re-sent if no is exhausted.
RAR is received by the UE
after ResponseWindowSize
and PreambInitRcvPwr is
increased according to
PwrRampingStep settings.
Msg 1 Parameter Optimization (Contention Based)


Collision
UE sends a preamble to Cell A

but due to RSI collision, Cell B
detects the RA preamble sent
by UE and creates a False
Preamble detection at Cell B.
Collision probability increases

when multiple UEs start to
send RACH procedure to these
conflicting Cells.
This feature is supported when more than 80% of UEs are 3GPP Rel. 9 or higher compliant.
The eNodeB can send UEInformationRequest messages to UEs to query the random access
information of the UEs. The random access information includes the number of preamble
transmissions and the contention-based random access conflict identification during the last
random access. Using the reported information as an input to RACH resource adjustment, the
eNodeB can estimate the preamble collision probability with higher accuracy, thereby effectively
limiting the preamble collision probability to the target value.

Pointer to PDSCH resource allocation

Msg 2 Parameter Optimization (Non-contention Based)

Msg 2 Parameter Optimization (Non-contention Based)
This feature enables the

common signaling PDCCH
aggregation level to change from
4 to 8 when required.
Msg 3 Parameter Optimization


UE resends
preamble
sequence
again.
Used for contention

based RACH.
Used for non-

contention
based RACH.
UE resends Msg3
again when HARQ-
NACK is received.






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LTE - RACH Procedure, Parameters &

Main Purpose of Random Access:

Scenarios where random access on PRACH is required:

High probability of UE collision (multiple Preambles are pre-determined and

Due to preambles being assigned in random to UEs, the risk is high of a

Scenarios where non-contention based RACH procedure is applicable:

Handover or UE bound data

64 <--- Total preambles in a cell

Few RA preambles available poses a

64 <--- Total available preambles in a cell

Few dedicated preambles

Remaining (52 – 28 = 24 preambles) are

Huawei default RaPreambleGrpARatio:

52 <--- Huawei default RandomPreambleRatio

Before UE chooses a preamble for RACH

If condition ( MSG3 < MessageSizeGroupA ),

Preamble format, time and

During preamble selection, UE needs to know:

PrachConfigIndex will not work if

PRACH config. index

Preamble Format 0, PRACH Config Index 0, Even Frame and Sub-frame 1

Preamble Format 0, PRACH Config Index 5, Any Frame and Sub-frame 7

If this parameter is set to NOT_ CFG,

PRACH preamble is shorter than the PRACH

eNB is not aware of the arrival of the PRACH

UE_A is in a good radio condition,

UE_B is in cell edge and with poor radio

Preamble formats 1 & 3 is able to tolerate

By aggregating 2 preamble sequences in formats

These formats are able to counter varying delay

There are 4 preamble formats that are defined

Maximum cell radius is limited by NCs

Nzc samples of each

There are 838 logical root sequence

Max number of cyclic

Count from 0 to 13 = 14 cyclic shifts

RSI is used to derive PRACH Zadoff Chu (Zc)

Preamble[13]=cyclic shift to base sequence by 13*59

Sample1: High Speed Flag is FALSE

UE has an inbound data traffic or data

Index of the specified

Index of the first sub-

T300 or T301 ( re-

Preamble is sent on Msg 1 using open-loop

Upper layer will

Msg 1 Parameter Optimization (Contention Based)

Msg 1 Parameter Optimization (Contention Based)

Msg 1 Parameter Optimization (Contention Based)

UE sends a preamble to Cell A

Collision probability increases

Msg 1 Parameter Optimization (Contention Based)

Msg 1 Parameter Optimization (Contention Based)

Msg 2 Parameter Optimization (Contention Based)

Pointer to PDSCH resource allocation

Msg 2 Parameter Optimization (Non-contention Based)

Msg 2 Parameter Optimization (Non-contention Based)

This feature enables the

Msg 3 Parameter Optimization

Msg 3 Parameter Optimization

Msg 3 Parameter Optimization